SFGate is printing their top recipes from the last twenty years. Top Recipe 1993: Perfect Popovers is a house favorite, and hopefully this will allow me to retire the yellowed, batter spattered copy I current ly use...

This is a recipe for pate brisee I found on epicurious that passes nicely for the french one Philippe's mother taught me. However, despite what they say, I think it's flakerier if you do it the slow by hand way. Perhaps it's because I get tired of making the butter very fine, and end up folding the dough quite a bit, as if it were puff pastry. Anyhow, it's good even if you are lazy and follow the instructions.

RECIPE: Quick Cream Biscuits
Makes eight 2 1/2-inch biscuits

Bake the biscuits immediately after cutting them; letting them stand for any length of time can decrease the leavening power and thereby
prevent the biscuits from rising properly in the oven.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425
degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium
bowl. Add 1 1/4 cups cream and stir with wooden spoon until dough
forms, about 30 seconds. Transfer dough from bowl to countertop,
leaving all dry, floury bits behind in bowl. In 1-tablespoon
increments, add up to 1/4 cup cream to dry bits in bowl, mixing
with wooden spoon after each addition, until moistened. Add moistened
bits to rest of dough and knead by hand just until smooth,
about 30 seconds.

3. Shape dough into round, 3/4 inch thick. Cut into rounds with
biscuit cutter or cut into wedges with knife. Place rounds or
wedges on parchment-lined baking sheet and bake until golden brown,
about 15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking.

Tracy came over for dinner and wanted biscuits. i haven't made biscuits since home ec. but I remembered it being pretty easy so I went for it. And they were good. Not amazing, but a solid accompaniment. I think next time I'm add more herbs and some butter. Here's the orginal recipe, I'll add my mods to the end.

7 cups all-purpose flour
2 packages dry yeast
4 teaspoons salt
3 cups hot tap water (105-115 degrees)

I've always been scared to make bread, but when I found a recipe for Amish White Bread, I decided to try. And it's wonderful. And easy.

I'm allergic to chili peppers but my husband is decidedly not. And he was missing pilpil-- a common condiment served with pizza in France. It's basically very spicy hot olive oil. Here's how he made it.

My roommate was completely blown away to hear me exclaim, "oh boy, brussels sprouts!" as I was helping him unload the groceries. You see, up until recently, they were high on my list of gross vegetables. However, thanks to a feature on them in Martha Stewart Living, I decided to give them another chance. As with so many prejudices, it turns out I was condemning all brussels sprouts because of a bad experience with some less than exemplary specimens a long time ago.

Everybody likes fluffy light food-- but most of it is horribly difficult to make: souffles, puff pastery, profiterole....

But this recipe could not be simpler, and it's lovely and fluffy. When I first made them, i though-- these are just like gougere.. or maybe yorkshire puddings.. or yum!

mile-high popovers!