Aunt Donna Lou's Famous Rolls

Our Aunt Donna Lou makes the best rolls in the world! I truly believe that! O'Charley's has nothing on her, believe me! Two years ago when we were in Missouri I asked her how she made them and she said it wasn't hard, it just takes some practice. So later she mailed me the recipe. I tried it one time and it did not work, to say the least! I never tried again but I did keep the recipe. So this year when we were there we kept going on about how good the rolls were again. This time Dina, Aunt Donna Lou's daughter, invited us to her house the next day to teach us how to make them! We were so excited! So, we all loaded in the 15 passenger van and headed down in the valley to Dina's house. She really does live down in a valley too! The girls raised their arms up like we were on a roller coaster, that's how big the hill was the we drove down to get to her house.

Anyway, Dina pulled out the recipe book that the recipe came from. It was a 4-H book from 1914! We laughed and laughed at what that book said. It had pictures of the wife serving the husband with a tray while wearing her skirt and heels! It talked about how to throw a proper party too. It was pretty funny to read it and think about how different we are today.

So Dina and Donna Lou explained every step of the process while I took pictures and Joni wrote notes. While the rolls were rising we sat and looked at old pictures from my great grandma Freeda. It was fun to see those old pictures and sit and talk. While we were doing that the kids were having a blast playing in the basement and outside on the mud pile! When the rolls were done we all ate way too many! We decided that "you don't go on vacation to save money and you don't make Donna Lou's rolls to lose weight"!

I have tried making the rolls since being home. They weren't as bad as the first time but they sure weren't like Donna Lou's rolls either. She said it takes practice. It's a lengthy process though. I guess I'll have to try it again before I give up for good.

Joni did a really great post on her blog of the whole roll making adventure, complete with recipe and everything. I'm going to refer all of my faithful reader to Joni's blog for all of the roll making details. It's a lot to type and my fingers are already tired. So, if you want to see all of the pictures and read the recipe go here....http://joniandlarry.blogspot.com/2009/08/donna-lous-rolls.html