A Morning in the Kitchen

Yes, the REAL kitchen.

I feel like a complainer but I’ve felt bad for the last two weeks. This morning, Vince said “You have more energy than I’ve seen in weeks!” Every single day for the past two weeks, I’ve taken a long nap – sometimes a three hour nap; sometimes two naps in one day. Sometimes I sleep too much and can’t go to sleep at night, sometimes I can still go to sleep and sleep through the night.

I’ve had bloodwork and my thyroid meds were increased but I think that takes at least a week, maybe two, to see a difference but today, I feel like I have energy and I may stay awake all day.

Anyway . . this morning I was going to make biscuits, sausage, gravy, eggs and grits. Addie went up with me to the kitchen and I pulled out a bag of “biscuit mix” from the freezer. Today I was using Lily White self-rising flour and make biscuits according to the recipe on the bag . . which is 2 cups self-rising flour, 1/4 cup shortening and 3/4 cup buttermilk.

When I open a bag of Lily White self-rising flour, since the only thing I use it for is making biscuits, I divide it up and put 2 cups of flour, along with 1/4 cup of shortening in a zipper bag. I do the same with grits – 3/4 cup of grits in a zipper bag. I can put 4 bags of biscuit mix and 4 bags of grits into a one gallon zipper bag.

Addie was confused about opening a zipper bag and dumping it into a bowl . . there was flour and there was a lump of shortening so I explained to her how I do it.

I grabbed a bag of White Lily flour out of the freezer, measured out 2 cups. Sometimes my 2 cups are a little more full than other times (I’m not much of a stickler for exact measurements). I usually get 7 or 8 bags of zipper bags with flour. I use sticks of Crisco so I cut them into fourths, peel the wrapper off, drop them into the bag, close it and into the bigger bag it goes.

It’s rare that I make biscuits without making grits so by having the same number of bags of grits as biscuit mix, I should empty out the gallon bag of both things at the same time.

I know how much buttermilk and water to add but someone else may be doing it and may not know so I write it on the outside of the bag. Also, when I empty the smaller bags, they’re never “dirty” so I stick them back into the gallon bag and once everything is used, I have 4 empty sandwich size bags for the biscuit mix and 4 empty stack size bags for the grits so I refill them and stick another batch into the freezer.

Addie thought it was pretty cool that I just grabbed a couple of bags out of the freezer and was able to make grits and biscuits. It’s a little more complicated if I’m making Blake’s biscuits.

Addie may never do this for whatever she’s cooking but . . she may remember that it was something her granny thought saved time and she may do it. I so hope she has good memories of the time she spends with us . . like I have of the time I spent with my grandparents.