Firefly: Shepherd Book's Rosemary Biscuits

It's November. Grab a sickly sweet pumpkin-spiced latte. Wrap yourself up in your Batman snuggie. Warm up a buttery biscuit, schmear that shit with butter, and stuff it right in the ol' pie hole.

Wait, November already? What the hell happened to October?

Usually, I really get into the Halloween spirit and inundate you with a gaggle of spooky baked goods.This year, however, November snuck up on us way too quickly. One day, I'm trotting along through the grocery store, buying bagfuls of those little mellowcreme pumpkins and then BAM - CANDY CANES OUT OF NO WHERE.

But there is a flip side to this whole thing. There may not have been any orange and black goodies on the blog, but we did spend October doing what we do best: baking for a group of charities and special events that make Vancouver really fantastic. In fact, we dropped off more donations in the last month and a half than ever before. We'll get back to those warm buttery biscuits later (I promise you), but, for now, I want to share with you want we baked up last month:

• There's a neat little space on Main Street that is an haven for artists and art-lovers alike called Hot Art Wet City. The owner, Chris, has turned his little gallery into a safe and supportive place for local artists (professional and newbies alike) to share their work with the public. The show themes are usually open to everyone, and are totally accessible - some of my favourites include "Boobies & Wieners", "Great White North", and "May Laforge Be With You". We got to donate the lovely cake you see above to the opening of "No Memes No". Me gusta. 

• C&C became official sponsors of not one, but two great events in Vancouver. The first, West Coast Geeks vs. Nerds, is super special to us. There are not many places where a large group of enthusiastic people are encouraged to drink, argue, and wear costumes, all in the name of dorky debates. And I'm talking about the "Who would win in a fight, Superman or Goku?" type of dorky debates. No matter what your passion is, West Coast Geeks vs. Nerds is a place to celebrate it. And yell and scream about it. Which is awesome. We've baked up everything from Elder Signs to Vulcan Salutes for them, all of which get raffled off to the audience. Last show, all the sweet sweet raffle cash went to support Movember Canada which, if you've been with us since the beginning, you know is pretty special to us. These guys even have their own Movember page, so make sure to donate to the cause if you haven't already!

• We've also begun sponsoring a new improvised show in town - Improv Against Humanity, hosted by the Fictionals Comedy Company. This show was named "The Best Improv For Horrible People" and, really, it's not something you bring you dear sweet granny to. But, for a "horrible" show, the Fictionals keep everything hilarious, but not creepy or uncomfortable. Plus, these guys do some pretty neat stuff out in the community - the most recent being the Momentum Youth Arts fest, where they worked with some spunky high school students. If there's one thing I love, it's teaching and inspiring young men and women to grab confidence by the balls, step on a stage, and be yourself. To help out, C&C have whipped up some chocolate frogs and butterfinger ghouls to raffle off at their shows. This month, we'll be baking up some Nightmare Before Christmas Cookies, so you seriously don't want to miss those

• Finally, we were able to get in the Halloween spirit with our buds, the BC Superfriends. We dropped off some zombie red velvet cupcakes, spider bite cookies, and butterfinger ghouls to their local hangout, Nerd HQ. The Superfriends will be using all the proceeds to build and support safe spaces and education programs devoted to helping out LGBTQ geeks and their allies. Definitely keep an eye on these guys, because they'll be putting together some amazing events.

So that's a lot of stuff going on, eh? That right there, friends, is a metric crap load of butter, flour, and sugar. In order to keep the ball rolling, we rely on non-donation orders to help us out. Order a cake, cupcakes, cookies, chocolates, or candy from us, and all the money goes directly to help out events and charities (like the ones we mentioned above). Our favourite individual order last month was this super Sonic cake and batch of Chaos Emerald cookies. The funds from this order went into making the Halloween sweets for the BC Superfriends, and topped off a donation to the Geeks vs. Nerds Movember page. Awesome, right? 

So, to sum up this giant behemoth of a post, our October was devoted to helping the Vancouver Nerd community. Seriously, you will not meet a group of people who are more passionate about promoting friendship and enthusiasm. To celebrate this, we want to share with you a recipe that was first developed for another wonderful geek charity group, Can't Stop the Serenity Vancouver. These are some little pieces of buttery love that is inspired by Shepherd Book (of Firefly and Serenity fame) and his infatuation with spices. "Remember," he tells us, "the important thing is the spices. A man can live on packaged food from here 'til Judgement Day if he's got enough rosemary."

Shepherd Book's Rosemay Biscuits

Very slightly adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes about 14 biscuits

4 cups AP flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary (roughly chopped)

1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup butter (cut into cubes)
2 cups buttermilk (whole fat, please!)

1) Preheat oven 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, rosemary, and sugar. Using your hands, mix in the butter until you're left with a sandy texture and pea sized chunks of butter throughout. Add the buttermilk and mix until you've created a stick dough.

2) Place a hefty amount of flour on your work space, and flatten the dough onto it, creating a disk that's about one inch flat. Cut out circles of dough, about two and a half inches in diameter, and place them on your baking tray. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until they tops have begun to get golden brown. Let cool slightly before enjoying.