I remember waking up early (I always was an early riser) to the wonderful combined smell of bacon, biscuits, and coffee at my grandparent's farm in West Virginia For me, the only other delightful aromas that rival this lovely trio, would be an apple pie, and a roasting turkey. Yum!

As a little girl, one of my favorite things to do was to watch my grandpa make his legendary biscuits. The old coal miner baked a batch of golden biscuits almost every day of his adult life. That is a heap load of biscuits! He probably could have made them blindfolded. I remember Grandpa's tired and freckled hands tenderly working the precious biscuit dough, doing everything exactly the same as he had done for decades. Obviously, his practice paid off, for they were always flaky, tender, and family pleasing!

Looking back, I believe one of his secrets was bacon grease. He would grease a hot cast iron skillet with it, and put a tiny bit of bacon grease on top of each biscuit before putting them in the hot oven. The grease gave the biscuits a smoky and salty crusty top and bottom. Mmmm. Smothered with butter and honey, those biscuits were a sweet and salty masterpiece! I never tired of eating them, and still don't. :)

As a vegetarian, I usually don't have bacon grease hanging around like my grandpa did. However; sometimes, when I feel nostalgic, before I put the biscuits in the oven, I brush them with melted butter and sprinkle them with a little sea salt. And as soon as they are cool enough to handle, I spoon some honey with honeycomb on them, smile big, and think of my sweet and simple grandpa with every tender bite! -- xoxolinda