easy sides Archives - 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Oh dear, where have I been for the last few months? This is a great question! I have been busy moving… again! I didn’t move across the country again, just across the bay. I moved from the South Bay of San Francisco to the East Bay which equals a shorter commute for me and a larger kitchen! A win-win in my book. I have over 1-2 hours back in my life each day, which is beyond amazing. People who don’t commute in major cities probably wouldn’t understand the excitement of moving from a 2-hour commute each way to a little bit less than an hour each way, but it is life altering!

I can’t believe next week is Thanksgiving, but I also can’t believe it’s almost December! No fear the 2 sisters in 2 cities are here to help you with you last minute holiday meal planning.

One of my favorite sides for a holiday meal is homemade apple sauce. It is so easy to make and 1000 times better than store-bought apple sauce. Homemade apple sauce is like eating the inside of an apple pie- so delicious! You don’t have to use the most expensive apples to make apple sauce. You can use a variety of apples and they don’t need to be perfect.

What do you need?

A bunch of apples is a must! Get those apples that have been chilling in your fruit drawer for weeks.

Peel those apples… bruises are okay!

Slice the apples evenly (and meticulously stack your apples cores.)

Cook those apple slices with water until softened.

Mash the apples once softened.

Tada!

Apple Sauce

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Ingredients

8-10 apples
½ cup water
¼ –1/2 cup granulated sugar (to taste)
¼ tsp. cinnamon

Instructions

Peel all the apples. Cut apples into evenly sized slices. Throw your peels and cores in your compost pile.
Place sliced apples into a large pot. Add in water to pot and cook over medium heat. Put on cover and cook for 10-20 minutes until apples soften. Turn heat down if the apples start to boil.
Apples should be easily mashed with a fork or potato masher when cooked. Mash apples to preferred thickness.
Add in sugar, to taste, and cinnamon. Stir and cook for a few more minutes. Serve warm or cold and store in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Happy Easter everyone! You are probably looking for some last minute recipes here so I thought I would share with you an easy recipe for buttermilk biscuits. Today for dinner I am serving baked ham with homemade biscuits, sweet potato casserole and steamed green beans. When I was younger I use to call days like this “Ham Day!”

There is nothing like a homemade warm biscuit fresh out of the oven sliced with butter spread on it. Like muffin and scones, I am always surprised at how easy it is to make biscuits. I guess with dinners every night and three-part cupcake recipes, a biscuit seems easy to make. My favorite part in making biscuits is that you want there to be small chunks of butter in the dough so you really don’t have to mix it up much. Other bonuses are that you really just need one bowl to make these and you don’t need a mixer!

Worried that you don’t have time to make homemade biscuits? Make them ahead by placing the cut-out biscuits (before baking) on a wax paper-covered tray. Place the tray in the freezer until biscuits are frozen. Once frozen, place biscuits in freezer bags between layers of wax paper. When you are ready to bake them, just pop them out, place them on a parchment paper-lined baking tray and bake for the specified time, plus an additional minute or two. Tada! Fresh biscuist!

Buttermilk Biscuits

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 12 two-inch biscuits or 6 three-inch biscuits

Ingredients

2¼ cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp. of sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
¾ tsp. baking soda
9 tbsp. cold unsalted butter ( 1 + ⅛ sticks of butter)
¾ cups of buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
In a large bowl add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and whisk together. Cut cold butter into small pieces and add to dry mixture. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, blend the butter into dry ingredients until the mixture has pea-sized crumbles.
Add buttermilk and mix the ingredients until it just comes together. The mixture should be lumpy. Knead 2-3 times with hands to form dough together.
On a lightly floured surface, place dough and pat flat until about ½-3/4 inch thick. With a floured round round cutter (I used a fluted 2-inch, but feel free to use a regular round cutter 2-3 inches big) cut out biscuits and line them up on baking sheet leaving about 2 inches of space in-between them. If you don’t have a round cutter, make drop biscuits by scooping out ¼ cup of dough and dropping on baking sheet, also leaving 2 inches between.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm.
*If make ahead method- Freeze biscuit dough on a wax paper lined baking sheet after cutting out rounds, or dropping dough. Once frozen add to a freezer bag. Bake frozen biscuits the same as above but adding a couple more minutes to the bake time.
*If using buttermilk powder- Add 3 tablespoons of buttermilk powder to dry ingredients and then mix in ¾ cup water when above recipe says to add in the buttermilk.

Source- Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen
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