Biscuits

I have always loved biscuits, and I believe it may be a genetic trait. My present method is simple:
3 cups Bisquik
1 cup milk
Mix until soft dough forms. Knead eight turns. Roll out about 3/4" think, cut with a biscuit cutter and bake ten minutes at 450 degrees.

My great grandmother Estella Lucinda Randall (Johnson) probably had to put a bit more work into it. I ran into a description in an old book recounting memories of pioneer women from Iowa about 1890:
Flour was always kept in a large tin with a tight-fitting lid, large enough to accomodate the mixing pan. Biscuits were usually made in a blue or gray granite washpan, never used for anything but making biscuits.
Put 3 pints flour in mixing pan. Make a "well" in the center. Add 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and mix well.
Mix in a scoop of lard about the size of a pullet's egg.
Make another "well" and add 1 cup sweet milk. Mix well until soft dough is formed.
Roll enough dough in your hand for a biscuit. Pat flat, and bake in a quick oven or on a greased pan until firm and brown. May also be fried in hot grease.
If baking powder is unavailable, mix 1 teaspoon baking soda with 1 pint sour milk for the liquid and leavening.

Candling Eggs

One of my early childhood memories... I am sitting on my Uncle Cecil's lap in the henhouse, candling eggs.
Before setting eggs under the hen to brood, we would candle the eggs to make certain they were fresh.
We would hold the eggs up to a lamp in the dark henhouse with the large end up.
Good eggs look clear and the white spot, or air cell, at the end of the egg is small, not larger than a dime. The yolk is at the center.
If the egg cell is large, and a dark yolk moves around, the egg is not fresh.
While the eggs are brooding, they can also be candled to check the progress of the embryos. The video above shows a live embryo moving around in an egg that is being candled