I can’t seem to keep anything analog alive–I’m literally killing the succulent we keep on the dining room table–so I like to think that Farmville transfers the benefits of gardening (in real life, that is) to those of us with black thumbs. Or maybe it’s a sickly yellowish-green thumb, considering that’s how most everything leaves this world when it passed my hands. In honor of Farmville 2: Country Escape, the folks at Zynga are putting together a cookbook called–quite cleverly–Farmville-to-Table. They’re compiling fifty country, summer-inspired recipes that make use of the ingredients you can cultivate in the game, including wheat, goat milk, blueberries, lemons, butter, sugar… which, hrm, sort of sound like the ingredients to this recipe.. …just saying. And this is my entry! I am desperate to be accepted, people, so forgive my enthusiasm. But this dish actually is un-freaking-believable. Let me describe it for you as one might see, oh, on a menu. Flaky Southern buttermilk biscuits topped with fluffy, homemade goat cheese, topped with a fresh, seasonal blueberry compote, fortified with just a touch of fresh lemon. Did you not just die a little? I did. I died a little. This recipe idea came to me like divine inspiration when I was riding in the car with some girlfriends on the way to a concert. I’d just received an email asking for submissions and knew I had to come up with something good, when it hit me. I meticulously planned the recipe for a few days and was sure that each step along the way would fail. When I turned out the homemade goat cheese, I thought for sure there would be something amiss, but no–I’d made perfectly fluffy, tangy goat cheese, in a little less than 2 hours and with only 2 ingredients! When I layered the biscuits with the goat cheese and blueberry compote, I was worrying to myself, “Oh, it’ll taste weird. The blueberries will be so funky with the goat cheese. The butter will overpower the chèvre. What were you thinking, Cheryl, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!” And then I took a bite. And my smiling face lifted to the sky as the heavens opened up and angels with harps fluttered around, winking at me, like “Hey, man, good job. Good work.” Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. …it’s that good. Whether or not I’ll be accepted to the cookbook, I’m not sure yet. But I do know this: I’ve got a secret weapon I can tuck away in my back pocket at whip out at the most strategic of times: buttermilk biscuits with goat cheese (homemade!) and blueberry compote. All at once homey and Southern, elegant and elevated, filling but light. Perrrrrrfect. You’ll love this because of how the flaky and chewy yet light biscuit plays with the fluffy, tangy goat cheese. How the sweetness of the blueberries blankets them both, lightened by just a hint of tart lemon juice. None of the elements is difficult to make, but you’ll look like a master chef. For serious. Oh, and pick me. Just saying.
