By The garden is going in. Mom and I spent three full days this week finishing the planting — the new medicinal herb section she'd been planning all winter, the expanded dried chile section, the tomatoes, the corn, the usual roster of vegetables that fills the raised beds by the south fence. The garden is larger every year without any announcement that it's becoming larger. It just is. Colleen adds what she wants to grow and finds space for it and the garden accommodates.
Dr. Crain this month asked what I noticed about myself in difficulty — when something hard is happening, what do I do with it. I said I cook. She asked me to say more. I said: when I'm unsettled I make something. The making is active, it requires my hands, it produces something that can be shared, and the sharing reduces the weight of the thing that's sitting on me. She said: That's a very healthy form of processing. I said I knew that intellectually but it helped to hear her say it in those terms. It gave me permission to count it as real work rather than distraction.
Making things for Linda this month. Specifically: I'm going to send her a small box of things — the elk jerky I still have from last October, a jar of the chokecherry jelly from the fall, the dried chiles from Colleen's garden. Things from this place. She's in a month that needs tending and I can't be there physically, so I'll send what I can make with my hands. That's what I have to give from here.
Made sourdough for the week. The usual Sunday ritual. There are weeks when the bread is perfect and weeks when it's good and I'm no longer trying to force the difference. Both kinds are bread and bread is good and the making of it is its own purpose.
Sunday bread gets made because the making of it matters as much as the eating — and the biscuit is really just bread’s more approachable cousin, the kind you can stack with ham and cheese and hand to someone without ceremony. After a week of planting with Mom and thinking about what I can send Linda from here, I wanted something else to make with my hands, something fast and warm and stacked in layers the way care tends to work: one thing on top of another until it adds up to something worth giving. These biscuit stacks are that kind of food.
Ham ’n’ Cheese Biscuit Stacks
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 27 min | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
- 8 oz thinly sliced deli ham
- 4 slices Swiss cheese, halved
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted (for brushing)
Instructions
- Preheat oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and garlic powder until combined.
- Cut in butter. Add the cold cubed butter to the flour mixture. Using your fingertips or a pastry cutter, work the butter in until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining.
- Add cheese and milk. Stir in 3/4 cup of the shredded cheddar. Pour in the milk and stir just until a shaggy dough forms — do not overmix.
- Shape biscuits. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently pat it to about 3/4-inch thickness. Cut out 16 rounds using a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter, pressing straight down without twisting.
- Bake. Arrange rounds on the prepared baking sheet and brush tops with melted butter. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until golden on top and cooked through.
- Build the stacks. While biscuits are still warm, split each round in half. Spread the bottom half with a thin layer of Dijon mustard, then layer with folded deli ham and a half-slice of Swiss cheese. Sprinkle remaining cheddar over the cheese layer, then press the top half of the biscuit down to close.
- Optional warm finish. Return assembled stacks to the oven for 2 to 3 minutes to melt the cheese fully before serving.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 14g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 680mg