Feast or Famine

Before tonight I had yet to teach anyone anything.  Not one person had made it to my class.  But tonight, not one, not two, not five, but 12 women showed up to my class!!!?!?!?!!?  I didn't know what to do with myself.  I was so nervous that I was knocking stuff down.  There weren't even enough chairs for everyone!  I don't know what the organizing lady said on the radio today but it worked (I'm going to call her to find out!).

I THINK the class went well (again, I'm going to call the lady for some feedback).  The women were receptive and chuckled even to my weak attempts at making jokes.  While I didn't know any of them from Eve, they were in the age bracket older than "young moms", some into middle-agedhood or older.  Maybe that was the problem - we were targeting the wrong age group...  I had planned to keep the information quite simple, but when I saw their reaction to my notes (I gave them each a copy of my class notes) and when a lady asked me if sugar contributed to weight gain, I decided I needed to scale it back even more.  Tonight's class was about beverages with a focus on pop, coffee, juice (100% and "fake"), milk (chocolate and regular) and water.  When asked "did anybody learn anything new tonight" one lady said she learned that caffeine is a drug (and then they proceeded to poke fun at me regarding Brian letting me drink coffee you know, because it's a drug ;o) and another lady noticed how much sugar is present in the different beverages, especially pop (they don't drink diet because it's almost TWICE the price of regular).  So there, I feel like I did my job.  I taught somebody something new.

Tonight's recipe was Cheddar Biscuits made with oil instead of shortening or lard.  The Inuit people eat a lot of bannock, a biscuit or bread-type staple, they eat with most meals.  Bannock is made with flour, salt, water and shortening or lard.  My goal for the Cheddar Biscuits was to provide a healthier alternative to bannock.  It was fun making it (they had never sifted flour before) and they liked the biscuits for the most part.  The only complaint is that they weren't salty enough (the recipe called for 1tsp salt and cheese).  I guess I'll have to tackle the salt issue another day!

Cheddar Baking Powder Biscuits

2 cups All-purpose flour, sifted

1 tbsp Baking powder

1 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Sharp cheddar cheese, grated (optional)

1/2 cup Canola oil

1 cup Milk

Preheat oven to 425 F

1.  Sift dry ingredients into a bowl.  Add cheese and mix well.

2.  Pour canola oil and milk together in a cup, but do not stir. 

3.  Make a well in flour, and add the canola oil/milk mixture.

4.  Stir with a fork until all flour in dampened.

5.  Drop spoonfuls of dough on greased cookie sheet.

6.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Best served warm.

Makes about 12 big biscuits