Drop rounded spoonfuls on baking sheet.....

I was making drop biscuits this morning, and smiled to myself as I recalled a frantic telephone conversation with a friend.

"What in the HELL does it mean, 'drop by rounded spoonfuls'? It doesn't even say what SIZE of spoon!"

I thought that all southerners picked up cooking skills by osmosis merely by being around the kitchen when they were young and watching how their mommas and grandmas cooked and just knew by the smell and taste when something was "right". I thought wrong.

"What are you making?"

"Cookies."

"Then probably you'll want to use a teaspoon."

"Okay. I'll get it out of the dishwasher."

"You don't have to use a measuring spoon! Just use one from your silverware."

"But that isn't exactly a teaspoon."

"IT DOESN'T MATTER! Just use it and if the cookies turn out too large or small when they're finished baking, adjust the next batch." Sheesh.

After I hung up the phone, I reflected back on my cooking career. When I was young, I decided I was not EVER going to cook. My plans included a career. Marriage, children, and low financial resources never entered into my thought processes. I was going to eat at restaurants forever. I refused to let my momma entice me into the kitchen when I entered my teens and, as I was always working after school and during the summer, evading learning advanced cooking skills was easy. Oh, I did have a few skills, like making killer hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, fried taters, grits, picking and cooking wild greens, frying squash and green 'maters. I avoided things like biscuits, making jelly, frying chicken, and canning produce from the garden for the winter.

The female relatives tsked tsked when speaking of me. "How is she ever going to take care of a household if she can't cook? She doesn't even make biscuits!" My thought on the matter was that if I never ate a homemade biscuit again with homemade grape jelly and home-churned butter, well, I would just die a happy woman with a life well spent in avoiding drudgery.

After I graduated high school, I ended up a long, long way from home, courtesy of Uncle Sam. I highly recommended military service to anyone who wants to get away from home in the worst possible way (heh) and see the world. Then while I was in the military and having an absolutely wonderful time (except for the inability to sleep in), I did the unthinkable. I fell in love and got married. Now we both had an absolutely wonderful time and ate out at restaurants except for the occasional meal of Hamburger Helper, hashbrowns, fried 'taters, or scrambled eggs. If we ran short of restaurant funds, we could eat at the mess hall.

Life was very good until the birth control pills didn't and baby made a family. This was no ordinary baby. This was a baby that was allergic to baby formula. All of them. He had to be breastfed at frequent intervals. I was on orders to Korea for after the baby was born. Husband's enlistment was up at this time. He had been planning on taking care of the baby when I was gone, but he was deficient in the lactating department and the U.S. Army did not encourage nursing at @ 2-hour intervals. I had to get a hardship (honorable) discharge (which was fine with the Army as they were RIFing at the time). (RIF = Reduction in Force.)

So there we were, suddenly plunged into civilian life with a baby, limited savings because we spent it all on restaurants and travel, and no income which meant no money for restaurants. Since one of us had to stay at home and lactate while the other one pounded the pavement looking for a job, one of us had to learn some cooking skills.

Note: The recipe linked at the top is not my recipe for drop biscuits with cheddar cheese. MY recipe includes 1/2 tsp. garlic. When kids would ask me why I would put things like garlic into biscuits, my answer was because it keeps vampires away! When they protested that there are no vampires in Florida, I would say "See how well it works?"