{"id":51195,"date":"2026-05-23T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=51195"},"modified":"2026-05-18T11:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T15:32:44","slug":"biscuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/biscuits\/","title":{"rendered":"Biscuits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dotting My Teas By: Marlene Oxender<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life before the internet \u2013 many of us remember it. There were no computers. No online tutorials. When we wanted to know something, we opened a book. We used the card catalog at the library to help us find the books we needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of each school year, we were issued a stack of textbooks \u2013 one for each subject. We used our books during the school day and took some of them home each night so we could complete our homework \u2013 on lined paper. Bookbags weren\u2019t in common use back then, so we carried our books, binders, and folders home in our arms, stacked one on top of the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother must have believed her children would someday like to read their homework again, because I\u2019m finding it now as I sort through her estate. She even kept papers that those before her had saved. And now I\u2019m following in her footsteps \u2013 saving papers that those before me had saved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If my mother\u2019s set of 1958 World Book Encyclopedias could speak, they\u2019d tell me how often they\u2019d been used, which pages had been opened and by whose hands. They\u2019d tell me what it\u2019s like to feel as if they\u2019d lost their purpose and are now nothing more than a conversation piece taking up space on a shelf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And my mother\u2019s vintage typewriter \u2013 it wrote many stories. It served her well as she wrote about times from long ago. The typewriter ribbon has dried, but I recently learned replacement ribbons are still available. I\u2019m looking forward to typing on it once again as I show my grandchildren how it works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother\u2019s \u201ccut and paste\u201d was literal. She used a pair of scissors to cut the pages she\u2019d typed, then rearranged the paragraphs and taped them in place. This practice from long ago is where the phrase originated.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many women of her generation, my mother owned cookbooks she rarely used. Back then, most cooks simply cooked. Important recipes were written on index cards and stored in a hinged recipe box. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watch an online cooking show in which the host, Glen, uses recipes from vintage cookbooks that viewers send to him. Glen selects a recipe, and as he cooks, he explains why things were done the way they were back then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than once, I\u2019ve heard Glen speak of the difference between cookies and biscuits. In the UK, biscuits are what Americans would think of as cookies or crackers, and the closest thing they have to a biscuit is a scone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My online search engine quickly caught on to my interests and began sending articles about biscuits. The little engine sent a recipe for Raspberry Ripple Biscuits to my home page. Then one for Tea Biscuits, followed by a recipe for 1856 Tavern Biscuits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to know what made a biscuit a tavern biscuit, so I read about taverns, then pubs, then the difference between the two. This is why we spend more time on the internet than we intend \u2013 one bit of information leads to another. We turn the pages of our virtual encyclopedia and learn things we didn\u2019t know were there to learn \u2013 like the difference between a tavern and a pub. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My collection of biscuit recipes would not be what it is without a search engine in charge of selecting what may catch my interest. It knows I\u2019ve saved recipes for Chocolate Chip Biscuits and Scottish Shortbread Biscuits. It knows how quickly I clicked on to the recipe for Pickle Biscuits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After our kittens were born, I learned that cats \u201cmake biscuits\u201d as they knead away on their owners\u2019 laps. And woodworkers know how to make a biscuit joint by using small pieces of wood and a biscuit joiner.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother never used the internet to look up information about kitties and biscuits and things we\u2019d like to know. She did, however, learn how to type and send an email. Her children were grateful for her daily updates. We loved how she didn\u2019t correct her typing errors as we read what she had to say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And such is life \u2013 a place where we keep our metaphorical typewriter up to date. Where we may start again with a fresh piece of paper and a new ribbon. Where we learn to live with our mistakes as we add to and delete from our story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother\u2019s books and recipe cards are mostly unused now, but what she loved still lingers: the belief that words and knowledge mattered enough to save. So I keep turning pages \u2013 sometimes paper, sometimes digital \u2013 carrying forward what she held dear and adding my own small notes in the margins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlene Oxender is a writer, speaker, and author. She writes about growing up in the small town of Edgerton, her ten siblings, the memorabilia in her parents\u2019 estate, and her late younger brother, Stevie Kimpel, who was born with Down syndrome. Her three published books, Picket Fences, Stevie and Grandma, You Already Am Old, are available on Amazon. Marlene can be reached at mpoxender@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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