Too Tired to Cook, or Will These Boxes Never End?

The house didn’t sell, Paula Jo got a new job nearby, and my job down south ended. Those three “strikes” indicated to us that maybe we didn’t need to move anywhere. There was just one teensy, tiny problem, hardly worth mentioning:

All our stuff was already moved. A hundred miles away. And stored in several buildings way out on a ranch in south Texas. Oh, and did I mention that we moved it all ourselves? And that we’d have the pleasure of moving it back, unpacking it and putting it back where it belongs?

I briefly considered torching the storage sheds, but since we don’t own those (and they’re not slated for replacement anytime soon), I reconsidered. It was a close thing, though.

Several horse trailer trips later, the garage and several rooms of the house that stubbornly refused to sell were stacked full of boxes. With PJ working full-time, it was left to me to get the boxes sorted into their proper locations and then unloaded.

Oh, my aching back!

We’re down to the last fifty boxes or so at this point, though. I got about 25 unpacked just today, in fact. An all-day chore which I started before 5 A.M. (Not before coffee, however. I’m focused, not brain-dead.) By the time the spousal unit got home I was bushed. Too pooped to poach. Too fatigued to fry. Too mashed to microwave. (Need I continue?) Even takeout which Paula has on speed-dial seemed like too much effort.

Then I got a hankering for biscuits. They’re quick, they’re easy, and they for dang sure would cure my nearly terminal carbohydrate deficiency. After reading a post recently on the Rosy + Tart weblog, I even knew how I wanted to fix them. Here’s my take on her fine recipe:

Quick Cheddar and Green Chile Biscuits

• 4 cups Bisquick or Pioneer Biscuit Mix
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 6 oz (1 1/2 cups) sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated
• 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, melted
• 1 can (4 oz) diced Hatch green chiles (I like the hot ones), drained

Heat oven to 450° F. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray, or line with parchment. Combine all five ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir to make a fairly uniform dough, but don’t over-work or you’ll get tough biscuits. (And those ain’t Good Eats.) Drop dough by the heaping teaspoon onto cookie sheet. Bake biscuits for 10 minutes, or until the tops begin to brown. Move hot biscuits to cooling racks after a couple minutes out of the oven. Once they’re cool enough to handle, they’re ready to go!

This batch size makes enough biscuits for a half-dozen hungry diners (or more). You can easily downsize the recipe. Or if you’re feeding a ravening horde, double the recipe (it’s easy enough) and cook in batches. When you do that, the horde will be more on the sleepy side in short order.

You can even bake some of those frozen chicken nuggets thingies and make your own chicken biscuits. (Don’t forget the dill pickle slices.) These won’t taste like fast-food breakfast, though. MUCH better!

Now I went and made me hungry; guess I better get cooking!

Enjoy the (Zesty Quick Biscuits) Heat!