Catching Up

I can't believe so much time has passed since my last post here. It has been an expecially busy year or two since my husband retired. However, I want to try to post entries a little more regularly.


Finally - after over 40 years of baking and cooking, I have learned to make biscuits! I'm very proud of that fact since the results of my efforts were always hard as rocks. The instructions for most biscuit recipes tell you not to overmix the dough. With the help of my Bisquick Cookbook, I finally learned to ignore this bit of instruction. Now, I can finally make biscuits with ANY biscuit mix. I must say that my favorite biscuit mix is the Pioneer Brand. It costs a little more, but doesn't seem to have as much shortening in the mix and it definitely has less salt. The biscuits are lighter than the Bisquick biscuits. The sodium content in the ready-made biscuits in refrigerated cans is what led me to try the various biscuit mixes again. Also, the ready-made biscuits are more expensive than if you make them yourself. Anyway, biscuits are a nice, simple accompaniment for the Senate Bean Soup recipe.


Another think this cook has finally learned is the care of cast-iron cookware. I shied away from it because it is so heavy, but I've become tired of always replacing non-stick cookware every few years. Even the ones with lifetime warranties lose their non-stick properties after a while and who has the time to ship the pan to be repaired or replaced? When you need a pan or pot, you need it right away - especially a skillet. After reading all the advice for the care of cast-iron cookware online, I've finally settled on using a paste of coarse salt to clean my skillet every so often when it appears that it is developing rust or brown spots. In between these cleaning sessions, I just rinse it well with the hottest water, wipe it with a cloth and towel and then rub about a tablespoon of oil on the cooking surface. It's funny that when I was growing up, I remember washing my mother's cast-iron skillet with soap and water, but not treating it with oil. It never seemed to need seasoning. When discussing this with my mother, she said that she always used detergent, also, and never had any problem with her skillet rusting.