Cooking with dried beans

Cooking Dried Beans in the Slow Cooker

Day 292.
It's day 292. And I finally have cracked the cooking-with-dried vs. cooking-with-canned-beans code.
Why did it take me 292 days?
Sheer laziness. I have no other reason.
1 bag of dried black beans costs $1.89 at the fancy-pants grocery store, and it costs $0.89 at our local produce stand.
1 can of organic black beans at Trader Joe's costs $0.99.
1 dried bag of black beans (16 oz) = 3 cans (15 oz each).
Which means even if you buy over-priced dried black beans you will save some money making them at home yourself.
The Ingredients.

--bag of black beans (or other beans. but remember that kidney beans have that freaky toxin.)
--water
--crockpot (4 quarts and up)
The Directions.
Pour the entire bag of dried beans into a colander and rinse under cold water. If you see any beans that have broken in half, or skin that floats to the surface, get rid of it. Also pick out any beans that look shriveled and gross.
Dump all the beans into your crockpot. Add enough water to cover all the beans and an additional 2 inches.
Cover. Do not turn on. Let the beans soak for at least 6 hours, or overnight. If you live in a very warm area, and the crockpot won't be in a room that is climate-controlled, put the stoneware in the fridge. You don't want bacteria to have the opportunity to grow.
In the morning, dump the water, and rinse your beans. The water will be bean-colored.
Put the beans back into your crockpot and cover with enough fresh water to completely cover the beans with an extra 2-3 inches.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
The beans are done when they are bite-tender. Don't worry if the water hasn't all absorbed. You're going to dump it, anyway.
Drain the beans.
When cool, put 1 2/3 cups of beans into storage containers or freezer bags (you're adding this amount because you aren't adding filler-liquid like the cans have). The beans will store nicely in the refrigerator for 1 week, or in the freezer for 6 months.
Use as you would canned beans in your favorite recipe.
The Verdict.
I like knowing what is in my food. I like the idea that we can save money and reduce consumption by using dried beans.
This takes a while. When I do this again, I'm going to get quite a few bags of beans and do them all at once in a few crockpots. The kids liked picking through the beans to weed out the undesirables, and they will munch on black beans (and garbanzo and pinto and kidney) for a snack, which makes me happy.
I've found a chart that breaks down the energy consumption of kitchen appliances:
(First Energy Corp., Ohio--scroll to page 5)
it states that a crockpot costs 2 cents an hour to run. Which means that even with adding the cooking time/cost to the beans, it's cost-effective to cook your own.

Make It Fast, Cook It Slow

by Stephanie O’Dea

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Posted by Stephanie O'Dea at 7:02 AM

I am featuring post from another blog.  My husband found it, in his effectiveness to prove to me, why my chili is a failure.  So here it is.

Cakes for 100 and More! Strawberry Shortcake!

As finding my best way to serve God in Our Awanas church program, I figured out, I should make desert.  So each week I make desert that will need to serve 100 or more people (kids and adults).  Now the thing to realize is there is a budget.  Ready!  Here it is!  I have got about $20 to let God do miracles with!  So I am going to share my recipes with you on how I get it done!

So I just served strawberry cake last night and I thought we were going to have to roll the adults out of the room.  Everyone was getting their cake to their seats and then going for their dinner.  Wow!  It really gave me the sense that, yep, God is using me and this is what it is for!  So this cake is a hit!  This is a picture of a test version I did before I made the big pans of it!

RECIPE! for 100!

4 boxes of Yellow Cake mix ($4)

1 jar apple sauce ($2)

1 dozen eggs ($1.50)

4 boxes Strawberry Jello ($4)

4 tubs of white icing ($5)

1 Large bag of frozen strawberries from walmart ($6)

1 cup sugar (on hand)

So you make the cake via the directions, except substitute the oil with applesauce.  When the toothpick comes out clean, pull it out and poke holes all over the cake.  Make Jello as directed and immediately pour over hot cake.  Let cake cool to room temperature (you can skip this, if you are in a time crunch, just becareful not to crumble the cake when you spread icing.)

Spread icing all over the top.  Defrost strawberries and smash them up, so they are crushed.   Add sugar to the strawberries to make a sauce with a juice.  Spoon strawberries all over the top.  Put in fridge until you serve it.

 

When I make this, I am using 2 13 by 24 inch pans.  I am also an industrial oven. 

I hope you enjoy.  I am going to put the other recipes I come up with.  But you can see, I can make that $20 go far.  I have a mud cake and a pineapple upside down cake recipe.  If you have any box cake recipes to share, please send them my way.  I need 2 more recipes.

~trish

Bulk Produce

  

I might be guilty of having a love for buying in bulk.  There is just something about buying 100 tomatoes that gets me giddy!

 

So the other day I went to the farmers market.  It is like a whole other world there. You can buy from market stands.

Out of the back of trucks

you can buy in quantities of one thing or 1 box.  So I got excited and went shopping.  A little too much.  Thankfully, I only had one kid, I had to rearrange the seating.

I bought 2 boxes of corn, 5 boxes of tomatoes, 1 box of peppers and 5 watermelons for about $60.  Let me say!  WHAT WAS I THINKING!  Way too much to put away.  I ended up putting up the corn and 1 box of tomatoes.  The rest was handed out and I did buy 2 boxes of it for my MIL and mom and split the peppers.  BUT still, I got 4 kids and one on a ninni!  How did I think that I could put food up.

 

Oh but I loved the smell of those peppers and tomatoes. YUM!  But at the end of the week, it made me realize that I needed to keep things simpler.  SO no clothe diapers, no homemade wipes, no bulk preparation.  I am going as easy as possible and maintaining health.  So SAM’s Club here I come.

~trish

PS I think I am going back, I love the freshness.  Maybe neck week.

Keeping the grocery bill LOW?

Scratch, Scratch, Scratch.  No I do not have an itch!  The easiest way to keep the bills low is to only buy the staples and make things from scratch.  This is a picture of my chicken pot pie.  The biscuits are  another round I made from scratch.  I froze the rest, so that they will be convenient later, for biscuits and honey.

Now I love couponing, but after a couple of months I remember, all I am really buying is a bunch of processed food.  Remember those packages of short bread cookies I got for $1 a package, still have half of them.  I do not really even like eating them, but I am in major calorie intake mood with nursing.  So couponing is a luxury, since I spend more and on things I do not NEED.

So I have 2 major fundamentals when it comes to shopping for food: 1. Cook from Scratch and 2. Buy in bulk on the big items.

I am always encouraged when I check out other families who are keeping their grocery bill down.  I read 2 articles this evening that made me want to share this with you, the first at  life in a shoe and the second at frugalhacks.com

I realize there are a lot of other things I do that help.

1. Soda is a luxury item.  When I buy it, it is for the sole enjoyment of my husband and me. So it is generic root beer and a diet soda.  The children will have a treat of root beer, once in a while (like once a month).  Why? Soda is yummy!  You can drink and drink and never be satisfied.  I can gulp water and be satisfied, I can go through 4 cans of soda and still not have my thirst quenched.
2. Buy excessive amounts of meat when it is on sale at an unbelievable price.  Stock up!
3. Control on the snacks.  Now our one outlet on snacks is the little snack cakes and the powder donut bags.  Why? because I can get them on the super cheap at the day old bread store.  Just the other day, our store had buy 10 bags of donuts for $3.  That is unheard of as a price, so I bought 10 and froze them.  I will buy the boxed snack packs for less than a dollar. (I do buy generic oreos, this is my husbands weakness.  And he only eats 3-4 cookies each night with his glass of milk)
4. Milk is costly, never waste great fresh milk to cook with, use dry.
5. Use what you buy!

 

Now one thing that was listed that I have not given much thought about was buying in bulk produce in season.  I buy in bulk to can, but did not think to buy in bulk for fresh consumption.  Mostly because I am wishy washy on what I feel like eating fresh.  Now we are blessed in this part of Florida, because we have a lot of large volume farmers markets.  I mean where they have nothing but a box truck full of green peppers only.  I like the idea of eating what is in season and cheap.  My fear is, it is a 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive to get there and would my small children be able to keep up with the amount of food I would get from a box of each and only having 2 things.

One way I could work around this, would be to get a couple of families to get in as a co-op and make food boxes every 2-3 weeks. Or instead can/ freeze my left-overs. So I will think about this a bit more and figure out how to incorporate it into my life.

 

Good luck saving.  I keep thinking about this couple I met, while I was still fresh in college doing an internship.  Denny and Pat, senior volunteers, who lived by and constantly chatted the same slogan every day, “Waste not, Want not”. Ten plus years later, this slogan resonates in every part of my life. And grows to take over other parts.  Funny is that this seed was planted for ten years before it ever took root.

~trish

OAMC June Cooking Event

 

Monday

1. Prepped Tuna casserole, minus noodles and froze.
2. Bought ingredients at Walmart
3. Made myself crazy by showing up at Sams 3 minutes after they closed
4. Had pitty party in parking lot, went to Joanns to make list of patterns I want for the big sale on friday as a since of therapy.

 

Tuesday

1. Buy the remaining ingredients at Sam’s.
2. Found the source of the mysterious smell in the Van.
3. Pre-warned the Manager of JoAnns that I will be there when the doors open on friday with all 4 kids.  (He is the new manager, I figured the least I can do is prepare him.)
4. Cut onions
5. Cook ground beef.
6. Slice beef roast (I bought stew meat instead, Sams stew meat is all the cut offs from the steaks and is high quality) and brown.

Wednesday

1. Boil chicken, cool, debone, bag meat up.  Save broth.

Thursday

1. Make pasta sauce.
2. Chop celery and slice mushrooms.
3. Make and freeze beef stroganoff
4. Make Beef tips and Freeze.

Friday

1. Soak beans
2. Hit the Memorial Sale at JoAnns for $1/yd fabric, follow with library,
3. Undercook the beans.
4. Make and freeze Creamy Chicken
5. Make and Freeze Jambalaya
6. Make and freeze Red beans and Rice

By the end of the weekend everything was finished.  I had some distractions that kept me off task, I provided you with them to show you that it really isn’t a daunting task.  I may have some attention problems right now.

I ended up with 29 meals in the freezer.  I skipped the tuna patties, because I took too long to get to the rest of the tuna.  I feared for the safety of it.  Every night that I prepped the meals, I pulled a bit a side for dinner that night, so I really got 45 extra meals on top of the ones in the freezer.

I skipped all the pasta and rice.  I am going to make the rice and pasta the day of, to save time prepping them and to save room in the freezer.  Some things I did not mix well.  Like the bean recipes, I divided the beans out the day before and had them in the zip lock bags and then the next day I mixed the remaining ingredients and added them in after the fact.

Things to consider on the lazy lasagna and cheeseburger pasta.  Do not make your arms hurt, cut the the velveeda and cream cheese up and put them at the bottom of the ziplock.  Then mix remaining ingredients and pour on top.  My arms are killing me.  And add the shredded cheese last when mixing.  It is very difficult to mix shredded cheese when you multiplied the recipe by 4.

Another Note about my recipes.  The creamy Chicken can use a little something.  I figured it would be a meal requiring sides, I think it needs vegetables in it.  Over the next few times I make it, I will figure out what to add.

Now my future bulk cooking will not be this intense.  I just had to get caught up from not bulking for a while.  After next week (when I get paid again), I plan to bulk cook 1-2 meals each week.  My thought is if I am putting in 6-7 meals into the freezer each week than I should always have 30 meals in the freezer.  Than I will not have another hard wallet hit, like this week.  I think I am going to have to get a payday loan from my husband, I might be short by about $10, $45 if I have to get diapers.  (On that side note, I better get my laundry caught up, to clothe diaper).

Email me with any questions you have. If you bulk cook, link me to your blog.  This post took me all week to write.  I am excited to be done cooking and start sewing.  I got a new skirt pattern and wonderful $1 yard fabric to use.

~trish

Good Morning Breakfast

Is this not the cutest set of eyes to make breakfast for? 

 

I just wanted to share our morning breakfast table with you.  This was breakfast of eggs, grits, and sausage and Orange Juice from the freezer section.  My husband makes fun of me for getting them to eat grits, especially since I was a grit hater growing up.  I am not sure why my dad never gave them to me with butter and american cheese on a plate with fried catfish? This was all it took to be a grit lover.  The simple truth, why my kids are asked to eat them, they are cheap and easy.

I just really wanted to touch base with you because I am not done cooking yet.  It is not because it is a long process, I just never want to get started.  I start about the time I should be preparing dinner and then I will do 2 different meals in that time and bag them up.  I really need to get motivated and finish before my cooked food goes bad.

Alright, I am off to cook.

~trish

June 2010 Bulk Cooking Menu

This took me a bit of time to get together.  Like I said before, planning is key!  First I came up with my meals and the recipes.  I have a list below that show what I am making, how many it serves and the total number of meals I am making of it.  To make things easier, I linked the recipes for you.  Some I had to type out and post, some I changed the recipe from how I would make it to one that was already on the web.  For some of you, you may have never thought about cooking in bulk like this before, so I want to make it as easy as possible to follow along.
Menu List

Chicken	Servings	# of Meals
Creamy Chicken Casserole	6	2
Chicken Pot Pie	6	2
Chicken and Sausage cassoulet		2
Jambalaya	8	2
Ground beef
Lazy Lasagna	6	4
Cheeseburger Pasta	6	4
Tuna
Tuna Casserole		3
Tuna Cakes		2
Sausage
Red beans and Rice	6	2
Stuffed Shells	6	2
Beef Tips	6	3
Beef Stroganoff	6	2

Alterations:
Jambalaya: I will be using canned tomatoes (diced) instead of fresh tomatoes.  I will be browning the cooked chicken and sausage as it says.  I will make the mixture and then freeze and will cook it later in the crock pot.
Tuna Patties: Calls for bisquick in the recipe.  I am not buying it.  I found a recipe for baking mix here.
Beef Tips: This recipe is for a huge amount, I am cutting the recipe in half and assuming it will suit 3 meals of 6 servings.

Now, sorry I did not type it all out, but it is so much easier to hand write my ingredients for each meal.  So I scanned the pages for you.  Here they are:

Just click and you should be able to print.
Now from here, I consolidate my list to create my grocery list to shop from.

I then check my pantry for what I have, so I can delete it from my list.  From this list, I am using my $0.68/lb whole chickens and the 4 pound can of tuna I already have. 
After, I cruise sam’s club (website) to see what I can buy in bulk and mark it on my list.  I also check out the weekly ads to see if it can beat the price.  I plan to buy first at walmart to price match anything and then go to walmart.  My initial approximation is that this will cost me $200 for 30 days.  Now if you read about my frugal finances, I get $300 every 2 weeks.  So for the next 2 weeks no doubt, we are eating from the freezer.  But the following 4 weeks, we will eat about every other night.  This way I can make our favorite, fried meat, rice and gravy with green beans.

As for cooking this bulkiness, that will be a later post.  The nice part is after all this work, I can always repeat this bulk planning with just the shopping and cooking effort.
If you bulk cook!  Please leave me a comment and send us a link to your blog where you post any of your recipes.  Coming up with the meals I want to eat is my hardest part.

~trish

Cheeseburger Pasta

This is my creation based on my husband’s love of those nasty boxed meals that all you need to do is add a pound of beef.  I am not naming names of the dinner HELPER.  But I don’t like the stuff and I can not figure out how it is healthy with vegetables.  So taking inspiration by the flavors available, I created this one.  AND I know mine is better, cheaper, and healthier.  And it freezes well.

Cheeseburger Pasta

• 1 pound ground beef, cooked
• 8 oz pasta, cooked
• 1 c. chopped onion
• 8 oz Velveeta cheese
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1 TBSP Gourmet Steak Seasoning
• 1 c. diced tomato
• 1/2 c. shredded cheddar

Cook onions within the ground beef in skillet on med/high.  Stir in Velveeta, milk, garlic, and steak seasoning, until blended. Stir in pasta and tomatoes.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese and heat 2-3 minutes.

Again with the pasta, remember to undercook it, so it does not turn to mush in the freezer and re-heating process.  I will replace the fresh tomato with a can of diced tomatoes, when cooking in bulk.  I Mix it all together after the beef and onions were cooked and put it into a zip-lock for the freezer.

~trish

Lazy Lasagna

This is a recipe from a family collection cookbook on my husbands side.  I love this recipe, another absolute favorite of mine.  I am not a determined woman enough to do all the layering to make traditional lasagna.  I enjoy all the cheese that is in it, but I love to be able to add any vegetables I want to change it up.  I have froze this meal many times and it turns out marvelous.

Lazy Lasagna

• 1 lb ground beef, cooked
• 8 oz pasta (elbow, bowtie, etc.), cooked
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 16 oz cottage cheese
• 12 oz shredded mozzarella
• Italian seasoning
• 3 c. spaghetti sauce

Mix cream cheese and egg. Combine all ingredients, except for sauce. Pour into  pan, top with sauce.  Bake 350F for 30 min.

Important note, cook the pasta just until it is done.  You want it to be a bit hard, so that it will freeze well.  Not to worry, it will cook all the way when you thaw and heat it.  I am sorry for the lack of precise measurement on the ingredients.  For the ability to share the recipe, I just approximated the amount.  I have swapped the ground beef for spicy Italian sausage, my husband and I loved it, the kids not so much.

~trish

Chicken and Sausage Cassoulet

I LOVE, {HUGE HEARTS}, Cassoulet!  It is a glorified (grown up)  version of beans and weenies.  I usually make this by a favorite Weight Watches recipe.  I love the taste of the Thyme herb and the northern beans.  I got this recipe from the Rival Cookbook that came with my crock pot.  I am using this recipe, versus my original one, because the use of chicken lowers the cost and I never used the turkey sausage (so it was never the calories it was supposed to be).

Chicken and Sausage Cassoulet

• 15 oz can navy beans
• 1 c. tomato juice
• 1/2 c. diced onions
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp. thyme
• 1 tsp  instant chicken bouillon granules
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 4 chicken drumsticks
• 4 oz sausage, sliced

Combine all ingredients, except for the meats, in the crock pot.   Add the meat on top of the bean mixture.  Cook on low for 10-13 hours OR High for 5-6 hours.

Now I will be using dried beans, presoaked.  I will skip the chicken boullion for chicken broth.  I will be adding the broth in exchange for the liquid from the can of beans.  I will add my cooked chicken, instead of the drum sticks.

As for freezing this, I will premix the mixture and put in a ziplock and then add the meat on top.  Then I will thaw and dump in a crock pot to cook.

~trish

Chicken Pot Pie

This is a modified recipe that I occasionally change up.  I love to use left over chicken from a rotisserie at the store or left over fried chicken.  If I have any left over veggies from the week, I would through that in too.  If you have pie crust, top it with that, or go with the biscuits.

Chicken Pot Pie Fillling

• 3 c. cooked chicken
• 1 med onion, chopped
• 1 stalk of celery, chopped
• 1 1/2 c. mixed vegetables
• 1 c. chopped potatoes
• 1 c. chicken broth
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup

Combine all ingredients.  Season to taste.  If you find that the base is too thin, add corn starch to thicken.  Add pie shell or biscuits to the top. Bake at 400F for about 35 minutes.

When I am making this in bulk, I will have boiled whole chickens to use as my chopped chicken.  After I am done cooking the chicken, I cook down the broth in the pot and save it.  This is one of my recipes I use it in, besides making soup out of it.

I have not decided if I am going to make the pie filling and freeze in a zip-lock, or if I will make it in its entirety and freeze in an aluminum pan.  If I do the filing, I can pull out frozen biscuits to put on the top.  So there are many variations, based on what would work best for your family.

~trish

Creamy Chicken Pasta

This is for my chicken bulk cooking.  I have not made this before, but when I looked over all the ingredients and it looks like it will be very good.  I also picked this recipe because I can buy most of the ingredients in bulk, like the larger can of Cream of Mushroom soup.

I got this recipe from:

The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook (1999), p.327

Creamy Chicken Pasta

• 3 1/4 c. chopped cooked chicken
• 10 3/4 oz  can cream of chicken soup with herbs
• 10 3/4 oz can of cream of celery soup
• 8 oz sour cream
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3 c. crushed ritz crackers (2 sleeves)
• 1/4 c. melted butter

Combine chicken, both cream of soups, sour cream and pepper; stirring well. Layer half the ritz crackers at the bottom of dish, spoon chicken mixture, layer remaining crackers and drizzle melted butter.

Bake uncovered at 325F for 35 minutes.  Serves 6

I am going to change this to make it more suitable for my family.  When I make the mixture, I am going to add diced onions, carrots, celery, and whatever good looking vegetable that jumps on my cutting board.  also, I will just freeze the chicken mixture, uncooked in a freezer bag.

When I go to make it, I will thaw and cook in the crock pot.  I will probably serve it with egg noodles and pass on the ritz, but I can change it up and serve with ritz layered in.

~trish

 

Homemade Classic White Bread

   

Another attempt to get baking was to make 2 loaves of white bread.  This is the utmost easiest recipe and it turns out perfect bread.  It is made in the oven and not a bread machine.  Even though the bread machine is an easy method of making bread, I feel as though it is too much time between little loaves.  This one I can be done, start to finish in about 2 hours.  It is plenty of bread and the shape makes it easy to cut into thin sandwich slices.

I found this recipe at Favorite Freezer Foods they have wonderful information about bulk cooking and freezing with safety information and recipes.

White Sandwich Bread Recipe
(2 loaves)

• 5 1/2 - 6 cups flour, all purpose or bread
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups water

Optional:

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup powdered milk, or substitute milk for up to half the water.

Combine two cups of flour, sugar, salt, un-dissolved yeast and if your using it the powdered milk. Use water OR regular milk that is warm to the touch and add to dry ingredients.

Beat well, I usually use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer for this part. Mix for about two minutes to get the gluten started, then add in more flour one cup at a time. After four cups of flour I turn the dough out to a floored surface, usually my kitchen table, and knead by hand. My mixer starts to strain if I try to make this double batch with all the flour in it.

After kneading, then let rest for 10 minutes. Punch down the dough and cut in in half. I use a knife to cut the dough. Shape into loaves and let rise until doubled about 45 minutes.

Bake at 400 Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes. Immediately remove from the pan and let cool.

To Freeze:
How to freeze bread dough after shaping but before rising. Freeze for 2-3 months. A silicone pan is great for this and you can try one free from Easy Bakeware.

How to freeze baked bread after it has cooled completely. Slice before freezing if desired. Wrap well in freezer quality materials. I use a plastic freezer bag or plastic wrap and tin foil. Freeze for up to 6 months if well wrapped.

Now with this last batch, I made a fatal mistake to my bread.  I store my yeast and bread flour in the fridge and freezer.  The yeast I do not need to, but it makes me feel better.  The flour in the freezer is to stop the bugs from growing, because sometimes it is a bit of time before I bake again and when I am in the mood, I want my ingredients in the house.  Well, I did not let my dry ingredients come to room temperature.  SO when I added my warm water, the yeast never got warm and cozy enough to activate.  My bread raised a bit, but I think this had to do with the amount of Kneading I did and the air within the bread, more than the yeast.  If I would have made it longer and thinner, I think it would have done well as a pseudo French bread.

So what do you do with un-risen bread, well I made a round of French toast that was good.  And then I made bread pudding.  Oh, I skipped the raisins and cinnamon, and went for the chocolate chips instead.  Yum, Yum!

enjoy

~trish

 

Biscuit King!

I have been working hard to get my older 2 children involved in baking with me.  I have this delusion that if I get them started now, that in hopefully 2 years they will do the baking without me.  The only one with any desire to do the baking is my son, #2.  #1 is limitedly interested, based on what else is going on.

Last week, I got my son to help out on making homemade biscuits.  No, these are not the Counter Biscuit, you know, you bang the tube against the counter and it pops.  This recipe is cheap!  and Easy!  My favorites for a recipe.  The recipe make smore and are just as good, as the biscuit tubes at the store.  Plus, the cost of one set of biscuits at the store will keep you in biscuits for probably 2 weeks, every night.  Well, depending on how much you like biscuits.  My family loves biscuits and honey.  I got the recipe from Menus 4 moms.

Buttermilk Biscuits

• 4 cups self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1-1/2 cups buttermilk

Combine flour and butter, cutting with a fork. Stir in buttermilk.

Add more flour if too wet, more buttermilk if too dry. When dough is rolling consistency, knead a few times and turn out onto a floured surface. Roll out and cut with a biscuit cutter or upside down glass.

Bake half of the biscuits on cookie sheet at 475°F until brown.

Place the other half of the biscuits on a cookie sheet or other flat pan and put in the freezer until frozen. Before going to bed or early the next morning, bag the biscuits in a dated freezer bag for later use. If cooking thawed biscuits, follow normal cooking instructions. To cook frozen biscuits, extend cooking time.

Now I did not have any butter, so used plain vegetable shortening.  I also did not have buttermilk, so I used regular milk.  My biscuits were wonderful and we made all of them and had the left-overs the next day.  If you wanted to get really convenient, you could make several batches and freeze them.  Then you would have your own freezer stash, like you buy in the store.

Preparing these biscuits with little hands, took about 20 minutes.  Good investment of time with my son and warm biscuits.  He was so proud at the dinner table talking about his biscuits.

~trish

PS.  I am adding a new label called “Survival Cooking” – These are recipes that are inexpensive to make, you can cook them in bulk, uses staples ingredients, and can help you lessen your consumer versus producer status.  I will talk later on consumption versus production, later, but it has to do with the fact that our country imports too much and exports not enough.  I believe this practice will have a devastating impact on country’s stability in the near future if it continues on this road.