Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Biscuits & Jam for....

If I had a pantry, this stuff would have been eaten instead of being left in the back of this low deep dark cupboard, all year. But that is not the subject of this post.



Some canning. Canning is a short subject in this post but not the main idea.
The little blue bucket is healthy shortening if there is such a thing. I do feel better with ORGANIC on the label. Better as in less guilty. Guilt is the subject of this post.



Kayla cleaned out the low dark, and deep,cupboard, and found all this that we forgot to eat. Whoops. Those are Danish sweet pickles and they are insanely delicious and easy peasy to make. When the cucumbers come in I'll show you how.That will be a future post.


Southern buttermilk biscuits. We are getting closer to the subject.




Peach Preserves, a mini theme.


and biscuits with coffee, the essentials of life in the South,

make for a man that is happy. He gave a big thumbs up to this breakfast. He likes his biscuits rolled out thin because he likes crust and crunch. Believe me these biscuits are flaky and tender, melt in your southern mouth!



I feel a little guilty. You see I practically hounded my friend Debbie, (as in was a pest) for her biscuit recipe. When she did her post for "Sky High Biscuits" that recipe was in Karey Swan's cook/life book, "Hearth & Home," which sits on my book shelf. Whoops... I already had it right here.

However, but, or therefore, actually that is not what I might be feeling guilty about.

We made peach preserves last night. I say we, because the Hunny does the peach picking and the peach cutting and most of the peach cooking and then I can it.

He is a country man and when his mom made preserves she cooked the fruit, the whole fruit skins and all, minus the pits, for a long time. When you simmer about 2 gallons of peaches all day until they are a fraction of their former selves; you have real fruit preserves. I can not describe to you the taste.

Imagine if you will concentrated fresh home grown peaches. He put 2 cups of sugar in the 2 gallons and noooooo pectin. It's basically just fruit. We only added a little sugar because the peaches were too tart. This is what PRESERVES is all about, let me tell you.

What?

Oh, feeling guilty?

Well, that would be about the biscuits.

When I looked at the recipe and it is a good recipe, I just thought to myself,

"That is not how mom made biscuits."

Before I knew what was happening, Mom was making those biscuits with my hands and some type of long term memory, right brain stuff. It just came back to me as soon as I scooped some flour in the bowl.

Then I added a half stick of soft butter and 2 big round spoonfuls of that organic shortening, and then I poured some salt into that little round hollow you can make in your hand that holds the right amount of salt, then I scooped up 2 big heaping tsps of baking powder and worked it all together. Mom called that "cutting in" the shortening.

Then I just poured buttermilk into the center, yeah about that much, to hold it together. I floured my board and scooped it out gently and lightly covered it with flour because it's sticky stuff. From out of my memory banks came that voice in my head that said, "OK now handle it gently and don't over work it or you'll have tough biscuits.

I said, " Yes, mom, I remember," and they turned out perfectly.

I have some really cute biscuit cutters, just like Cathy's at the Noble Pig, but next time I make them, I'm going to use a water glass, dipped in the flour.

This going back to my roots trip, is really beginning to get cool, and I will stop feeling guilty about the biscuit recipe now.

Next time, I'll show you step by step how to make biscuits. I couldn't interrupt my mom today
( she died a long time ago!) while she was talking, ( in my head) that would have been rude. Actually, I was so surprised to remember something this well, I was afraid to break the train of thought. It might not have come back!

21 comments:

farmlady said...

How wonderful! A memory that lived inside of you and came forth in your mother's voice. That's beautiful!
Stop feeling guilty about the recipe. It's probably what made you remember your Mom's way of making them. Now, I remember the water glass dipped in the flour too.
As you get older these memories become so personal and amazing. I think they might be a gift from someone you loved.

Wonderful World of Weiners said...

Thank you for the link. I truly appreciate it.

Hallie

Unknown said...

I had biscuits this weekend at Cracker Barrel and I can't stop thinking about them : ). They sound scrumptious : )

Laura ~Peach~ said...

drool...drool some more... and thank goodness i know how to make biscuts... now for some of those peaches... oh drool... those pickels look good too! oh drool...

Farmgirl Paints said...

Oh yum. I absolutely love bread in any form. Those biscuits looked heavenly. I would eat them with apple butter:)

Chris H said...

That memory is so cute.
YOur 'biscuits' are called scones here!
I must make some now!!!

joanne said...

oh my...that sounds delish. I must have a lesson as soon as possible...

Karen said...

Yummmm, biscuits. I know what I'm making for breakfast.

WudWerkr said...

u do know , being a southern boy mayself , Mississippi to be exact . that the way to a mans heart is through good biscuts grins love em , and not the whop kind either

u know what whop busicuts are ?

LDF said...

I LOVE biscuits! My Gramma was a Southern gal (but living up here in Canada) and she made great biscuits. You know, I had one of those "Gramma's voice in my head" moments when I was a young woman about making pie crust. I hardly ever make pie, but it's still like her hands take over when I do.

Cat Lady said...

lol thats my Nany, making something GOOD while I'm out of the room, teehee. Well I can tell you one thing about those bisquits when I came home. THOSE ARE THE BEST BISCQUITS IN THE WHOLE WORLD MAN!

Annie said...

Ah, hopped over here from cbw and have discovered what "biscuits" are...they are what we call scones...and I am so pleased to hear that someone else said that too!!

I also remember how to make them from my Mum and Grandma (and a great recipe book)...it is one thing I can make...in Queensland (Australia) where I am (usually) from, pumpkin scones are quite popular and famous, and very delicious!

Michelle said...

Love your biscuit post. Funny how things come back to you when you need them most. My grandma used to use a beenie weanie can to cut her perfect biscuits.

Chris H said...

You MUST need new glasses! I have shown my new glasses, at the end of yesterday's post ya ninny!

imbeingheldhostage said...

Whenever I hear anything about biscuits I think of Hume Cronyn in "To Dance with the White Dog". LOVE that movie.

Those preserves sound pretty wonderful too, maybe I should eat before coming by your blog.

Cat Lady said...

lol, You have NO IDEA what kind of temptations my grandma makes lol! I'm surprised I'm not as (no comments Nanny!) big as a barn!

Grandma Tillie's Bakery said...

REAL biscuits--now that's livin'! Melt in your mouth goodness with homemade raspberry jam--oh my word are they good.

I just put together some sweet roll dough for a dinner party tonight. It was all I could do not eat the dough right out of the bowl!

How are your feet, by the way, with all that standing on your feet cookin' and cannin'?

Mental P Mama said...

Oh how I miss my Southern Home. sigh

Cat Lady said...

Hey Mental P Mama, how about we swap places then? You can have Mississippi, and I'll take wherever you are rofl.

Britt-Arnhid said...

I love to can from our own garden and our own woods. Still a bit early for that in Norway though. Must wait a few weeks.....

Tracy said...

I'll be stopping in for breakfast on Sunday morning!! Looks good:)