Tomorrow Morning…

That’s it.

I’m learning how to make good biscuits tomorrow if it kills me.

I want sausage and gravy and scrambled fresh eggs for breakfast and it’s going to be homemade the whole way.

I’ve searched through a bunch of recipes and I have two versions… I think I like the one with the honey, and the foldover dough a bit more… but I’m tempted to try both, maybe half the recipe and do a taste test. Hmmmm…

I’m going in. I’m going to learn biscuitry. Wish me luck.

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Biscuit Recipe
2 cups self-rising flour
1/4 cup All-Vegetable Shortening, butter or lard
1 cup buttermilk, or you can use whole milk

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, cut the shortening into the Self-Rising Flour with a pastry blender or fork or your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Blend in buttermilk with fork just until the dough comes together. The dough will be sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently by folding the dough 8 to 10 times.

Press into a circle that’s 1 inch thick.

Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Do not twist the cutter until the dough has been cut all the way through (twisting the cutter will cause the biscuits not to rise straight up.

Place the biscuits on baking sheet so that they barely touch. Gather up the scrap dough, press it into a circle, working it as little as possible and continue cutting until all dough has been used.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

( I think I’ll dot the top with a little melted butter, just to be safe. )

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Deliciously Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour (9 ounces)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup fat-free buttermilk (hahaha…. fat free buttermilk? This is kind of funny… that ain’t like Granny made them, eh?)
3 tablespoons honey

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Chill 10 minutes.
3. Combine buttermilk and honey, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead lightly 4 times. Roll dough into a (1/2-inch-thick) 9 x 5–inch rectangle; dust top of dough with flour. Fold dough crosswise into thirds (as if folding a piece of paper to fit into an envelope). Reroll dough into a (1/2-inch-thick) 9 x 5–inch rectangle; dust top of dough with flour. Fold dough crosswise into thirds; gently roll or pat to a 3/4-inch thickness. Cut dough with a 1 3/4-inch biscuit cutter to form 14 dough rounds. Place dough rounds, 1 inch apart, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400° for 12 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan; cool 2 minutes on wire racks. Serve warm.

(This recipe is a little more well, fancy… but I like the sound of the ingredients and such. Hmmmmmm….)

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The Doggie Girls

Gypsy and Evee are getting a little more comfortable with each other. Every day, it’s a little better.

It doesn’t help that when Evee first came on the scene, Gypsy was really starting to hurt from her bad arthritic knees and that creepy skin problem. Just made for a grumpy old lady.

But I’m so happy to report that she’s doing a bit better. The glucosemine is really helping her overall joint issues, you can tell. She’s moving a little better now. Still like a 98 year old gal, but hey, she can still get on the couch and up and down the stairs, so that’s something.

And it took a while but we have found a shampoo and a spray that is working on her skin issue and I’m glad to report she is growing back her hair in the bad spots!!! Yeah! Her face and ears and feet are still a little scabby, but every day is better. Most of the areas on her body are now clean skin and growing hair.

Took her to the vet last week and we got the good news that we think we’re turning a corner on the skin issues. Still a little concerned as to WHY they are issues in the first place, and unfortunately, it’s probably systemic, meaning that her systems are weakening and well, with her advanced age, that is just something we have to deal with. She’s already 3 years, almost 4 years now, past her breed’s average of 10 years! She’ll be 14 in February. She’s a credit to her fine breeder and she’s been a super healthy girl up until the last 6 months or so.

I’m just glad that she’s around to train Evee how to be even half as great a dog as Gypsy is. And I love to see them bonding and trusting each other. It’s so cute to hear them when we leave the house, they both start howling this sad and mournful wolf dog howl… first it’s Gypsy and then a moment later you hear little Evee strike up the chorus! It’s rare that we all leave at the same time, so it’s always cute to hear them protest being left behind!!!

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Blueberry Butter…

Oh boy…   its that time of the year… time to start canning and preserving some of the awesome local goodies.  I wish I could say that these were all blueberries from our plants but in reality, there are about 20 token Moby berries in the mix only!  Our bushes are growing pretty good, but still not too heavy in the fruit production stages.   Maybe next year!  But they are local berries from a place apparently just over the Michigan border.

We took our 6 pints and the first step is to puree them in a blender or food processor.  That’s always fun to use the food processor.  We got it on Craig’s List for $10 and it’s pretty cool.   It’s not the latest and greatest, but that little dude works good!

Next step is to pop them into your crock pot and cook on high for one hour. Then give a good stir, lower to low heat and cook for a good 6 to 8 hours. Use a butter knife or a spoon across the lip of your crock pot to vent the lid a bit. This allows the steam to come off the blueberry mush and render down. I did stir it a time or two when I thought of it. The recipe said you could just let it go, but well, I just had to peek and stir! Didn’t want to burn the bottom at all.

When it was all done and quite reduced, we transferred the stuff to our little Presto Pot. I like the Presto Pot for making jams and jellies and such. The heat control on it is wonderful and it’s quite deep and all. I use it for my water baths as well. It can get very hot, very fast and 3 jars will fit in it nicely to water bath and all. But since I needed to get the blueberry puree good and hot again, I scooped it out, measured it and got it warming up. It was 5 cups full of puree.

I got it to boiling, just like you would a jam or jelly. Then added 1 1/2 cups of sugar and got it hot and boiling for a good minute and a half or so. Then turn off the heat, stirring constantly so the mixture doesn’t burn. I knew it was already thick enough and didn’t need any pectin or anything like that. I had clean, hot sterilized jars waiting, 6 of them, but in the end I only needed 3 pint jars. I had a big dollop left so I put it in a little dish and cooled it in the frig so that I could sample the butter quicker!

After I jarred it, I did a boiling water bath for 10 minutes for each jar. Popped it on a thick towel to let it cool overnight. You test the seal by pressing in the middle of the lid. If it pings, then it’s not canned properly and needs to go in the frig. These were perfect and ready for the pantry!

My goodness, this is going to be so perfect on hot toasted bagels! Or on a stack of pancakes in the winter… or just on toast… I had to get some of Grandma Mildred’s pretty bread and butter plates out for a test piece of toast with the dollop from the frig and oh, boy, was that good. Like a super thick jelly, not quite a jam, not quite a jelly… but a fruit butter! We are definitely going to try apple butter this year, just as soon as our apples ripen up! (we have 9 on the tree this year!!! So much better than our first year… where we got ONE… but boy, was that a beautiful first apple!!!)

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