strawberry shortcake made with only-a-little-sweetened homemade biscuits, which you butter when they are just out of the oven, and top with strawberries that have been cut and tossed with sugar and left to bleed for a couple of hours. NOM.

This, but with whipped cream, is exactly what I was going to suggest.

I can do that. I have whipped cream.

...anyone have a favorite basic biscuit recipe?

And you say you're from New Orleans? (I make Joy of Cooking's Baking Powder Biscuits with a little added sugar. And don't butter then for shortcake.)

William Shatner and Chris McCarron both took part in the opening ceremonies of the WEG.

I have both River Road cookbooks, which tell you how to make all sorts of stuff that respectable Baton Rouge housewives could make, including several questionable desserts. I suppose biscuits could be in there.

I made a squash quesadilla for dinner, using a sweet dumpling squash, gorgonzola, the last of the arugula, and some heirloom tomato.

shrift, that sounds delicious.

Yum!

I made a pumpkin/black-eyed pea/rice thing from a recipe my neighbor gave to me. (We're splitting a CSA share and so we always know when the other has, say, a pumpkin the size of a toddler to use up.) Next time I think I'll double the pumpkin and also add kale or mustard greens. And top with hot sauce.

It is pretty goddamn tasty, more than I was expecting it to be because I've never made it before.

I know the easiest biscuit recipe, which is James Beard's:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar (you may want less sugar for plain biscuits and more for shortcake)
1 to 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 425.

Mix dry ingredients. Fold in cream, starting with 1 cup, until dough is easily handled.

Knead lightly on floured surface. Drop on cookie sheet or pat out dough and cut with cutter or into squares.

(James Beard suggests dipping biscuits in melted butter.)

Bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes