It all started approximately 22 years ago. I was a happy 11 year old girl and one of the things my mom was starting to teach me was how to cook. My ultimate favourite meal was Tuna Casserole with tea biscuits.
You have to understand something here people, my mom, actually, really, for sure, makes THE ABSOLUTE best tea biscuits in the entire whole universe. Light. Fluffy. Layers. Melting in your mouth. Amazing. And I was very excited to learn how to make these.
My first batch didn't turn out very well. Heavy, dense, doughy, tough. It was disappointing, but my mom, ever the encourager, told me that they take time to learn how to do perfectly, and in time I would learn how to make good tea biscuits just like her. And so, I kept trying. Again, and again, and again. And always the same thing. Heavy, doughy, flat, passable (sometimes), garbage (usually). My sucky tea biscuits became the family joke.
I bring you exhibit A (from our family cookbook that mom made us all for Christmas one year)
Exhibit B
I don't recall the circumstances, but at some point some of my tea biscuits made it over to my Uncle Bill's house. I think mom and I had made him a casserole and biscuits for some reason. He called to thank me and while on the phone with him the tea biscuits came up. I asked him if they were ok and he said, "I fed them to the dogs." I was indignant and couldn't believe it. Then he said, "Yeah but they wouldn't eat them, so I had to throw them out."
It's funny. I laugh.
And I ALWAYS try to make them whenever I make a tuna casserole. Because you just can't have one without the other.
And they always sucked. For 21 years.
Last year however, I MASTERED the art of the tea biscuit. My family was indignant and I had to send photo proof:
That my friends, is a second place ribbon on tea biscuits that I made and submitted to the Williams Lake Harvest Fair. Tea biscuits that got second place IN THE ENTIRE CITY.
That was the highlight of my day. Until this:
My Chocolate Chip Muffins won first place! Only it is even better than first place because I got this ribbon with it:
It says "Family Favourite"
My muffins were the family favourite. Of all the muffins. In the city. Yay me.
This win was even sweeter because I was *this* close to not entering them because I forgot them at home. My hero of a husband though, very carefully placed the muffins in a plastic shopping bag, put the bag around his neck, and motorcycled the muffins down to me with just 10 minutes to spare before the deadline. Harvest Fair prizes run between $1 and $2.50. These muffins netted me $27.50. $2.50 for winning and $25 because I had proof that I used Robin Hood Flour to make them.
I also won in 2 other categories:
Super stoked.
