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Borscht and Buttermilk Biscuits
by Jes Mostek 		 
  ***If you have left-over meat from your pot roast on Sunday, use that and save yourself the trouble of cooking extra meat.

A delicious, healthy way to warm up on a cold day!

Recipes:
Homemade Biscuits
by Heather Morgan
serves: 6
  $45 Emergency Menu for 4 to 6
Ingredients:
  2 cups   flour
  1 Tbsp   baking powder
  1 tsp   salt
  1/4 cup   margarine
  2/3 cup   milk or buttermilk or yogurt
Directions:
  First get out your big bowl. Put the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl. Drop in the shortening and use your fingers to casually mix it in with the dry ingredients. Don't get too serious about it because it is better to under mix at this point than over mix. There should still be a few lumps of shortening, the size of peas, or even a little bigger. Two minutes or less of mixing should do it. Next add the milk. Stir it up into a soft dough. On dry days you may need another spoonful or two of milk. Form the dough into a soft ball. Get a piece of waxed paper and lay it on your counter. Sprinkle the waxed paper with a little bit of flour. Place the dough ball on the flour and knead it exactly 10 times. No more, no less. This activates the gluten in the flour just enough, but not too much. Next flatten out the dough with a rolling pin or your hands so it is about 3/4" thick. Cut into biscuit shapes with a biscuit cutter, or the rim of a clean cup or can. I use a tomato paste can for small biscuits and a tuna can for large biscuits. Works really well. Lay the biscuits onto a cookie sheet or pizza pan and bake them at 425° for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on their size. Makes about a dozen medium sized biscuits. You can brush them with melted margarine when you take them from the oven if you want them to look pretty when they arrive at the table.

Cheese Biscuits: These are made simply by adding a cup of cheese to the flour after you mix in the shortening, right before adding the milk. Cut into smallish biscuits and cook as directed. They are really good with spaghetti or lasagna.

Bacon Biscuits: Add 1/3 cup of soy bacon bits to the flour right after adding the shortening. Cut into small circles and bake as directed. These are good for snacks or as a quick breakfast on the go.

Drop Biscuits: Substitute melted shortening or oil for the solid shortening. Increase the milk to almost a full cup. Stir it into the flour making a sticky dough. Drop the biscuits by small spoonfuls onto an oiled cookie sheet. Bake as directed. These used to be called Emergency Biscuits, in my grandmother's day, because they could be made in such a hurry. They still make their appearance most often when I have forgotten to plan a hot bread to go with lunch or supper.

Russian Borscht
by Melanie Foster
serves: 12
  Morsels of beef, beets, cabbage and tomatoes in a healthy broth. Add sour cream if you wish.
Ingredients:
  3 Tbsp   olive oil
  6 cloves   garlic
  2 lbs   beef stew meat, (chuck, cut up)
  1   onion
  1 1/2 lbs   green cabbage, chopped
  28 oz   can whole tomatoes
  3 lbs   beets, peeled, diced
  3 qts   beef stock
  1/4 cup   red wine vinegar
  1/2   lemon, juiced
  2   bay leaves
  1 tsp   salt
  1 tsp   pepper
  1 qt   sour cream
  1 bunch   dill, chopped, for garnish
Directions:
  Heat oil over med-high heat in a large stockpot or dutch oven. Add garlic and meat and cook until browned. Add onion, cook until tender. Add the rest of the ingredients except the sour cream and dill. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to a simmer and cook 2 hours, stirring occasionally. My tip: at this point, let cool and refrigerate, covered, overnight. Skim off the fat layer that will rise to the top, and reheat over medium until hot. Add sour cream and dill to the pot or to individual servings. You may want to scale this recipe to onlu make half. It barely fit into my largest dutch oven, and makes a lot. Freezes well as long as you don't add the sour cream.