My first memory of baking is standing in a chair next to my mother, making ‘snake’ biscuits with small pieces of dough she gave me, while she formed more traditional shapes for our family’s Saturday morning breakfast. She placed our unbaked creations on small, round cast iron griddles, well seasoned and lightly greased, and set them in our humble propane-powered oven in our tiny trailer kitchen. Mom’s predictable weekend meal of buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy were my calendar, a perfect way for a youngster to keep up with the days of the week. I’m blessed to have a picture of me at age 3, wearing a wee apron handmade by my mom, proudly making my little biscuits.

Times have sure changed, but one thing hasn’t: the joy of creating scratch-made meals and sharing them with the people you love. I’ve been privileged to pass my love of baking and cooking on to my children, and now that I’m a grandmother, I’m thrilled to have Davona Ann with me in the kitchen to continue the precious cycle.

Yes, it’s January and many of us are counting our calories and choosing kale over cake. But I believe there is a way to balance healthy choices with celebrating our culinary heritage. We don’t need to eat biscuits and gravy every day — but that’s not to say we shouldn’t enjoy them once in a while. I’ve been having green smoothies for breakfast for months now myself, but nothing takes me home quicker than the smell of fresh baked biscuits and the savory smell of country mild sausage frying in a skillet.

And who says this classic Mountain South dish has to be saved for sunrise? At our house, we actually eat Biscuits and Gravy more often for dinner than for breakfast. I triple the biscuit recipe below for my crew, and usually all the biscuits are devoured in less than 24 hours. Biscuits are versatile leftovers, serving as eager receptacles for delicious jams, eggs, bacon, sausage patties or ham. Or you can have seconds on the gravy, if there’ s any left that is.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Heat oven to 450°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, or grease your pan. Whisk together in a large bowl:

2 cups White Lily All-Purpose Flour (any AP flour will do, but this one has only 2 grams of protein per serving)

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Using a shredder, shred into the flour a little at a time:

¼ cup (or 4 tbsp.) cold, unsalted butter

Pause to toss the butter with the flour to coat it, then shred more until you’re done. Use a pastry blender to finish “cutting in” the butter.

Reserving a small amount, pour in most of

2/3 to 3/4 cup buttermilk

Use a large fork to combine the ingredients, stopping as soon as the dry disappears. You can add a little more buttermilk to bring the dough together. I often say, you can always add more buttermilk, but you can’t take it back out. By reserving a little of it, you can add just enough and not too much.

Turn out dough onto floured surface. Turn it over on itself, gently kneading it, for no more than 10 or so turns, less if possible, until the dough comes together. You can sprinkle more flour over the dough if needed to make it less sticky. The less the dough is handled, the more tender it will be.

Once the dough has come together, gently roll it out into a rectangle that is ½ inch thick. To save time, you can use a pizza cutter to quickly cut them into squares. Of course you can cut them into circles, usually 2 inches in diameter. You can use a biscuit cutter or even a glass for this. Then reroll your dough and cut out again until dough is gone.

Place the unbaked biscuits on your sheet, almost touching each other for maximum height when baked. Dab a bit of buttermilk or oil on top of each biscuit. Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes, until nicely browned. Makes 12 small biscuits, depending on how thick and what size you form them.

Sausage Gravy

In a skillet, cook and crumble up until no pink remains:

1 pound of ground sausage (Any brand. I like Country Mild versions, but pick your favorite.)

If your sausage is very lean, you many need to add:

1 tbsp. of butter or more, as needed.

Mix in:

1/2 cup AP flour

This makes a roux, which I talk more about at the end of the recipe. Cook this mixture for a couple of minutes, stirring the flour well into the sausage. Add another tablespoon of butter or so if needed to help the flour distribute evenly.

Once the roux is cooked well, pour in, a little at a time:

between 3 & 4 cups milk (Whole milk tastes best, but any regular milk will do.)

I add a cup or so and stir. Then I add another cup and stir again. Keep adding and stirring until you get the consistency you want. (Sometimes the gravy looks weird at first to beginners, but keep stirring. It will come together!) Once the mixture reaches the boiling point, you’ll know how thick the gravy will be. If you want it thinner, add a little more milk. If you made it too thin, you will need to cook more butter and flour together in a separate skillet to make more roux. Once you are pleased with the thickness, add:

Salt and pepper, to taste (I like LOTS of fresh ground pepper)

Serve hot over freshly-baked crumbled biscuits. Gravy made with a roux will get thicker once it cools. You can add a bit of milk to it later if you wish to thin it. That is, if there is any leftover!