A Taste of Love

Eris says that I should write a post on our biscuits. While I was making a quick batch for breakfast this morning, I decided she is right. These simple biscuits cut in the shape of a heart are an essential ingredient in our little family. I assume that the recipe is not unique; there are no unusual ingredients. The baking powder biscuits are simple to make and go with everything from vegetable soup to bacon and eggs. In our house, they can form the staple of a meal or be a dessert. Eris is proud to have joined the generations of women who can mix the dough without looking at the recipe. Little Simeon joins in the clamoring for a piece of dough to snack on. I personally have made these biscuits in three countries, two Native American "Nations," and eleven states. I've made them in electric ovens, gas ovens, over a campfire, and now in my cast iron skillet on my two burner gas stove. They are certainly a family tradition.

Growing up, my mom would make biscuits at least a couple times a week, often to go with Sunday noontime dinner. They became a favorite snack with neighborhood children and visiting friends. The biscuits weren't always in the shape of hearts. That started on my parents first married Valentine's Day; my mom dyed the dough pink and biscuits out with a heart shaped cookie cutter. My dad did not appreciate the food coloring but did like the shape. Somehow, it seems that hearts baked just right and tasted even more delicious than  round biscuits. Since then, the biscuits have always been heart-shaped, regardless of the day. When I left home, my mother gave me the correct sized heart shaped cookie cutter so I could continue the tradition. Eris has experimented a little with the shapes - stars around Christmas, "Queen Esthers" (gingerbread shapes) for Purim - but we generally have the hearts.

When I make biscuits, I am connected with my mother, my grandmother, my daughter, my friends with whom I have shared the recipe. I remember making them for Christmas, for sick children, for my husband in our first home, for numerous gatherings. I cherish the memories of sharing a piece of dough with Maiden; she loved to try to catch it and sometimes she would even succeed. I've pretty much made biscuits at one time or another for anyone I've loved and in any home in which I have special memories. These simple six ingredients manage to conjure up the taste of home and love wherever I make them.

In case you want to join my "Biscuit Family" here is the recipe:

4 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar (can add more or less depending on how sweet you want them)
5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup oil (1/2 cup seems to work better in Thailand due to the humidity and extremely
                    fine flour, I think)
1 cup milk

mix ingredients together, press out dough with your hands to desired thickness (will rise in oven but not as much in cast iron skillet on the stovetop), cut out in heart shapes, bake for 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, 200 degress Celsius, 477 degrees Kelvin, or whatever works with the method you happen to be using. Enjoy!