A Day Behind the Red Door, and the Holy Grail Bisciut

Susan, dear Susan came up for her yearly visit this past weekend, and we had a Red Door day at the dairy barn....a "Day of Beauty," if you will. 

She trimmed everyone's hooves...hoof trimming is not my forte.  Susan has to give them a proper trim once a year, which i am able to maintain for about six months.  After that, every time i trim, someone winds up either bleeding profusely or limping for a few days.  I got Lucy so bad one time, i didn't have to trim one hoof for about five months.  Once it gets out of control, and Susan has to come give me a fresh base line, and all the goatie girlz breathe a sigh of relief.  

Lets see, Andy got a haircut, but Moon didn't, because by the time we got to the bucks, we were too tired to go to that rodeo.  We did evaluations on everyone so we can start laying out the breeding plan for next season, and we took glamour shots or mug shots, as the case may be, for the record books.  It was a long, hard days work, and we both slept like logs that night

This would be what Moon Man thinks about all this "Day of Beauty" garbage.

The best part of this day, however, was having Susan in my kitchen.  Showed me how to make biscuits.  The last couple of months, i have been on a mission to learn to make good biscuits.  This is not an easy thing to do.  What constitutes a good biscuit is a highly personal and subjective thing.  My mother and grandmother used to make great biscuits.  Unfortunately, they took the secret with them.  So i have been gathering recipes from all kinds of places, and have made a couple of okay batches, and a lot of bricks.  The dogs and chickens have been very pleased with my efforts, but i have yet to create the Grail Biscuit.  I wouldn't mind continuing the search, but jeez, with the price of butter these days, i am not sure i can justify continuing my little hobby.  Sometimes it is cheaper to just BUY the darn things, especially when the Dough Boy puts those never fail beauties in a blue freezer bag for me. 

As we were heading out to the dairy barn to commence the Day of Beauty activities, i passed by the bag of bricks from the night before, and asked Susan what the secret of good biscuits was.  "Technique," she replies.  Okay, but is it having the butter cold, cutting in the fat properly, not overworking it, baking powder, no baking powder, what?

Turns out Susan, dear Susan has a recipe blog.  All this time i have known her, and i never new this.  The page failed to make in on my favorites list, and is now lost to me, so Susan, would you be a dear and post the addy in comments for us?  As you are well aware, i have lost my map, so need a tour guide when surfing the net.  Her blog is http://www.queeenacresonline.blogspot.com/, and am sure those of you that are more technosavvy than i can find it from there.  The actual biscuit recipe is given with her chicken and dumplings recipe.

Back to the important part.  The recipe for her biscuits can be found on her site, but the key, according to Susan, is technique.  Do you know what the technique is?  She uses her HANDS.  From start to finish, the only thing she used a spoon for was to scoop the flour into the measuring cup. 

So here is what i think.  Her recipe looks just about like most of the other recipes i have found, except she uses sugar.  I don't think technique has anything to do with this.  I think the key is her hands.  HER hands.  I think Susan has MAGIC hands. 

I just made a batch, all by myself, and they were pretty good.  Dumpling, cobbler and gravy worthy.  I am still looking for the perfect jelly biscuit, though.  But no, when i did them myself, they were not as good as Susan's.  It is her hands.  I am pretty sure this is the secret ingredient in Susan's Darn Near Perfect Biscuits.