The Best Biscuits and Good Ol' Southern Jelly

Missy Tippens

Thought I'd do a throw-back post today! It's from October 19, 2012. Enjoy!


The Belle, here. Well, I had promised a pumpkin recipe but never got to make it. So, in celebration of all things pumpkin, I want to start with something yummy I tried this week...

A Pumpkin Pie Moolatte from Dairy Queen!

It even had nutmeg grated on top!

Now for my "recipe" for today. ;)

My favorite biscuits. Are you ready for this? Here are the ingredients:

1 Bag of frozen Mary B's Biscuits! :)

Yep. That's it. I promise you these are about the best biscuits ever. They make several styles of biscuits, but my favorite is the Tea Biscuits. They're just a couple of bites each and have the best texture. A little crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

YUM! And easy peasy--perfect for someone like me whose homemade biscuits always turn out like hockey pucks.

Preheat the oven to about 400. You can just put the biscuits on a cookie sheet frozen.

Bake 15-20 minutes.

And voila! You have beautiful, golden brown biscuits. Quick, while they're hot, split them and add a nice thick pat of real butter!

Here are our favorite Georgia-style toppings...

Muscadine jelly! (This jelly is actually made with muscadine wine as well as grape juice.) Muscadines are a type grape that are grown around here. In fact, the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension website says that in 2006, Georgia was the largest producer of muscadine grapes with 1400 acres of them. The grapes are high in resveratrol, the compound found in red wine that's supposed to lower cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. So we'll pretend eating the jelly is healthy, too! :)

I have to tell you a funny story. When I first moved here and started working, I went on break with my coworkers, and one of them asked me if I'd like a scuppernong. She held out a baggie of huge grape looking things. I looked at her like she was crazy, I'm sure, and asked what she'd just said! LOL Such a strange word. I just now did a bit of research and found it's a variety of the muscadine. However, some sites calls the red grapes muscadines and the white ones scuppernongs. Either way, they make fantastic jelly!

Another local jelly we love is mayhaw jelly. I had to do a little checking to find out what in the world a a mayhaw is (I'm originally from Kentucky so had never heard of them either). They're tart red berries (aren't technically a berry but are in the haw or apple family) that grow in the swamps and bogs of southwest Georgia.

So, you've had your tasty lesson for the day! Hope you enjoyed a visit to the south. :)

Missy
www.missytippens.com

An Accidental Delight

Caveat: this meal is brought to you courtesy of some nasty grapes.

I love red grapes and lately I've been eating a lot of them. They're a great natural way of keeping your blood pressure down! And all those antioxidants! Honestly, I just feel so virtuous when I'm snacking on them.



So last week, I bought a big bag of organic ones. I was so excited to have them to snack on while I wrote.



Alas, they had some nasty muck on them.

It might have been mold. It might have been dirt. But the thought crossed my mind that it could also be bird poop, so there was no way I could enjoy them.

But waste not, want not.

So I decided to roast them after thoroughly washing!


I put a little coconut oil in a baking dish and put the washed grapes in it in a hot oven.

They were okay, but a little sweet.

So then I had this brainstorm.

I needed lunches for work, so I made a pot of brown rice and cooked another pot full of sprouted lentils. 
I added some garam masala. 

I added turmeric to the rice, but I don't recommend it. Pretty but the flavor was overwhelming.

When the rice and lentils were done, I mixed them together and added in the grapes.

Delicious!

 
The grapes were the perfect counterpoint to the rice/lentils mix. It tasted great warm and it also tasted terrific chilled.

I sprinkled some toasted almonds on top!