Dear Edwards Church Community,
The approach of Thanksgiving gets my taste buds tingling with anticipation. Right now, just thinking about it, can’t you picture – even smell – your favorite dishes? There are favorites that divide families (apple vs. pumpkin vs. pecan for pies) and there are favorites that unite families. In my extended family of in-laws, the unifying force on the holiday groaning board is squash rolls.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, even Easter – no family meal on a major holiday is fully celebrated if it does not include squash rolls. The recipe originates in Fanny Farmer’s Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, which was given to my wife’s maternal grandmother, known as Frannie. She received the book as a wedding present from a good friend in the 1920’s because, as even she would say, she was a “slapdash cook” in need of help. Over the years, she became renown for a few simple but satisfying dishes, especially her squash rolls.
When I had my first squash roll, I was initially underwhelmed. After all the build up, I was anticipating something more spectacular, something flashy. This was a simple but satisfying dinner roll, with a subtle undertone of butternut squash. Light for the first few bites, the rolls are surprisingly filling. Frannie combined ultrafine and regular flour, then blended in jars of pureed squash baby food for her dough. Just the right combination of conveniences, while mostly following the cookbook recipe.
In recent years, especially since Frannie died and her great-grandchildren have become young adults, it has been a joy to see and hear their anticipation over the latest batch of squash rolls baking for our special meals. In the 1990’s, they would stand on a rickety stool in her kitchen, leaning over the counter to cut out dough with an inverted juice glass, brush on some melted butter and fold them into the baking pan. Since her death, the recipe has been passed around. Uncle Steve has become the undisputed master squash roll baker of our generation and is sharing the recipe with all who ask.
This is how we hand over, take on and adapt traditions. If offered a form of sustenance and shown how to share it, every generation will acquire a taste for something good that feeds us. They will appreciate it and make it their own. Recipes are passed down and adapted. (We now use freshly mashed squash, but still blend ultrafine and regular flour.) This happens in our worship, church school, adult faith formation, outreach and every other ministry of the church. While we practice the faith, we are already handing it on and inviting those who will follow to make it their own.
Bon appetit!
Michael