Makin' Biscuits

 I made ham yesterday so it was time to get my Southern on and make biscuits.  This was a skill that I did not master until I was older.  Biscuits are tricky!  The biggest thing is to NOT over mix or knead the biscuits!  Here is a picture of the finished product.  The large biscuit is made from the scraps.  It tends to be tougher because you have to knead the scraps together.  Here is the recipe...


4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2/3 cup butter (can use shortening)
2 cups buttermilk or soured milk (add 2 Tbsp white vinegar to 2 cups of milk)

1.Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
2.In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3.Turn out onto a floured surface (dough will be a bit wet and sticky). Add some flour to the surface until it is not sticky to the touch. Then fold and and knead the dough as little as possible so it just comes together (about 10 to 15 times). Add flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick for super thick biscuits or as thin as 1/2-inch. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or glass cup dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto a greased baking sheet or non-stick aluminum foil. You can brush the tops with left over milk for a darker crust (biscuits on right).
4.Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.

Forgot to add.... if butter starts to get too warm pop the bowl into the freezer after you cut the butter into the flour. You want the butter cold before going into the oven. The butter will steam as the biscuits cook to help give additional rise to the biscuits.

Yield: At least a dozen. 12 to 24 depending on biscuit cutter size.

This recipe is similar to J.P.'s Big Daddy Biscuits.  You can find the original recipe here.  I made some modifications based on my taste and experience.

Happy Thanksgiving!

joscountryjunction.com

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving!  It has been a rough couple of months financially because I have been squeezing our budget to the limit.  I have been trying to purchase presents for the children's upcoming birthday and Christmas. It's a lot to cover!  We don't have everything we want in the house for Thanksgiving but we have more than enough!  Especially with a turkey given to us by a kind friend. The turkey is 21 pounds!  It's HUGE!

We had sausage balls for breakfast.  It's a Thanksgiving tradition in our family.  I LOVE sausage balls and we did not have any Bisquick.  We did have flour and other things in the house (I try hard to keep basics handy).   I found a Bisquick cheat recipe online.  So I made the Bisquick from scratch and I have to say I was impressed with recipe.  I did make a modification from the original I found online which was to cut the amount of shortening down and use some butter instead.  Using the butter made for a MUCH better final product!  I made a new recipes page.  You can find the recipe for the DIY Bisquick along with the recipe for Sausage Balls.

We had a great breakfast of hot sausage balls with sharp cheddar.  John got the turkey into the oven and things were going well.  I had taken the wrap off Joseph's should for a bit so his skin could breathe.  I told him he could use his arm lightly but if ANYTHING started to hurt then he was to let me know.  He said okay and went off.  For a little while he was fine.  I saw him heading to the playroom out of the corner of my eye and then the next thing I know I hear him crying and sitting on the floor. He was crying pretty hard!

He said his shoulder hurt and I took him back to my bathroom.  I stripped his shirt off and I could see the swelling at his shoulder.  Sigh, I think he re-broke his clavicle.  I called his doctor and had a talk with the nurse on-call.  She agreed with me that there was not much we would gain by going to the hospital again.  She said it would be riskier to go to the hospital because of the high chance of catching some respiratory disease so we should stay home. We were instructed to call the doctor's office the next day and see about getting an appointment.

First I gave Joseph a dose of his pain medication.  I got him to the shower to relax his muscles and to clean his body. He was feeling MUCH better after we got out of the shower!  The look on his face was quite different after the pain meds kicked in!

So we finished up our preparations for Thanksgiving dinner.  Dinner itself was delicious! The turkey was beautiful!  John brought the turkey to the table all ready sliced for serving.  This made serving the children much easier!  Joseph was in heaven.  This is his kind of food!  It is soft and requires minimal chewing. LOL  The children basically ate until they were ready to pop except James.  For some reason he did not eat much but he was happy to have a piece of cake at the end of dinner. We had, overall, a really nice Thanksgiving.  I hope you did too!

News Bits

Courtesy of TimeAndDate.com

I love it when I have various news sources overflowing with information!  So on the autism front I have some interesting news.  The Autism Research Institute (ARI) is holding its Fall Conference in Garden Grove, CA in October 11 - 14.  The speaker line-up looks great with Dr. Emeran Mayer, Co-director of the CURE: Digestive Disease Research Center at UCLA, Dr. Robert Hendren of UC San Francisco, Drs. Nancy O'Hara, Elizabeth Mumper, Martha Herbert and others.

I know this is a MAJOR area of controversity but I wanted to post this here to let people hear all sides of the story.  Holly Riley discusses how her son with Autism was cured with biomedical intervention.

 
A Facebook friend, Jennifer Grayson, writes a wonderful blog about Autism, food allergies and other health related topics.  It is a great read.  She recently wrote and article about parasites.  We may live in the United State but if you think there is NO way you could have parasites you might be wrong and are suffering silently for it.  Conditions such as allergies (including food), eczema, asthma, migraine headache, nightmare, bedwetting, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, arthralgia, multiple sclerosis, irritable bowel syndrome, seizure, mental illness and even cancer could be caused by a parasite infestation.  The article is a great read so please stop by!

For those dealing with mitochondrial disease the options for treatments and therapies can be confusing.  United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (UMDF) is an excellent website for many resources on mitochondrial disease.  They even have a page breaking down the various treatments and therapies to help point you in the right direction.  This is a wonderful site if you are trying to diagnose mito and need information on local doctors. They have been very helpful to me in finding Joseph a doctor.

Found a wonderful recipe of Zucchini Chips from the Naked Kitchen.  Yum!  They are both a green veggie and much better for you than potato chips.  What more can you ask for?  LOL   There were several FB friends that swore by this recipe and I am looking forward to trying it one day.

For those who cannot eat gluten and are looking for a easy add on to a meal that is flavorful and chalk full of fiber check out this recipe for Homemade Refried Beans.  I have made these at home and they are delicious!  I used it and mixed in some homemade salsa for some chip and dip action.  The children ate it up!

Medial Frustration and Life in Transition

For the past 6 months I have fought with my insurance company to get a medical authorization to get Joseph a fresh muscle biopsy done to test for mitochondrial disease.  Once I FINALLY got the medical insurance to approve the biopsy I have spent the last month trying to get the doctor's office to call me to set up an appointment.  In the last month I have called them AT LEAST 10 times and I have gotten only 3 calls back.  Today was the FIRST time someone called me AND I was able to get the phone.  Keep in mind I have left two messages a day for the last three days.  I even called the insurance case manager to complain that my calls were not being returned.

When I got to speak from someone in the neurology department at UCLA I was told they did not have my son's records.  YOU'VE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!  So the guys goes on the explain I need to talk to the registration department.  I said, "why was that not in the message so I could check up on things instead of losing time?"  His response, "I don't know but I could put in a request to get the message changed to add that information."  UGH!!!  SHOOT ME!!!

So if you do not have a patient ID with the UCLA then do yourself a favor and contact the registration department (phone - 800-825-2631, fax - 310-301-5391) since they are in charge of everything anyways.  So I had to called Joseph's referring doctor again, the geneticist, and asking her office to fax over the information again.  A week ago she had faxed it over while I was on the phone and now here I was asking her to fax over the information again.  I explained how I had been trying to make this appointment for the last month and I was getting frustrated over the bureaucracy of the UCLA system.  The nurse at the geneticist's office was kind and she said she would fax it over and then call to make sure UCLA registration had what they needed.  I told her that was VERY nice and THANK YOU!

I was able to make a few calls to Arizona today.  I was able to talk to an advocacy group for disabled children.  I was able to get some good information and I am sure I will get some more.  I found out about a great homeless shelter program called UMOM.  I may have to take advantage of one of their programs until I can get my first paycheck from my new job.  Otherwise I will only have $1700 to $2100 to support all of us for the month.  Plus, once I start my job I will not get any pay right away.  The first paycheck will be at least two weeks after I start and I have to find someone to watch the children for me and I will have to pay them in advance (at least partially).  Just need to determine how I am going to pay to for everything.  By taking advantage of one of UMOM's programs for a bit it will help me to get us on our feet.

On a possible positive note I remembered that Good Night Pediatrics is located out of Phoenix.  Yea!!!  I cannot recommend the office in Henderson, NV enough.  They are GREAT and MUCH faster than an emergency room.  With the office hours from 5pm to 5am I can take care of emergencies during the night with ease.  That is a HUGE relief to me since Joseph has a TERRIBLE tendency to have some sort of respiratory emergency on the weekend or during the night.

I have a lot of friends on Facebook and they are some super great people with super great information that I like to share on my blog.  One post was taking about Gluten Sensitivity and Magnesium Deficiency by Dr. Osborne.  It is a great article explaining how this can occur.   Someone also found an idea off of Pinterest that is a great idea to get yogurt into children.  You can make your own yogurt dots. 

Going gluten free?

While I was pregnant with the babies I lost about 40 pounds. Over the last three and a half years I have gained all the weight back. I am now tying to go on a diet. I have not decided on a specific diet yet but I do want to try and get rid of the gluten in my diet. Anyone have any recipe ideas for GF casserole ideas?