More Stories from long ago...24º

Continued..
     
  Bread was a mainstay in our life, we ate it for every meal and, hopefully, the ten loaves that Mom had baked on this day would last our family for a week.  She enjoyed baking bread, and managed it weekly, as well as doing the laundry, ironing and cooking three meals a day. She helped milk cows twice a day and gathered and cleaned eggs to sell.  

I can still see Mom, always up early, dressed in blue jeans and shirt, measuring flour and sifting it into a large round dishpan, using the flour sifter for a measurer instead of a cup.  Five or six sieves made an extra large batch of bread.  She pushed her hair off her forehead, using the back of her hand, then with her hands, she made a “well” in the flour.  Next, she poured warm water into the well, sprinkled yeast over the water, and left it to dissolve, before  adding sugar, salt, lard and flour, until it formed a sponge, this sponge, she covered with a towel, and left it to rise and bubble until after breakfast. 

      After we finished eating and washed the dishes, Mom returned to mixing the dough, working in more flour with a spoon until it was so stiff that she put the spoon aside and started kneading with her hands.  She kneaded this large ball of dough until it was shiny, smooth and elastic and with a flourish, she rolled it in a little melted butter tossed it in the air and it came down, landing in the pan with the rounded side up ready for the first rising.  She always let it raise twice, then shaped it into loaves and put it into bread pans to raise again before it was ready to bake.  This was an all day job so the bread was cooling and ready to eat when I got home for school.

I don’t remember any bread ever going to waste. Leftover beef roast, bread and milk, made up our supper most nights.  A bread pudding, spiced with cinnamon, dotted with raisins and baked to a golden brown, would be dessert for Sunday dinner.  Sage dressing was made and cooked around a pork roast on another special day.  Breadcrumbs were used for breading pork chops or to stretch a meat loaf.  Other times, French toast swimming in homemade choke cherry syrup was a change, from the usual bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast. 

  On rare occasions, Mom mixed a small batch of bread dough to make what she called “scones,” but I now know it as fry bread.  Balls of dough would be stretched thin into flat round circles, dropped into hot lard and fried until golden brown.  Quickly drained, they were then covered with butter and jam and eaten with gusto, butter and jam dripped off your chin. Cinnamon rolls was another of her specialties, vanilla frosting covered the tops and they were slightly warmed in the oven before serving.  Light as a feather, dinner rolls graced our table on special holidays.  Mom had a special way with yeast dough and still practiced this art until two months before she died at age ninety-six...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Time to milk the cows (age early 40's.)

Still mixing dough, (age 90)