It wouldn’t matter if Mom and I used the same recipe, same cooking utensils and same baking dishes…hers will always taste better. Is it a secret potion moms know how to sneak in whatever it is they are serving up? I hope at some point that transformation occurs for me. You know how boys love their mothers’ home-cooked meals!

My mom cooked breakfast and supper every day for our family. Even when we were all busy with work, piano lessons, dance class, church, cheerleading, softball and basketball, she made sure we ate those two meals together as a family sitting at our round wooden table. We lived in an old Victorian with creaky floors and drafty windows and doors. The central heat never seemed to keep up in the winter. Dad would build a fire in the evenings, but we relied on trusty space heaters in the mornings. Katie and I would argue over who sat in the ladder-back chair closest to the kitchen heater in the winter. Mom and Dad eventually solved that dilemma by rotating our seats each winter. Sibling rivalry was ferocious in our household. Yes, even with seating assignments at the dinner table.

I don’t remember when Mom first began the tradition of cheese biscuits on Saturdays. My sister was a cheese-aholic. She primarily dined on a diet of cheddar cheese, baked potatoes, chicken cutlets sauteed in soy sauce and hamburger patties for several years during childhood. She has since branched out, but Mom might have added cheese to her biscuits to coax Katie into trying anything new.

When all the cousins would travel to the beach for our annual vacation, Mom and Aunt Zanne would take turns cooking breakfast with Aunt Gee for all the kids. Mom never forgot her box of Pioneer biscuit mix for her morning. The biscuits have garnered a following over the years. Donnie looks forward to weekend get-togethers at Mom and Dad’s for Mom’s breakfast as much as the fellowship. Even my picky little eater, Jack, loves Dodie’s cheese biscuits.

Light and fluffy inside with a little crunch on the outside…best enjoyed right from the oven. The shredded cheddar makes little pockets of oozing cheese inside the biscuits. Donnie and Jack eat theirs with fruit preserves, but I like mine plain.

Dodie’s Cheese Biscuits

3 cups Pioneer Biscuit Mix

1 cup milk

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

vegetable oil

Stir together biscuit mix and milk until combined. Gently mix in cheese. Sprinkle counter with 1/4 cup baking mix. Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead a few times. Roll 1/2-inch thick. Cut biscuits with a 2-inch cutter. Pour 2 T vegetable oil in 9 x 13 baking dish. Place biscuits in dish, turning each biscuit over once coating both sides with vegetable oil in baking dish. (This is her secret for perfectly crisp outside and fluffy inside!) Bake at 450 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

I usually make the same New Year’s Resolution…to drop a few pounds. Well, I did not make the first resolution this year. Not that I couldn’t stand to eat healthier, but I am eight months pregnant. So, no new exercise routine or drastic dieting program for me this New Year’s. However, I decided our whole family–all three of us–could stand to eat more whole grains. I concocted this recipe by compiling several oat bran muffin recipes I found online and testing until we found a winner. This suits our tastes. The sugar is significantly reduced from the original recipes I found. Of course, you could always substitute Splenda for the sugar. I reduced the fat by substituting applesauce for a portion of the butter. I also think the oat bran cereal we chose, Cracklin’ Oat Bran, improves the flavor because it has a hint of cinnamon.

There are so many variations you could use with this recipe…addition of pureed pumpkin, dried fruit, nuts, bananas, and on and on. I added the chocolate chips in to convince my two year-old that he really is eating cupcakes for breakfast!

Chocolate Chip Oat Bran Muffins

1 c boiling water

2 c oat bran cereal

1 c brown sugar

3/4 c butter, softened

1/4 c applesauce

2 eggs, beaten

2 c buttermilk

2 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1 t salt

2 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

Pour boiling water over cereal. Set aside. Cream sugar and butter. Beat in applesauce, eggs and buttermilk. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add to buttermilk mixture. Add water-bran cereal mixture. Combine. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

So, who would have ever expected that this combination would work and work so well? My grandmother is always responsible for bringing these jewels to family functions. Traina’s Bakery in Jonesboro, Louisiana is responsible for supplying us with this side dish every holiday. The rolls are so soft and buttery. But, you get a nice punch from the black pepper and bits of fried bacon that are entwined in the delicate bread dough. That’s what makes these things so punchy.

It doesn’t matter what you serve alongside these rolls, they will be the star. I like them best with green bean bundles. That would be a perfect meal in itself.

Yum! This is what we ate for breakfast Sunday morning, and it was perfect for the brisk weather we are enjoying. Fall does not usually feel like fall around here until late October. Amber, a friend from church, made chocolate chip banana bread for a Sunday School party we had a couple of months ago. I have been wanting to experiment since the first bite!

My favorite banana bread recipe was given to me eight years ago by Stephanie Plunk. Donnie worked with Stephanie’s husband, Jerry, at a design firm in downtown Memphis. Stephanie and Jerry were perfect Southern hosts and gracious enough to include us in their usual get-togethers in Olive Branch, Mississippi. We were without children then and fell in love with their little girl, Neely, who called their dog “pup-dog.” We enjoyed visiting the Plunk’s home in Olive Branch. It reminded me of my childhood home…an antique full of great character. Not to mention the fact that we were living in a cave at the time. An apartment with no outdoor living space. We moved from the country, where spaces are wide open, and I felt imprisoned in that apartment. Going to the Plunk’s was always an escape from the city.

Stephanie and I shared a love of cooking and trying recipes. I just substituted 1 cup chocolate chips for the walnuts in her recipe. Next time I plan to use pureed pumpkin for the bananas.

Cream 1/2 cup oil, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 2 beaten eggs. In a separate bowl, sift together 2 t baking soda, 1 1/2 cups flour and 1 t salt. Alternate adding flour mixture and a total of 1/3 cup buttermilk to egg mixture. Stir in 3 mashed ripe bananas and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Pour into 2 loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.