Pepper Jelly and Buttermilk Biscuits -- They're DamGoodSweet (and a giveaway, too!)

I crave many different things on different days -- strawberries, pink grapefruit, mojitos and warm weather, a burger and fries, simple roast chicken. It just depends on my mood. That said, there are two things that I seem to crave more often than anything else:  queso (as in chile con queso) and cream cheese and pepper jelly. Ninfa's on Navigation in Houston makes the best.queso.ever. I love it, I crave it, and when I'm home I make a beeline to Navigation to get my fix. I did, however, find a Mexican restaurant up by the Cathedral that makes some very acceptable queso so I can get my queso fix when the situation is dire. The cream cheese and pepper jelly is a craving that's a little harder to assuage. In Texas (and Louisiana, I'm sure, and probably throughout the South) pepper jelly is a fixture on grocery store shelves. I've been known to spend a good 5-10 minutes standing in front of the pepper jelly selection at Central Market pondering which kind to purchase that day. When the Social Safeway was open they had one brand of pepper jelly -- but one brand is all you need when you're really craving some cream cheese and pepper jelly. Now the Social Safeway is closed for renovations and pepper jelly is really hard to find up here. I had my mom bring me two jars of pepper jelly when she came to visit in October -- but it's one of those things you tend to eat in social situations (read:  many people eat a lot of pepper jelly in a short amount of time!) -- and now it's all gone.

What's a Singleton to do? Well, first she tries the fancy garlic jalapeno pepper jelly or the lime pepper jelly from Dean and Deluca and finds them not to her liking. There was just something missing. Then, as luck would have it, I got invited to the launch of DamGoodSweet at Acadiana restaurant. David Guas is a D.C. pastry chef with Louisiana roots, and this book is all about Cajun sweets. I had a great time at the launch party, and I wish I'd remembered my camera so I could've taken a picture of me with powdered sugar all over me from the fantabulous beignet bites that were being passed around. Ohmygosh -- they're so very tasty! I left with a cookbook and a lovely goody bag of caramel peanut popcorn, and I went home to take a good look at this cookbook. All of the big players are in this book:  beignets, king cake, doberge cake, and even Roman Chewing Candy (I was SO excited when I saw that!), but there are lots of recipes that I wasn't familiar with, too. In fact some of the simpler, less iconic desserts are highest on my list to make:  Calas Fried Rice Fritters, Gauteau de Sirop, and Sweet Corn Cake with Root Beer Syrup. But the recipe that got bookmarked first was Red Pepper Jelly and the accompanying buttermilk biscuits. Oh boy, howdy, now I can have pepper jelly whenever I want it!

I've made jam and jelly before, but it's usually a very small quantity so that I don't have to mess with boiling water, jars, and attempt to burn myself in the process. I'm accident prone, and while I love the idea of canning, I'm very wary of it. I couldn't pass up the chance to have extra pepper jelly in my pantry (and maybe even give some away if I'm feeling generous) so I procured some small mason jars and went to town. Now, first of all, the recipe suggests that because jalapenos vary so much in heat intensity it's best to taste a tiny bit before you start so you know what you're dealing with. I can tolerate a fair amount of spice, but biting into a fresh hot pepper isn't my idea of a good time, and I was really reluctant to do this. In the name of delicious pepper jelly, though, I took the tiniest bite of the tiniest piece of pepper. It was hot -- it was so hot it sent me running to the fridge for milk. My lips tingled for a good 30 minutes. With that knowledge, I put gloves on to seed and devein the peppers. The rest of the process is pretty easy:  you chop up hot peppers, sweet red peppers, and sweet onion. The pepper-onion mixture is combined with cider vinegar, sugar, and pectin on the stove. A little time and, voila!, you have pepper jelly. The pepper jelly was everything that I wanted it to be, and now I don't have to worry about hoarding pepper jelly anymore! It's nice to know that I can make it whenever I want to -- just so long as I can get my hands on hot peppers.

Now, normally I eat pepper jelly with crackers -- Triscuits or Wheat Thins to be precise. This is not a fancy schmancy appetizer. In fact, I really associate it with very low-key gatherings, and I've been known to spend entire crawfish boils camped out in front of the cream cheese and pepper jelly (this could have something to do with the fact that I don't like a mudbug). The recipe for biscuits accompanies this red pepper jelly, though, and I was bringing this to a more formal cocktail gathering, so I thought the biscuits might be a better option. I don't have a really great track record with biscuits. For one thing, they're usually flatter than I'd like. I have a hard time getting my desired result. These biscuits, though, are not only a cinch to make, but they turned out perfectly every time I made them! And I made them three times over the course of the weekend -- three for three is pretty good. They're a very simple recipe:  butter, buttermilk, White Lily Flour, baking powder, and salt are the only ingredients. I'm so happy that I finally found a go-to biscuit recipe. While the biscuits are, indeed tasty, I think that I'm going to stick with crackers for my pepper jelly in the future. These biscuits would be lovely with gravy or ham -- that's how I'll serve them in the future.

I'm not posting the recipes because I don't have permission to post them. I am, however, so excited about my newfound biscuit prowess and mad pepper jelly skills, that I'm going to share the love with you! If you'd like a chance to have your very own copy of DamGoodSweet:  Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style, just leave a comment on this post. If you have a favorite New Orleans food or experience, I'd love to hear about it, but any comment will enter you in this giveaway. You have until 8 am (eastern time) on Friday to enter, and the winner will be announced on Friday afternoon!