Scam Revealed

So you might be on to me by now, I'm trying outrageous titles in the hopes to get more readers to my blog. I know, it's dubious! But if you read on, the pay-off will be a delicious recipe. To all you non-foodies, feel free to bail on this blog post now. Go ahead, leave. No guilt.

Let's talk about the scam of the week, involving Self-Rising Flour! Sounds exotic, doesn't it? I don't know why, but I grew up on All-purpose flour, so when I recently found a recipe that required this, it threw me for a loop. I have heard of it. I have seen it at the store. I have never bought it - I didn't really understand it, and I do not recall ever even having a recipe using it. One thing I love about my little Cooking Show business, is that I'm always trying new recipes and the one I will describe to you is from a recipe book called: Cookbook For a Cause Vol 2, TLC's Stars share favorite recipes to benefit Feeding America.

Libby Nims' Momma's Chicken Pie is what intrigued me. As I read through this chicken-pot-pie-type of recipe, what grabbed me was that it only had 4 ingredients. So I had to try it! I love recipes that have few ingredients! But one of the four listed, was the very intriguing Self-rising flour, so I added it to the shopping list! As I made it again last night, Jake says to me, "Chicken pot pie again, mom? Isn't that about the 4th time we have had it this week?" "Yes Jake, but isn't it really good?" ...  Don't ask why, but this last time I was doubling and ended up quadrupling the batter.  I had a good 2 cups of batter left over and I was trying to decide what to do with it. It oddly resembled pancake batter! So I got out the griddle and LOW and BEHOLD, it is FREAKING pancake batter! I made up a batch, and they are only lacking a subtle sweetness, which will soon be restored as I drench it in syrup!  Today, my friend, Amy came by and as we were discussing this amazing product, we decided that maybe this mysterious flour is also known as BISQUICK....???? As I researched it, Bisquick also contains 20% fat in the ingredient ratio list - so my idea is to add a little butter or oil, and presto, you have your biscuit mix too.

Now if you don't have this fancy flour at home, I did also find a recipe for it. See below. But frankly that just completely ruins the whole idea of OWNING this magic flour, in my opinion.

**Buttermilk Substitute
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon White Vinegar
Let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Self-rising Flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder.

Libby Nims' Momma's Chicken Pie
3 large chicken breasts
1 can of cream of celery soup
1 cup SELF-RISING FLOUR
1 cup buttermilk
(optional - small bag of mixed veggies)

I'm going to dumb-down this recipe a little to save time, but basically what you do is take your skillet or pot and boil the chicken breasts. I used my skillet and added a cup of water and cooked it that way. You are saving 1 1/2 cups of the water (also now called broth) that it creates to mix into the cream soup. Get your pan (I use the Deep Covered Baker - but 7x11 casserole works too) and add the combined cream soup/broth mixture, cut up the chicken (I just chopped it right in the skillet with the Mix-N-Chop)  and then I threw in a bag of mixed veggies. Meanwhile in a separate bowl, mix together the buttermilk and the self-rising flour and pour over the top. It is REALLY thin, and do your best to spread it over the top - but it kind of sinks in. Don't worry! It rises to the top and makes a beautiful crust. Bake at 400 for about  45 minutes or until crust is golden browned.

Taken and Altered from: Cookbook For a Cause Vol 2, TLC's Stars share favorite recipes to benefit Feeding America.

Can anyone guess what the prize this week will be for FAN of the WEEK? You bet, Cookbook for a Cause Vol. 2! Hope you win!  But you can't win, unless you LIKE my Confessions of a Direct Seller page on FB, sorry. I'm mean like that.