Good Morning,
I decided to show you how I make biscuits.
I don't make them as often as I use to when the boys were small. Billy fuzzes about those bought kind and he really fuzzes about those in a can you have to whop on the edge of the counter to open up.
When I was growing up Mama made biscuits sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. At breakfast we would have something like sausage, gravy and biscuits or eggs and biscuits. Then at lunch, which we called dinner, we would have vegetables from the garden or if winter, vegetables that we had put up either canning or freezing, and biscuits or cornbread. Then at supper -that was the evening meal, we had meat of some kind, more vegetables and biscuits or cornbread. For snacks we had choices like, peanut butter and jelly in a biscuit, or just peanut butter in a biscuit. Tomato and mayonnaise in a biscuit (if it was summer, we always had tomatoes growing in the summer). Mama made fig preserves, apple jelly, watermelon rhine preserves which we would also slap in a biscuit. With 7 kids, several cousins, Grandma, Grandpa, a couple of Uncles and a Aunt always around you had to have something like biscuits to fill them up. Also we were creative and I even tried mashed banana with peanut butter in a biscuit.
It was Daddy's job to get me to bed when I was very small. As soon as he would lay down with me I would whine I want something to eat. He would fix me a peanut butter biscuit. You can imagine that bread and peanut butter sticking right in the roof of your mouth so I would whine I want something to drink. After a while Daddy would have my biscuit and water waiting. Right on cue when I started my stalling procedure to bed, Daddy would produce my bedtime snack so he could get some rest his own self. And Billy wonders why I was so spoiled?
On to biscuits. The first time I ever made biscuits I was an 18 years old bride. Those were the absolute worst things ever cooked. The outside was as hard as an old leather shoe and if you happen to crack through to the inside of the biscuit it was like silly putty. I am sure if you threw one it would have bounced like a wonder ball. I don't think Billy broke any teeth, but he did make an attempt to eat one. We had a Irish Setter Dog at the time and he wouldn't even eat one. I improved over time though and I don't usually measure out the ingredients but here is my best estimate on it.
My biscuit recipe
Heat oven to 425 degrees.
2 cups of self rising flour
1/3 cup of shortening
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1 tsp. of baking soda
Take a fork and cut the shortening in the flour until all the shortening is mixed in thoroughly. Then pour in the buttermilk a little at a time ( you want all the flour mixture real moist but not runny) it should look like this
Add the baking soda and mix.
Now I have an clean white pillowcase I use for this next part. I use the pillowcase because one of Billy's Aunt's told me that was the best thing to use. You can wash it and bleach it. I have used this same one for years and she was right. It works great.
Next put some flour down on the cloth then put the dough on top of the loose flour. Put a little more flour on top of the dough and knead the dough about 10 times, no more or the biscuits will be rubbery. Flatten out the dough with your hands, you don't need a rolling pin, until the dough is about 1/2 inch thick.
Billy's Aunt also told me the best biscuit cutter is a can with both ends cut out. I use an old tomato sauce can(it really is clean, just old. I suppose it is time for a new one).
Cut the biscuits out and re-knead the dough and finish cutting out until there is no more dough. Makes about 12 biscuits.
I spray my pan with cooking oil spray, just a little. Bake the biscuits in preheated 425 oven until the tops just start to turn brown. I then turn the broiler on to finish browning the tops good. That was the biscuits are not so hard in the middle from over baking. I like a soft biscuit.
Some folks brush some melted butter on before they brown the tops.
When you take the biscuits out of the oven and they cool just a little, you can cut open the biscuit and put some margarine or butter in it. You haven't lived until you have had a hot buttered biscuit loaded with your favorite jelly or preserves.
When I told my oldest sister I was going to put my biscuit recipe on she said I could use her biscuit recipe. She recently retired from a Federal Government job and raised a great son, but biscuit making wasn't her cup of tea. When her husband asked once (and I believe it was only once) for homemade biscuits, this is her recipe.
This is a photo of me and my sisters taken in 1960.
My Sister's Easy Homemade Biscuit Recipe
Take a can of biscuits. Any size , any kind.
Open and take out individual biscuits.
Take a large object- she used a big soup spoon - and hit the biscuits(good therapy too) until the biscuits look abused.
Then squish the biscuit a little and rip the biscuits around the edges making them look more homemade. At this point feel free to add some ugly words as long as small children are not present.
Then bake as can recommended.
Do not feel sorry for her. It is her new trick. The other 4 goats hover around her and rub on her like she is in the big house recreation yard trying to escape and gets caught. Annie knows exactly what she is doing. After the first time of getting loose she gets a neck massage that I was envious of and then an extra scoop of feed. How long do you think it took her to get her head back in that fence? About 10 minutes, that's how long. The third time I caught on to her scheme. I believe Annie thought I would feel so bad for her that she would get front porch privileges again. And she was doing so well on her road to being a real goat. 
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