Cornbread. Cornbread Everywhere.

"We've got jam at home," Emmy said as we cruised the Dane County Farmer's Market last weekend. I shifted the carrots to my other hand. "All right. I'll bake bread, then." "You sure?" she asked. "Yeah, totally."

So, I didn't bake bread. I didn't even look at the yeast this week. I did, however, procure a library book that seems to have a couple decent and simple bread recipes. As I was reading it I was inspired to try two of their recipes, pop-overs and cornbread. How lucky that I bought eggs! (soy free and full beak, too.) And no rising involved. Bonus.

We began the week with potato soup in mind and gathered our ingredients from the following places:

~Celeriac x2 from Driftless Organics
~Carrots x2 from Carol from Gitto Family Farm
~Flour from Hickory Hill
~Honey from River Forks Honey Co.
~Potatoes from Driftless Organics

also local but not from the DCFM, were 2 onions, milk, buttter, bacon, and sour cream.

The "Werner Potato Soup" recipe was given to Emmy by her mother and is as follows:

Potato Soup

1 med onion, chopped

1 tbsp butter

Chicken broth/bullion cubes

Potatoes, approx. 6

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 peeled carrot, chopped

Salt to taste

Milk/half & half cream

Sautee 1 med onion in 1 tbsp butter until clear, not brown

Chop carrot and celery

Roughly chop potatoes and place in pot with celery and carrot

Add water to cover potatoes, one bullion cube per cup

Boil 20-25 mins or until potatoes are fork-soft

Mash with masher

If necessary, simmer until soup reaches desired consistency

Add salt to taste

Add milk/cream to taste (best with half& half)

 

This recipe, her Mom adds, can be doubled or halved according to need. Just add as many potatoes as you like, enough broth to cover and veggies to preference. Here, we substituted celeriac for celery because celery is not in season yet.

 

I also made Pop-Overs, which I last made when I was about five years old. My middle sister, Kath, is a pop-over wizard. I have always admired her skills. Since I have no beater of whisk, I had to make do with hand power alone, which is probably why mine didn't rise in the middle, but they rose up around the edges.

 

Pop-Overs,

from "Bread" by Williams-Sonoma

 

~1 Tb melted unsalted butter

~3 eggs

~1 Cup whole milk

~1 Cup flour

~1/4 tsp salt

 

DO NOT preheat oven, it needs to be cold when you put the pop-overs in. Take a pop-over tin (deep) or a muffin tin and grease with oil/Pam/cold butter/etc. In a mixing bowl beat together wet ingredients until foamy. I suggest using an electric mixer here, but you don't have to. Beat in the dry ingredients until smooth, DO NOT overmix. Batter should be thin. Fill each tin 2/3rds of the way full with batter. Place pan on middle rack in a cold oven. Turn temperature to 375F or 190C. A deep tin will take about 35-45 minutes, while a muffin tin will take about 25 minutes. DO NOT open the oven door for the firs 30 minuts of cooking, or tops will not rise. When you remove gently pierce the top of each pop-over to allow steam to escape. Let cool. Fill with jam and enjoy!

 

I also attempted to make Cornbread from the same book. The recipe called for a 9-inch pan. I have no 9-inch deep pans so I elected to use my 10-inch pie pan instead. O. M. G. After ten minutes I noticed a sharp burning smell and ran to check the oven. My cornbread (which required 4 eggs, I might add, and almost all of the cornmeal I had left) had overflowed and was busy making a foot-long subway sandwhich-shaped pile of puffy batter all over the bottom heating element of the oven.

 

I'm not ashamed to say that I swore viciously, pulled the pie pan out, spilled batter everywhere in the process, and herded the subway-batter onto the floor by the clever use of two plastic spatulas. I then put a cookie sheet on the middle rack and stuck the cornbread back in the oven. Not five minutes later the burning smell was back, and this time with a vengence. Again, I ran to the kitchen. During my herding process it seemed I had gotten more wet batter directly on the heating element and it had turned to glowing cinders and filled the oven with smoke. Goddammit. I turned the whole thing off and gave up the cornbread as a lost cause.

 

And that's the story of how Kim nearly burned down her apartment complex this week. No idea what we're going to do next week, but I vote chili!

 

xoxoxo,

Kim & Emmy

 

Reader Questions: I know I'm not the only one to have a crazy kitchen disaster, and I also know that misery loves company. Care to share? :)

Sufferin' Sweet Potatoes!

What a mess this weekend was. Although Emmy and I had a great Saturday morning I found myself standing alone in the kitchen later that night, facing 3 hours of peeling and chopping at 3am. I crusaded on while Emmy slept, hoping to have our Sweet Potato Quesadillas ready by the time she had to leave for work at 11am.
*chopchop, boil, mash, stir, saute, etc, stir again, combine and stir*
*taste*
XP! Yuck. I mean, really, yuck. Maybe it was me trying to quadruple the recipe, maybe I needed fresh herbs instead of dried ones in little plastic bottles, or maybe, just maybe, I needed to hunker down and admit that I hate sweet potatoes. Darn.
Turns out we'd spent our whole grocery budget making this:

http://animalvegetablemiracle.com/recipes-winter-sweet-potato-quesadillas.htm

and had nothing to show for it. I gave up and sat down with some hard cider and watched cartoons until it was time to wake Emmy. Big mistake. Without any coffee in my system and a mess of hard cider I battled a losing fight against a migraine for the rest of the day. In the morning Emmy tried the sweet potato concoction and admitted that she hated it, too. Back to the co-op I went, dragging my feet over to the meat counter for some organic, pasture-raised ground beef and two packets of taco seasoning. Head aching and without any energy we snacked away on the last of the bread Sunday night and rolled into bed without making anything.

At last, come Monday morning I threw off the covers and (migraine blessedly gone) ran to the stove to start cooking. Just in time for a 10am shift, I pulled out the locally-made tortilla shells we'd gotten for the quesadillas and packed Emmy's lunch minutes before we had to be out the door. Now, with her off at work, I set myself the task of completing a recipe for fluffy rolls that I'd found a few days ago here:

http://jamiecooksitup.net/2010/10/fluffy-dinner-rolls/

They just came out of the oven a little while ago, and while I was skeptical earlier I'm much reformed now. They're delicious, and oddly sweet. Here only the butter and milk were local, I'm still working down my own salt and sugar stashes until I can get local/organic varieties from decent companies.

So, I learned something this week. If you don't like the ingredients in something, no matter how tasty the cooking method, you will probably not like the end result. Although I do have to say that I have gotten several responses to my personal facebook posts from family, who have recommended that I try frying up or roasting the sweet potatoes in wedges before adding them to the quesadillas so I won't end up with that bland, mashed squashy flavor.

I have no idea what I'll make next week, but it'll probably be either potato soup or vegetarian chili.

xoxoxo,
Kim & Emmy
 

Saving the World...

keeps me up at night.

It really does. Since becoming interested in the Local Foods Challenge I've checked out and bought as many books as possible about the subject. And I'm not done, either.

Read:
~The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by, Micheal Pollan
~Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by, Barbara Kingsolver (aka, author of The Poisonwood Bible)
~Heirloom Vegetable Gardening
by, William Woys Weaver
~Get Started Preserving
by, DK
~Herbs
by, Better Homes & Gardens

Almost finished:
~Organic Manifesto
by, Maria Rodale

To read:
~The Great Tomato Book
by, Sheila Buff
~Starter Vegetable Gardens
by, Barbara Pleasant
~Raising Less corn, More Hell
by, George Pyle
~Everything else

As you can easily see, I have specific interests at the moment. I'll lay out the pattern for you: cooking, gardening (I have a small patio which can support tomatoes and herbs only), organic/local food culture literature.

It's that third piece that's really occupying my mind. I have some questions that I really want answered, that I really want to research. Are we currently sustainable? No. That's an easy one. But can we be? Is it really possible? I think so. I do. Honestly. I'm convinced that it is, but then again I've always been a glass-half-full sort of gal. I also think I ought to go back to school for this.

Okay, so let's start with what I know so far about why we're not sustainable now. And this, by all means, is not comprehensive. I'm no scientist, but I sure do read. We'll start at the top.

~Sunlight: check.
Sun grows plant, man eats plant. Sun grows plant, animal eats plant, man eats animal. Easy enough, right? Well, yeah, normally.

~Dirt: Not so check.
So we have plenty of sunlight, at least for the next couple bajillion years. Not an issue. But dirt. Hmm. What is dirt, exactly? 1 Cup of dirt has more itty bitty organisms than there are people living on this planet. Fact. We still don't completely understand the complex oganism(s) that is Dirt. Fact. Why is Dirt "not so check"? Easy.
Dirt has this thing, it's called Fertility. Dirt, as I'm coming to understand, exists in four stages as we know it:
~Fertile and undisturbed.
~Disturbed and constantly being depleted of fertility.
~Completely depleted of fertility. (ie, desert conditions may now begin.)
~Dirt (in farming) allowed to lie fallow for 1 year/several years/generations/etc to rebuild its natural, mysterious fertility.
When crops are planted and constantly harvested over and over (as in Big Organic farming and its evil cousin, Industrial farming), the Dirt loses its precious fertility. In these business Dirt is not allowed to lie fallow to recover its fertility. This is like planting 1 acre of Christmas trees and harvesting them immediately the next winter (when they are a few inches big) instead of letting them grow for several years and attain the height of a full-grown person. When soil is depleted in this manner, nothing can grow on it. When soil is depleted it can't grip the earth, it runs off into nearby streams and rivers and ends up in A) the ocean and B) our drinking water.
You can't choke on dirt in your tap water, but fish sure can. (Remember that dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico?)
So what happens when farmers aren't rotating crops properly or protecting fertility with natural methods (manure/cow poop)? Big agri-business companies step in and say, "Are your crops dying? Then you need Brand Name! Brand Name fertilizer will solve all your problems!" and then they smile like used-car salesmen. ding!
Argh! But if you spray fertilizer then everything grows, even bugs and weeds!
"Bugs getting at your crops? No worries! Try NameBrand weed and bug killer! It works fast!"
Wait a minute.
Brand Name and NameBrand are made by the same company! Okay, don't panic...
"Weed killer killing your crops? Don't worry! We'll sell you GMO(Genetically Modified Organism) crops that are resistant to our NameBrand weed killer. For you, we'll do it all!"
Unfortunately this B.S. is being sold on three sides: GMO seeds, weed/bug killer, and fertilizer, often by the same company. Boom, snap, slap. Money in the hands of some corporate goon and debt as the only thing lining a farmer's pocket. If we just practiced crop rotation and a little goddamn patience this wouldn't be an issue and, what's more, we could feed the world.

~Chemicals: Check.
I always make sure I'm getting my daily dose of arsenic and lead, don't you? I find I just can't live without the stuff. Okay, I'm joking, but not about the poisons. So many of the chemicals that Industrial agriculture is sprayed with are highly toxic to humans and the enviornment in either large or small doses. Many of these chemicals were used in the gas chambers during WWII. It's bigger than what I had previously thought. We've been highly chemical dependant for a long time, with early chemical attempts at increasing fertility going all the way back to 900AD China, and others in 1300AD Europe. After the Battle of Waterloo the English even stole bones to grind up into powder in the hopes of encouraging soil fertility on their exhausted island.
So, after all these chemicals are applied, what happens to them? Well, they enter the soil and the plant. Yes, they do. And then they get inside us. And our water. And our meat. (all that corn goes somewhere: beef, chicken, pork, salmon, you name it...plastic, cardboard, lamps...)
HOLY COW.
Chemicals are in everything. I am not making this up. It's true. You probably couldn't even get out of bed without touching something that had these harmful toxins applied to it. But to be sure, different forms of contact affect the body in different ways. I'm going to worry about my food first, since it's ingested, and my keyboard last. So, chemicals in the soil, the water, the food, the air...
How does anybody do anything about it?
I'm getting there. It gets worse, first, though.

~Meat: Ugh. Gross.
This one's easy. Meat eats chemically-doused feed (usually corn), meat is fed ground-up meat, meat is fed hormones and antibiotics, man eats meat (thereby digesting chemicals, gross!meat, extra unneeded hormones, and antibiotics all in one! Yuck.).
Yes, meat is fed ground-up meat. "But, Kim, what about Mad Cow Disease? We totally fixed that!"
No, we didn't.
Cow eats all stuff mentioned above, unusable bits of cow are ground up and put in chicken & pork feed, unusable bits of chicken and pork are ground up and put in cow feed. Cow, therefore, eats cow. Not directly, it's true. But it still happens. And those chemicals and viruses don't just break down after one pass through. As anybody who can attest to the massive flu outbreak sweeping America right now, viruses don't just die. They'll chug right on through a cow's gut, a chicken's gut, and then a cow's gut again, and then they will come for you. And so will Mad People Disease, or whatever we're going to call it.
#zombieapocalypse

People: Um...
The end of this industrial food chain? Diabetes, asthma, cancer, endocrine distruptors... need I go on? No wonder health care is a booming industry, we're downing poison all the way there.

Chemical dependance is killing us and our animals and plants. It is choking our water and our air and destroying our ozone. It is melting our ice caps (Beijing, China's pollution just went so high it left the record), and giving our children diseases we didn't even have two generations ago. I'm serious. This chemical-feedlot-industrial-macho- bullshit is poisoning the planet.

This keeps me up at night. I know how it happened. I know why, too. That's the simplest part, really. Greed, pride, and a macho self-centric culture is the root of it all. Which is really sad, all things considered. But, it can change. It's not too late.

So, after all this frightening stuff that I just mentioned, how do we save the planet?
~Firstly, you've got to go organic. Organic food, organic clothing, fuel-efficient cars, whatever.
~Secondly, you've got to go local. As local as possible. Yeah, I know, I like lemons are much as the next girl but this is just too much poison lemonade for me.

Start there and see how far you get. If you "vote", so to speak, with your dollars, you already have the most powerful tool at your disposal: Customer.

But, Kim, that's so generic. What's your P-L-A-N?

I don't know yet. But I'm going to figure it out, goddammit, I will. Are we sustainable? Heck no. But can we be?
I'm certain of it.
Could we do it by state? By region? Is ethanol a good moral choice? No, on that last one. The world already produces enough food to feed everyone, way more than we need, judging by the obesity index. I bet this world could feed more than 7 billion people. I bet there is land out there (currently all industrial farms and feedlots) enough for houses and good living conditions. I bet that life can be good and decent, and full of dignity and respect. It might involve a little more planning, it might involve stricter regulations and food-testing, crop rotation, and I'm certain it would involve a lot of hard work. But I bet there's a living wage out there for each and every adult willing to get out of bed and come home with enough groceries to feed everybody.

I know that future is possible.

And I'm going to find it.

xoxoxo,
Kim & Emmy
 

A Warm Weekend

1/12/2013: The pot roast hunt

Everything available at the market was the same this week as last, although we did find a man with honey and lemons, the gentleman with the eggs wasn't there, and we had to hunt all over for celeriac.

~carrots
~half dozen eggs
~1 cup chopped walnuts
~heirloom tomoato seeds (all but the Pink Caspian were bred prior to 1900. Whoa.)
~boneless pot roast
~small celeriac (they just look so weird but they smell exactly like celery)
~1 leek, in place of onions, which we didn't find until we were finished.
~organic strawberry-raspberry jam
~1 pound goldenrod honey

This week we're making pot roast & carrot-walnut bread. The pot roast recipe is from a previous Farmer's Market newsletter, which can be found here: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs102/1100974214484/archive/1111923832260.html#recipe

And the carrot-walnut bread here: http://www.preparedpantry.com/carrot-bread-recipe.htm

At the market we found several things we did not expect, including biscotti, popcorn, tortillas, and canned tomatoes (just plain, to be used in recipes as needed), and dried herbs.

I was also going to order our organic salt from a small business in Maine: http://www.maineseasalt.com/
But we've just about run out and I don't get paid until next week. Oh, well. That's what the co-op is for.

We also picked up, as I mentioned above, some tomato seeds from pre-1900:
~Golden Queen, Stokes variety. Indeterminate, regular leaf, mid season, large size, orange.
~White Queen. Indeterminate, regular leaf, late season, beef size, pale yellow.
~Brandywine Sudduth. Indeterminate, potato leaf, mid season, beef size, pink.
~Lutescent. Indeterminate, regular leaf, late season, globe size, red.
and one post-1900:
~Caspian Pink. Indeterminate, regular leaf, mid season, beef size, pink.

It is always important, when raising animals and plants, to choose heirloom or heritage varieties rather than specific hybrids or GMO foods. Buying heirloom and heritage preserves nature's natural genetic diversity and encourages natural selection and healthy organisms. We are so excited about this find!

See you next week!
xoxoxo
Kim & Emmy

Carrot Chowder

I now weigh 127. Holy underpants, Batman! How did this happen? It was the Chowder. It had to be.

So without further ado,

Chowder (American)
from, The Soup Book (Over 800 Recipes) by, Louis P. DeGouy

Scrub enough carrots to make 2 cups (do not scrape or pare), and cook them with 2 cups of diced potatoes in 1.5 cups of Beef Stock, or water, reinforced with 1 teaspoon of Pique Seasoning, salt, pepper, and a dash of paprika to taste, for about 20 minutes, or until almost tender. Meanwhile, cook 1/2 cup of chopped onion in 5 tablespoons butter very, veyr slowly until tender, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, using a large saucepan. Sprinkle the onion with 2 tablespoons flour, and mix thoroughly. Then stir in 3 cups of hot milk, alternately with the carrot-potato and liquid mixture. cook over a very low flame for about 15 minutes. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon thyme (not powdered). Taste for seaonsing & serve.


Also, here's our smattering of ideas for foods for the rest of the winter. Any suggestions of dishes we could add?

~Pot roast & carrot bread
~Sweet potato quesadillas
~Werner Potato soup
~Vegetarian chili
~Butternut Bean Soup
~Braised Winter Squash
~Pumpkin Soup in its Own Shell
~Twice-baked Potatoes
~Bean soup w/ Fresh Bread
       ~Bean currry?
~Cheese and squash quiche
~Potato and Onion Frittata
~Corn Bread/Corn Pudding
~Roast Lamp w/ Baked potatoes & beets
~Bake Sweet Potatoes
~World's Best Chicken Soup

Enjoy!
Kim & Emmy

Ready. Set.......GO!

This was it. 1/5/13. The first Winter Farmers' Market of the new year. I thought all about eating local all of Friday night at work and I raced home Saturday morning to find Emmy not quite out of bed yet. I bounced around, full of energy, and dragged her out the door as soon as I could manage. We both knew this weekend would be our last chance to get non-local industrial foods while eating out, and that "local & organic" would be the rule for the rest of the year.

The farmer's market had potatoes, shallots, onions, carrots, some leafy greens (out of season, from greenhouses, I imagine.), breads, cookies, flour, sumac, eggs, lots of different meats, and squashes, of course. Standard winter market fare.

We picked up:
~1 pint sunflower oil
~local granola
~White bread
~3lb bag of carrots for $5. Bargaining FTW!
~cheddar & garlic cheddar cheese
~locally prepared linguini (some kind of long, flat noodle) pasta
~milk
~heavy whipping cream
~strawberry jam
~onions

Meal plan: Pasta with cheese sauce, carrot chowder (Yes, chowder.), and bread&jam for breakfast.

Funny story about that pasta. Pasta has been my main go-to for about as long as I can remember, so I didn't think twice about putting it and "pasta sauce, ie, tomato" on my shopping list. And then, several days later, I was at work and suddenly remembered, "Duh! Tomatoes aren't in season right now." Eating local, for whatever it's going to be worth at the end of this year, is certainly going to be interesting...

Now, every diet worth its salt, so to speak, has some cheats built into it. You know, things you absolutely can't do without. Here's our list, but just assume all cheats are fair-trade and organic:
~chocolate
~salt & pepper (pepper, for now)
~coffee
~tea
~occaisions w/ friends & family
~If it's not grown locally, bottled/packaged locally is acceptable, for now.
~presents from others
~spices, for now.

And that's it. Wish us luck!

xoxoxo,
Kim & Emmy
 

So, Christmas anyone?

Yeah, yeah, late again. But only by eleven days this time. :)

Our Christmas menu was much the same as our Thanksgiving menu, actually, with three exceptions. (We're poor, what can I say?)

1. We bought everything from the co-op. The reason? On the way out and back to New Hampshire we listened to the entirety of the book-on-CD-version of "The Omnivore Dilemma". I threw up my hands and said, "That's it, no more conventional-industrial-big agri-business food for this house." And Emmy, bless her, followed right along. We still call them books-on-tape, though.

2. Vassar Chocolate Sauce

3. Sticky Buns

So that's what I'm hear to talk about today, the dessert. As I may have mentioned for Thanksgiving, my family has several traditional recipes that we make only once or twice a year. The chocolate sauce turns up even less often, if you can believe it. I was admonished by my Uncle while at the family gathering to never release this information on the internet. But I believe I will. It's just too good. So sit back, stir it up, and relish in the knowledge that you hold the Simmons Family Secret in your hands. Good food should always be shared.

As always, I'll add my comments in Red.

FROM THE KITCHEN OF ROGER SIMMONS

 Vassar Chocolate Sauce

 

Serves: 8-10 as a Sauce for Ice Cream   Preparation Time:  10 minutes

INGREDIENTS: 

ITEM	QTY	MEASURE
Sugar	1	Cup
Water	1/4	Cup
Bitter Chocolate (unsweetned)	1	Oz or square
Karo Syrup	2	Tablespoons DO NOT SUBSTITUTE!

 DIRECTIONS:

1.  Measure and mix all ingredients into a medium (1 or 1-1/2 quart) saucepan. 

2.  On high heat bring to a full boil stirring occasionally as chocolate melts and then continuously thereafter. 

3.  Boil for 1 minute (use a timer to make sure) stirring constantly.  Over boiling by more than 10 seconds will result in a sauce that hardens like rock on the ice cream.  Under boil and you will have something too runny. Ours was too runny on the first go, so we re-heated it to boil another 10 seconds. Also can be safely refrigerated.

4.  Cool by immersing the saucepan half way into a larger container of cold water (We just used our soup pot in the sink) that you have more cold water running into or by stages.  The reason to cool is that if you put boiling sauce onto ice cream then it will melt it straight away.  Serve the ice cream into bowls while you cool off the sauce. 

5.  Leftovers.  Whatever is left over can be scrapped into a bowl and reheated later, preferably when everyone else is out of the house or asleep.

 

NOTES:  This recipe comes down to you from your great grandmother Katharine Hawley who attended Vassar College before she left after her freshman year to marry your great grandfather.  The story was that making this chocolate sauce was the one lasting thing she took away from that year in college.  When I was in the Army I asked my mother to send me this recipe which she did but she left out the ¼ cup of water thereby ensuring that whenever we made it turned into lava. Dad was in Germany at the time, after his first year he returned in the summer to marry Mom and they lived together abroad for several years before coming back to the States.


Onward and upward! To...sticky buns!

2 loaves or 3-4 dozen rolls   Preparation Time: 1 hour labor, 6-8 hours overall

FROM THE KITCHEN OF ROGER SIMMONS 

Mrs. Bullard’s Bread/Rolls

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

ITEM	QTY	MEASURE
Water	2	Cups
Water	1/4	Cup
Olive Oil		To coat
Sugar	½	Cup
Butter	2	Tablespoons
Salt	1	Tablespoon
Eggs	2
Flour	8	Cups
Yeast	2	Packages

 

DIRECTIONS: Fun fact: Breads are made with yeast. Pastries are made with butter. Cakes are made with eggs. So, because this recipe involves yeast, butter, and eggs it's technically all three.

1.  Place sugar, salt and butter in a large mixing bowl.  Bring the 2 cups of water to a boil and add to the dry ingredients.  Let cool to 105 to 115 F. 

2.  Warm ¼ cup of water to between 85 and 105 F.  (I can do this by feel, now. I don't need a thermometer.) Add a small portion (1 teaspoon) of the sugar and flour and mix in yeast to proof.  Let stand about 10 minutes until foamy. 

3.  Add the yeast mixture to the hot water mix.  Add ½ the flour to the water mix and beat well.  Beat the two eggs until fluffy and then add to the flour and water mix.  Add the remaining flour, less ¾ of a cup, one cup at a time and mix well. 

4.  Roll out on a bread board that is well floured with the ¾ cup and knead 8-10 minutes.  After kneading place in an oiled bowl and let rise until doubled in size.  Punch down.  At this point either: 

            a.  Proceed to sticky bun recipe. 

            b.  Form into rolls or loaves and let rise until doubled in bulk.  Bake 20 minutes in a 350 F oven.

SOURCE:  My grandmother got this recipe from Mrs. Bullard who was a friend of hers in Geneva, NY in the 1930’s.  Growing up we had this recipe at Thanksgiving and Christmas as the base for sticky buns and small rolls.

8-9 sticky buns   Preparation Time: 2 hours labor, 4-5 hours overall

FROM THE KITCHEN OF ROGER SIMMONS 

Sticky Buns 

INGREDIENTS:

 

ITEM	QTY	MEASURE
Raw Bullard Dough	1/4	Bullard Roll Recipe
Filling
Butter (melted)	2	Tablespoons
Brown Sugar	½	Cup
Cinnamon	1/4	Teaspoon
Sauce
Butter	4	Tablespoons
Light Corn Syrup	½	Cup
Brown Sugar	¾	Cup

 

1.  Prepare sauce.  (Okay, I don't know why this recipe still includes "Light Corn Syrup". Corn syrup is gross and it's nearly-garunteed to come from GMO and pesticide-drenched corn. Poison in your sticky buns? Yuck! Of course, Dad never uses corn syrup when he makes it so when I did when I was experimenting in college I never understood why the sauce wasn't as sweet. He then told me you have to have a combination of maple syrup and honey. So I did that in 2010 for Thanksgiving. The sticky buns were so sweet they were nearly inedible. So, I said, "Daaaaaaad." To which he responded, "A few capfuls of molasses." And now they're perfect.) Mix ingredients together and bring to boil stirring frequently while heating and continuously while boiling.  Full boil for up to 60 (This year Dad texted me to say 45 seconds maximum. I agree. Otherwise it'll end up as hard-tack.) seconds.  Pour into a 10” pie pan or 9” X 9” glass Pyrex dish.  Let cool. 

2.  Roll dough out in a rectangle on an unfloured board, about 12” by 6”.  Pour melted butter onto dough and spread to within 1” of top and bottom.  Sprinkle with brown sugar/cinnamon mix.  Roll dough up the long way (like a hotdog).  Slice evenly into 8-9 pieces and place on top of the sauce mix.  Leave space between the slices for the rolls to rise. 

3.  Place rolls in a warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk.  Bake 20 minutes in a 350 F oven.  After removing from oven cover with tin foil and a large plate.  Flip carefully.  Serve.

 

NOTES:  Since I usually do this recipe on the holidays for a midday meal I prepare the dough recipe the night before, allow one rise and then punch down and refrigerate.  The next morning I pull the dough out several hours before I will start the recipe and let it warm up.  As for the sauce I usually mix in some honey and a bit of maple syrup and decrease the corn syrup to make up the required volume.  If you want nuts or raisins you would put them on top of the sauce before setting the rolls in.
Have fun cooking!
Kim & Emmy