Biscuit Update III

    I made biscuits this past evening using liquid bacon grease.  I wanted to try this method as this was the way my mother made biscuits on a daily basis when she lived with her grandparents in Arkansas.  I wasn't real happy with how they turned out, but I'm certain that was more a matter of operator error than a problem with the technique.  Since she had no exact recipe to give me I should have waited until she was here to make helpful suggestions as to amounts.  I did learn one important thing.  When liquid bacon grease is used it seems that a little grease goes a long way.  I had difficulty mixing the dough because the flour wouldn't absorb the buttermilk as well as it normally would have if I had used chilled butter or lard. In order to get the dough to the point where I could use it I had to add more flour, more baking soda, and more buttermilk.  Normally I use 1/2 cup of chilled butter, lard, or shortening.  I suspect that with liquid bacon grease, 1/4 cup would be more than enough.

Rather rough looking, but reasonably fluffy

    I ended up making drop biscuits as the dough was way too wet to roll so I could cut out the biscuits as I normally would do.  That was okay since Mom never rolled out her biscuits either.  The biscuits were kind of rough looking, but they were reasonably fluffy.  Also, I forgot the salt.  I normally use about half of the salt that my recipe calls for.  I like low salt, but I can't say that I care for no salt. This was definitely a step backward from my recent results. Fortunately the chickens are less discriminating about the level of salt in their biscuits so they won't go to waste. I will give this method another try with a smaller amount of liquid bacon grease. I'm thinking 1/4 cup would be more than adequate.  .

      Linda finally got home last night from visiting relatives.  We celebrated by playing scrabble as we enjoyed some coconut cream pudding. The pudding was the leftover filling from a coconut cream pie I made for one of the boy scouts. Linda was very happy with the way the garden looks out front. I was a little concerned she might come down with a  case of buyer's remorse regarding the front yard garden.

Coconut Cream Pudding

    I guess it is officially summer now that my water lily has bloomed.  I was also able to get a photo of our elusive gold fish that lives among the water lilies.  I put quite a few feeder gold fish into my water garden last year and this is the only survivor. He lasted through the winter in the water garden. It was probably the gold fish equivalent of the Donner party.  I'm accepting suggestions for a name for the gold fish. I'd like to put some more fish in this year, but I've been waiting for an opportunity to take one of the grand kids to the pet store.

Gold fish hiding under a lily pad

Summer is here