Sri Lanka Entry

Passport & Plate - Buttons and Bows

United Kingdom | Monday, February 23, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
Shortening, 1/3 cup
Flour, 1 3/4 cup
Sugar, 2 TBSP
Baking Powder, 2 1/2 TSP
Nutmeg, 1 TSP
Salt, 3/4 TSP
Cinnamon, 1/8 TSP
Cloves, 1/8 TSP
Egg, 1
Milk, 1/2 C
Oleo, 1/4 C, melted
Sugar, 1/2 C

 

How to prepare this recipe
Heat oven to 400.
Cut shortening into flour, 2T sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves until mix resembles fine crumbs.
Stir in egg and just enough milk so dough leaves the side of the bowl.
Turn onto lightly floured surface.
Knead lightly 10 times.
Roll 1/2" thick.
Cut with floured doughnut cutter.
Hold opposite ends of each ring and twist to form a figure eight.
Place bows and buttons (remaining hole) on ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 8-10 minutes.
When baked, dip in oleo and then roll them in sugar.
Serve.

 

The story behind this recipe
We were poor. Really poor. My mom and dad trying to raise us six kids. It wasn't easy. We did the best we could. We ate, what we could. We didn't eat much. My school day breakfast - microwaved oatmeal. Every day. For years. My school day lunch - a peanut sandwich and a banged up apple (they were cheaper). Every day. For years. For dinner - a pot of spaghetti with tomato sauce. Maybe liver (a cheaper piece of protein). Sometimes - a pot of corn chowder made with the simplest ingredients one could find. We were poor. Really poor and my mom fed us the best she could.

Some weekend mornings we go to have fancy breakfasts. Mom would made buttons and bows. Homemade doughnuts! She baked them up - the house smelling like some delightful confection. She would allow me to dip them in the oleo (we couldn't afford real butter) and the sugar. We'd sit with them and I would pretend, me with my Tang, mom with her cup of tea, that we were wealthy estate owners in England or some such place that had fox hunting as a hobby, where elegant balls were held, where there were butlers and valets and shoeshines. We were rich! We'd have not a care in the world! We'd be able to sit and have fancy doughnuts and drink fancy teas! We were rich!

We were poor. Those times, though, we felt rich. And, maybe we were. No money in the family bank account but a lot of blood in our hearts. Rich rich blood beating in our hearts.