Country Echoes
By MAE BABER, R.D.2, Brandon, Wisconsin
How nice it is to receive an un-expected letter. This is about
the only way a writer has of knowing whether what she writes is
read and appreciated. We are just like anyone else in needing
encouragement now and then. Two of the most recent I have received
are from southern states. Mrs. Lee Davis of R. 1, Miami, Oklahoma
wrote such a nice letter about my book, and Mrs. Earl G. Smith
wrote in response to this column and the Stone Ground Whole Wheat
Bread recipe. She has an improvement on it, which I haven’t
tried as yet but certainly plan to. She made it the same as the
recipe only added 1 potato, mashed and the potato water she had
cooked it in. I can see where that would help the texture and and
flavor. I have a recipe for Potato Rolls that is a real standby and
they are So Delicious. Here it is.
POTATO ROLLS
1 cup of freshly mashed potatoes 1 cup of scalded milk (cooled
to lukewarm)
1 teas, salt
4 Tbls. sugar
2 well beaten eggs
1 compressed yeast cake dissolved in a little lukewarm water
1 cup flour.
Let rise until light, then add cup of melted lard and flour
enough to make a stiff batter. Let rest for a few minutes before
kneading. Have covered with towel at all times. Knead well and let
dough rise again. Then shape into rolls or roll out and cut with
round cutter and fold over with butter between for parker house
rolls.
Atone of our Homemaker Meetings we learned how much your dough
will stiffen up in a few minutes rest before kneading it. It makes
for the use of less flour and a much more tender product. The
softer you can handle your dough the better your rolls. And have a
tender touch. Dough is like a husband. The more tenderly you handle
them both the nicer they get. And getting back to the rolls, if you
make them Parker House, use the handle of a wooden spoon to press
the crease where you want to fold them over. Then bring it over
just a bit over half way and they will be beautiful. Of course you
grease them before they are set away to rise. Cover then too, be
sure. The baking temperature should be about 375 to 400 and the
time around 20 minutes. All ovens aren’t alike so one has to
use your judgment. (This is put in f o r the brides.)
About the time this will be going into print a lot of summer
brides will have walked down the church aisles of our country.
Really what a wonderful estate matrimony is. After thirty years of
being very happily married I still marvel that two people of
different home environment, often different nationalities, and
entirely diverse personalities can create a home that has a quality
built out of all of these ingredients. It is rather like a recipe,
isn’t it? So many things go into it and the result is often
quite wonderful. Now, we, as parents of our six have watched three
homes be built by the products of our love, and the mates they
love. And they are good homes, very good homes. How grateful to God
we are for this.
God is honored in all of these homes and His Word read daily and
prayer offered to Him. Certainly this is a sound recipe for content
and as the saying goes, ‘The best things in life are free’.
In sad contrast, an unbeliever near us, placed his gun in his mouth
not long ago and pulled the trigger. It makes one shudder.
What better recipe is there for any life than real abiding
faith? As we let our John go into the army I had a new experience
in my walk with God, real commitment. I found that I could entirely
place him in God’s hands and leave it there. What a blessing!
He is doing fine and doesn’t sound too lonesome.
Yesterday I received another letter than the two aforementioned.
This was from a dear friend of mine who is also a writer and much
more prolific and successful in her vocation. She wrote me that she
receives about 100 fan letters a week and she attempts to answer
all of them. She has just published her fourth book, DEAR PAPA and
I am sure it will be as challenging as the other three, PAPA’S
WIFE, MAMA’S WAY, and PAPA’S DAUGHTER. I am sure many of
you have read the books. The Dear Lady who authors these books
writes that she and her husband, and their youngest daughter are
planning a trip to her beloved Sweden this year. I was so pleased
to hear of her plans. These fan letters really spur her on to real
heights. So if you care to write-HOW I’LL LOVE IT TOO. In
return you may get some much improved columns but I doubt whether I
could ever handle answering 100 letters a week.
The different responses one gets at a Reunion are really
amusing. One gentlemen on finding out who I was took off promptly,
muttering, ‘Hoisch, she quotes scripture’. But what better
is there to quote in this world? And a writer can always quote it
without fear of plagiarism. God wants His word spread everywhere.
So it goes, what is one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
(At least that is what he thinks.)
Yesterday was also rather sad and eventful for my husband, he
sold his Case 65. Suddenly the transaction was made. The family is
all a little shocked about it. It seems the right buyer came at the
right time. So we will have no more steam days at our house for the
time being. Yes- I feel he will own another one someday. It has
been a great experience, as are so many others. Our newest venture
is a farm fish pond stocked with trout and the Mr. around here took
his cast rod out last evening and hooked three of the lively
fellows. He came in all smiles in spite of having sold his machine.
The pond is fed by tile lines so we have some reclaimed land to
show for it and have kept our water here on the farm. So your next
column may well be ‘written from a rowboat!’ In the
meantime how I would love to hear from you. Either pro or con suits
me. I need both. I won’t promise to answer every one personally
but ‘see you in the column, Friend!’
