I am not being very faithful to this blog lately, and I apologize to anyone who is checking to see if I can be trusted to post something more than once a week. Thank you for hanging in there with me while I organize myself and arrange interviews with Montana people who are producing our food. And wait for the road to clear so I can actually drive somewhere.Meanwhile, I'm reporting about a great roll recipe from Cliff who lives, as he explains, somewhere in the western part of the state.
I'll let Cliff describe the process of making rolls in his own words. His writing style cannot be duplicated and you should have the pleasure of enjoying it for yourself.
He is right that these are easy to make -- no kneading, and a fluffy, tasty result. But Cliff is all fancy in his little cabin in the wilderness: as the rolls come out of the oven, he rubs the tops with butter. On my ranch, we eat them without all that extra effort. (Right now there's hay to be fed to the cows and waiting for calves to arrive. Yeah, sure, I'm not actually involved in this, but I am busy running to the window to watch it all happen.)
OK, Cliff's look nicer, and the butter adds some flavor and tenderness, but I reckon they taste about the same, especially if you spread on some butter at mealtime.
Also, you will notice that my pile of rolls is bigger than Cliff's. I did not mean to try to outdo my neighbor. Rather, as I was mixing the butter, sugar, and salt with hot water I thought that was an awful lot of butter. Then I realized I had used a whole rather than half a stick. I was tempted to see how they would turn out just like that, but I decided to go ahead and double the recipe and so I have plenty of rolls to last a while. Cliff doesn't say, but I'm sure they freeze well. (I'll just put them on the back porch; haha!)
I'm having mine today with some homemade carrot soup. Pretty, healthy, and delish.
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I love it! Yours look great, and your presentation is way better than mine. I had to hurry up and take my picture as soon as the rolls came out of the over and were too hot to handle, otherwise several of them wouldn't have made it into the picture. I've never had enough left over to try to freeze. Yesterday I made little bitty hamburgers and used the last of the rolls as buns. That's good eatin' too.
ReplyDeleteI also love the part about you running to the window to watch all that farmwork happen. I can relate, except all I have to supervise over here are the Steller's Jays, chickadees and nuthatches at the feeders.
As I sit amongst the chaos of the big city in Dallas, I remain in food envy now by both of you. Why sure, they have great Tex-Mex and other foodie favorites here, but there is just something about those rolls that make me smile.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I am just missing my Montana.
Ah! There's nothing like homemade bread that makes home smell like home! (Wouldn't mind some good Tex-Mex right now, however!)
ReplyDeleteAs for watching others work, I reckon Lord Peter Wimsey said it best in Dorothy Sayers' Five Red Herrings: "I think the most joyous thing in life is to loaf round and watch another bloke doing a job of work."