Creamed Tomatoes and Biscuits

I am a huge fan of Creamed Tomatoes and Biscuits that our local Waffle Hut makes.  I am not a big fan of waiting forever to get them and they are verrrry slooooooow.  I have begged different people over the years to please teach me how to make them, but to no avail.  I never found a recipe I liked, until now.  I have adapted this recipe for my family but here is where I found the original.

Same thing with biscuits.  My family has always bought and used frozen or canned biscuits.  They are good but they do not have that nice flaky, just homemade taste.  So, I decided to get brave and figure out how to make them myself.  I started with the recipe on the back of a Bisquick box.  Unfortunately, I quickly ran out of Bisquick mix and had a horde of hungry people wanting their biscuits.  I then resorted to the old standby: Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

Over time, I have adapted their recipe for "Biscuits Supreme".

Begin this great breakfast, or anytime, meal by preheating the oven to 450 degrees to make the biscuits.

Biscuits
3 cups self-rising flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup butter or 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups buttermilk or 1 cup milk

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and cream of tartar.  Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the mixture until it looks like coarse crumbs.  If you do not have a pastry blender, you can use your fingers or 2 knives.  I use the 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup of shortening (Crisco) so my biscuit are flaky but moist.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the milk in all at once or buttermilk if you want buttermilk biscuits.  Use a fork and stir in milk until it resembles moist dough.  You do not want the dough dry but you do want to be able to handle it.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.  Knead the dough about 5 or 6 times.  Overkneading the dough will make the biscuits tough.  Pat the dough out until it is about 1 inch thick.  Use a glass or a cutter dipped in flour.  I use a vegetable can that my husband modified for me.  Notice the holes he punched in the top.  This allows air to get in so the biscuit comes back out.

Cut as many biscuits out of the first cutting that is possible.  After it is all said and done, I usually end up with about 12 to 14 biscuits.

Put a spoonful of shortening in your pan and melt it in the oven.

I then dip both sides of the biscuit thru the shortening.

Put the biscuits in the oven for 15 minutes.  When you are done, they will look like this, yummy goodness.

Creamed Tomatoes
1 quart of Tomatoes and juice (Mom and I can our own tomatoes that have been quartered)
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
6 tablespoons of flour
1 1/2 cup of milk

Combine the tomatoes and juice, butter and sugar with a whisk in a large saucepan.  This allows the tomatoes to be broken into smaller pieces. Heat the mixture over medium heat until bubbling.  Add the baking soda.  This is my favorite part.  :-)

Combine flour and water with a whisk in a mixing bowl.  Whisk the flour and milk mixture into the tomato mixture, blending well.  Stir constantly until the mixture is hot and bubbly.  The longer you cook the tomatoes, the thicker the mixture will get.

Once it is done, break your biscuit on your plate, get a heaping helping of home fries (recipe to come later) and pour the Creamed Tomatoes over the top.  The perfect homemade comfort food!

And it is still great the next day heated up.  In fact, I think it is even better!

Bread and Butter Pickles

I love homemade Bread and Butter pickles (like my momma makes) and cannot stand store bought bread and butter pickles.  With that being said, I was at the Capital Market in Charleston, WV this week and decided to buy a huge box of cucumbers and a huge box of tomatoes.  I proudly brought them home (normally my  mother picks out the produce because I could care less) and she tells me that they saw me a coming.  Thanks, Mom.  The one time I try.   Anyways, we made 21 pints of bread and butter pickles out of my cucumbers and 8 quarts of tomatoes.  This is the first time I have ever helped my mom can anything so, YAY ME!

Bread and Butter pickles were way easier than I thought they would be.  You will need:

4 quarts sliced cucumbers
1/2 cup salt
2 quarts sliced onion
1 quart apple cider vinegar
4 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon celery seeds
2 Tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon white pepper (my aunt says it is optional but we have always used it)

I use a mandolin slicer to thinly slice my cucumbers. That is the reason I don't like store bought, they are too thick.  After they are sliced, we put them in a huge bowl and gently stir in the salt.  You can use table salt or canning salt.  We used table salt on the first batch and canning salt on the second.  Cover the cucumbers with ice cubes and let them stand for 2 to 3 hours.  Add more ice if needed.

Thinly slice 2 quarts of onions and set these aside until ready for them.

Mix the remaining ingredients (sugar, celery seeds, mustard seeds, ground ginger, ground turmeric and white pepper) in huge dutch oven.  Bring quickly to a boil and boil for 10 minutes.

Drain the cucumbers.  Add the cucumbers and onion slices to the dutch oven.  Bring the whole mixture to a boil.  Pack loosely at once in hot jars and adjust lids.  Process in boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove jars carefully from canner and cool for 24 hours to make sure they seal.

Should make 8 pints of bread and butter pickles.