Biscuits, Biscuits, Biscuits

I came across this recipe recently and it has become our all time favorite biscuit recipe.

7 Up Biscuits

 

2 cups Bisquick

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup 7 Up

1/4 cup butter

Heat oven to 450.  Melt butter in bottom of 9 inch pan.
Cream sour cream into the Bisquick, add 7 Up.  Makes a very soft dough.  Sprinkle additional biscuit mix on counter and pat dough into 9 inch square.  Cut dough into even squares.  Place cut biscuits into pan with butter and bake at 450 for about 10-12 minutes.

These are so moist and good that we did not think they could be improved upon, and then, this morning we tried something. 

I boiled about a cup of raisins a few minutes (Did you know you should do this before using raisins in baking?) and drained them.  I added the raisins and some cinnamon to the dough and kneaded a few times, then followed the directions above.

When they were finished we poured a powder sugar glaze/icing over the top.  My gosh, these were so good.

This recipe is super easy and so delicious.  I hope you enjoy as much as we did!

A Peek in the Garden

We harvested snow peas a few weeks ago and that was all we really had blooming at that time.  It was rather frustrating because we have been working diligently, since January, trying to get the garden going.  The weather was one issue in our lack of production but the main problem was quite a surprise to us.

In the winter the south side of our home gets really nice sun, so my hubby built some really nice raised beds in that area.  Then comes summer and there are so many trees in the south yard that the garden is really struggling.  What to do??

We decided to do another planting in some buckets and put these on the east side of the house, lots of sun in this yard.  The result is finally starting to show.  We have lots of cherry tomatoes that are slowly beginning to ripen.

The real pride of our garden is the muskmelon plant.  It is really beginning to thrive.

Here is our largest muskmelon.  It is about 2 inches in diameter.  We have about 6 smaller melons on the plant and are looking forward to enjoying all of these in a few weeks.

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The muskmelons are new this year and another thing we are trying is okra.  The plant has gotten really large and this morning we saw this beautiful flower.

The flower is really lovely and closes up as the day progresses.  We are looking forward to some okra pretty soon.

Thanks for visiting our garden.  I will share more pictures as the plants begin to produce more fruit.

Our First Harvest

Our weather, this spring, started off very cool and then, overnight, it got very humid and hot.  This fluctuating weather took quite a toll on our garden.  But finally things started growing.

We were so excited when we finally had enough of our snow peas  and snap peas for a harvest.

We enjoyed a few more harvests of these peas and I think we will get one more meal out of them before they finish producing.

Since we only planted 2 containers with pea plants we were very pleased with the harvest.  Next year I think we will try for a larger planting.

Chinese Faves

Our family absolutely loves Japanese and Chinese food-even the kids love it.  I thought I would share a couple of our favorite recipes.  They are not authentic Chinese recipes but they sure are good. . .

Sweet and Sour Chicken

2 ½ cups cut up cooked chicken

1 egg, slightly beaten                                      ½ cup sugar

¼ cup cornstarch                                            1 green pepper, cut into 1” squares

2 tablespoons shortening                                 ¼ cup water

1 can (13 ½ oz) pineapple chunks,                 2 tablespoons cornstarch

    drained (reserve syrup)                              1 teaspoon soy sauce

½ cup vinegar                                                   1 can (16 oz) small carrots,

3 cups hot rice                                                      drained

Toss chicken and egg until all pieces are coated.

Sprinkle ¼ cup cornstarch over chicken; toss until all pieces are coated.

Melt shortening in medium skillet.  Add chicken pieces; cook over medium heat until brown.  Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.

Add enough water to reserved pineapple syrup to measure 1 cup.  Stir liquid, vinegar and sugar into skillet.  Heat to boiling, stirring constantly.  Stir in green pepper; heat to boiling.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer 2 minutes.

Blend water and 2 tablespoons cornstarch; stir into skillet.  Cook stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Stir in pineapple chunks, soy sauce, carrots and chicken; heat through.  Serve over rice.  4 servings
If you like shish-ka-bobs try these:

Hawaiian Chicken

3 whole chicken breasts, cut into 1” cubes

20 oz can pineapple chunks, reserve juice

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup soy sauce

¼ cup butter

green and red pepper chunks

Drain pineapple, reserving juice.  Boil reserved juice, 1 cup brown sugar and soy sauce for 5 minutes.  Stir in butter.  Pour over chicken.  Chill 1 hour.  Remove chicken.  Cook marinade until syrupy.  Skewer chicken, pineapple and pepper chunks.  Brush with syrup.  Broil turning and brushing until chicken is done, about 10-12 minutes.  Serves 4

These are 2 recipes that my family really likes and I hope yours will also!

Storing Food

I have been reading about the Food Saver for awhile and it came so highly recommended that I did extensive reasearch to make sure it would fit our needs.

Food Savers are not cheap and I did not want to waste the money on something I would not use. I wanted to make sure it did create a vaccuum seal on the bags as well as jars and canisters. After much deliberation and soul searching I decided to take the plunge.

This is the model I selected.



I liked the fact that it was upright instead of flat.

BLUEBERRY WALNUT BREAD

Today I wanted to share the absolute best blueberry recipe I have ever found.  I brought this to church and have been swamped with requests for it.

BLUEBERRY WALNUT BREAD

2 CUPS FRESH OR FROZEN BLUEBERRIES (I USED 2 CUPS)
1 ¾ CUPS WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR
2/3 CUPS HONEY GRANULES
1 ½ TEASPOONS BAKING POWDER
½ TEASPOON SALT
½ TEASPOON BAKING SODA
1 ORANGE
2 TABLESPOONS BUTTER
BOILING WATER
1 BEATEN EGG (I USED FLAX SEED)
1 CUP CHOPPED WALNUTS
¼ CUP WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR


THAW BLUEBERRIES, IF FROZEN; DRAIN. 

IN MIXING BOWL STIR TOGETHER THE 1 ¾ CUPS FLOUR, THE HONEY GRANULES, BAKING POWDER, SALT AND BAKING SODA. 

FINELY SHRED PEEL FROM ORANGE TO MEASURE 2 TEASPOONS. 

SQUEEZE JUICE FROM ORANGE INTO MEASURING CUP.  ADD BUTTER AND ENOUGH BOILING WATER TO MEASURE ¾ CUP LIQUID. 

ADD TO FLOUR MIXTURE IN BOWL; ADD BEATEN EGG AND ORANGE PEEL.  STIR JUST TILL DRY INGREDIENTS ARE MOISTENED.

IN SMALL BOWL TOSS TOGETHER BLUEBERRIES, CHOPPED NUTS AND THE ¼ CUP FLOUR. 

CAREFULLY STIR INTO THE BATTER. 

TURN BATTER INTO GREASED 8X4X2 LOAF PAN.  BAKE IN 350 OVEN FOR 55-60 MINUTES OR TILL WOODEN PICK INSERTED NEAR CENTER COMES OUT CLEAN. 

COOL IN PAN 10 MINUTES.  REMOVE FROM PAN; COOL THOROUGHLY ON WIRE RACK. 


ICING
½ CUP HONEY GRANULES
MILK


ADD JUST ENOUGH MILK TO MAKE A SPREADABLE CONSISTENCY AND MIX WELL. 

I CUT THE BREAD BEFORE ICING SO THE ICING WOULDN’T GET RUBBED OFF BY THE KNIFE WHEN I WAS SLICING IT.


I promise you will love this bread!!  Enjoy!!!

Sweet Smell of Spring

Living in the deep south we don't have too many really gorgeous days, but the last few days have been fantastic. The humidity is low, the sky is clear and blue, the weather is cool and everything is blooming. These are days when we can open the windows and let the fresh air blow through the house.

As I sit in my studio working today I can see the green all over the yard. I can hear the birds having a ball in the trees. But most of all I can smell the ligustrums, also called privet. . .

A Special Dinner

The church we are attending has dinner on the grounds every week. Each week we are sent an email with the theme for that week and everyone is to bring a meal relating to the theme.

A couple weeks ago the theme was quick-anything you could fix quickly or that could be eaten quickly. I was at a loss so I pulled out the recipes looking for ideas. Nothing looked especially good so I visited one of my favorite recipe sites-Taste of Home.

Essential Oils

We have a friend who is a very big user of essential oils.  We listened and considered but until my husband lost his job and we lost our insurance, we only thought about it.  This winter, when we started coming down with various sinus issues,  we decided it was time to try some essential oils.


Our friend recommended a book by Valerie Worwood called "The Complete Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy".

This book is really a handy tool.  It includes a list of oils for beginners and some common uses for the oils both singly and in combinations.

We have been amazed at the effectiveness of these oils.  We have used them in treating sinusitis, stiff muscles, headaches, stomach pain, and sore feet.  Unbelievably  the small amounts of oil used has proven effective in most of these instances.

Most of the information we came across on the internet calls for the use of a diffuser to disperse the oil into the air.  Diffusers are expensive, and as I said, my hubby is unemployed, so we looked for alternatives.  We found a warm steam vaporizer and have been using that.  It was under $20 and has proven very effective.  A diffuser would probably work better but for now we will stick with our vaporizer.

Essential oils have certainly worked wonders for us, and saved us a bundle in doctor's bills.  We sure are thankful our friend shared this info with us.

Wheat, Wheat and Wheat

Last week I tried my hand at making seitan, otherwise known as wheat meat.  Seitan is a protein made from wheat that is used in place of meat.  I had been reading about this for so long and just never got around to trying it.  I am happy to say it was a great success.

I have watched videos, read blogs and cookbooks on how to make seitan and by far the absolute best book is this one:

This book gives detailed instructions for making the seitan.  You begin with whole wheat flour and add water.  Then you knead it together and place in a colander under very slowly running water.  Squeezing the dough under the water rinses the starch and bran and leaves you with only the gluten.


By placing a bowl under the colander you are able to capture the water, starch and bran which can be used in other recipes.


The water can be used for cooking pasta, veggies, and rice or any other recipe.


The book gives a recipe for using the starch to make crackers.

English Muffins 101

I have never tried to make English Muffins before, but this recipe looked so easy, I just had to give it a try.  The results were fantastic.  My first surprise was that English Muffins are not baked-they are cooked on a griddle!!  How strange!  But they sure do taste great.

English Muffins

Baking Bread

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen this week and took the time to try a new bread recipe.  This new recipe has gotten lots of praise in my house.

Whole Wheat and White Bread

Homemade Pasta

I was able to pick up some durum wheat berries and have been anxious to use it to make pasta.  Finally I found the time to work on the pasta.

I got out the grinder and started the process.  First, I had to grind the durum wheat.

The next step is to pull out the pasta machine.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have been making our laundry detergent for over a year and cannot believe the savings. I use this recipe:

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar.  You can also use Zotes or Octagon bar soap.

1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda. 

The Crud of Winter

It seems like each year around this time our family is afflicted with the 'crud of winter'.  This crud involves sinus infections, coughs, headaches and sometimes fever.  We have tried every medicine under the sun, including prescriptions, and none of them work as quickly or effectively as a sinus sauna.

I came across this post which explains in detail how this works and wanted to share with you.  Believe me, this really works.  Using a coat was very helpful in capturing all the steam.

I had some dried peppermint from our garden but I found peppermint oil to be more effective.  Adding just a little eucalyptus oil also helped. 

If you are suffering from this winter affliction, give this a try it sure does work.

What is it?

My hubby went to check on the compost and found this:

As you can see he is sure these are alien spores.

A few days later we went out to check on these aliens and this is how they look now:

Anyone know what these are?  I hate to burst his bubble, but, alien spores, I don't think so!!  So please tell me what you think these might be.

Homemade, Sugar-Free Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls-Yum Yum

Nothing beats the smell of homemade cinnamon rolls, fresh from the oven.  Absolutely heavenly!!

A few months ago I came across a recipe for sugar-free cinnamon rolls and was surprised to find they were delicious!  These cinnamon rolls use honey granules instead of sugar. 

Your famly will not notice the difference in taste.

Now for the recipe:

Blueberries

My mother-in-law has 5 large blueberry bushes and every year she shares her abundance with us.  This year my freezer was full when I brought the berries home so I pulled out my favorite canning cookbook.


I wanted to put the berries up whole so I would be able to use them in any recipe in the future.  Sure enough there were instructions in the book on canning the berries whole.

I pulled out all the jars and got them washed up.

Then I got out

Canning Butter 101

A grocery store in our area recently put butter on sale for $1.39 a pound.  I had read an article about canning butter in a solar oven so I decided to give it a try.

We had purchased our Global Sun Oven a couple years ago.




I have cooked everything from hamburgers to beans to roast in my solar oven.  I have even baked biscuits in it but canning butter was a new one for me.


The solar oven uses the heat of the sun to cook/bake the food.  It saves electricity and does not heat up the house.  The heating is even so there is no hot spot.  It is easy to use and clean up is a snap-just wipe it out with a damp cloth.





When canning the butter I used half pint jars (each jar holds about half pound of butter).  I sterilized the jars and then packed the butter into the jar.  I added one marble

My New Toy-A Dehydrator

A few weeks ago I had a chance to attend a class on dehydrating.  Since we had produced an abundance of peppers and onions in our garden this summer I was very interested in this.

I had my eye on an Excalibur Deydrator and when I learned this was the item featured in the class I knew I wanted to attend.


I quickly became convinced that I had to have one of these and placed my order.


When my dehydrator arrived I was so excited.  I couldn't wait to try it out.  The Excalibur is great.  It has 9 trays which will hold lots of food.  The fan is in the back so the air is blown across the trays from the back to the front.  This keeps the flavors from mingling and it dries the food quicker.







Another item I saw demonstrated at the class I attended