The winter light around these parts has turned an increasingly grayish blue these days. My old photo shooting spot in the house is no longer a good place to work and some mornings I find myself wandering around camera in hand trying to find a better spot. I’m still struggling to find it. The little wood to the south of us is in large part to blame for our lack of daylight, and while beautiful to look at and walk in, I find myself cursing it sometimes. It keeps our house in a perpetual frosty shade all day and when the few brief moments of sun appear through our window in the family room, the animals immediately seek it out, declaring an uneasy truce between them in order to share the small square of warmth. It’s a bit comical at times, a 90 lb. German Shepherd and a fluffy (i.e. hefty) headstrong feline jockeying for position can make for some interesting antics.For now I’ll just have to stumble along, and hope that I can get the right light at just the right time of day, but some days it feels like it’s just not gonna happen. Ah well, as far as problems go it’s not a big one, just a frustrating one for sure.

My thoughts are still on Thanksgiving and before the week ended, I wanted to share with you another recipe to make for your big feast. This one a light, fluffy biscuit full of rich gorgonzola cheese and savory sweet potato. Not the prettiest thing to look at (and really hard to make look good in a photo) but what it lacks in beauty can easily be forgiven and forgotten when you take a bite. Perfect for the big day, on it’s own (breakfast for me) or accompanying soup I really can’t think of a time when it wouldn’t be appropriate to stuff my face with one these. I cannot wait to pile on the turkey leftovers and cranberry sauce and make a biscuit sandwich. Gah, so good.

You can of course change the cheese if you aren’t a fan of Gorgonzola, as goat cheese or brie would be an amazing addition. Additionally if you don’t want to go to the trouble of baking your own sweet potatoes (which really is no trouble at all if done in the microwave) you can substitute canned pumpkin puree, not as good in my humble opinion but still delicious.

These also hold up really well, you can in fact make them the day before, refrigerate them overnight then heat them in the oven for 15 minutes or so on 300 degrees F. until nice and toasty and the cheese begins to get all melty and gorgeous. I decided to serve these with thyme butter and flaky sea salt and it was heaven.

Gorgonzola Sweet Potato Biscuits

Makes 8, 3″ or 10, 2″ biscuits

This recipe is basically Tanya Holland’s fromFood and Wine, the only adaptation was the addition of the cheese.

1 C. cooked and cooled, sweet potato *see below for instructions

3/4 C. buttermilk

2 1/4 C. all purpose flour

2 T. brown sugar

2 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C. unsalted butter, diced

4 oz. crumbled Gorgonzola or blue cheese

heavy cream for brushing

*To cook the sweet potato, pierce two medium potatoes with a fork in several places around the circumference. Place on a plate in the microwave, and cook on high for 7 minutes. Pierce with a sharp knife to test for doneness. Microwave 2-3 minutes more if needed. Set aside to cool. Remove skin, measure 1 C. of the sweet potato, place in a bowl and mash with a fork.

In the same bowl, incorporate the buttermilk and sweet potato whisking to break up lumps and set aside. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Combine then cut in the butter with a pastry knife. Work the butter into the flour until pea sized lumps of butter remain.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

Add the buttermilk, sweet potato mixture stirring with a spoon until just incorporated. Dump mixture out onto a lightly floured board and pat in to a rectangle 1″thick. Sprinkle the Gorgonzola on top and fold the dough over on it self to cover the cheese. Knead very lightly and pat into another large rectangle 1″ thick. Cut into rounds using a 2 or 3″ biscuit cutter. Place on a lined baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown and the cheese is melting. Remove immediately and let cool 5 minutes before eating.