Cat Head Biscuits

 No Cats Were Harmed in the Baking of these Biscuits

Called cat head, the story goes, because these biscuits end up roughly the size of a cat's head -- and because sometimes a biscuit that's "eyeballed" instead of being rolled and cut in the formal tradition -- sometimes comes out looking like a cat's head (you can even try to do that on purpose to entertain the children, if you like!) -- these delicacies of the southern breakfast table were a staple at our grandparent's house when we were kids. Easy, because they take out the rolling and cutting steps, they are fluffy and delicious with some homemade raspberry preserves! From our house to yours, I give you:

Cat Head Biscuits

INGREDIENTS

• 3cups all purpose (or cake) flour
• 1/2teaspoon baking soda
• 1teaspoon salt
• 2teaspoons baking powder
• 2tablespoons lard or buttermilk*
• 
  1⁄8cup melted (a couple tablespoons) butter for tops of biscuits (optional)

DIRECTIONS

• Mix dry ingredients and sift into mixing bowl, then cut in lard until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
• Stir in buttermilk until it is incorporated with the flour mixture. The dough will be kind of wet and very sticky. This is good. Too dry and you'll have dry, crumbly biscuits.
• Flour your hands and turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough in the flour just enough to make it handleable - you don't want it to stick to your hands too much, but don't work in too much extra flour either or the biscuits will be heavy and taste of raw flour.
• For each biscuit, pinch off a piece of dough about the size of a large egg or a small lemon and pat out in the ungreased pan with your hands. You don't want it to be really flat, just pat it down a bit so it's relatively biscuit-shaped and about 1 inch high.
• Bake at 475 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Keep your eye on them while they're in the oven so they don't burn.
• Brush tops of biscuits with melted butter, if desired. Some folks like a little garlic salt sprinkled on top.                 
• ENJOY!

Makes 8 large biscuits.

* If you don't happen to have buttermilk on hand, no problem: it's easy to whip some up: for each cup of buttermilk, simply add 1 tablespoon white vinegar, plus enough milk to measure 1 cup. Stir, then let stand for 5 minutes. Easy Peasy!

Two-fer Tuesday on the Feast of St. Mark

1) First of all, remembering that this is the day of the Greater Litanies, when we pray for God's blessing on our crops at the beginning of the growing the growing season, I'd like to share a post with the traditional blessings for all the parts of one's property. Click here.  

In the life of our family, this practice of blessing our property was one of the highlights of our year, as all the parts of the ritual, itself, appealed to all of us -- and the very fact of the blessings gave us a special feeling of security, as if God's arms had been placed in a special away around our home. The post linked here was put together in about 2022, when we lived in Nebraska! (How time flies!) It chiefly details the prayers said.  I need to put together a simple how-to regarding the craft of making the "staffs" that we plant on the four corners of the property, but there is really very little "craft" involved -- and no right or wrong way of doing it. 

In a nutshell, we have the children go find strong straight sticks, at least five feet tall and either save from the pantry small jars or bottles (about the size of a small vanilla container) or we buy little jars at Hobby Lobby (that have caps) and fill them

with Holy Water. We then take either a plain little bit of a Palm Sunday palm or a palm that has been folded into a cross (see here) and with some ribbon (as much as you like, tied however you think best) we tie the holy water and the palm to the staff (stick). Sometimes a bit of glue-gun glue might be employed. When we go around placing these at the four corners, we bring some strong twine, because sometimes the best way of making the staffs stand up (especially if the ground is either especially damp or is frozen) is to tie them to trees. Alternatively, you can bring a T-post and a post driver with you (something you'll only need to do once) to place permanently at the corners of your land. Each year, the family will affix a new staff to the post -- or re-do last year's staff, if you like.

2) To end the day in a special and memorable way, Mom (with her helpers) can prepare a Venetian dinner in honor of the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice, where St. Mark's relics were laid. You can find some great menu items here. And some more ideas here and here. And, since the iconography of St. Mark is a lion, you can listen to the story of how that came to be right here -- and make the cutest little lion cupcakes, following the instructions here. The recipe for a lion cake can be found here. 

It is called a feast day, after all! Creating memories of happy times connected with holy things are one of the best ways of snuggling a love of the Faith into the hearts of our children -- and because we are human, the way to our hearts... well... may not actually be through our stomachs -- but the love and nurturing and time and effort that goes into making our homes come alive with the traditions of our Faith... This really does help pave an excellent path to the children's hearts and our own! 

Goodness, How Time Flies

Check out this link.

Are We There Yet?: A Day in the Life

Sigh.... SO NOISY!

LOL! (I love it!)