With this one mix you can create biscuits, pancakes, waffles, pie crusts, crumb cakes, potpies, dumplings, and countless other things that I can’t quite recall at the moment.  But really, isn’t that enough for you?!  The best part is the whole box is going to cost you less than 3 USD!  Well that’s if you buy store brand, but who doesn’t nowadays?  If you’re a stickler for name brand, its Bisquick multipurpose mix.

Now, I grew up on this stuff.  My mother worked full time while I was growing up, but she always wanted us to have nice dinners that had that “homemade taste” to it.  My most vivid memory would be something called “drop biscuits” where my mom would mix up some batter and drop dollops onto a sheet pan and bake them as is.  The result would be lumpy, crumbly biscuity goodness.

So, here’s what I did with the mix tonight.  I went in with the intention of making biscuits, and oh boy did I make some biscuits.  This was a really easy recipe which was provided on the back of the box.  [RECIPE FOR BISCUITS] However, I have to admit when it comes to mixing wet and dry ingredients I don’t usually follow the recipe to the letter.  Instead, I usually mix the two until I get a consistency that I like.  I made a batch of biscuits, and with the remaining dough I decided to get a little creative.  I took my ball of biscuit dough and created a loaf of biscuit bread.  I baked it on a lower temperature for slightly longer, and I’m pretty proud of the results.

Now for the good part, dressing up those biscuits.  The first thing I did as soon as the biscuits were cool enough to touch was scarf one down plain.  De-licious!  I love biscuits.  I then took some egg salad [RECIPE FOR EGG SALAD] I had leftover in my fridge and made a mini egg salad sammich.  It was really good as well.  As the crowning glory on my biscuit buffet I slathered the inside of my last biscuit with some nutella.  Perfect way to end my biscuity meal.  I still have some left over too, enough for a biscuit, egg, and cheese sammich tomorrow morning, or just some biscuits with butter and jam.  Oh, the possibilities are endless!

You are witnessing the maiden voyage of Chocolate Milk Belly, a blog about food of varying degrees of classiness, but always chock full of tastiness.  How do I want this blog to play out?   I’d really like to go beyond just giving recipes for food I enjoy.

I’d like to explore the science behind what makes good food and the chemistry and physics behind how food is created.  Because really, making food is truly a science.  Also, I want to include a good even mix of all types of foods.  I’d like to talk about the poorest of poor college kid cuisine and the weirdest combos I’ve tried out, as well as some high class delicacies that I’ve sampled and loved.  I want to talk about everything that makes food good, why people love it so much, and why it means so much more to people than just plain old sustenance.  The enjoyment of food is an even cooler science than the preparation!

The love of food is a universal truth.  Every human on the face of the planet LOVES food.  Why?  Well to put it simply, eating is so important to your body it releases certain neurotransmitters which are received by opioid receptors in the “pleasure centers” of the brain (nucleus accumbens and specific areas of the amygdala).  In essence, eating stimulates the same types of receptors that drugs and sex stimulate.  Eating also stimulates parts of the amygdala responsible for emotions, and to a certain extent, memories, enhancing information storage.

To quote Anthony Bourdain, “Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.”   To really have a terrific meal, you need to be fully engaged.  The context in which you are eating is important.  I’d rather be eating terrible food in a great setting surrounded by friends, than a gourmet meal alone.  Memories are hugely important.  Memories are intimately linked to emotions, meaning that if you enjoy your meal, you’re apt to remember it better and reactivate memories of past enjoyable times the next time you eat that meal.

It is my hope that I can relive some good memories and create some new ones, while discussing everything I love about food.

*Disclaimer: The above mentioned description of the neurophysiology of eating food is very very simplified.  If anyone would like to go more in depth, I would be happy to discuss and share what I know on the topic (which is limited).