Monthly Archives: February 2014

For Your Reading Pleasure…

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Welcome/Welcome Back–so good to see you here!

I’ve read so many interesting articles online this week and thought I’d share a few of them with you. The topics range from life in general, to parenting and learning–all of them I found to be positive and enriching. I hope you check out one or two– do let me know your thoughts if you do.

*Five Myths About Young People and Social Media—this is a rich, informative article I encourage all to read. Social media and the online world are here to stay, it’s time to make peace with it and understand where the kids are coming from.

*This Is What a Librarian Looks Like—even in this day of Internet and digital bookshelves, librarians are a valuable tool. This article not only includes a photo gallery of librarians with excellent quotes, it also acknowledges the value of librarians and the public library.

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*“I wanted them to be like children, playing outside, running and jumping and not sitting inside at a desk” –Gold medalist Jamie Anderson’s Mom, Lauren Anderson. I enjoyed this article most of all because it’s refreshing to read about parents who sidestep mainstream philosophies and forge a path with their children, a path that works for their family.

*”The first thing I can remember buying for myself, aside from candy, of course, was not a toy. It was a book.”– this article is basically an appreciation of loving to read and how integral reading is to life.

I hope you’ll find at least one of these links to be worth your time and of interest to you. As always, I’d love to hear from you– you can post here in the comments or join the conversation over on Facebook.

~

 

What are YOU Learning?

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I want to know what you are learning lately. You—not the kids. (Although I love hearing that, too!) What has sparked your interest in recent days?

What are you striving to learn to do?

What books are you reading?

What random facts have you looked up?

What websites are you browsing?

What hobbies are you spending time with?

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I’ll go first, how’s that? Lately I’m learning about Vikings. That’s right, Vikings. We started watching ‘Vikings’ on the History Channel which led to Google and all sorts of things Viking.

 

Every time we watch a show, we look up new things along the way. While the show itself is fictional with a wide creative license, there are many characters and details with a basis in history, providing perfect jumping off points for learning more details.

I’ve also learned how to make better biscuits and that I like–okay, LOVE–bread cheese. (more on that bread cheese thing later)

Your turn. Won’t you take a moment and tell about what you’ve learned lately or what you want to learn soon? (I’d love for you to comment here on the site or join the conversation over on Facebook!)

~

Biscuits Redux

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This long (L-O-N-G) winter, like all wintry seasons before it, lends itself to the craving of comfort foods—of beans and cornbread, of chicken and dumplin’s, biscuits and gravy, macaroni and cheese and on the list goes.

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One of my first cooking-from-scratch accomplishments was biscuits and gravy. We’ve been content with my rustic biscuits for several years now, the only complaint being that said biscuits are not the best for sandwiches because they fall apart. They’ve been so good otherwise, though, that my family has simply made do and enjoyed my biscuits—with gravy over them, with sausage and cheese, with honey…just making sure to have them on a plate with a fork handy.

Recently, I was skimming a post online and a biscuit recipe caught my attention. This is unusual because, as I said, we’ve been content with my biscuits. I read it through out of curiosity—the recipe was almost exactly like mine. When I got to the end, I thought hmmm, maybe I’ll try that next time.

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Yep, m’very own plate MMmmMM!

Twasn’t an ingredient, but a technique that had caught my eye. My method is to mix the dough together, dump it out on a floured surface and simply pat it into a rough shape and cut the biscuits.

This recipe’s method involved rolling out the dough, folding into thirds, lightly flouring each fold, repeating those steps again followed by a last roll out, then cutting the biscuits.

The post claimed flaky biscuits using this method. Since it changed nothing but the last step of my biscuit making, I figured I had nothing to lose and wondered what the difference would be.

Lo n behold, what happened is my delicious biscuits now hold together beautifully for any sandwich desired. WHOOT!

How do you make your biscuits, do tell? (comment here or join the conversation over on Facebook!)

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**this post is linked with BethFish Reads Weekend Cooking–check it out for great posts about cooking, from recipes to stories to cookbooks**