Look what I got for frost on the pepper patch!
Thanks to an abundant planting, careful tending, and a heavy frost, my son’s pepper patch yielded all these beauties, for the last pickin’. So glad to get them, as our pepper plants did poorly this year.
Thanks, J&J! And thanks to the kiddos of theirs who picked them. 🙂
My family loves hot, homemade biscuits, and this is National Biscuit Month.
So, I thought I’d resurrect an old favorite recipe, just for you!
Although I’ve known the recipe handed down to me from my families, I’ve also never been satisfied just to do what everyone else is doing. I’m always thinking it might be even better if…
So one day I tried substituting real butter in the recipe I’d inherited, to replace the shortening. Oh, MY, did I notice a big difference, right away!
One thing led to another and I tried upping the fat content. Instead of the recommended 1/3 cup of fat, I tried a whole STICK of butter. Oh, MY, did I notice a big difference right away!
But then. Oh, then, I found a recipe for cream biscuits.
Phoo, those things are almost ALL fat, did you realize? Mmmm. No one can eat just one.
Several tweaks later, I invented the 15-Second Biscuit Recipe.
Yep.
If I hurry, I can make biscuit dough in 15 seconds, and so can you. Here’s how:
Now. You must realize the benefits of this recipe that go beyond the race with the clock:
If you prefer whole wheat biscuits, as I do, you can easily create your own whole-wheat, self-rising flour.
Enjoy!
And share with us your favorite type of gravy for these golden orbs!
I live in a small town, outside a small town, actually, which puts me smack in the middle of nowhere. And I like it.
I remember when I followed a map and my husband’s instructions and finally, finally arrived at this place, with one of my daughters-in-law in the front seat of my car, and her baby in the back. I remember when we got out of the car I said to her, “Listen!”
She stopped and did not shut the car door, straining to hear something.
I said, “What do you hear?”
Since I was grinning in pleasure, she knew what I was hearing, and answered, “Nothin’!”
“Nothin’,” I repeated.
And mostly, that’s how it is out here.
Quiet. Calm. Safe.
And so, after years of being here, content as can be, I’ve begun thinking of all we do not have.
And I cannot think of a thing I’d add.
Why, just today, near a town of fewer than 300 population, I found a great place to work out (both strength and aerobics), tan, and sauna.
While I was at it, I got my yardwork done for free.
Just cannot beat it. 😉
Calamari = squid.
The body can be stuffed whole, cut into flat pieces or sliced into rings. The arms, tentacles and ink are edible; the only parts of the squid that are not eaten are its beak and gladius (cartilage). I’ve seen it battered and fried like onion rings. It’s supposed to taste sweet.
I’ve eaten rabbit before, and it is sweet, so squids and rodents taste similar?
Groans.
You can hardly find a stuffed mushroom in a restaurant, anymore, except those with squid squirted into them. That’s just wrong.
However, there was a time when my brother took us all out to eat al fresco, on a breezy summer’s eve, to a lovely place near his home just outside Jeff City, Missouri. We ordered the stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer and I became so enamored with this dish.
They were creamy and savory and warm and I’d never eaten anything I liked so much that wasn’t sweet.*
I mean, I wanted to eat everyone’s serving.
I mean, I had to remind myself to behave.
However, there on a flagstone patio, noshing over a wrought iron table, I began analyzing.
And I never stopped until last year, when I figured I knew how to make those mushrooms.
And today, I publish my recipe for the first time, ever, over at Dining with Debbie.
Go there.
You’ll be glad.
I’ve been baking furiously, here, trying to get a cake for 60 or so people ready for this coming Sunday, when our church will host a baccalaureate for our seniors.
I am used to baking and decorating larger cakes, have done several for various showers and weddings. I love doing it.
However, cakes have a way of failing when you are making them for a special event. I’ve had many mix cakes fall, and occasionally, a scratch cake will fall for me.
This time around, I chose to use a mix because I have the following activities in my life the same weekend:
So, you can see, I really did not have time to make scratch cakes and although I never prefer it, I bought mixes and hoped and prayed they’d turn out.
Well, they did not fall.
But when I attempted to turn the first one out onto a rack to finish cooling, it stuck.
It was firmly IN the pan, so firmly it left parts of itself behind and nearly broke in two as I wrestled with it.
As I complained about how they just don’t make cake mixes like they used to, I sort of pieced it together and started on the next cake, determined to really slather the pan with oil and flour, so this one would not stick.
I reached for the other pan and, lo! it was already oiled.
It was the pan I’d prepared for the first cake, but I’d inadvertently poured the first batter into an unprepared pan.
I said a lot of mean things about you, Betty, and I apologize.
It was all my fault.
😉
____________
UPDATE!
The final product, I am so glad to say. Doing this was like watching a scary movie! Seven pounds just in the frosting. Aren’t we amazing!
It’s cold outside where you live.
Everyone should get busy!
Doesn’t matter if it’s a delicious batch of sour dough bread:
Doesn’t matter if it’s a few jars of wonderful canned bread:
Doesn’t matter if it’s a wonderful, lo-carb cookie recipe!
We all need to warm up our Monday!
And here is the recipe:
1 lb butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 c. powdered sugar
Blend above, well.
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Blend in well.
4 1/2 c. flour
2 Tbsp. pulverized, food-grade lavender blossoms
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
Sift above and mix in, well. Drop by teaspooon onto ungreased baking sheets. Flatten with glass dipped into sugar.
Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Mmm!
Home's Cool! 