Biscuits

Dear Polly: I have a biscuit recipe that calls for heavy cream instead of milk, and no shortening. I love the biscuits, but don't always have cream on hand. What will happen if I make the biscuits with milk instead? - Beryl Dear Beryl: If you simply substitute milk for the heavy cream, the biscuits are likely to be tough and unappetizing. That's because cream provides both liquid and fat. It's a substitute for both milk and shortening in ordinary biscuit recipes. You can still make the biscuits with milk, but you must also add some butter or other fat to compensate for the fat content of the cream, which is what makes the biscuits tender and flaky.

Things western, from wearing apparel to dancing, are pretty hot these days, fueled by the American spirit of freedom, the love of wide-open spaces and Garth Brooks. To capture the essence of the Old West, today's urban cowboys need only put on some Rocky Mountain jeans and a John Wayne cavalry bib shirt, and rustle up some western-style grub - good, slow-cooking, full-flavored and thoroughly American food. Back in the old days, when the cowpokes rode the range, there always seemed to be an aging cowboy with a limp in his swagger and frying grease on his chaps who cooked the food on the cattle drives.

The phone was ringing off the hook at the Best Bakery Inc. in Lansdale on a sunny, early spring morning. While one business call normally would not stop production of cookies and biscuits at most bakeries, the making of almond cookies came to a complete halt while owner Shashi Patel answered the call. Speaking in the language of his native India, Patel, 40, wrapped up his phone business and immediately rejoined his brother Kiran, 41, on the assembly line. The two took the sweet cookie dough and rolled and shaped it into round cookies.

Metal canister sets replaced wood in the mid-1800s to protect flour and sugar from moisture. These enamel reproductions by Kraft Klub are reminiscent of those used in the '50s when people actually used flour and sugar to make bread and cake, instead of boxed mixes. Available in aqua, red and white, the price seems reasonably retro. Snack Smart Almondina, maker of the thin crunchy biscuits we've come to love, has a new chocolate cherry variety that is simply scrumptious. They're dairy-free, kosher, and free of cholesterol, coloring and preservatives.

Dinner at the Kensington home of John Vick and Amanda Jaffe is as simple as roast chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, and biscuits - and as complicated as farm-raised, sustainably grown, homemade, and locally sourced. Jaffe uses chicken from Griggstown Quail Farm outside Princeton, unaltered by hormones or antibiotics. Vick mashes the All Blue potatoes, a variety that produces colorful flesh as well as skin, from Tuscarora Organic Growers in Hustontown, Pa., adding butter from Hometown Provisions in Lancaster County and whole milk from Trickling Springs Creamery in Chambersburg, Pa. For his biscuits, Vick blends heirloom cornmeal from Rineer Family Farms in Lancaster and buttermilk from Maplehofe Dairy in Quarryville, Pa. The salad greens, baby arugula, and baby spinach were grown hydroponically at Woodland Produce in Fairton, N.J., by a farmer who recently got a grant from the USDA to install photovoltaic cells in order to run his greenhouses on solar energy.

There's sure to be a beautiful story behind a place called The Ugly American, the new South Philly gastropub that revels in dishes like "the garbage plate" and upscale hot pockets. But owner Kevin Kelly is the first to burst any false pop-culture-inspiration bubbles. He can hardly tell you Marlon Brando's best lines from the 1963 movie of the same name, let alone remember the original book's author ("It's like William Lederer, I think," he said, correctly, when pressed). So that tattered paperback posed atop the maitre d's stand isn't bedtime reading?

BRUNCH - THAT lazy, decadent meal that allows for sleeping in late and languishing over a table for hours - is still an ideal way to start a Sunday. For chefs, whose one day off a week tends to be Sunday, brunch is a great way to recharge, spend time with the family, and eat somebody else's good food for a change. Although there are grand brunches in town, at places such as XIX Nineteen Cafe, Lacroix, and the Four Seasons, the following spots are more relaxed, the kind of places where dressing up is simply not done and flip-flops work in the footwear department.

BETTY CROCKER LIGHT BROWNIES FUDGE BROWNIE MIX. $1.29 to $1.49 per 20.5- ounce box. BONNIE: Once the reduced-fat trend hit the baking aisle, it seemed only a matter of time before some company would introduce a light brownie mix. That company turned out to be Betty Crocker. Betty Crocker's new Light Fudge Brownie Mix contains less fat and calories per serving. Compared to an original Betty Crocker fudge brownie, for instance, each light brownie contains 4 fewer grams of fat and 40 fewer calories.

Guy Savoy, the storied three-Michelin-starred chef with eponymous palaces of gastronomy in both Paris and Las Vegas, will be cooking with his friend Georges Perrier at Le Bec-Fin on Sunday and Monday. The event is already sold out, and the $200-a-plate dinners will include a few of Savoy's favorite ingredients, including, of course, truffles and foie gras. We wondered if he always eats that way. He replied to our questions by e-mail. Q: You are most associated with elegant, gourmet French cuisine.

INSTEAD of offering a recipe today, I'm sorting through my mailbag to answer some questions and share some comments from "Don't Say Diet" readers. I'll have a new recipe for you next week! KATHY: I would love to get diet tips and recipes to help me in my goal to lose weight. - Josephine HI, JOSEPHINE: I have some of my recipes and tips about weight loss and exercise on the "Don't Say Diet" Facebook page. I'll keep adding to that page each week. If you'd like to become a "Don't Say Diet" fan on Facebook, I'd love to have you!

Dinner at the Kensington home of John Vick and Amanda Jaffe is as simple as roast chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, and biscuits - and as complicated as farm-raised, sustainably grown, homemade, and locally sourced. Jaffe uses chicken from Griggstown Quail Farm outside Princeton, unaltered by hormones or antibiotics. Vick mashes the All Blue potatoes, a variety that produces colorful flesh as well as skin, from Tuscarora Organic Growers in Hustontown, Pa., adding butter from Hometown Provisions in Lancaster County and whole milk from Trickling Springs Creamery in Chambersburg, Pa. For his biscuits, Vick blends heirloom cornmeal from Rineer Family Farms in Lancaster and buttermilk from Maplehofe Dairy in Quarryville, Pa. The salad greens, baby arugula, and baby spinach were grown hydroponically at Woodland Produce in Fairton, N.J., by a farmer who recently got a grant from the USDA to install photovoltaic cells in order to run his greenhouses on solar energy.

WHEN GLORIA FOUNTAIN walked down the street, the boys would stop and stare. The cry would go up, "Here comes Gloria!" She had long hair down her back and she was a sight to behold, as attested by the judges of the various beauty contests she won. There was Miss U.S.O. in 1944, Miss Sepia and Miss Easter Seal, among others. Gloria Fountain, who became Gloria Foster after marrying Patrick H. Foster in 1950, a co-owner with her husband of a successful country club in Virginia and a retail saleswoman who would bring in customers with her sparkling personality, died Aug. 17. She was 84 and lived in Germantown.

Metal canister sets replaced wood in the mid-1800s to protect flour and sugar from moisture. These enamel reproductions by Kraft Klub are reminiscent of those used in the '50s when people actually used flour and sugar to make bread and cake, instead of boxed mixes. Available in aqua, red and white, the price seems reasonably retro. Snack Smart Almondina, maker of the thin crunchy biscuits we've come to love, has a new chocolate cherry variety that is simply scrumptious. They're dairy-free, kosher, and free of cholesterol, coloring and preservatives.

They all said he was a nice dog. But something inside Zeus snapped yesterday morning. The American bulldog who loved dog biscuits and backscratches went berserk and attacked an 11-year-old neighbor as the boy and his friend got ready for school in Port Richmond. Thirteen-year-old Brad Bucher heard his brother Shane screaming and sprinted to help. The scene outside his home on Mercer Street near Tioga seemed straight out of a horror movie: Shane struggled frantically on the sidewalk, Zeus' teeth sunk into his bloodied neck.

Guy Savoy, the storied three-Michelin-starred chef with eponymous palaces of gastronomy in both Paris and Las Vegas, will be cooking with his friend Georges Perrier at Le Bec-Fin on Sunday and Monday. The event is already sold out, and the $200-a-plate dinners will include a few of Savoy's favorite ingredients, including, of course, truffles and foie gras. We wondered if he always eats that way. He replied to our questions by e-mail. Q: You are most associated with elegant, gourmet French cuisine.

INSTEAD of offering a recipe today, I'm sorting through my mailbag to answer some questions and share some comments from "Don't Say Diet" readers. I'll have a new recipe for you next week! KATHY: I would love to get diet tips and recipes to help me in my goal to lose weight. - Josephine HI, JOSEPHINE: I have some of my recipes and tips about weight loss and exercise on the "Don't Say Diet" Facebook page. I'll keep adding to that page each week. If you'd like to become a "Don't Say Diet" fan on Facebook, I'd love to have you!

SOME PEOPLE go to Red Lobster for the shrimp or the crab legs, but many diners love to dig into that basket of cheddar biscuits that comes with their meals. I saw chef Todd Wilbur's version of this restaurant's secret recipe, but it contained so much fat that I decided to try to bake my own cheddar biscuits from scratch. A few recipes that claim to be clones of Red Lobster's biscuits call for whole milk, a heap of cheese and lots of shortening. But I got very tasty results using buttermilk, a smaller amount of reduced-fat cheddar and a lot less butter.

There's sure to be a beautiful story behind a place called The Ugly American, the new South Philly gastropub that revels in dishes like "the garbage plate" and upscale hot pockets. But owner Kevin Kelly is the first to burst any false pop-culture-inspiration bubbles. He can hardly tell you Marlon Brando's best lines from the 1963 movie of the same name, let alone remember the original book's author ("It's like William Lederer, I think," he said, correctly, when pressed). So that tattered paperback posed atop the maitre d's stand isn't bedtime reading?

Q: I made some lemon and basil biscuits by using a basic biscuit recipe and adding lemon zest and chopped basil from my garden. The problem is that they came out tough and dry. Is it because I added the zest and basil? Also, could you send me some foolproof biscuit recipes? Looking for help. - Dana K. A: Last part first: If you get a good recipe from a fool, does that make it a foolproof recipe? Just a question. As for your first question, I would think that adding lemon zest and basil to a good basic biscuit recipe would produce good lemon-basil biscuits.

BRUNCH - THAT lazy, decadent meal that allows for sleeping in late and languishing over a table for hours - is still an ideal way to start a Sunday. For chefs, whose one day off a week tends to be Sunday, brunch is a great way to recharge, spend time with the family, and eat somebody else's good food for a change. Although there are grand brunches in town, at places such as XIX Nineteen Cafe, Lacroix, and the Four Seasons, the following spots are more relaxed, the kind of places where dressing up is simply not done and flip-flops work in the footwear department.