Baking With My Grandma

My mom went away last weekend, so I traveled down to T-town to stay with my Grandma. She's 88, and while she is in reasonably good health for her age she really shouldn't be alone for an entire weekend. She uses a walker to get around, and so my mom was concerned that my Grandma might fall or something might happen. Better safe than...well, you know.

Grandma and I had an action-packed weekend. I got down there at about 10 PM Friday, after working late and fighting traffic (which included a car chase, which I only learned later. So THAT explained the multiple flipped over cars and the 10 police cars lined up on the side of I-5!). We stayed up late chatting, not getting ready to hit the hay until midnight. The next morning, I popped out of bed at 8 AM in full-on granddaughter mode - I made my grandma's morning pot of tea, got dressed, and ran out to the store to pick up the last-minute things we needed to bake bread. Yes...bread. My grandma said several weeks ago that she wanted to make bread the next time I came to T-town; this somehow evolved into me wanting to make bread. I'm not against bread, but it wasn't my idea to bake on an 80 degree weekend.

Once back from the store, we made breakfast and then got to the business of baking. My grandma couldn't find the cookbook containing the bread recipe, but she found a recipe for "Ice Box Rolls" which seemed to be a great second choice.

We mixed and stirred. We punched down and kneaded. The dough rose, and it rose again. We put it in the "ice box" for the night, and the next morning...the rolls you see in the photo. Light yet substantial, yeasty and tasty. We had them with breakfast sausage patties. I had one with strawberry jam. Since returning home, I've had a couple with the strawberry freezer jam handmade by my best pal KP. They are, plainly, fabulous!

The rest of the weekend...we went out to lunch and visited a fruit stand. I did some minor housekeeping for my mom - some laundry, changing lightbulbs (My grandma said, "JP, how are you going to get up there and change those bulbs?" I said, "Grandma, I'm going to walk over to the light fixture, reach up my hand, and take the bulb out!" She laughed so hard she had to sit down. I'm at least 6 inches taller than my grandma, but I think some times she forgets that), washing dishes. I felt better than I have in a while (pain in the arse sciatica) and I got a lot accomplished.

I'm thinking of making cinnamon rolls with the rest of the dough...my co-workers will love me forever if I do. A good reason to do it!