The Comforts of Home and Family

When I think of my childhood; some of my fondest memories took place in the kitchen, usually around the table. My mother was very good at preparing our meals. She would get up early in the morning before anyone else and make breakfast for her family. Sometimes after finishing the dishes we kids left from the night before. She made pancakes, waffles, eggs and bacon and toast, cinnamon rolls, or oatmeal, and my personal favorite were fried apple sauce hand pies, but very frequently she made biscuits and gravy. Usually my dad made the gravy because he was so good at it and I think he really enjoyed doing it.
When I left home for college nothing tasted like home cooking more than biscuits and sausage gravy. My father taught me at home how to make the sausage gravy and after much practice I flatter myself that I was able to make gravy as well as his. Mom tried to teach me how to make biscuits, but try as I might my biscuits always turned out small and hard in varying degrees. Never have they been the soft, light, fluffy, stout towers of homemade goodness my mother could produce over and over without a wink. Momma always told me that it just took a lot of practice, and one year I devoted my New Years Resolution to mastering the art of making baking powder biscuits. In four months of making them about once a week I finally was able to produce what I felt was passable.
One year I decided to take the Julia Child challenge and learn to cook from her books, which are more like entertaining textbooks. I think if anyone actually cooked each of the recipes in both volumes as they read them, they would be worthy of a culinary degree equal to Le Cordon Bleu. I have learned so much just from the first few chapters I read and cooked through. My gravy is consistently better and easier to make, my soups are better, and I think in general my cooking has been better since I understand the principles behind several techniques now.
I remembered seeing a read paperback among my grandmother's books with a fork and spoon on the cover and when I was buying my volumes of Julia Child's cookbooks I realized it was "Julia's Kitchen Wisdom" my grandmother had in her library. I ordered myself a hard cover copy and have used some of the recipes in it as well. Never mind about how the chocolate sponge turned out, but her method for hard boiled eggs are unbeatable and near the end of the book, she shares a baking powder biscuit recipe as near to the biscuits a guest from New Orleans made on her show.
My mother always told me when making baking powder biscuits it is important to work the dough as little as possible and Julia shares this tip as well in her cookbook. I have added a few of my own techniques to this recipe as my mother shared with me; for instance, Julia said to bake them at 425 degrees F for 15-20 minutes. When I cooked them that long they were more dry and hard than I liked. My mother said it was best to bake them fast and hot. However; my toaster oven only goes to 450 degrees F, so that is where I put it and baked them for about 15 minutes. When they came out all golden I worried I had cooked them too long, but I applied butter to the tops and they were just so tender, light, and fluffy. After eating them with gravy and eggs, I just about couldn't stop eating them with Smuckers Natural Strawberry jam. (It tastes as close to homemade jam as a store-bought version possible could.) So good!
I'm still not as good at making biscuits as my mother, but if I follow this recipe closely, I don't have to be. 
(Aside from folding it 6 times, I just did four because it started to feel like it was coming together too much.)

Baking Powder Biscuits

By Julia Child and David Nussbaum As Given By Bethany Thompson

2 Cups All-Purpose King Arthur Flour
1 2/3 Tbsp Rumford Double Acting Baking Powder (shake before opening the can to mix it up well.)
¾ tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Sugar (2 Tbsp for sweet biscuits.)
¾ Cup Crisco
1 Cup Milk (1%)

Grease a fairly small pan.
Mix dry ingredients so there are no lumps and the flour is aerated.
Cut in Shortening with a pastry-cutter using "light rapid movements", till shortening pieces are the size of peas.
Pour in half of the milk and stir with table knife- cutting and using "light rapid movements" till it needs more liquid and pour in the rest of the milk all at once. Stir as before until only a little dryish flour remains in some spots.
Scoop onto a well-floured surface (I put down freezer paper and floured it well, scooping the dough onto it with my floury hand.)
"As a gently type of kneading, lift the far side up over onto the near side, pat it out gently into a fat circle, sprinkle on a little flour as necessary, then lift the left side over the right, the right over left, and so forth, giving 6 folds in all. Finally spread and pat the dough into a reasonably smooth rectangle 3/4 inch thick." (Mine was a circle that might have been an inch thick, it's important for them to be quite thick.) The dough should feel fairly sticky at first. After the gentle kneading process the dough should still feel cool and soft but only slightly sticky.
Cut out circular biscuits about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.
Folding the scraps together gently to cut out more until one biscuit sized piece of dough remains. (I form this one into a thick round with my hands and set it in the middle as it is sure to be dryer than the rest and will retain more moisture there.)
Julia and most everyone else say biscuits should be places in a pan spaced away from each other and that is what I did, but my Mother, the Biscuit Guru, says they should be crowed closely together and I agree with her- so they can build in height instead of slumping over to one side like mine did.
Bake in 475-500*F oven for 6-8 minutes. Brake one open to test for doneness. (It should be moist and fluffy not doughy on the inside, and the outside should be only lightly golden on a few edges.)
Best served warm with butter and honey, fruit, jam, apple butter, fried eggs or country gravy- or all of the above for a feasty pleasure!

Makes 12 biscuits.

A New Year and a New Member of the Family!

First of all I would like to officially announce; although I already told all my family and someone else told my Superman's family (sorry I didn't get to tell you myself), I am 11 weeks and 6 days pregnant!
I am feeling less and less nauseated and pooped, and more and more like I want to get to work preparing for this little one's arrival.
I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be a mother at last; although the circumstances are less thrilling for those involved, I know the Lord will bless us for following his commandment to have children. (even though it's wasn't planned.)
I feel a little sad I have neglected this blog over the past year. Coming back to it I realize how much I've done with it and how much I really like it. I have used this blog in the past to track my small families activities and such, but now I am thinking maybe I should combine all my other blogs to this one and just write what I want to be writing not just family news. I'm pretty sure family is the only readers I have anyway and I shouldn't redirect them all the time to my different projects. Thanks for your patience and support you all!
So what I have been doing on my other blogs is writing about cooking and writing about becoming more self-sustaining and less reliant on convenience, which is more expensive, and thus spending less. I have planted at garden of carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers and strawberries. I started cutting my own bangs and coloring my hair myself. I started making my family's bread from scratch, and I now make my own laundry soap.

Now, I am working on making my own cloth diapers, knitting wool booties and making a baby quilt. See how baby has taken over all my priorities! Hahaha.

Busy Bees

Well now, it's been more than five months since my last post and that's probably because I started a few other blogs and this one has just been left behind.Here's what we've been up to at my house:

My Superman fixed his mother's bumper..

I've been Card-making! Real surprise huh?

This set is from a while back when my mother and sister sent me a package of cards to make, I recently finished the last one and photographed them all together.

This set was sent to me later by my mother.

This one I cased after my mother bought me the stamp set and paper and inks for my birthday in April. I gave the card to my Grandmother-in-law for her birthday.

 This one I cased but added my own flare after my mother sent me a flower punch and a new stamp set.

 I made this card for my Dear Dad for Father's Day, and I later made another one a little different, both cased.

 This one did not turn out at all like the one I was using for inspiration, but I love how it turned out anyway. One of my very best friends got married this last weekend and I made this card to go with her gift. She loves daisies and yellow!

 I made this one right after but I think I will go back and add a strip of green above the owl like I did on the other one.

My husband and I have a truck and for some unknown reason last year it kept picking up screws and nails. (We suspect foul play but have no evidence ;).) The last screw that punctured the wheel ripped into the sidewall (a little poor driving on my part but if you ask me I'll deny it!) So my husband plugged it and we continued sparingly driving on it for some time. For fear of the tire blowing out we decided it would be wise to replace our well worn tires and felt an upgrade was necessary considering some of the terrain we tend to end up in. We purchased a small lift for the front and both got very dirty installing it ourselves one night. Here is Superman dirty from another hard day's work and doing his Zoolander impression:

He's so cute!
So then we were able to fit the larger all-terrain wheels onto our truck and realign it. Here are before and after pics:

 Maybe you can't tell, but the front end is now level with the back and the tires are larger and better quality. I feel so grateful we were able to take care of a problem before it became a bigger problem.