Mayonnaise Biscuits in a book called HUSH PUPPY By Lisa Cresswell

I love to eat hush puppies, but I’m not so great at cooking them. I might be a bit biased, but I'm pretty sure the best place to get hush puppies is on the Carolina Coast.

 

There’s a lot of great food in my book HUSH PUPPY because its set in North Carolina and you can’t go to North Carolina without eating something delicious. I set the story in a place near and dear to my heart – High Rock Lake in the Piedmont.  I spent summer vacations at my grandparents’ house there and ate a lot of wonderful southern food, but one of the things I loved the most was the mayonnaise biscuits, so much so that I put them in HUSH PUPPY.

Here’s the excerpt:

“Thanks. I’m starving.” Jamie joined everyone else passing around the food, piling it on their plates. He stuffed his mouth, eating so fast it made me wonder if he was telling the truth about starving.

            “What did Harley say?” I asked between bites of black eyed peas.

            “Didn’t tell him. He thinks I’m jogging.”

            “No wonder you’re sweating like a pig.”

            “Yeah, sorry about that.”

            “Isn’t he going to wonder where you are?”

            Jamie crunched down on an ear of corn. Butter dribbled down his chin while he chewed. I handed him a paper napkin.

            “He’ll get drunk and pass out before he notices I’m gone,” he said, wiping his mouth. Jamie plowed through several helpings of food, but his favorite was the mayonnaise biscuits. I lost count of how many he ate.

***

 

You can read more at www.lisatcresswell.com

 

If you want to try the biscuits for yourself, here’s the recipe. Super simple and oh, so good.

1 cup flour 

1/2 cup milk

1/4 mayo

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

 

Mix all ingredients until smooth. Drop large spoonfuls on a cookie sheet to make about six biscuits. Cook at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  The recipe can be doubled to make more biscuits and you can add cheese or herbs if you'd like. Enjoy!

October 25 ~ A Healthier Me

A year ago in September, I went home for lunch and stepped on the scale. I said, “All right. That’s enough. Something’s got to change.” And I signed up for Weight Watchers online. At first, I just tracked my food and I started to lose some weight. Not huge amounts, but enough to be encouraging. After a few weeks though, the weight loss slowed down. In October, I added exercise to my routine and that has made all the difference in the world. By February, I was down to my goal weight. Not some ridiculous two digit weight, but a weight that was healthy for me given my age and height.

 

Today, it occurred to me that I’ve been exercising regularly for about a year now. I’m still at my goal weight. It fluctuates a pound or two, here and there, but that’s normal. I’m stronger and slimmer than I’ve probably ever been my whole adult life and it only took six months. I wish everyone could do this. I mean, anyone CAN do this, but there’s a whole host of reasons why people don’t. It all comes down to you. If you say to yourself, “Self, I’m ready to change myself and my habits and I’m not going to give up until I get it” then you can. And it doesn’t have to happen all at once. I made my changes slowly, a little bit at a time.

 

When I first started tracking my food, it was so hard to stop myself from eating too much. I was snacking WAY too much. I love chocolate. I always had some in my desk. My portions were outta whack. The first few weeks were definitely the hardest because I was learning just how many “points” my usual meals were costing me and I hadn’t yet learned healthier alternatives. I was hungry a lot then. But as I was able to acclimate myself to smaller meals and healthier snacks, I found that smaller portions were enough for me. The stomach is a very elastic thing; the more you stuff in it, the more it stretches and the more food it takes to fill it. If you stop stretching it so much, it shrinks back down after a while.

 

The wonderful thing about Weight Watchers is you can eat any food you want. I could eat chocolate and cookies, and I still do. The key is portion size – it has to be small. The minute you tell me I can’t have something, that’s the only thing I want. You do have to exercise a lot of restraint with those things to keep the portion small, but you can still have it.

 

I was lucky when I started WW I had already given up soda a few years ago. My stomach can hardly tolerate it now; the carbonation kills me. If there was just one thing you could do to improve your health, if nothing else – don’t drink soda. It has a lot of calories and no health value whatsoever. The phosphoric acid is bad for your teeth and probably your bones as well. And you can save a boat load of money by not buying it. That’s my two cents on that. HATE SODA!

 

Anyway, that’s all there is to it. Lots of little changes that add up over time. Less food. More activity. So easy.

Blog #5 Loving Summer~

Egads! It’s been hot. I mean, yes, July is the hottest month of the year in Idaho on average, but this year has been like a furnace.  It’s been over 100 degrees inside my greenhouse for a week.  The tomatoes and squash are loving it. See?

 

 

 I even tried growing okra this year, but it’s still tiny. Maybe it will take off soon?  I should have morning glories any day now. J

Yes it's hot and stuffy and I'm prone to sunburn, but I love summer. I love growing flowers and eating the vegetables I grew from seed. I love the sunsets when the night cools off and lures you back outside. And I love being able to stand under the stars without a jacket on.

 

Hope you’re staying cool and loving summer too~

Land of Milk and Honey

Clementines, Charmin,
Cherrios, chocolate chips,
Seattle's Best with half-n-half
melted cane sugar on my lips.

Tart apples out of season
any time of year,
caramels to coat them,
fifty-seven kinds of beer.

Feta, munster
colby, brie
foccacia, hummus
all for me.

Shelf after shelf,
isle after isle,
boxes, cans and bottles
go on for miles and miles.

Born in the land of milk and honey,
we have so much for so few.
Don'cha ever think it's funny
we can't ever seem to get enough to chew?

Amish Friendship bread

I'm making Amish Friendship bread, which is funny because it's neither Amish nor bread.  I know it's not Amish because the recipe calls for a box of vanilla pudding mix.  I don't think it qualifies as bread either, because it's loaded with sugar and tastes more like a decadent coffee cake. 

It's made with a sour dough-like starter, which probably isn't safe because it ferments on the counter for 10 days.  How is that possible?  It doesn't kill you.  I'm living proof of that, because my friend gave it to me.  That's the friendship part.  You divide the starter into four portions and cook one for yourself.  You're supposed to give the other portions to your "friends" and hopefully, you don't poison them.  In gifting your friends, you sentence them to a 10 day wait, in which they must churn the starter each day and add a cup each of flour, sugar and milk on the sixth day.  Then, you have to be ready to cook it on the tenth day.  It's kind of a pain. 

Luckily, it freezes well.  At least I'm told it freezes well.  We'll see how this batch turns out.  It's been in my freezer since January when I got it.  I'll let you know how it turns out in FOUR MORE DAYS.  On that day, I'll have to add more flour, sugar and milk, and then decide which "friends" to inflict it on.