Today is National Buttermilk Biscuit Day.

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Today is National Buttermilk Biscuit Day. To which I say, preheat that oven, let's make a batch. Buttermilk biscuits are so wonderful and so easy to make that I wonder why anyone buys those biscuits in a can or a mix like Bisquick. The perfect recipe for biscuits requires only three ingredients: self-rising flour (three cups), butter or shortening (six tablespoons), and buttermilk or regular milk (a cup and a half). Mix the first two with a whisk until the lumps are gone. Add the milk and lightly blend until no dry flour is left. Spoon the dough on a greased baking sheet, and bake at 450 degrees for about fifteen minutes. Butter 'em up and enjoy!

Biscuit Basin is in Yellowstone National Park, in the northwest corner of Wyoming. It's a highly scenic area, with one of the park's densest concentrations of geysers. The well-named Sapphire Pool is there, too. Old Faithful is about three miles south. The entire area is crisscrossed with heavily-hiked trails. The basin is rimmed by 1000-foot cliffs on both sides of the Firehole River, which brings in the water that keeps the geysers going. An exciting place in one of the world's most geologically active spots. After you have your fill drive the sixteen miles out of the park to West Yellowstone, and have your fill again at the tables of the Outpost Restaurant.

baking soda, n.--Baking soda is almost perfectly pure sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO³). Even the stuff you buy to deodorize your refrigerator is pure enough to use in a lab. Baking soda enhances the action of baking powder, but does not replace it. Baking powder is mixture of ingredients which, when combined with flour and wet ingredients to make a dough, have a reaction that produces gas and causes the dough to rise. Baking powder is made many different ways, but almost always includes a dry alkali (like bicarbonate of soda) and a dry acid (like cream of tartar). Baking powder has a shelf life, because the humidity of the air is enough for the acid and the base in it to react slowly and thereby lose its potency.

The only real strawberry shortcake is made with what looks like a sweetened biscuit. The pre-made sponge cakes you see in the stores are used only by the laziest of cooks.

Today is the birthday, in 1928, of Chef Robert Finley. He headed the kitchen of Masson's in Lakeview for most of its history. During its prime in the 1960s and 1970s, Masson's was among the most celebrated of local restaurants, nationally as well as locally. Not only did Chef Robert cook excellent and original food, but he took in many budding cooks and turned them into skilled masters. The most noteworthy of those is Chef Dennis Hutley of Chateau Country Club and the extinct Le Parvenu. Masson's is long gone, and Chef Robert passed away in 2009, but his dishes and proteges live on.

King Louis XIII ascended to the throne of France today in 1610. The most expensive widely available Cognac is named for him. Coincidentally, his son and successor, Louis XIV, also came to the throne on this date at age four in 1643. When he took control of France in 1661, the Sun King (as Louis XIV was known) assembled a lavish royal court culture, which demanded cuisine at the highest levels. He would have liked his father's namesake Cognac.

Today in 1932, New York Mayor Jimmy Walker led an all-day We Want Beer parade in Manhattan. There was another such parade in Detroit that day. The forces of Prohibition began to crumble, and it would be less than a year before beer returned to America.

The first patent issued for a dishwasher went to Joel Houghton of Ogden, New York on this day in 1850. It worked more like a modern clothes washing machine than a modern dishwasher. So, a lot of broken dishes.

Today is the feast day of St. Matthias, the Apostle who replaced Judas. He is the patron saint of alcoholics.

Sidney Bechet was born in New Orleans today in 1897, and in 1959 died on this date, too. He was a major jazz pioneer, a self-taught genius whose techniques and compositions were so offbeat that he was constantly in conflict with band leaders and other performers. Playing saxophone and clarinet, he recorded his first sides just before his fellow Orleanian Louis Armstrong cut his. Bechet was internationally famous, especially in his later years.

Frank Sinatra passed away this day in 1998. He was 82. "May you live long, and may the last voice you hear be mine," he said at the close of his concerts in his later years. It still could happen, especially if you die in an American Italian restaurant. I wouldn't mind having the last voice I hear be that of Old Blue Eyes.

Al Porcino, a jazz trumpeter, was born today in 1925. I suppose one single mushroom of the porcini variety would be a porcino. . . North Carolina Congressman Basil Whitener was born today in 1915. . . Honey Cone, a female singing group, had a gold record today in 1971, called Want Ads. . . Apple Corps, the Beatles' business and recording company, was formed today in 1968. . . Salt 'n' Pepa, a two-girl hip-hop group, had a hit today in 1990 with the song Expression.

"Americans are just beginning to regard food the way the French always have. Dinner is not what you do in the evening before you do something else. Dinner is the evening."--Art Buchwald.

We've known that in New Orleans for over a century.

"I think a man ought to get drunk at least twice a year just on principle, so he won't let himself get snotty about it."--Raymond Chandler.