Gramma Addie's Biscuits

Do you have a hankerin' for some delicious southern style biscuits?

Meet my Gramma Addie... and my daughter Addie... her namesake.

I looked for a while to find a recipe online that had biscuits like my Gramma Addie's. They are SO good and SO simple. Finally, I just asked her for the recipe.

Do me a favor though, try my way first, before you go trying to alter the recipe. I will tell you some of the things I've tried, but so far... sticking to the basic recipe is the best way.

These are the perfect biscuit {in my opinion}. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. They have an awesome buttery flavor. I had to starting halving the recipe because I would sit and eat the entire batch in about 5 or 10 minutes... seriously. My post 4 baby body just can't afford that.
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Here is the recipe.... and i'll tell you the secret to awesomeness at the end.

Ingredients: 

2 C. Self- Rising Flour
1 Stick salted butter {preferably frozen, but refrigerated will work}
1 C. Milk

{seriously, that's it}

Directions:

Put your flour in a bowl, and then quarter the butter {slice it in half length wise on both sides} and slice mini pats of it into the bowl. Add your milk and use a fork or spoon to incorporate it. Dont over mix it, just until combined... you don't want it to be super doughy. Put heaping spoonfuls on a cookie sheet {NON GREASED} and put 'em in the oven on 400 for about 17 minutes. I actually cook mine for 19-20 minutes... the browner the bottom, the more flavor you get.

I have also found that a dark cookie sheet works best, for some reason.


Alterations I've tried to make
I've tried making them Gluten Free/Dairy Free. DON'T DO IT. They were awful.

I've tried grating the butter in for the sake of ease and mess free fingers.. they were fine but didn't seem as buttery.

I've tried throwing it in a food processer and pulsing, like Ree Drummond does... I wasn't a fan. It over incorporated it and they weren't buttery enough... it was also a big pain in the rear to clean out.

Some things I want to try
Adding some cheddar cheese, for a red lobster type biscuit {even though I'm not a fan of theirs particularly}

Adding some sugar and cinnamon.

I still want to attempt a GF/CF version... but I might need expert help.

Feta-Spinach Quiche

{aren't phone cameras handy?!}

Okay, okay. Why should you trust me when I have pretty much dropped off of the face of the planet lately, you ask? Well, Because this was scrum-diddley-umptious. That's why.

P.S. I'm sorry about disappearing... I can't even guarantee that it won't happen again... some of you might be glad, who knows? I have been SUPER overwhelmed with, well, life. Four tiny kids have tapped me out. I just can't seem to get it together. This week was much better, though, and things seem to be turning a corner, so we shall see.

Anyhow, I know you're just reading for the recipe... which I don't technically have... it's more like a guestimate. Here goes.

Spinach Feta Quiche

4-5 large eggs
1-1 1/4 C. milk {I used 2%, b/c it's what I had, but the creamier the better... in my opinion}
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 C. Feta Cheese {I used Athenos garlic and herb seasoned... it's my favorite}
~3/4 - 1 C. blanched and squeegeed spinach {This equals about 4 huge handfuls of non cooked spinach}
1 large tomato or a small one... whatev.

Cook your pie crust as directed on the package {unless your SUPER domestic and motivated and make your own...}

Beat the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper well. Go ahead and get out some frustrations... it's therapeutic. If you need a sound track, Michael Jackson's "Beat it" will suffice.

Chop your spinach and add it {kind of separating the pieces as you go}.

Sprinkle your Feta cheese... liberally... I used probably 3/4 of the package. {Can you really ever have too much Feta cheese? Yes, the same cheese that I was too chicken to even try until a few years ago... it was life changing}.

Thinly slice your tomato... mine was really big so I only did three slices, but a bunch of small ones would work well... anyhow, place the slices on top of the quiche, and then to make it pretty, add a few pieces of the uncooked spinach.

Place it in the oven on 375 for about an hour... or until it's done. There you go. Delish. Glad my experiment turned out!

Simplify

So, I've been having a few better days lately. Partly due to an attitude adjustment that was much needed. The other parts are random insights I've discovered.

You see I am a very detail oriented person. Sometimes to a fault, in that, I lose sight of the main goal or point because I get caught up in the little things that truly don't matter.

What I'm slowly discovering, is that simplicity can be much more productive than extravagant planning.
Sometimes I find myself spending so much time planning for activities and chores and errands, that the window of opportunity closes... Time runs out and Im left with bored screaming kids, who've either watched tv all day or played the ipad all day... So i could plan. Planning that really accomplished nothing...because I get lost on Pinterest or Facebook.....and then forget what I originally needed to do.

Everyone ends up frustrated.

I've given it a rest. I've started just doing things. Even if the house sometimes gets messy or dinner isn't fixed {which is most of the time}... My kids are happier that they got to play with mom but eat cereal for dinner, than not getting any time with me and having a spotless house and cooked meal.
Now, I believe in balance.... It's something I struggle with. But, Im trying to stop overthinking everything so much... It's working.
When we need to get out of the house sometimes we go sit in the car and go for a drive... Have I mentioned yet how incredibly much I LOVE my new van. For real, I had no idea a vehicle could bring so much joy to a person. I look forward-ish to errands... Just so i can sit in my van. I L-O-V-E it.

Considering that I had a panic attack, sitting in the front seat, on the dealer lot...and that we almost didn't get it... Stupid, anxiety ....

Anyway. Simplify and just do it, not everything has to be over thunk... apparently.
The end.

They are sitting on my head... true story... but it entertained them, so hey, I took one for the team. 

Gluten Free- Dairy Free Pizza...

You heard me.

Chebe GF pizza dough, Daiya mozzarella fake cheese, pizza sauce, spinach, pineapple.

DONE and DONE.

My poor kids were SO thrilled to have pizza. I'm about to be daring and taste a bite of fake pizza.....

Wait for it......

There you have it... It was good! I kid you not.... it tastes good! Who knew "fake" pizza could be so good!

Chebe, thank you for making a decent pizza crust!

I'm going to do cauliflower pizza next.... slightly more nutritious than tapioca, especially since the fake cheese is made mostly from tapioca.

I'm impressed... A- that I had the cahunas to try it, and B- that it tastes good.

So there you have it... use the products above, and you'll have decent, allergen friendly pizza. I'm not saying it tastes like regular pizza... but it's decent enough to eat... and probably good if you're used to eating that way.

New ABC's

{CAUTION: This is freaking long and complicated.}

For the past couple of years, we have been through evaluation after evaluation with my daughter Bailey. She's almost 6 years old. Her most recent evaluation was with Developmental Pediatrics, and I was nervous.

Part of me expected them to come back and say something along the lines of "She's a normal 5 year old, just a little hyperactive." Which means that I'm just a weakling and can't hack motherhood... cause this junk is HARD. Though part of me knew better. Intelligence is not the issue. She is smart as a whip!   Behavior, emotions, and attention/focusing are the issues... which sounds pretty basic, but IF ONLY you knew the behavior and emotional side of things, you'd realize it's not just your run of the mill problem.

Anyhow, I will not bore you with all the lengthy details, I've written them out and answered questions for months now, over and over, and I don't have it in me, to do it again right now. SO, I will give you a brief synopsis of what we found out.

Her ADOS {test for autism and autism spectrum disorders} score was a 1, which 0 being the lowest, that was quickly ruled out. They did A LOT of intelligence testing. Her verbal score on the IQ test was a 124; that's in the 95%. I jokingly asked if we were talking MENSA smart here, and he was very serious when he said, "well, it's pretty close". So basically, what this means, is my kid is a genius. YES! Okay, so that is her VERBAL score.

I'm not looking at the report right now, so I'm just going to explain the next part as best I can, because here is where things get fun/fuzzy/clarified/complicated... you get the point.

The other part of the IQ test {the non-verbal portion} she originally scored in the 40's {I think it was a 44 or something}. So, they did another test, she scored a  77, then they did one more similar test, and it was like an 81. These are very low scores. These scores are 2-3 standard deviations lower than her verbal score. This is apparently, a really big deal. He said he's never seen a gap that large, ever, and that he's tested thousands of kids of the years. Hence the reason for the 3 different tests to make sure it was correct. Our spunky girl sure likes to break the molds.


What this brought to the surface {thankfully!} is that she has NON VERBAL LEARNING DISORDER  Syndrome. I've only read a little bit about it but basically, it's neurological and affects the way the right hemisphere of the brain functions. She is excellent at processing information verbally, she talks so much because that's how she works through information. All things visual, she doesn't even pick up on. This is where the social issues come from... and explains why she doesn't pick up on any body language or social cues. Especially, when most communication is non-verbal. So most things visual, she just isn't  processing... also the reason why she her motor skills were so awful when she was younger. From the little bit I've read up on it, it's the opposite of dyslexia. I'm not sure how exactly... I've got some more researching and reading to do. The doctor was great {Dr. Walker}, he said to feel free to give him a call or email him with any questions we have, because well, it's a lot of information to take in at one time.

ADHD, is very apparent and seems to be real, especially given that there is a family history on both mine and Jeffrey's sides of the family. This is pretty obvious, anyone who knows my kinky haired girl, can vouch for this! And in fact, the past week or so, I've had the next diagnosis in my mind as well.

ODD {Oppositional Defiance Disorder}- This can sometimes go along with children who have ADD/ADHD. He said that given the reports from both me and her teacher, this is a valid diagnosis, but with everything I've reported, he thinks it could easily be a possible mood disorder and the frustration of  not being able to focus, and channel/control her emotions is manifesting itself as the ODD. So he recommended that we have her evaluated by a child psychologist, to either confirm or rule this out. Then we will know exactly what it is we need to treat and we can retest her IQ in 6-12 months and see if the gap has closed with the NVLD syndrome.

So, in a nutshell... here you have it. I'm sure there are tons I'm leaving out, but this was the bottom line. So, basically, we have more evaluations coming up, but she's been through a lot so I'm going to wait a little while.

Trevor {3} just had his evaluation and started OT {Occupational Therapy} this week. So that's two a week for him and right now, one for Bailey, though I'm going to look into some social support type groups that can help her build the social skills she needs. So, fun times. Here I was thinking things were going to slow down here soon, not likely.

Thanks for tuning in!
I will post more in depth about the ODD and NVLDS when I learn some more about it.