Boys, Buildings, Books and Berries: Biscuits (and other stuff)

This morning I woke up and felt like something other than Joe's Os for breakfast, the problem was that we had no eggs. This did not leave many choices. I decided to go with biscuits, which I had not made in a very long time.
When I was a kid, my mom always made Bisquick biscuits. Then at some point, Bisquick went out of fashion and she got a William Sonoma breakfast cookbook that has the BEST biscuit recipe EVER in it. I will share this with you, with my own personal tweak, and then get to the real point of my post. You should feel very lucky because I just googled this recipe and could not find it on the web.

Beaten Biscuits (adapted from William Sonoma)
2 c flour
1 T baking powder
1 T sugar
1/2 t salt (omit if using salted butter)
1/2 c butter (cool but pliable)
3/4 c milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Mix together all dry ingredients.
Cut in butter.
Add milk last and mix until dough resembles a ball.
Roll and cut into biscuits.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 15 minutes (biscuits should be set but not brown).
The original recipe only calls for one teaspoon of sugar, but I like my biscuits a little sweeter and with a full tablespoon of sugar, these more closely resemble moist, buttery scones.

I decided to shake things up a bit and use animal-shaped cookie cutters instead of the traditional round. If you want to make fun biscuits too, I recommend using cookie cutters with fairly simple shapes so that the biscuit cooks evenly and the shape is discernible after the biscuits come out of the oven. This is a very simple way to make breakfast just a little bit more fun. My son (who rarely wants to eat breakfast) excitedly ate two elephant biscuits and then a bunch of strawberries (a bonus, yay!).

I love cookie cutters! I have great memories of my mom's cookie cutter collection which she kept (for whatever reason) in a sun tea jar. I never remember her buying cookie cutters, so she must have amassed her collection before I was born.

I too have begun a cookie cutter collection. I find them so useful and because they only cost about a dollar each, it's not a big deal to grab a few here and there. We are lucky to have a cookie cutter store in our neighborhood (how it stays in business, I am not sure). At the moment I seem to be collecting cookie cutters that match my toddler's whims. I am inspired by this blog called AnotherLunch. This is a remarkable mother of four who makes her children the most amazing bento-type lunches where she cuts various food into shapes, etc. Check it out and you will want to run out and buy your own SassyBox just like I did (love. it.). Of course, my son still won't eat cheese, even if it's shaped like an elephant or a star.
I love to give cookie cutters as gifts also. Doesn't it sound fun to open a box full of all sorts of random cookie cutters? Personally, I would be delighted. My son would also. At the moment, he is into play-doh so we always have cookie cutters out for him to make "cookies" with. This is a great toddler activity, as I learned from an occupational therapist, because not only does it help children develop fine motor skills, play-doh is actually a great way to build hand/wrist strength. It makes sense, but who knew?