I Brazenly Lifted This Photo from Another Blogger

Yes, I did.

But it's all in good fun.

It's a delicious (I can just tell!) quiche from Mary at Ceres & Bacchus, who is participating in Biscuit Baking Mix Day, which is becoming Biscuit Baking Mix Week, which is fine with me, because I have something to post about during a busy week.

And I get to steal other bloggers' photos, usually with their permission.

I've made my share of similar dishes. Biscuit mix was something I always kept on hand during my college days and in the four years between college and grad school when I was paying for the first degree and trying to scrape together money for a second one (I got halfway there!)

Those were good days, although I did not think so at the time. I had writing and editing jobs, worked as a history research assistant, took care of houses or cats while their owners traveled, worked as a professional notetaker for hearing impaired students, wrote press releases, taught non-credit classes, and handled clerical and editing work for an association.

I like to refer to it as my checkered career.

My point here is not to talk about how versatile I am, but to point out that sometimes we have to work and in university towns, patchwork arrangements of several jobs are not uncommon.

That's where biscuit mix comes in. I often used it as a basis for meals like the one to the right and desserts like the one below (from Glenna at A Fridge Full of Food, who e-mailed it to me the other day, preventing one more crime of theft from occurring.

About the same time, Bisquick, the best-known of the mixes, came out with the impossible pie idea and I was hooked. I've probably made dozens in my lifetime. They were a good way to use up eggs and cheese and leftover vegetables. I tried nearly every recipe, and came up with some of my own.

I was living in downtown Madison without a car, and the closest sources of food in winter were overpriced downtown grocery stores. I had to make my food dollar stretch.

Biscuit mix helped.

Plus, it reminded me of childhood. I suspect our mothers used it for some of the same reasons: Convenience and cost per meal.