Well no, the mystery solved is not any of the great mysteries of the universe. Well no, the mystery solved is not the key to world peace. Well no, the mystery solved is not even the key to curing world hunger. A bit of peace will come for me and I am not going to be hungry, and I am delighted I have once again proven I am never too old to learn!
These frozen Grands were so great I even took them to my mom! How convenient for them as well. Even the snow and ice and bitter winter wind chills could not stand in the way of there being hot, fresh, delicious biscuits on their table. She could even just take two out of the package and bake them fresh for a meal! What a treat! What a delight!
These biscuits are not always in stock in our grocery. This may sound really petty, even compared to my thrill over a great biscuit, but one of my great shopping frustrations is not being able to find the same product, in the same store, more than once or twice. Where did Starfruit Citrus Vitamin water go? Where did the great pickled garlic go? Not to mention, where are the biscuits?
Eventually I did find the biscuits back in the grocery frozen foods. Bought them. Baked them. Yuck, they were not the same! Sorry Grands, but they were heavy, tough, and not nearly as flavorful! Second shopping frustration, products with the same name and packaging don’t stay the same! Why can’t well enough just be left well enough! Some changes are not for the better.
Since so much time had passed between the experiences of finding great biscuits and then finding the Grands again, I wasn’t even sure I had remembered the right style of biscuits. There are several to choose from, so one by one I tried them all. Yuck! My disappointment mounted. In fact, it became a search - a mission - to figure out the biscuits. What kind were they? Was I imagining things? Were the delicious wonderful convenient Pillsbury biscuits just a mirage?
Years passed without solving this mystery.
Two years ago, Cass and Bo were visiting Bo’s family in Georgia and while there Cass got to eat wonderful biscuits! She asked Bo’s mom about them. Had she made hem from scratch? NO! They were from the grocery, frozen and just baked at home. They were Grands Pillsbury Southern Style Biscuits! WOW! Hope renewed. Maybe Pillsbury had chosen to change their recipe back to the one of years gone by! So, back out on the frozen food trail I went, searching for the better biscuits.
Disappointment. I found them, bought them, baked them, but they were no better than the ones of the previous few years. Definitely not the great ones I remembered! Was Georgia getting better frozen biscuits than Nebraska? Were we going to need to have them shipped?
This past week, I had a hankering for some comfort food. I decided to make creamed turkey and decided to try to choose the best possible biscuit choice to serve as the base. Thought about just going to McDonalds and buying a couple of their sausage biscuits and taking out the sausage; because McDonald’s biscuits are really, really good. But, there in the frozen foods of the grocery store were Grands Pillsbury Southern Style Biscuits and on sale! I decided the discounted price was an omen! I bought them to try one more time!
Success! Yummy! These Grands were the same delicious biscuits of five years ago! WOW! Hallelujah! The creamed turkey had a fitting companion!
I was so excited about the biscuit find, I decided to make biscuits and gravy (along with the Bacon Explosion - tha's a story for another day!) for Saturday morning brunch for the Nebraska - Michigan game (that’s a story we will just avoid). Kopetkas and Cass and Bo were coming and I would unveil the return of biscuit greatness! Great biscuit joy!
Well, the gravy was good and the bacon amazing but the biscuits were bad! What on earth was the deal? Same brand and style of biscuits purchased from the same grocery store in the same week.... but unrecognizable! They were polar opposites from the ones I baked earlier in the week! How disappointing! What went wrong - not just with the Huskers but with my biscuits?
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| Good biscuit on the right...... bad biscuit on the left! |
Sunday morning and an epiphany! Mystery solved!
For more than five years I have been baking them INCORRECTLY! How I ever got them right is amazing. How I figured out the link between repeated greatness is amazing. That I baked them correctly earlier in the week is astounding. That I was able to figure it out this morning is a delight!
The manufacturer’s baking instructions clearly define how to properly bake the biscuits but somehow I had omitted one KEY point. The biscuits need to touch when baking! I repeat, the biscuits need to touch when baking.
How often is it in life that such simple little differences make the huge difference in outcome?
Lesson learned. Point taken. Read the instructions. Check your methods. Check for the details, twice if necessary. It all matters.
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