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| Angel Biscuits
Leavened with yeast, these biscuits are airier and lighter than the traditional biscuit that comes with breakfast. They make a great choice for the breadbasket at supper time.
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| Bierock
We've heard all sorts of explanations for the name bierock, including the fact that one of these pocket sandwiches tastes great with beer. Historically, the bierock, like the trademarked Runza, goes back to the Volga Germans who settled on the American plains about a century ago. The portable meals (similar to the Upper Midwest's pasties) were a favorite lunch among farm workers; and today they are ubiquitous at Church suppers and fund-raisers throughout Nebraska and Kansas.
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| Buttermilk Biscuits
The only real way to learn how to make good biscuits is to apprentice with someone who knows how. Their art is less a matter of ingredients (which are generally uninteresting) than in technique, which is deceptively simple. This classic recipe for buttermilk biscuits is simple and easy; but give it to five cooks and you will get five different biscuits, each with its own character. The difference primarily is in how the dough is handled, or more exactly, how little the dough is handled. Generally speaking, the less kneading, the fluffier the biscuit. Please note that the recipe calls for SELF-RISING flour. Plain flour will yield biscuits that look like shot-glass coasters.
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| Clam Cakes
Clam cakes make any seafood meal sing. Serve them alongside fisherman's stews such as cioppino or bouillabaisse, or along with grilled salmon or swordfish or halibut. For a less ambitious meal, you hardly need a main course. Simply serve clam cakes and chowder or lobster stew, with strawberry shortcake or wild blueberry pie for dessert. There you have a genuine summertime Downeast feast!
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| Cornbread Biscuits
From the Blue Willow Inn, here is a recipe that makes biscuits ideal for crumbling atop a heap of collard greens or into a bowl of pot likker.
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| Cornbread or Corn Muffins
There are two warm-bread drawers always filled in the buffet room of The Blue Willow Inn of Social Circle, Georgia. On the top are biscuits. On the bottom are corn muffins. The corn muffins have a starchy sweetness that is an especially good complement for ham, pork chops, or streak o' lean.
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| Country Cornbread
Other than buttermilk biscuits and red-eye gravy, country ham's best companion is a corn cake. Known throughout the mid-south as cornbread, it is a batter-based circle of steamy starchiness that is griddle-cooked just like a morning pancake. It comes on the side of many meat-and-three meals and serves as a wonderful sop for pushing through gravy of any kind. Most Southern cooks use White Lily self-rising flour and self-rising corn meal; but if you can't get them, it's almost as easy to use baking powder and soda, as follows. This recipe makes 8-10 cakes.
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| Garlic Mozzarella Bread
Chef Sissy Hicks of Vermont's Dorset Inn described this extra-luxurious garlic bread as "everybody's favorite." It's a good side dish for all sorts of meals or, with soup and a salad, a wonderful lunch
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| Hush Puppies
Hush puppies are a traditional companion for fried seafood throughout the South, and in eastern North Carolina, they come with barbecue. But there is no law you can't also serve them with a bowl of gumbo or of chowder from the Pacific Northwest or the Northeast. This recipe was inspired by the hushpups we at at a restaurant called the Catfish Place in St. Cloud, Florida.
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| Spinach Cornbread
Greens and cornbread go together as well as ham and eggs. This recipe, given to The Blue Willow Inn by Kitty Jacobs of Guidelines, Georgia, conjoins them in a luscious pan-loaf that is moist, high-flavored … and good for you!
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| Tostada Grande de Tucson
Also known as Mexican pizza or cheese crisp, the tostada grande is a staple of the Sonoran cooking so prevalent in Tucson. This recipe, from the venerable El Charro, is very basic and easy to eat without spillage; but it is common to add cebolitas (grilled green onions) on top. You might also consider salsa, grilled vegetables or shredded beef -- all of which make it pretty messy.
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| Yeast Rolls
Any worthy southern meal offers a breadbasket, not just one kind of bread. At The Blue Willow Inn, you can always count on corn muffins and buttermilk biscuits; but for mopping gravy, sometimes a soft yeast roll is essential.
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