Thanksgiving Greeting
Happy Thanksgiving! May God bless you and your loved ones during the next 40 days or so as we turn from thanksgiving to awe in the celebration of Advent and the Savior who came to us as a virgin’s child. How I love this time of year!
We are deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed to the mission of ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ this year. Whether you donated to the university, provided goods or services to us, prayed for us, participated directly in the education of our students, sent new students to us, or simply spoke well of us in the community, we are grateful. Those are just a few of the ways people participate in our work, and rather than make a longer list, I simply want to say thank you to everyone who helped us in any way.
During this holiday season, I will struggle mightily to keep from gaining weight, and if this year is no exception, I will fail. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there is just so much opportunity to eat! A time for fasting will come when January rolls around, but the holidays are for feasting. It reminds me of the fact that when God the Father sent Jesus into the world, He sent us true food. Jesus said, after feeding the 5,000, “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35). He explained, “For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). In Greek and Hebrew both, “bread” also means “food” in general, as in “Give us this day our daily bread/food.” So as you celebrate the holidays with food, I hope you will remember each time that Jesus is the bread who gives you eternal life.
Unlike the Bread of Heaven, earthly bread doesn’t really travel well. It is best eaten hot. So instead of sending you food this Christmas, I’d like to share a recipe. For at least the past couple of hundred years, my family has been eating biscuits. I paid a special visit to my Aunt Vester in Tuscaloosa, Alabama during my 20s to learn exactly how she made the best biscuits in the world, and I’ve been making them for my kids and grandkids ever since. Aunt Vester didn’t use a recipe; she just knew by sight how much of each ingredient to mix into the bowl, but I reduced her wisdom to a formula. (I also learned that butter works better than Crisco shortening, and I don’t use buttermilk anymore.) I hope you’ll give my recipe a try.
Castleberry Biscuits Recipe
Ingredients:
​​​​1¾ cups of all purpose flour
2½ tablespoons of baking powder
¾ teaspoon of salt
6 tablespoons of butter
¾ cup of milk
- Preheat the oven to 450° F.
- Prepare a dry, clean countertop by sprinkling flour on it.
- Gather the ingredients listed below along with a pastry cutter or a big fork, the measuring instruments needed, and a cookie sheet.
- Mix the following ingredients in a large bowl:
- 1¾ cups of all purpose flour.
- 2½ tablespoons of baking powder.
- ¾ teaspoon of salt.
- Mix 6 tablespoons (or three finger widths) of butter into the dry ingredients. You can ideally cut the butter in with a pastry blender or a big fork or even just blend it in with your fingers, but I like to dice the butter up pretty finely with a knife first.
- Pour ¾ cup of milk into the mix. You will have to pick it up with your hands. If it’s too wet, add more flour. If it’s too dry, add a little more milk. The whole batch of dough should hold together in a lump.
- Flatten the dough onto the dry, floured countertop. The flattened dough will be about ¼ inch to ½ inch high. (Some people will use a roller to flatten the dough, but it’s not necessary and who wants to clean up the roller afterward? The more you work the dough, the flatter the biscuits will be. So don’t work it more than necessary.)
- Use a big cookie cutter (roughly 2½–3 inch in diameter) or some other round, hollow instrument to shape the biscuits. I’ve used a plastic cup or glass, but the sharper the cutter, the higher the biscuits will rise and the better they will taste. Another option is to grab a piece of dough and form it into a circle with your hands, but those biscuits won’t rise much. The bigger the circle, the better the biscuit in my view. (We call big biscuits “cat heads” in my family.)
- Place the cut biscuits on a cookie sheet. The recipe will make about 12 biscuits of 2 ½ inch diameter. Feel free to double it if you have a larger crowd.
- Place the cookie sheet into the pre-heated oven for 10–15 minutes, carefully watching them after 10 minutes to determine when they are perfectly golden on top.
- Take the biscuits out of the oven, and put them into a bowl lined with a kitchen towel. Fold the towel over the top of the biscuits to keep them hot until they are served (as soon as possible).
- The best way to enjoy these biscuits is to cut them in half and put another tab of butter on each side, finishing them off with either honey, jam, or in the best of all worlds, Golden Eagle™ Syrup from Alabama.
- Give thanks to God for the marvel of hot biscuits!