Mama's Rolls

Shown here is my grandmother's rolling pin, which became my mother's, which my mother listed that she wanted to become mine. Mama died last Christmas and we used the rolling  pin in her memorial display as she used it to make thousands of rolls and biscuits. She once won a prize for her rolls; and her poem that she wrote about her mother's rolling pin was one of her favorites and has been published.

Here she is at 88-- but she made our Christmas rolls at the age of 93 1/2, a day or so before her stroke. This picture was taken before she got her handy-dandy KitchenAid mixer.

Thanks to her tutelage, I can make yeast rolls with my eyes shut. In fact, with her macular degeneration, she sort of did, too. For this, and much more, I am so thankful.

I took the first photo above when I was home to see my dad and brother just over a week ago. When I go home, I try to always make them a bunch of rolls that I freeze so that they can enjoy rolls (kind of) like Mama used to make for them. She made yeast rolls a few times a week.  I have not yet reached the point where I can do this in her kitchen with her rolling pin --that is probably more than 120 years old---and Calumet baking powder can for a cutter without shedding a few tears.

Yesterday was her birthday. She would have been 94. I baked her lemon pound cake in her honor.