Cat's head biscuits and quilt pictures

Cat's head biscuits are so named because they are the size of a cat's head.

So, I'm going to make your mouth water. Imagine a biscuit that is as big as a fist, taller than it is wide. Perfectly light brown on the outside and when you break it open, it just steams with moist goodness. My Mama's biscuits were always like that. Light and fluffy and big. Perfect to split open and put in a half slice of ham or a sausage patty and turn into an impromptu sandwich. Perfect slathered in butter and jelly.

I can remember my Mom making these biscuits in an 8 inch cake pan. I have those pans. They're beat up and creased and banged up, just like they were when she made biscuits in them. And, I have the same recipe she used. I use the same ingredients in the same proportion and bake them in the same pan. But somehow, my biscuits are not as big, not as fluffy as hers. Don't get me wrong; I am known for making a good biscuit. But, they're not Mama's.

There was no rolling and cutting on those biscuits. She formed each one by hand. She'd melt a little shortening in the pan and roll the formed biscuits in it and then slide them in next to one another so they fit tight. When I make the recipe, it just barely fills the pan and there's no need to pack them in tight.

She'd take the pan out of the oven, after the perfect amount of time, and turn the biscuits out on a plate. Then, my Dad would start his part of the breakfast process and he'd break each one open and slide in a pat of Imperial Margarine, close the biscuit and turn it upside down on the plate. That Margarine would melt and soak into the biscuit top. Yum.

Then, we'd slather them with home made jelly and eat every one she made. Each one as big as a cat's head. If there were more than we could eat for breakfast, we'd find them at the lunch table. If there were extras when she made Turkey and Dressing, they'd find their way into the dressing. Never waste something as good as the perfect biscuit.

My sister and I would argue over the center biscuit because it was the one with the most rough surface. The ones around the edges had the flat surface where they rose against the sides of the pan, but the ones in the center didn't have that smoothness. I guess the center biscuit was the most desirable because they were the scarcest. At some point, I can remember that my Mom started putting two biscuits in the center. That worked that problem out.

2 homemade biscuits; 2 eggs, scrambled in bacon fat; bacon (you remember bacon when it was more lean than fat?) or sausage patties; grits (ground up white corn, boiled in water until it was like polenta, for those of you not from the south) that had been made yellow with melted Margarine and liberally speckled with black pepper; and orange juice. That was breakfast when I was growing up. It makes my mouth water just to think of it. And, it makes this morning's breakfast of 2 eggs scrambled in olive oil; 2 slices of Turkey bacon, cooked in the microwave; one slice of whole wheat toast with a half teaspoon of storebought jam spread thinly over it pale in comparison. But, my parents and grandparents were more active than my family is. They worked all day, every day. Plaque had no time to settle in their arteries.

Times change and so does food. And, that makes this memory part of Way Back Wednesday.

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Now for the quilt pics. This is my fancy quilt. I haven't shown pics of the finished product yet because I was so disappointed that it didn't turn out the way I wanted. Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful, but it is not a reflection of what I thought it would be. After all, it's hard to acknowledge that the back of my quilt is prettier than the front.

This is a shot of the front of the quilt. You can barely see the quilting in it. Key lesson learned is still thread color choice. I used an olive green fabric and a yellow thread. Everyone says to use a shade lighter than you think you should. I started at olive and went lighter to yellow. I should have either started at yellow and gone lighter or gone darker than the olive fabric.

Now, here is the finished back. In the border, I used the print on the fabric from the front and quilted around every flower petal and leaf and used echo filler in the brown blank space. None of it shows from the front, but all that detail is in the back.

These next two pics are just sections of the back. The lower right corner...

and the upper left.

I don't know when I'll spend another 6 weeks quilting a quilt like I did this little one. It is very time intensive and took about 2200 yards of thread for a quilt that measures 40"x40". But, I will make another one. Something close to whole cloth like this one is. But, I'll be more careful selecting thread.

Well, that's all that's going on with us right now. Take care and we'll see ya' round the www. Lane