The Biscuit Chronicles: Attempt 4 aka Biscuit Fail

Well, it was bound to happen at some point. And yesterday morning was as good a morning for it than any. I buckled under the tremendous pressure of the biscuit. I buckled, and I pulled out the Bisquick. Yes, sad but true. Bisquick's the go-to, get 'er done baking mix for complicated things like pancakes and dumplings, and I have used it several times before for making biscuits. I'd throw some milk in with the mix and shazam! Instant biscuit. But this was all before I changed my ways...long before the biscuit chronicles and back in the Age of the Canned Biscuit.

The title says it all. Literally.

But the saddest thing about this, Attempt 4 of the Biscuit Chronicles, was the fact that I couldn't even seem to make Bisquick biscuit right. I read on the box that I was supposed to roll out the dough to a 1/2 inch thick, and to me a 1/2 inch is apparently more like a 1/4 inch....and the resulting biscuit was very hard and flat. But hey, with cooking there are successes and failures and cop-outs. And this was definitely those last two. 

In other news, I had a pretty nice Saturday. Mama, me, and my husband went shopping for an upcoming trip to the North Georgia mountains next weekend. We stocked up on all of the "essentials," which mainly consisted of food; we're food-centric people. After the shopping expedition, we came back to my house where I prepared Baked Ziti for dinner. It's really rare that I get to cook for Mama (she usually does the cooking for get-togethers and such), and it was a nice treat to cook her dinner...a little payback I'd say for all the years she's spent cooking for me. And the best part? She seemed to enjoy the meal. I guess all daughters seek approval and validation from their mothers, but her enjoyment of the meal felt especially wonderful considering what a great cook she is. Every "yum" and "Katie, this is really good" was a feather in my cooking cap...definitely needed after the Bisquick Fail from the morning. 

Baked Ziti in my new Rachel Ray cookware. Can I get a "yum-o"?

It occurs to me that I'm always looking to my mother for reassurance and praise, and she's usually there to give it to me along with a hug and a "Go get 'em!", or otherwise to say something like, "Katie, don't you need to wax your eyebrows?! There's supposed to be two of them." Which is also very helpful. As much as we might fight against it growing up, most girls (women) eventually aspire to be their mothers. We aspire to be strong and loving and unselfish and kind. I hope that one day I'm even half the mother mine is, even if I am one who makes biscuits out of a box or a can every now and then. Heck, even Mama did it, too. 

What about you guys? Any pearls of wisdom you can share that your mothers used to share with you? Or the better question may be, have you become your mother?

PS - Can't leave my Daddy out. I'm a Daddy's girl to the bone. I was lucky to be blessed with two awesome parents.

PPS - Just in case you were wondering, a picture of the Bisquick Fail:

The one in the back corner is the giant biscuit from Hell. It tried to eat all the smaller biscuits. I saved them.

Chili, Really?

It's good to be open to new experiences, and e-mealz has definitely been a new experience. We've both had to adjust a little. I've been adjusting to the fact that I can't "opt-out" of meals anymore just because I'm lazy, and Jeremy's been adjusting to things like zucchini in chili. Although I have to admit, even I was a little weirded out by the zucchini in chili.

White bean chili was our first "e-meal." Because of the addition of things like chicken broth and zucchini, and the subtraction of things like tomatoes, I would classify this "chili" as more of a taco soup kind of thing. It wasn't thick, like I've come to expect from chili, and it was really missing a chili type of flavor. But it was good, despite the fact that it was definitely misnamed.

Tuesday night's meal Baked Ziti was even better and definitely has been my favorite meal so far. But what's better than the meals of e-mealz is the simplicity of coming home and already knowing what you're going to cook for supper. I would easily pay ten times the amount I'm paying now for that simple peace of mind. I don't have to think all day, "what're we going to have for dinner?" or "do I have everything I'm going to need for dinner?" I know before I even get home what we're going to have, and I know that we have every ingredient we need for it...well, almost every ingredient.

Friday's meal, Ginger Chicken with sauteed Bak Choy (which makes me giggle every time I say it...bak bak BAK choy!), called for balsamic vinegar, an item I missed on my shopping list because it was listed under the "staples" at the bottom of the list. I guess most households keep things like balsamic vinegar around. Not us, we're not civilized like that. So, needless to say, the uncivilized Rosses had no balsamic vinegar to be found, and because I had bought two weeks worth of my e-mealz groceries, I was not stepping foot inside a grocery store...no way, no how.

The time had come to improvise, and as previously stated, this is one of my favorite things to do when cooking. My improvisation this time included putting soy sauce, white vinegar, lime juice, and brown sugar in the sauce for my "ginger chicken," and surprisingly, it turned out pretty fine. The Bak Choy on the other hand...is obviously meant for the civilized. I probably cut it all wrong or spent too much time making fun of its name or something silly like that, but the Bak Choy was not my friend. It was tough and chewy and nearly choked me a couple of times when I was trying to eat it. I'm sure this all boils down to something I did wrong, but I'm really laying blame on the vegetable and am going to seek retribution by never buying or eating Bak Choy again...take that you crisp and leafy lettuce you!

Bak Choy and "CHILI" (complete with air quotes and much sarcasm when you say it aloud) aside, the first week of e-mealz has been a relatively successful one. We'll see how long that lasts.