Nanny's quick rolls

 

                                     Ingredients:

                                            2 Tsp. salt

                                            1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon oil

                                            3/4 cup sugar

                                            3 cups milk

                                            3 pkg yeast

                                            6 to 6 and 1/2 cups bread  
                                                    f lour

Preparation:

        In a large bowl add salt,oil, and sugar to milk and heat till luke warm about 125 degrees. Do not have milk too hot or it will kill the yeast. Sprinkle the yeast in and let sit for a few minutes and rise a little bit.

       

        Those minutes always seemed like the longest waiting for the concoction to rise even the slightest bit. Being a child I always wanted to watch it rise because I thought it was magic that it rose by itself. In those short few minutes, that felt like an eternity to me, like any true southern woman who were always in the kitchen it was time for everyone to hear the gossip. When you don't see each other except for holidays and on that rare of an occasion there is a lot to catch up on and say. Most conversations started out based on food and escalated to talking about someones cooking and then once you talk about their cooking, might as well talk about their family too. No matter what though you always agreed that your mama had the best cooking out of every ones. I always thought it was hysterical how all the women in the kitchen gossip and all the men are in the living room screaming at the television because their team is down and needs to make a come back. They obviously could care less about the gossip that was floating around the kitchen like a butterfly.

      The magical mixture has now risen in what felt like forever. Now time to flatten out the dough, cut it, and shape it. This was my favorite part because being so young it was the only part I was actually allowed to participate in. They would shape must of them like regular, plain jane, circle rolls; however, that was boring to me and they would let me make different shapes with them sometimes. Now to the burning oven they go, and now was the waiting game. A few minutes waiting on dough to rise was long enough now I had to wait anywhere from twelve to fifteen minutes, and that was enough to starve you to death.

     The smell lingered from one side of the house to the other. Those minutes of peace while preparing the dough are cut now by the sounds of five of my cousins fighting over who won which game, who was playing next, and how dumb this game was to the loser.

     One yells  "I won, I beat you again!"

     Another forcibly argues "This game was stupid anyways!"

     Then barely able to hear a silent, whisper from the youngest boy
       "Can we play another game I actually like?"

      "NO!" The four others shout in unison as if they're one person.

     Then while the other children are steadily argueing like catched animals the youngest boy sneakily slips his favorite game in the playstation. It takes the older kids a few minutes to realize what's going on because they were to busy fighting. The youngest sitting contently playing the game and the others rather join along than start another fight. I begin to smell the rolls stronger than before and just happily bounce my way back into the kitchen not remembering why I even walked back there to watch them argue anyways.

   

    The rolls are almost done now. A few long minutes left till they will be prepared. When the rolls are done they will be coated by a thick glaze of butter of butter that's been awaiting their arrival. When all the food is done we'll sit around the table and eat and talk for hours like we haven't been together all day. It's been siz years since the last family gathering we all had together and I'll cherish those little moments like sitting around the table talking for hours about nothing and everything. In this cajun family it's about the food "C'est Bon."