Birthday Milestone

No new projects this weekend - it was our Chloe's birthday and we spent the whole weekend celebrating her.

Happy 13th birthday to my beautiful girl!

Cheese and Chile Pepper Biscuits

I was noodling around in the kitchen this weekend, making batches of soup and chili. Don't ask me why chili in this sweltering heat - I'd just had a mad craving for it all week. And what goes better with chili (or soup for that matter) than soft, flaky biscuits? I started out following a recipe online, but found I didn't have some of the ingredients so I had to keep making substitutions. The results were so good that I had to share the recipe.

Cheese & Chile Pepper Biscuits

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
4 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold butter, cubed
3 cups grated cheese
1 cup yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
1/4 cup chopped pickled peperoncini peppers (aka friggitelli)
1/2 cup milk (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 F.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into the flour until well-combined, so that it's like coarse meal. Add in the cheese, yogurt, and peppers, stirring until you have a sticky dough. If your mixture is still too dry, add milk a little at a time until you get the desired consistency.

Roll out your dough onto a floured surface and cut into circles with a cookie cutter or drinking glass. Place biscuits on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake until the tops are a nice golden brown.

The sweet peppers add just enough heat without being overpowering, and the yogurt makes the biscuits so perfectly moist. I stored them in a plastic container on the counter, and after 4 days they're still as soft and flaky as on the first day.

Stenciled Mailbox (using Silhouette Cutter)

We've been in our current house for about 2.5 years. This past weekend I finally - finally - got around to putting our name on the mailbox.

I've been thinking about it for months, but week by week the time slipped away, until I eventually just got up off my butt, took down the vinyl cutter, and did it.

I cut out the letters with my Silhouette cutting machine. I love the Silhouette. I'm not a "stencil all the things" kind of person, but when I do need one, this machine makes it so easy.

You design your image on the computer screen with the Silhouette software, feed in your stencil material (it works with more than just vinyl), and let the machine cut the pattern for you. Bing, bang, boom, done. **This is not sponsored, I just think it's a great machine.**

It took two tries to get the letters on as the paint I chose the first time didn't stick. The second time I changed to spray paint and also used a spray primer for extra security.

Besides our name, I also added dog paws because, well, it's no surprise how much we love our dogs. They are family and deserve to be represented.

I'm sure that at some point it will need to be repainted as our road is heavily traveled, so dust, dirt, and gravel are constantly being thrown around. But the great thing about having the cutter is that I can whip up another copy at any time.