Friday, October 28, 2011

pomegranates

We have lots of pomegranates we're picking now off our bush. They'll start to crack, and even crack open when they're ready to pick. I've picked up about 2 1/2 gallons of pecans. We take them to a man who has a machine to crack them at 30 cents a pound. Sure beats dragging the skin off your fingers to shell them. Then I freeze them. The taste of fresh is so much better than the small bags of very expensive pecans at the grocery. Makes the cooked product so much better. Pecan pie, cakes with pecans, candy with pecans. I always make tons of goodies at Christmas, starting right after Thanksgiving and refrigerating them. I usually make a Japanese Fruitcake, an old-time cake that our mothers and grandmothers in the South made at Christmas. The longer it sits the more moist and better it is. We prepare baskets of the Christmas goodies to take to our neighbors. Christmas is a fun time with the whole family gathering in, eating, and eating again. We have a white elephant gift exchange each year that's always a lot of fun, with some begging and pleading for somebody to take the gosh-awful gift they just opened and let them get something else. I go to Home Depot or Lowe's the day after Thanksgiving and get potted poinsettias to decorate the house. They're really cheap that one day only, so I'm always there. An easy and inexpensive way to decorate. I do have a small Christmas tree and other decorations too though.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A Battle of Wits

The squirrels and I are having a battle of wits. I have a pecan tree in the yard with lots of pecans each year, but it's amazing how many the squirrels can carry off. So I've wrapped the base of the trunk with aluminum flashing hoping their little claws can't hold on to climb the tree. Several fence posts are near the overhang of the tree so I nailed pie tins (upside down) to each post so they couldn't climb and jump into the tree from the posts. I then sprayed silicone spray on the flashing and pans to make it slick. If a squirrel gets up that tree I want to watch him to see how he does it. It's really aggravating to see the fruit and nuts carted off by various animals around here.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Granny's Made-From-Scratch Biscuits

Greetings from Laid Back Farm Today I'm posting a video of the "how to" of Granny's (that would be me) Made-From-Scratch Biscuits. See the youtube link at the bottom of this post. This is the same biscuit recipe I've been making for my own family for nearly 54 years. So many are intimidated by the prospect of making biscuits but it really is easy, as you will see in the video, and only takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. I hope you'll find the video helpful and please message me back and let me know how your own biscuits turned out. I'll also be glad to answer any additional questions you may have about the recipe. In this tough economy, you'll find homemade biscuits to be a delicious addition to your meals but also a very economical way to feed your family. I look forward to hearing from you. ENJOY!!

Granny's Homemade Biscuits The first thing in any cooking is to wash your hands thoroughly. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. The oven must be preheated for the biscuits to bake correctly. (I don't measure anything, but I did measure this so you'd have directions and measurements) Place 2 1/2 cups flour in a medium bowl - White Lily flour (no other brand except White Lily). Measure one cup Crisco and add to flour already in bowl. Pour 1 1/2 - 2 cups buttermilk in bowl. (Add more or less buttermilk until consistency is right). Mix the dough well with hands until it can be poured out on floured pastry sheet. Sprinkle flour over mound of biscuit dough. Flour hands and knead dough from bottom and up over till it will spread out and flatten with hands. (Doesn't take a lot of kneading). Use a biscuit cutter dipped in flour before each use. Place biscuits in pan. I have a very old pan with a wonderful sheen on it that doesn't have to be greased because it's seasoned well. You may want to grease the pan you use. You'll have several pieces of dough left over from cutting. Either roll together and cut more biscuits or pick up pieces and form into a biscuit and put onto pan. I usually have two larger-sized biscuits from this. Grandaddy likes to get these larger biscuits. Your biscuits are ready to go in the pre-heated 500 degree oven and back for 12-15 minutes. Don't overbake. While the biscuits are cooking I cut up pieces of cheese to put in the biscuits immediately when they come from the oven. I butter some biscuits to eat with honey that comes from a neighbor's hives. We had bees for several years but the mite that has taken out many hives in Georgia got in ours and they were gone. I also have fig preserves and muscadine jelly, blueberry jam. When the biscuits are removed from the pan I simply wipe down the pan with a wet dishrag and it's ready to go again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqhGvQV8GxM