Dear Mr. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

Here's how the letter reads when you're accepted into kindergarten at the Catholic school:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Dinner,
Thank you for taking the time to allow your child to participate in the evaluation process for the 2008-2009 kindergarten program at [You don't expect me to put the name of the school here, do you?]. Our evaluators are pleased to report that your child meets all the criteria to have a successful experience in our program for the coming school year.

In other words, congratulations, your child is qualified to enter kindergarten. Personally I'd rather have gotten the Hogwarts letter.

The biggest shock I received while working in the dairy section at Wal-Mart was just how little cooking we do as Americans. From TV dinners to frozen pizza, so much of what we eat is prepared for us. And no item brought that home to me as much as those Pillsbury biscuits.

I can understand why the crescent rolls are big sellers. I've looked up how to make them. They're time consuming and difficult to prepare. But biscuits are supposed to be a staple of southern cooking, aren't they? Don't they come together so fast that your oven may not even have time to preheat? Well those things flew off the shelf. There's even a local restaurant owner that stops by Wal-Mart and buys them out twice a week. Appalled, I decided to make some myself thinking that if I, a northeastern boy, can make biscuits, then anyone can.

And wouldn't you know it, Alton made biscuits on Friday's Good Eats rerun. So I got to see a master biscuit maker in action: Alton's grandmother. And on Alton's online recipe for biscuits she even comments that the recipe on the back of the bag of White Lily flour is hard to beat. I live in rural Pennsylvania so I can't get White Lily flour. So I got this:

Gold Medal has their own recipe for biscuits on the back of their bag. Nicole from Pinch my Salt actually posted the recipe on the back of White Lily's bag. She also did her homework and listed the protein content for all types of flours. That way I knew I wasn't too far off with this flour. Way cool. (Go vote for her as the best food blog.) So should I use Alton's recipe, White Lily's or Gold Medal's? Well since I've got Gold Medal flour I used their recipe.

Except I didn't. I watched Good Eats and Alton said to replace some of the shortening with butter and it will taste better. I am fearless in the face of substitutions!

Looking around at the different recipes out there I must say that the one on the back of Gold Medal self-rising flour has twice the fat as all the others. I mean, EIGHT tablespoons of shortening? Really? I tried to use less, but it wouldn't crumble the way the bag said it would. Oh, and another thing. Grocery stores here in Podunk don't have all this low fat or fat free buttermilk. No, these biscuits were made with WHOLE buttermilk. Schedule my bypass for next Tuesday please.  (UPDATE: Karen tells me that the local Wal-Mart sells low fat buttermilk, but I really haven't been in there since I picked up my last paycheck.)

I apparently used a very large biscuit cutter because I only got eight biscuits out. That's what, one tablespoon of fat per hockey puck, right? They may not have been much to look at,

but they browned up kind of nice. And with all that shortening in there my biscuits definitely had flaky layers. They didn't all rise the same, though, because I made them in my 12 year old toaster oven.

Okay, so here's the point. These weren't a home run, but they were a hit. Even the kids ate them. If a self-proclaimed wannabe in the kitchen can do this well on his first try then anyone can do this. These turned out good and I'll definitely do it again. Next time I'll try a recipe with less fat.

See you at the gym.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
5 Tbsp. shortening
3 Tbsp. butter
3/4 to 1 cup buttermilk

Method:
Heat oven to 450 degrees F. In a medium bowl stir together flour, sugar, and baking soda. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the buttermilk until the dough leaves the side of the bowl and rounds up into a ball.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Knead gently 5 or 6 times or until smooth. Roll or pat 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a floured 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet so that they just touch.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter if desired.

Thank you.

You've heard me rant against my oven. It preheats and then shuts off. It's sabotaged my creme brulee, cinnamon rolls, and pizza. But it's never beaten me. All three of those projects came out great. So what could be worse than an oven that shuts off?

A gas grill.

Not just any gas grill, though, an EVIL gas grill. Okay, so perhaps all gas grills are evil.

I just don't get it. I was great with charcoal. Those were the best burgers I've ever had. Come to think of it, I still make pretty good burgers on the grill. I make pretty good steaks on the grill too. I've even cooked veggies on the grill. But there's one thing I've never gotten right since I started with this stupid thing.

Chicken.

In the picture above you see my latest batch of Jerk Chicken, from July 4th. It was actually pretty funny. We had a guest, and he very graciously said nothing while politely avoiding the chicken altogether. I've made chicken at least half a dozen times this year, and every time they end up looking like this. Perhaps I get impatient and that's why I close the lid, but as soon as I do I turn BBQ into something that's becoming legendary in our house.

Chernobyl Chicken.

Last week Karen made an unwelcome comment to me, "Why doesn't Bobby Flay burn his chicken like this?" Because Bobby Flay never cooks chicken on a gas grill. And it's dead easy with charcoal. You put the coals in the middle and put the chicken around the outside of the grill. He doesn't even close the lid, ever. The Jerk gets this great blackened skin (not burned) that's delicious. Cooking on a gas grill with indirect heat is like washing my minivan with a toothbrush. That's why I'm good with burgers and steaks. When God made cows he said "Thou shalt be cooked over an open flame."

I used to be a proud non-owner of a gas grill. Now I'm a shamed owner of a gas grill that has truly beaten me. And since my Weber kettle grill died a grisly death last year I'm doomed for at least two summers to tinker, fiddle, and experiment, ultimately burning the chicken anyway.

Like my dad always said "They're brown when they're cookin', and they're black when they're done."