My father’s sense of humor included a bit of teasing. One of our family stories is that after our parents married, our mother asked our father what he wanted her to cook. He answered that he would like chicken and dumplings. Dumplings weren’t a part of mother’s family traditions, and she didn’t have a recipe or know how to make them. She inquired of friends, came up with a few recipes, and tried them. She waited for our father’s reaction. He tasted the dumplings cooked in the chicken broth, smiled, and said, “These are good, but not like my mother’s dumplings”. Wanting to please him, she tried recipe after recipe to get it just right. Each time the response was he same. “These are good, but not like my mother’s dumplings”.

Our parents were married during the war, and our father was stationed in California, so our mother didn’t have a chance to talk to our grandmother and get her recipe. She wrote a letter asking for the recipe for chicken and dumplings, but no recipe appeared. That didn’t surprise her because Grandma didn’t use a lot of recipes. She measured ingredients by taste and texture and cooked from experience rather than cookbooks. When they finally made a trip to visit our father’s parents, she approached grandma in the kitchen and asked her to teach her how to make dumplings. Grandma responded that she had never made dumplings in her life.

Our mother continued to make chicken and dumplings as one of her staple meals. I know her recipe: Two cups of Bisquick Baking Mix and 2/3 cup of milk. Spoon the dough into the boiling soup and simmer until it is done. I use the recipe on the Bisquick box for biscuits as well. My biscuits generally end up being big and crumbly. They work fine for biscuits and gravy, but don’t hold up to the bacon when making a breakfast sandwich.

I’ve read the recipes of accomplished biscuit makers. It seems that one of the tricks to good biscuits from scratch is to freeze both the butter and the flour. Grate the butter using a regular kitchen grater and stir it lightly into the frozen flour. Pour a bit of buttermilk into the biscuits and stir with your hands, turning out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat it down. There is no need to roll it out. If you have the texture just right, you can cut out the biscuits with a glass and they won’t stick to the glass. The trick to crispy biscuits on the outside and soft in the middle is to preheat the cookie sheet in a hot oven. Place the biscuits on parchment paper to lift them onto the hot pan and put them into the oven.

I’ve never prepared biscuits this way. I’ve just read the recipes. When I want biscuit sandwiches, I generally use the prepared biscuits that come in the paper cylinder that opens with a pop when a spoon is placed next to the seam. I know that healthy cooking means avoiding processed foods, but I haven’t produced biscuits from scratch that match those from the prepared dough. I don’t think my grandchildren know that I do this. I can’t wait for one of them (or one of their spouses someday) to ask me for my recipe.

We have dear friends from our seminary days in Chicago. They are from Australia, and Tony completed his doctorate at Chicago Theological Seminary a year ahead of me. When we were students and later whenever we get together in person, we have a tradition of tea and biscuits at bedtime. Those Australians don’t mean Bisquick biscuits. They mean cookies. I guess it is a British reference. Tea and cookies are not a bad way to end a long night of studying. It isn’t a bad nightcap any day. My problem is that I don’t need more cookies. I’ve eaten enough over the years to have spare fat around my middle. Eating at bedtime isn’t a good practice for me, and I try to avoid it, though I make occasional exceptions. I am, after all, married to a grandmother who likes to have cookies for her grandchildren when they stop by our house.

During the time of colonization, ships biscuits were common fare on sailing vessels. They were made from flour, water, and sometimes salt and were non-perishable. They could be made before the voyage and doled out to the sailors as part of their daily rations. These biscuits are also known as hardtack. Hardtack was combined with salted meats and cheeses to make up the majority of the diets of sailors. While the hardtack didn’t spoil and was suitable for travel, it wasn't easy to eat. It was dense and hard and dry. Sailors got into the habit of soaking their hardtack in soup to make it more edible. Hardtack in soup became a precursor to dumplings in soups and stews.

I don’t know how the tradition of calling sand dollars sea biscuits began. Some varieties look a little bit like biscuits from a distance, but if you pick one up, you won’t be tempted to taste it. Sand dollars wash up on the beach in our bay at certain times of the year. I haven’t quite figured out the rhythm of when they appear, but I know that some days they are easy to find, and other days, there are none to be seen.

Writing an entire essay about dumplings and biscuits is silly. With all of the disruption in the world and the people facing suffering, an entire essay on biscuits seems escapist. It is, however, a test for me. I’m trying to teach myself to spell. If you didn’t notice, I misspelled “Memorial” in the title when I published my journal two days ago. Then yesterday, I misspelled “Recipe” in my journal title. I’ve since corrected both mistakes, so I’m challenging myself with the word biscuit. There’s no q in biscuit.