Nailed It!!!

I tried my hand at homemade buttermilk biscuits this morning and I must to say that I nailed it!!!!  And my family agrees. My husband had someone over for breakfast this morning and I made them, I pinned the recipe from Pinterest (where else?) They were moist, buttery and delicious. You can find the recipe under Grandma's Buttermilk Biscuits.   If you are too lazy to look or don't have a Pinterest account (Lord forbid) here is the recipe.  I tried to copy the link because it has instructional pictures but it wouldn't let me so...... here is the recipe.  

Bon appetit.

Grandma’s Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¾ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp cream of tartar

¼ cup butter flavored shortening

1 cup buttermilk – at room temperature

Butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and grease a 9” cake pan (or cast iron skillet if you really want biscuits like my grandma’s). I typically use Pam Baking Spray for this.

Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Then using a pastry blender (or a whisk, if like me you don’t own a pastry blender) cut the shortening in until well blended.

Create a well in the middle of the flour/shortening mixture, leaving about ½” of flour on the bottom of the bowl, then pour in the buttermilk. Slowly start working the flour into the buttermilk evenly from all sides. I usually spin the bowl and leave the whisk mostly in one place. Once all of the flour on the sides has been incorporated (and it’s become a bit too difficult to mix with the whisk, I flour up my hands and dive in to finish mixing in the flour left on the bottom of the bowl. The dough will stick to your hands a bit, and it’s okay to add in a bit more flour to get the right consistency, but try not to add more than an extra ¼ cup of flour or the biscuits won’t rise properly and they’ll be a bit heavy.What is the right consistency? Well, it’s a bit like Play-dough. The dough should be a bit elastic and should remain moist. If you've added too much flour, the dough will become too dry.

Once the Dough is mixed, you can start to form your biscuit. Pluck off a piece of dough about the size of a large egg and roll it in your hands until it’s formed, then place it in the pan and squish it down a little bit. Repeat 8 times until all the biscuits are in the pan. It’s fairly important to make sure that all of the biscuits are about the same size, and I often find that I need to pull one biscuit back out of the pan and add a little bit more dough to it (there’s always a bit left in the bottom of the bowl).

Alternatively, you can roll out the dough to ½” thick on a lightly floured surface and cut biscuits out with a 2” biscuit cutter or a juice glass. Place the biscuits in the greased pan. After the biscuits are formed and in the pan, put a thin pat of cold butter on top of each biscuit. Side Note:  I only use real butter, not margarine, so I’m not sure how margarine will work with this.  Next step: baking! Pop the pan of biscuits in a completely preheated oven. Bake for 10-14 minutes or until the biscuits are baked through and golden brown on top. Cooking length will really depend on your oven, but they’ll take at least 10 minutes to bake through. My oven, 

which is a bit off temperature takes 14 minutes. So keep an eye on them once they hit that 10 minute mark and pull them out when they look good to you.

From South Africa With Love

Set Fire To The Rain

There was a torrential down pour on Saturday and my son's were performing at one of the parks in Mitchell's Plain.  As a mother I was worried about electrocution but God is sovereign and they were fine.  The exciting thing was that people from the neighborhood were standing out there in the rain with us and listening.  It was awesome!!!! Our church outreached and then we had a concert that night with visitors, and some of those same people came out Sunday morning and night.  My children get it, they want to reach their generation and that makes me one proud Mom.

From South Africa With Love

The Beast

For every Beauty there is a Beast.  I've shown some very beautiful pictures of South Africa.  There is another side that you won't find advertised by travel agents, but it is still there.  Those houses are called Wendy's, they are made out of sheet metal and have no insulation, when it rains it sounds like a thousand horses running on their roof. It gets very cold at night and very hot in the summer, like living in an oven.  The Wendy's are cheaper to live in than paying rent so many people have them, some can't afford them and sleep anywhere that they can lay their heads.  The crime rate is high so all of the beautiful homes have barbed wire, dogs, alarms and security. It's amazing how you can have so much and still be a prisoner in your own home.

My Container!!!!!!

It arrived!!!!!!! It came on Monday but I was too busy to write about it.  Now we have to get everything situated.  My husband noticed it parked down the street at someone else's house, someone was about to be very happy about their new things.  They had the address all wrong, they did unload the container though.  Very, very slowly.  Like turtles moving through a stream of molasses, I didn't think that they would have it done in the allotted three hours but they did.  They did because my husband and son helped (they did not get paid and we didn't get a discount).   It did feel like Christmas just like everyone said.  Just happy to have my things!!!!!!

From South Africa With Love

Sushi!!! Because It's Still Raining....

The Ocean Basket. I don't particularly care for seafood but I do love sushi and this place has both and they are very good.  I think that it taste better because everything is fresh, I love it!!!!! I can't eat it all of the time because of  the rice and fried shrimp.  Rice and fried shrimp hate my hips and thighs. 

From South Africa With Love 

The Mugg & Bean

It is raining here, again. It should be warming up but it's not. I have been told that repeatedly, I don't know if that is supposed to be encouraging.  So, the only excursion that I have been on is to the mall (yes they have malls).  We have gone to the Mugg & Bean for breakfast several times (and by several I mean a 100).  I need to find a hobby besides eating, but not knitting or anything like that.  This restaurant has the best white hot chocolate and croissants. We are not coffee drinkers but my husband had a cappuccino and it was wonderful.  I would recommend this restaurant for breakfast to any foreigner visiting Cape Town. I would also recommend sticking to what you know when ordering, trust me.

From South Africa With Love.

Marketplace Treasure

As promised here are my $2 scarves!!!!!!! I love the colors, I will probably own 100 of them by next year.