ExcerpTuesday Martha Cheves

Today Martha Cheves shares an excerpt from her latest cook book.

Most women have a thing about cookbooks. We own tons of them but how many do we actually use? Hardly any. Reason being that most of the recipes are either too complex with too expensive ingredients resulting in dishes way too fancy for average families. Thus began my search for an entertaining easy-to-use book of recipes to feed any family on any budget.. a book that would really be used instead of relegated to the back of the bookshelf. I quickly discovered that if such a book were to be found, I'd have to write it. And I did!Along the way, I sprinkled cooking stories from my childhood and life experience, plus tips and advice that we baby boomers got from our mothers and grandmothers before finding outselves way too busy to pass on to our own offspring. In Stir, Laugh, Repeat I'm willing to bet that there's a daughter, grandchild, "in need" in-law, co-worker, neighbor or friend who'd enjoy my roundup of recipes, how-tos and hilarity.Excerpt from Stir, Laugh, RepeatStory that goes with my recipe for Biscuits (page 101)

The first time I tried to make biscuits I was only around six or seven years old. See, I've always loved to cook. My mother used to make biscuits the old way. She kept a wooden bowl in the cabinet with her flour in it. When she started to make her biscuits she would add more flour, salt, baking powder, and her lard. She would run her hand around and make a hole in the center and start mixing her lard into the flour and pour her milk in. I really wanted to make biscuits too. So she let me. There were only three of us kids at that time. Me and my two brothers, one eight years older than me and the other one and a half years younger. My two brothers got into a fuss that night at the dinner table. My oldest brother picked up one of my biscuits and threw it at my little brother and hit him in the eye. He ended up with a black eye. I didn't make biscuits again until I was grown and decided to try again. I've tried several ways to make them light, fluffy and still have the taste of the buttermilk and this is the one I ended up sticking with to get what I wanted.

Thank you Martha Cheves for stopping by today.

cmr