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Sharon B., VA

When I get back on FB later this evening, I'll pm you my phone number-- It was a beautiful day last Sunday and I was on I-85 headed towards Richmond-- I thought about you as I went through Dinwiddie!

Send me your number too, that way we can call each other to make sure someone is home.  

The office in the barn is coming along great-  We can have crafting Saturdays here.  We have a propane fire place that was too big for the house, so we put it in the barn!  LOL  I'm probably the only person who has a fireplace in her barn!   LOL  It will make for cozy crafting Saturdays this winter!  

The ham sounds wonderful!

I've rendered lard using Suzanne's CITR post.  I did it in the crockpot (in the house) and it was super easy.  When I was a kid, my mother used to cook our Christmas ham in a huge, old, lard tin and then wrap the tin in quilts/blankets after removing from the heat.  The aroma we woke to on Christmas morning was delightful.  When I was rendering the lard, that is what it reminded me of.  You got an incredible price on the fat at $0.49 lb.  I have a friend (the one I was telling you about that also does the grass-fed beef) that sells pastured pork so I get it at a good price, however, most butchers around here charge about $ 1.79 - 2.00 lb.

(Last Sunday was such a beautiful day that it crossed my mind to take a drive out to Chase City and visit you!)

Have fun rendering!

-Deb

I knew the breads were homemade, but not the pies.  I was enjoying that cherry pie with ice-cream!  Yum!  The crust was perfect.  I'll pull up Suzanne's recipe for the pie crust and the biscuits.

After I do the lard this weekend, I'll work on pie crust and biscuits next week .    I'll let you know how I make out. 

Thanks, Pete, you're awesome!

We have had several discussions around here about making biscuits over the years.  I had only managed to make wonderful hockey pucks until seeing or reading to be sure to not overwork the dough.  So, I tried cutting in the fat and barely stirring the dough after adding the milk.  It appeared that there was no way it would hold together into something which could actually be cut into biscuits.  Sure enough, by the time I got it all scraped out onto the counter, gathered it all up and sort of semi-kneaded it a time or two then flattened it out into an oblong-ish sort of shape, it cut beautifully.  And the baked biscuits were great.

Not overhandling seems to be the key.  Now my biscuit dough always looks and feels like it needs to be stirred and/or kneaded a great deal more than I have done it, but I stop myself.  They always turn out better now.  Yum!

Sharon, I use Suzanne's recipe for Quick Mix and mix a bit higher proportion (it varies, but always less than half and half) of my home ground wheat to the AP flour in her recipe.  They are WONDERFUL!  Must warn that they are very crumbly - impossible to pick up and eat without them falling apart but the flavor is great.

Sharon B., VA

Sharon B., VA

And I hope that you got a VERY good deal on the leaf fat.  When available around here, it it horridly expensive.  I would not even consider using it for making soap, since it is absolutely the best there is for baking.

But, it's yours, and you may do with it what you will!  (As IF you need my permission!  I hope that my teasing tone is coming through here!!)

Have fun with it.  There are so many ways to render it.  I have a couple of cast iron Dutch ovens that are waiting for the lard making extravaganza one of these days.