The chili - sure, I've made that plenty of times before and it is actually a great recipe. As for the cinnamon rolls, those would be a little more difficult to find a recipe for. See here's the thing, the summer my grandma died in Kansas, one of my cousins put all of her recipes on a CD or computer or somewhere. Notice how I said "somewhere". I'm sure I have a copy somewhere but of course on the day that I wanted that recipe, there's absolutely no way I was going to find that recipe. Therefore I went on to do what any other normal person would do...I called my mother hoping that she had the recipe. I must interject at this point that I did have a copy of her cinnamon roll bread recipe but not the actual frosting. And for any of you smart ones out there, frosting is the make or break ingredient in a recipe such as this one.
My mother did track down the frosting recipe from my aunt Dorothy's cookbook but then came the problem, the real reason for this post: Mennonite measuring methods. I'm not sure at what point in my life I realized that the words, "just pour enough milk in until it turns the right color or consistency" was not the normal way to learn how to cook.
I remember attempting to learn how to make potato cakes using leftover mashed potatoes last summer with my mom. She told me to add milk to the mashed potatoes for a more runnier consistency until it looked right. I just stared at her and thought, "WHAT?" This process was not the first time I had seen it occur in my life and I knew it wouldn't be the last. As I have now proved myself right today, it happened again. This is the recipe my mother gave me to follow:
3/4 cup cream
1/2 stick oleo
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
Boil for 3 minutes, remove and slightly cool.
ADD POWDERED SUGAR UNTIL CONSISTENCY IS CORRECT.
Notice the letters in all caps and imagine me trying to measure this in my head! For a person who works in a number crunching world where even one penny is a problem that I need to explore, this concept of just guessing and checking on recipes blows me away.
Moral of the story: if you are attempting to learn how to cook....don't ask anyone with Mennonite heritage flowing through their bloodstream. You are in for pain and no gain.
As for recipe, I have yet to find the complete cinnamon roll recipe. I can't even use the copy that I have for the bread part as my grandmother's handwriting is impossible to read. So with that being said, I drew the conclusion around 7:30 PM tonight that there will be no homemade chili and cinnamon rolls in my future.
No comments:
Post a Comment