Grandmommy's Rolls

I was cleaning out the basement Sunday afternoon (YEAH ... because the holidays will be here soon and I need access to all my decorations!) and I ran across some recipes. I found one for Grandmommy's rolls. Just reading the ingredients took me back to that kitchen in Rochelle. We would have driven "all night into the wee hours of the morning".  Or so it felt in my little mind. Grandmommy always made rolls. We filled them with ham or butter or my favorite "Grandmommy treat" - white Karo syrup. The smells, the sounds, the conversations all came flooding back. Country videos or Food Network on the tv ... a HUGE treat to us as we never had those kinds of channels at home. There was deer in the giant freezer and plastic garden shoes on the porch. A rifle behind the bathroom door. As a kid, it was part vacation home, part little house on the prairie experience and petting zoo.  It was a world so different .... there were lighting bugs and stars, clothes lines and real gardens filled with every kind of vegetable you could imagine. There were animals to feed and a cellar straight out of Wizard of Oz. It was also a "grown up world".  There was coffee and cigarettes and occasional cuss words. I pretended not to be shocked, but always looked wide eyed at the couple cans of Coors in the back of the fridge when I opened it for limeade. Grandmommy made sure there was a new fruit to try or a new place to explore.  And we had our old standard favorites too, like going to Brady to shop at Evridge's or Sunday mornings in the old white church. Funny how one recipe card can bring that all back in an instant.            

Since David was out tonight I had a chance to try something new. And if it failed, no big deal. No one was here waiting on dinner.  So, I decided to try to make the rolls. They came out really good!  No white Karo here, but I sat and ate a couple of rolls and day dreamed about the time I spent in Rochelle with Grandommy and Grandad.  What good times they were.  Rodeos, Goat Cook-offs, street dances, donkey basketball and fish frys. What an amazing world for a little kid to get to escape to from time to time. What great memories. And now I have a recipe that can bring that all back in am instant anytime I need to.  Thanks Grandmommy for your rolls, your good cooking, your time and your love. I love you. See you in October!