A Nod To Convenience

This week, all across the blogosphere, food bloggers (and some not-so-food-bloggers) are re-discovering the joys of a humble kitchen workhorse. That of the baking mix. Most specifically, in this case, biscuit baking mix, also known as Bisquick or Jiffy-mix, or one of the many other versions. To our parents and perhaps grandparents, this was a kitchen staple. Many, many meals were created from that single box of Bisquick. Why, one look at a box today reveals at least six recipes on one box alone! Somewhere along the line, Bisquick and other baking mixes got a bad rap. I know I myself, don’t necessarily care for it myself. I don’t like it in biscuits or pancakes, things that show off that boxey flavor to me. But when you take that mix and use it in a different way, that’s where it shines. The Chicken Pot Pie that I now make began on the side of a Bisquick box. I’ve changed it in so many ways, and I don’t use Bisquick to top it anymore, but that’s where it originated. That’s where my mother found it so many years ago.

There seems to be a resurgence these days of the classic recipes, and I for one am all over that. I love trying out recipes from another era. Not so much the nouveau cuisine, but the down-home cooking. The recipes that nourished and comforted. The recipes that young girls were taught by their mothers and grandmothers without the aid of a recipe card. What could be better than that! So in honor of Biscuit Baking Mix Day/Week, I went out and bought a box of Bisquick to determine what to make with it. In this case, I picked up the box of Heart Smart Bisquick- hey even a classic can change with the times! I decided my contribution was going to be from the genre of entertaining. I could just see a 1950’s housewife in her shirtdress and apron, having her circle of friends over for bridge and brunch, and serving them up a piece of coffeecake. I could see these women raving over every bite, and only the baker would know that it was the convenience of a boxed mix that put that delicious coffee cake on the table. So today I share with my blog friends a Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake. Designed to impress, it is quite tasty, and no one has to know that you used a boxed mix to make it that way.