What to do with those leftover Biscuits

Ok so here is a few quick shots showing you a way to enjoy those leftover biscuits that your hopefully trying to make. Nothing is wasted! this was a rule in my father and mothers house growing up. This is something my mother has done my whole life (when there was leftovers) LOL which wasn't often unless she intentionally made to many. I hope you'll try it and enjoy

In the morning just slice your biscuits across the middle just like I have done here

Slather butter or margarine on them, as heavy or lightly as you like.

Put them butter side down on your grill or skillet that you use for frying and toast them until they turn a golden brown. You only do it on one side because that keeps them soft on the upside. I like mine a little darker than most as like I do with my toast too.

And there you go! toasted biscuits! You can eat them just like this or you can put jelly on them or even a little honey or syrup. I like mine plain just like they come off the grill. I am sitting here enjoying these as I am writing on my blog with my cup of coffee. One of life's small pleasures. Enjoy!

BOILED RICE

Do you eat white rice a lot? or do you just eat in occasionally and find it to be a sticky food? well I have never in my life served sticky rice. We have always cooked our rice by boiling ours and draining and rinsing it. If you prepare it this way you will have perfect, non-sticky rice every time. I have attached some pictures to show you steps to perfect rice. Rice is something that can be eaten many ways, you can put just about anything over it. There are at least 10 different types of gravy, we used to eat rice with fried eggs mashed up into it. You can eat it with just a little butter, salt and pepper or some people like it with sugar and a little milk. However you like to eat it when cooked correctly.....it's superb.

Start by filling a pot with water, this particular pot is a 3 Quart pot that I use to cook my rice. I can cook 1 1/2 cups or 2 cups and its really full by the time the rice is done. When the water starts to boil add salt (as the rice directions say) to the water then pour you rice in while stirring. This will keep the rice from sticking together and lumping. Cook rice for 20 minutes. All white rice cooks in 20 minutes so don't over cook or it starts to fall apart. I like long grain white rice and have found it to be the best flavor.

After you pour the rice in the pot turn the flame down to medium so that it won't boil over or the water dehydrate before the rice is done. If you do start to lose water just add a little hot tap water in to make the sure the rice doesn't dry out. Also do not put a lid on the pot, this will make it boil over for sure.  As the rice boils you will see white foam on the top. This the starch being boiled out, this is also what makes your rice sticky. Take a large spoon and simply scoop it off into a bowl or cup you can keep next to the stove while your cooking it.

After 20 minutes pour the rice in to a colander that you have in the sink and start rinsing it with the hottest water available. You will need to rinse it for 3 or 4 minutes to make sure you get all the leftover starch out. Make sure to run the water over all the top area of the colander.

Then just set your colander over the pot as I have here and let it drain for a couple minutes.

You now have a great batch of white rice to use for whatever you desire. Enjoy!!

Biscuits Just like Big Mama made

My father is one of ten children and biscuits were a staple in their home. My Big Mama made them all by hand, not by rolling them out and trying to make layers. I think the whole layer thing is something the upper society found to be important, but not the families who lived on farms and lived off of what they grew or butchered themselves. I don't think when you have ten children, a husband and probably all the workers on the farm to feed that you cared if you had flaky layered biscuits. This is just my own opinion. My Big Mama taught six daughters and several daughter in-laws to make biscuits. I know I learned from my Mom who was taught by her and my Aunt Dollis. My Aunt Dollis is amazing and can make her biscuits right out of the tin of flour (something I never conquered). It amazes me to watch her make them! I will have to try and make a video to show you, she makes a bowl in the flour and adds her shortening and milk to it then pulls in the flour as she needs it. Never even messes her tin of flour with lumps!  Anyways back to my theory.... I sincerely can't imagine my grandmother making as many biscuits as she had to by rolling them out over and over to make the layers. It would have taken three times longer to feed everyone! Well with that said lets get to the biscuits and a couple of things to know. First, Self Rising Flour people! it is a god send, why buy all purpose then have to add your baking powder, salt and baking soda? Self Rising comes with everything already in it! how much easier can it be? Two, less shortening and more milk make fluffy biscuits. These are the kind when your want biscuit and jelly or biscuit and syrup or whatever you might like fluffier biscuits for. Three, more grease and less milk make flatter crispier biscuits that are better for gravies so they don't get to soggy and fall apart or if you just don't like all the fluffy center (like my dad who used to pick it out and give it to me) LOL. I have never in 30 years since I learned to make biscuits measured anything! but I am going to try and figure it out for all of you so you can have a starting point. I have also never sifted my flower? never had biscuits that weren't good for lack of doing it either. I just am trying to point out that I don't think basic southern food had all the formality to it that a lot of the cooking shows do. Yeah you might make a couple of batches that aren't exactly what you want but they will be eatable and you will also learn what you put more of or less of as you go. All my biscuits are hand rolled and tucked and put on a cast iron flat skillet. Cast iron...the basic necessity. If you don't have any cast iron, well then you need to get you at least a few basic ones. Especially for biscuits, cornbread, and milk gravy (what most call country gravy out here).

Ok well lets get to making biscuits now. There are only three (3) ingredients to them.

Gold Medal Self Rising Flour
Crisco Shortening (I have tried other brands with bad results)
Milk ( I use whole or 2%)

Thats it! Very simple ingredients

 You will also need a large Cast iron Skillet (Flat) or a large cookie sheet. I would use a heavier cookie sheet to ensure they don't burn on the bottom before the inside gets done.

Put your oven on 400 degrees for gas or 375 for electric ovens. The rack needs to be about one up from the middle rack. This will put the heat in the top without hopefully burning the bottoms first. 

You will need to put about a cup of flour on a plate next to your bowl

Albondigas

This is one of my favorite soups! it's a very hearty soup and very filling when served with quesadillas. The one thing you will need is a bottle of Tapatio or Valentina to put on top!

This recipe will feed 6 and you can adjust as you like with the vegetables. This Recipe is from my mother inlaw in Aguascalientes, Mx. Different parts of mexico make things completely different. If you look at the second picture above you will notice that all the veggies are seperate from the meat. Many recipes are different from state to state and even house to house.



Here is a list of all the ingredients you will need.

Hamburger (80/20 works the best) about 2 lbs

1 Medium Onion (finely chopped)

1 Medium size Carrot (shredded)

1 Medium Potatoe (peeled and shredded)

1 Cup of Long Grain White Rice

1 Large Roma Tomatoe (diced small)

1 Handfull or so of Cilantro leaves (finely chopped)

1 Large Egg

1 Can of Tomatoe Sauce (add 2 tablespoons to the meat mixture) add the rest of the can to pot of water

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

1 Tsp Garlic powder (not Garlic SALT)

You will need to use a large stock pot to start the water heating up, adding a little salt to the water. I use a 11 Quart pot, filling it with water only about 1/2 way to make sure you have enough room for the meatballs when you start dropping them in.

Mix all the ingredients into a large bowl. Mix well with your hands to make sure all is incorporated completely.  When your water is hot and beginning to boil, turn the burner down to a simmer. This will prevent your meatballs from being torn apart by the boiling water. Start making 2 inch meatballs rolling them in your hands well to make sure they stay together dropping them one by one into the pot as you make them. When you have finished the last meatball you will notice some starting to float to the top, this is normal and eventually they will all be at the top. Don't stir them at all, the water boiling is enough to keep them moving around. Check your water to make sure you have enough adding some HOT water if you need more. A deep pot tends to work best for this recipe. Let the soup cook for at least twenty minutes to make sure your meat is done. Rice also takes 20 minutes to cook. Some of the rice will break loose and be floating, this is all normal. While they are cooking you may see grease from the meat on the top, just simply scoop this out with a spoon. When done carefully remove meatballs, cover with juice and enjoy. I always make quesadillas to go along with it but you can make bread or tortillas chips if you like.

After your first time making this you can adjust things to fit your likings, add jalepeños if you like or less of something that you don't like. I hope you try it and find it to be as yummy as I do!

My Goal in the Blog is....

I want to share the love of Southern and Mexican food with anyone out there who wants to try food that maybe isn't always the healthiest but is ALWAYS good. I want people to prepare these foods and enjoy the taste, the simplicity of them. To know and understand how to make things from basic ingredients. If there is anyone who knows how to make something from nothing, it would be mexican people and southern people. Both though very different in their tastes, they both can make something from what little  is available to them. I am not talking about right now, I am talking about during the depression and back when people survived on what they raise on their own farms. Back when if you didn't grow it yourself or trade something you have for what you need you just didn't get it. When people traveled from the east to the west they carried basics like flour, cornmeal, salt, bacon,and beans. They towed cows along so they were able to have milk, make butter. There is alot of food that can be made from just these simple ingredients.

No I am not trying to be like Paula Dean! haha though I do love alot of what she makes she doesn't always show southern food in the most basic sense. My mother cooked breakfast for us every single morning of my childhood. Sometimes biscuits and gravy, sometime oatmeal or biscuit and syrup but always something. There were alot of things we ate in the morning that isn't a normal breakfast food. Tomatoe gravy is one of them, or peanut butter and syrup (one of my personal favorites). I will post all of the foods that I ate as a child and alot of the foods I now prepare for my family that I have learned from my husband and Suegra (mother inlaw).

Oh where to start?! so many recipes and so much I want to tell you about the cultures of southern and of mexican food. Well I think I will start with the mexican food because I think its becoming so popular in our little town of Red Bluff and I think if more people knew what stuff was they would be a little braver and try something different. Ok so how many of you have seen the vendors sitting in front of the catholic church? or have you seen them pushing carts around town? These vendors are selling foods like Alotes (corn) and fruit cups or raspas (snowcones). This stuff is fantastic! if you ever ate the corn on a stick... you would be hooked. Its a ear of corn with mayonaise, queso seco (dried cheese which is their version of parmesan) and chili. The fruit in a cup is cubes of pineapple, watermelon, cantelope, cucumber, mango, and jicama. Their snowcones are basically the same but with some different flavors they put on them. They have the normal strawberry, raspberry, bubblegum but they also have rompope which is very sweet and rich.

And when you buy something to drink in mexico, you don't get it in a cup like up here. They put it in a plastic bag, pop a straw into it and hand it to you. Very simple and very easy to throw away.

Well I am going to end it here and start tomorrow with my first recipe for you. I think I will post my recipe for albondigas since I had such a great response to my picture of them on my facebook. It's the perfect weather for them right now and very easy and quick to make.

Please take a minute and let me know if you have any questions about anything I post on here or if there is something you want me to post the recipe for. Have a great day!