Summer must be about here. The air is getting sticky, the trees are fully leafed, flowers are bursting into bloom in the neighborhood, the cottonwoods are blowing their fluffy seeds along the millrace, and my early June allergies are back in full swing! Today, after work, Jim and I take our usual walk at the park and enjoy the breeze blowing through the swaying prairie grasses. The dragonflies and butterfllies flit around us while bluebirds sing and crickets saw. Jim drops me off at work to get my bike because he’s off to music practice. Since the temperature sign at the credit union still says over 80 degrees, I decide to ride my bike to The Chief before heading home for supper. The Chief is a summer tradition for our family as well as countless others as far as I can tell. On April 26th I asked my friends, Do you know what day it is today? And at least one of them guessed. The Chief reopens for the season. It’s one of those places that everyone knows about somehow. They don’t do a lot of advertising but the word travels. “Did you see that they’re having English Toffee as their special this week? Really? I guess I’ll have to go!” And then, when you do get there, you might have to wait in line for half an hour. But no one really minds because you’re bound to run into someone you know and catch up with someone you worked with or went to church with or played music with. And you know that when you do get up to the window, you’ll get just what you came for, and maybe even have fun chatting up those taking your order. It’s not just the ice cream that pulls you in. It’s the relaxed setting, the mix of ages and ethnicities, the social buzz and somehow we’re all equals waiting in line. It’s one of those food traditions that go way beyond the food. And I love it.
In my extended family, one of those traditions also rolls around at this time of year. I tasted the first strawberry of the season at the market this week so I know that soon I will be making everything strawberry. When I married into Jim’s family I soon found out that there is a special strawberry shortcake recipe that’s been handed down from generation to generation. I had just made a shortcake from a cookbook and served it and Jim said that his mom made this shortcake to go with strawberries. So I asked him if he knew the recipe and he said, “I think it’s some flour, some butter, salt, soda and milk or something. You mix it and put it in the pan and bake it until it gets brown.” I decided to call his mom for the more detailed recipe and found out that that’s about as detailed as it was! She told me that it came from her grandmother and it has just been passed on by word of mouth all these years. And this past Christmas when Jim’s family gathered, I mentioned the recipe and all the women recited it by heart! So this shortcake recipe is making its way through the fourth generation and it is definitely about food but also about family, tradition, and a way of baking that we have in some ways lost touch with: remembering recipes in your head, making them without exact measures and adjusting them intuitively as you go. This will be the week for me to make Great-Grandma’s Shortcake and serve it with fresh sweet strawberries.
Great-Grandma’s Shortcake
1/2 c. flour
salt to taste
1/2 t. soda
butter the size of an egg
cream to moisten
Mix. Flatten into pan. Prick with fork. Bake to brown.
Originally printed Summer 2007, The Goshen News
No comments:
Post a Comment