Beaten Biscuits

 A few weeks ago I challenged you to start on your pantry and building up the basics needed to begin cooking "from scratch" in your kitchen.

How is it going?  If you need to remind yourself of the first list of items I suggested adding to your pantry you can check that out here.

Are you ready for your first "recipe"?

This is a basic biscuit recipe from the 1935 edition of The Southern Cook Book of Fine Old Recipes.  You can download a free copy of this recipe and book online by clicking the title above. 

In the meantime,

Biscuits are very adaptable to most meals.  It can be eaten for breakfast of course, with jam/jelly, honey or syrup.  You can make it into a breakfast "sandwich" by filling it with scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese.  You can smother them in gravy, with or without sausage.

Biscuits are also great leftovers for lunch with soup.  Or filled with a slice of ham or tenderloin.

Dinner time...they can top chicken potpie, going along with about any meat/veggie combo.  You can even sweeten them up as dessert with some strawberries (or other berries or even peaches!) and make little shortcakes.

Use a light touch when bringing this dough together.  You don't want to active the gluten in this dough like you would for rolls etc.  You want fluffy.

And it will take practice.  Try them.  Try them again and again so you get to feel the difference each time and note what you did that made the difference.  Pretty soon you'll be making them without a recipe to follow.  You can just throw them together.

Once you have them rolled and cut out...you can place them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and pop them in the freezer.  Once frozen, put them in a zip-top bag and you can pull them out whenever you want to bake them!  I personally do this since it's just 2 of us at home most days.  I can make a big batch and then we're set for several meals.  Bake them as normal...may just take a few minutes longer since they are frozen.  No need to thaw before baking.

A simple meal.  Yet comforting and satisfying. Basic ingredients combined with a little skill and a lot of love.  May you be blessed with flour on your apron as you embark on the biscuit journey!

Happy baking,

Lynn

Jesus *said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples ventured to question Him, “Who are You?” knowing that it was the Lord. John 21:12

Fret Not Small Beginnings

 Oh how impatient I can be!

  Especially in the garden.  I plant a seed and immediately "expect" to see a sprout!

That's kind of how we are throughout our daily lives too, isn't it?  What a rush our world is in.  What a hurry...do this, do that, go here, finish this, watch that...and on and on. We expect things to be done now now now.

Everything seems so fast paced. We want our news in sound bites.  We want our sermons in the palms of our hands.

But back to the idea of the garden and those seeds. Is it not a miracle that all the life that seed needs to reproduce a new plant, bush, tree is in that tiny compact container?  It astonishes me every time I think about it.

We have been on this new property for just over 1 year now.  We're constantly working on projects to "make it our own".  Last season I was eager to get the raised beds in place and get SOMETHING...ANYTHING...growing in the ground!  I thought I did all the "correct" things to have a successful growing season.  Good soil (or so I thought).  Plenty of sunshine and water.

My garden however seemed stunted and meager.  Definitely was a "small beginning".

But I learned how to remediate my soil.  I learned how to deflect the intense July sun. I learned zucchini loves this climate while waiting for things to take off and grow.  

By the end of summer, I was harvesting more than plenty of squash.  Small but tasty tomatoes. I even harvested some sweet cantaloupe!  However, the lettuce never got over 1 inch high.  The cucumbers and potatoes were the most horribly bitter things I've ever eaten. The corn never produced.  The beans were measly. Not a single radish grew.

I could have despised my small beginnings garden.   Even through the frustrations, I loved it.  I took a bare space of awful native bentonite soil and made a few beautiful things grow.

This season the garden is leaps and bounds better and it's only mid-June.  I'm harvesting lovely, sweet lettuces.  Kale is extremely happy and abundant.  The tomato plants are growing and even starting to see blooms on a couple of them.  The cantaloupes are coming up.  So are the beans and corn.  We've eaten several big, beautiful strawberries.  Oh! and the zucchini...there are rouge plants coming up EVERYWHERE!

In this hurry up and get there world, it's nice to have a spot to watch things take their time.  A spot where the birds sing as they go about their day.  It's joyful to watch those tiny seeds growing and be hopeful for a delicious harvest in the not-too-distant future.

I added raspberries this year.  Rhubarb as well. The asparagus patch is coming along nicely too.  I won't get to harvest any of them this year.  But one day I will. I rejoice in their small beginnings.

When you have something that seems to be progressing at a much slower rate than you'd like, take time to enjoy the progress, no matter the speed.  Learn from the time spent waiting.  Learn more about the next phase it will enter.  The beginnings may seem small and slow, but there is a harvest waiting on the other side.

Sweet blessings my friend,

Lynn

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.”  Zech 4:10