{"id":20632,"date":"2022-11-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sasee.wpenginepowered.com\/?post_type=essay&p=20632"},"modified":"2024-03-26T15:08:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:08:23","slug":"hot-roll-hotline","status":"publish","type":"essay","link":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/essay\/hot-roll-hotline\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Roll Hotline"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTraditions are like a love note from home that your children and grandchildren will take with them into their future\u201d
~Janet Hondrka<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom always made the best homemade yeast rolls, but whenever I asked her for the recipe, she insisted the ingredients were just thrown together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, her health began to decline. She surprised me one morning when she called and offered to show me how to make her delicious rolls. I rushed over to her house and scribbled down the recipe along with cheat notes as I watched her combine the ingredients and add a smidge more flour every now and then while kneading the soft dough. After it doubled in size, she formed perfect rolls from years of practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, Mom passed away a short time later with no one in my family aware that I\u2019d learned her yeast roll secrets. That first holiday at Dad\u2019s without her, I decided to surprise everyone and make the scrumptious homemade dinner rolls. As the scent of warm bread wafted throughout the kitchen, one of the nephews announced, \u201cI smell Grandma\u2019s rolls.\u201d Our usual boisterous crowd grew quiet, no doubt everyone missed our mother. As we sat down to eat, mouth-watering hot rolls sailed around the table. Soon laughter replaced our sorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From then on, I baked Mom\u2019s rolls every holiday. Twelve years later, Dad died a week before Thanksgiving. Exhausted from funeral duties and still coping with grief, my siblings and I decided to skip our annual extended family gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanksgiving morning, even though it would just be my husband and me for dinner, I gathered the ingredients and started a batch of rolls. No sooner than I\u2019d set the dough aside to rise, my phone rang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHi, Aunt Alice. Mind sharing Grandma\u2019s hot roll recipe? I haven\u2019t made anything with yeast before,\u201d my niece confessed, \u201cbut I\u2019m going to give it a try.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After rattling off the ingredients and instructions, I said, \u201cGood luck! Call if you have any questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten minutes later,\u00a0my\u00a0phone rang\u00a0again. I chuckled,\u00a0thinking it was her. Instead, my youngest daughter asked, \u201cMom, what ingredients do I need to make Grandma\u2019s rolls?\u201d My husband laughed when the phone trilled\u00a0once more. \u201cYou might as well be operating a switchboard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My niece\u00a0called,\u00a0concerned her dough was too sticky. I explained that was how it was supposed to\u00a0feel. She just needed to sprinkle a generous amount of flour on\u00a0her\u00a0counter before working the dough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barring! Brrring! My daughter wanted to know, \u201cIs it really necessary to knead the dough a hundred times?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, Honey. And don\u2019t forget to push down hard with both palms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My younger sister called a half hour later and asked how hard Mom\u2019s rolls were to make. I gave her the recipe and assured her she\u2019d do fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From then on, I answered my phone, \u201cHot Roll Hotline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShould I grease the tops?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow hot should the oven temperature be?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow long do I bake the rolls?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later that evening, the callbacks were triumphant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First my niece, \u201cMy rolls might not be as pretty as Grandma\u2019s, but they sure taste good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, my daughter phoned. \u201cI did it! The boys thought my hot rolls were delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My sister called to say she had good luck as well. Teary-eyed, I hung up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom would be so pleased the rolls she had \u201cthrown together\u201d with love and a smidge more flour would, like her memory, remain an important part of our family.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTraditions are like a love note from home that your children and grandchildren will take with them into their future\u201d~Janet Hondrka Mom always made the best homemade yeast rolls, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_gspb_post_css":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"essay_type":[46],"essay-category":[],"class_list":["post-20632","essay","type-essay","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","essay_type-features"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/20632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/essay"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/20632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"essay_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay_type?post=20632"},{"taxonomy":"essay-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay-category?post=20632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}