What do you do with all those tomatoes? Make ketchup! I just published an Instructable for my homemade ketchup. This is a recipe that I have used for years. And my friends always ask me for some of this, so I make sure to make enough for gifts too.

Spicy Homemade Ketchup – More DIY How To Projects

Chia Pet Rescue

August 8 is Zucchini Day or Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day. What to do with all that zucchini? I love zucchini and here is my favorite zucchini bread recipe.

3 eggs
3/4 C oil
2 C sugar
2 t vanilla
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/4 baking powder
2 C grated zucchini
2 C flour
3/4 C nuts (I like walnuts)
3/4 C dried cranberries

Mix ingredients in the order listed. Pour into greased and floured loaf pan(s). Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Mmmmmm. Yummy

Chia Pet Rescue

What better way to celebrate Peanut Butter Cookie Day on June 12 than to make cookies. I love peanut butter cookies. So I have tested a lot of different recipes. Here is one of my favorites.

1 1/4 cups flour, sift or stir before measuring
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder; set aside. Cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars; beat in vanilla and egg. Stir in flour mixture, blending well.

Shape into 3/4-inch balls and place on baking sheets. Flatten each cookie with the tines of a fork dipped into sugar.
Bake cookies at 375° for about 10 to 12 minutes.

Chia Pet Rescue

Years ago, I wanted to make dinner for my grandfather. He loved biscuits so I decided to make some. They were so awful, you could have used them for hockey pucks! The only thing my grandfather said was, “That’s just the way we like them”. He was very sweet. Of course, my brothers never let me live that one down.

After that experience I made it a goal to learn how to make biscuits. Now my friends are always asking me for my biscuit recipe. But I usually end up explaining more about the technique you need to use rather than the recipe itself.

Some of the common mistakes people make are to overwork the dough, use a rolling pin, add too much flour, or cook them in the wrong type of cookware.

In this post, I give you the recipe but more important, I will talk about the technique you need to make perfect biscuits.

The Recipe

2 1/4 C Flour (approximately)
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 C Shortening
1 C Buttermilk (I use regular milk and add a bit of white vinegar to it)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Sift flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Cut in shortening until it has the consistency of course cornmeal with a few larger chunks.

Stir in the buttermilk. Do not stir too much. You want to be careful not to overwork your dough.

The Technique

Add a spoonful of shortening to your cast iron skillet and put the skillet in the oven. You want to get it really hot.

While your skillet is heating up, lightly dust the area you will be cutting the biscuits with flour. Turn dough out onto this area and knead the dough about 3-4 times. Once again, you want to make sure you don’t overwork the dough.

Press the dough out until it is about 1 inch in thickness. Do not use a rolling pin, use your hands.

Cut the biscuits with a biscuit cutter or a knife.

Place the biscuits in the heated skillet with shortening and turn them over. (it is important to turn them over after you have put them in the skillet).

Bake for 15 minutes.

Other Tips

Add some raisins and a bit of cinnamon to the dough and when the biscuits cool, drizzle a powdered sugar glaze over them. YUMMY! Kids will think you made cinnamon rolls.

Add a little bit of sugar to the dough and some blueberries. Cut the biscuits in the shape of a triangle. Your family will think you made scones.

Experiment with adding some cheese and diced jalepenos to the dough for some TexMex biscuits.

If you bake some of the refrigerated biscuits, make sure you use the skillet technique. This will improve them.

Other things you can add to your biscuit dough:

• Rasberries
• Chocolate Chips
• Currants
• Italian herbs
• Any type of chopped dried fruit

I also like to make chicken pot pie. Instead of making a crust, try baking biscuits on top of the filling. Makes a great casserole.

Chia Pet Rescue