biscuits.

hey duders!
my daughters, harvest and maple, are here again,
and that's the best news there is to report....
and when they're around,
i think we're all motivated to make sure every minute matters more.
that's no joke.
to that end,
even after a long day early early morning wakefulness (3:30 a,m,),
and a whole day's worth of driving to and from the meet-up spot,
and an immediate return to the workplace,
and that after delivering their daughterly teenaged layabout selves
to the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress....
then we all got back together, and amber brought over some thai food,
and we enjoyed the sunset and noodoos and family togetherness
all at the same time.
and we even fired up some homemade kettlecorn to gnaw on while we watched a movie,
or, at least, while the girls watched it, and i fell asleep,
just so i could wake up too damned early all over again.
yikes, neighbors- the earliest earlies are not cool.
i'm saying that despite rarely ever sleeping past six in the morning normally.
what the F* is starting your day at 3?
oh.
the answer is: a terrible idea.
got it.
*
annnnyway,
i took a shot at homemade semi-freestyle english muffins.
check the finished-product-looks-nice-type teleport:

yup.
for serious.
i made those!
all by  myself.
the true story?
they were less like english muffs,
nothing like british biscuits,
somewhat similar to fried dough,
and a lot more reminiscent of southern biscuits than anyhthing else.
i made from-scratch vegan buttermilk,
whisking cider vinegar and lemon juice and oil into some soymilk
and then letting it sit and curdle in it's own acidic environment,
and i took a stick and more of earth balanced butterish spread,
and let it warm up to room temperature, too.
four cups of flour, and a heavy-handed grabful of sugar, a tablespoon of salt,
and fast-activated action-packed turbo yest, all together in the stand-up mixing bowl,
plus a quarter cup of warm water, a splash of agave,
and some fully-engaged regular active yeast for further and farther rising power-
guys,
it's a greasy wet mess when it's ready.
that's when you knead it into an elastic ball of overwrought gluten,
and out it aside for an hour to blow the heck up.
....and once it's big and hot and swollen?
uh-huh.
you put it in the fridge for a while.
hahahahaha.
superfancy unnecessary complicated bread sh!t is what i do when i'm up and at 'em
well before the rest of my tiny little enclave regains consciousness.
friends,
you roll the whole dough in semolina flour,
top and bottom,
roll it out, slice it up into circles,
and then you pan fry both side a little to get 'em golden brown and crispy!!
yuuuuuup.
that's real.
that way, the tops and bottoms get firm,
and the flaky middle pulls apart soooo easily.
that's smart.
i saw a dude make something similar,
and it looked so much like a pain in the A*,
but also so expert, that i gave it a shot on my own time.
i might've over-oiled the pan,
and those tasty little nuggets might've gotten overfried,
but,
that took nothing away from the new hottness in the final outcome.
no foolin'.
we have our own small world over here,
insulated from outsiders,
protected on three sides by woodsly goodness,
out-of-sight, out-of-the-way, and one hundred percent all ours.
this Folk Life that happens when we aren't apart,
when i'm not at work,
when we're all together?
it's the best thing i've got to look forward to,
and it keeps the home fires lit during all the other long times,
hard styles,
tough nights, worse mornings, and tiresome, tedious, lamentable in-betweens.
it's ALL really happening,
but only the parts that overlap with the three leading ladies in my play
are worth spotlighting.
high lighting our high life as lowlifes in the high country is what's up.
today is the day, and there may only be one or two more
before school and work take over and take us away from each other.
i'm grateful for the time we have been given-
there's never enough of a good thing;
never quiet, never soft.....