Fustration and Biscuits

Yesterday I was given a lesson on the subject of patience. I was so much hoping that I could finish a quilt that I am working on, so I could share some pictures here, and show that I really am accomplishing some things!

So much for pride, and so much for quilting! I was zipping along at a nice speed, thinking how wonderful it would be to have this project finished (I've been working on this quilt since June 2007)....when it happened. I ran out of thread. A quick peek in my storage tin revealed that I had no back-up spool of navy colored thread. Oh dear.

So I picked up a clothing project that I had put off for several months because I was trying to finish my quilt. "If I can't finish my quilt project, I can at least finish this one," I tried to think cheerfully.

Ten minutes later, I stared at my second spool of thread....my empty spool of thread. Oh dear. No back-up spool of brown thread, either.

So...my apologies, but there will be no beautiful pictures of finished quilts today. Instead, I offer you a recipe that has brought smiles to so many faces every time I serve it at our table. I mentioned it in a post a few days ago: my sweet potato biscuits. The recipe is adapted from a Taste of Home magazine. ( A great magazine, by the way! ...But I always have to tweak everything I bake.)

Sweet Potato Biscuits

2 cups white whole wheat flour (home-ground
is really good!)
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
4 TBS cold butter
3 TBS shortening
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes
6 TBS milk, soured with 1 capful lemon juice

In a medium-size bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cinnamon with a fork. (If all ingredients are cold, you will have flakier biscuits.) Cut in butter and shortening with a pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add sweet potatoes - do not stir; pour milk with lemon juice over the sweet potatoes. Now stir everything together just until combined. Turn onto floured surface. (I usually end up adding 1/4 - 1/2 cup flour more into the dough at this time; it is very sticky, but don't overdo it.) Knead a few times, and pat out to 1/2" thickness. Cut with a 2 1/2" biscuit cutter. Place biscuits on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until turning golden on top (this is slightly hard to judge, as the biscuits have a golden color from the sweet potatoes, but if they are a little moist in the middle, no harm done! They still taste good!) Serve warm (That piece of instruction was in the original recipe, but I have yet to discover what harm comes from serving these biscuits cold, as I have never had leftovers of these, even when I double the recipe.) Yield: 10-12 biscuits.


Hope you enjoy these as much as we do! If the thought of sweet potatoes in biscuits scares you off as weird, just work up the courage to give them a try - it's worth it!