Grandma’s house was very familiar. Perhaps it was because I spent so much time there as a youngster. My grandparents built the family home at 703 South Meridian Street in the 1920s. The quaint bungalow had a large front and side porch, both outfitted with swings and rocking chairs, where the family spent countless hours visiting and watching traffic pass.
During the summer, I often took respite from the sweltering Mississippi heat on the front porch after manicuring her lawn with my push mower. Grandma would join me, but not before bringing me an ice cold Coca-Cola in a 6-ounce green bottle to quench my thirst.
Mazie Bunn Faulkner was born at home in the tiny community of Splunge in January of 1897. She grew up in a large family where she learned self-sufficiency and hard work. Much of the work revolved around growing and preparing food, and she honed her skills at a young age.
My fondest memories of my grandmother were around food. She was a stay-at-home mother and wife, so her cooking skills were unsurpassed when it came to classic Southern fare. She and Archie, my grandfather, tended a large garden that produced a bounty of fresh vegetables during the spring and summer. Many a summer morning started with a visit from Archie bearing a basket of whatever was ripe for the picking. A typical delivery might include radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, corn, green beans, eggplant, and squash. The delivery determined what was on the menu for lunch. My love of fresh vegetables sprang from that garden.
Grandma spent much of her time during the season canning and freezing many of those vegetables for the winter months. Jars of tomatoes, pickled beets, blackberry jelly, and sauerkraut lined her pantry. The freezer bulged with bags of black-eyed peas, butter beans, corn, and green beans.
Memories of her kitchen flood my mind as I write this post. With an electric stove and only a small amount of counter space, she was able to work magic. The yellow Formica dinette set would easily seat six people. We used the formal dining room for holidays and special occasions, but the kitchen table is where my appreciation for southern food was born.
Almost every meal at that table included hot biscuits, and hers were legendary. I’m sure she didn’t follow a recipe or measure ingredients, but they were always consistent and delicious. Biscuits never made it to the table without a stick of butter and a jar of sorghum molasses. Even to this day, I have a Pavlovian response when I think about sitting at the table with her and slathering hot biscuits with butter and a generous pour of molasses.
Grandma was a kind and generous woman. She had her quirks, and she could be impatient at times, but her love for family was always front and center. During my adolescent years, she loved me in spite of my long hair and sometimes pain-in-the-ass attitude. She was happy if she knew that I was sleeping with enough cover and ending each meal with something sweet. (She believed that a meal wasn’t complete without dessert.) Her love was unconditional.
It wasn’t until years after her death at the age of 99 that I grew to truly appreciate her. I regret that I didn’t spend more time with her when I had the chance. I realize now that her love and acceptance were truly a gift. I take great comfort in knowing that I had a wonderful grandmother who only wanted the best for me.
Ingredients
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, plus some for brushing
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place butter in freezer for 15 minutes.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor. Add butter and pulse until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Some larger pieces of butter are fine.
3. Remove bowl from mixer and add buttermilk into flour mixture. Gently fold buttermilk into flour until dough comes together. Do not over mix.
4. Turn dough onto a floured surface and form an 1-inch thick disk. Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter, cut dough into rounds, pressing straight down. Gather scraps and form into another 1-inch thick disk and continue cutting.
5. Place biscuits on a baking sheet 2 inches apart. Brush each biscuit with buttermilk. Transfer sheet to oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until tops are golden brown. Serve immediately with butter and sorghum molasses.
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I love this tribute to your grandmother, Bill. Your description of their house and how you spent your time there in the summer makes me want to travel back in time and spend MY summers there. 🙂 Can’t wait to give your biscuits a try! (Is there really anything MORE Southern than biscuits??!)
Thanks, Julianne. This was a fun post to write. Such great memories with my Grandma!
This is a wonderful post! Did your grandmother ever make chocolate syrup and biscuits? I grew up in Tennessee and fondly remember my family pouring chocolate syrup (made using cocoa powder) over hot buttered biscuits.
Thanks so much, Cindy. This was a fun post to write. Such great memories with my grandmother. My grandfather would forego dessert for a hot biscuit with sorghum molasses, so that what she always served. She never made chocolate syrup. I’m very curious now to try it now!
Unfortunately I do not have my grandmother’s recipe, but I may have found a similar one on Pinterest. https://dainty-chef.com/2012/05/homemade-chocolate-syrup.html
Serve with fresh from the oven biscuits, a glass of ice cold milk, and at least one “bless your heart”. 😉
Awesome! Thanks, Cindy and bless your heart! 🙂
I absolutely love this post. I have the same memories with my big mama in Mississippi. What a beautifully heartfelt recall of memories here. And the biscuits are fantastic.
Thanks so much, Jocelyn!
Bill – I have a simple and effective biscuit trick I just learned. You melt the butter, let it cool for a bit, then stir it into the cold buttermilk. The butter will solidify into nice little chunks. Then you just pour the liquid into the flour. It eliminates the step of cutting the solid butter into the flour. It works wonderfully when i make drop biscuits, so I imagine it would work well for this recipe too.