Potato Rolls recipe

There's nothing quite as satisfying as warm bread in the dead of winter. Today, we're sharing one of our favorite bread recipes from Gardening the Amana Way. Enjoy!

Potato Rolls
3 to 4 cups flour
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
3 tablespoons sugar
2 packages quick-rise yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups water (tap or reserved from cooking potatoes)
3 tablespoons butter

Combine two cups flour, mashed potatoes, sugar, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Heat water and butter to 130 degrees. Stir into yeast mix. Add enough flour to make soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rest ten minutes. Divide dough into sixteen pieces and shape into balls. Place into two greased 9-inch cake pans. Cover and let rise until doubled. Bake at 400 degrees for about twenty minutes. Can also be shaped into a bread loaf.

Gardening the Amana Way, by Lawrence L. Rettig

October 13, 1909—excerpt from BACHELOR BESS

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909–1919, contains the letters Bess wrote home to her family after she staked a homesteading claim in Fort Pierre, South Dakota.

October 13, 1909 / Fort Pierre, South Dakota

To: Mrs. M. M. Corey

     "Monday morning I awoke to find it growing colder every minute. By night it was awful cold and I was sick or almost . . . got my feet hot just before noon and wasn't prepared for the consequences-- got chilled coming home. . . .

     "Mrs Nielsen brought my boxes out Monday evening and I got into some warmer duds and got my blankets on my bed so after unpacking some I got a good warm nap and felt as good as new.

     "I had heard them tell how things froze in this [homesteader's] shack but didn't think much of it till I went to wash my face yesterday morning and found I was up against the 'cold hard facts' of the case. Froze up! well I should say! even the tank froze up and the Speer kids have been sliding on the dam."

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909–1919, edited by Philip L. Gerber

Mom's Tomato Soup recipe

It's cold, and spring is nowhere in sight here in Iowa City, Iowa. In an effort to keep us a little warmer, here's a great tomato soup recipe from Lawrence L. Rettig, author of Gardening the Amana Way.

Mom's Tomato Soup
1 quart tomatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
1 large sprig parsley
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon flour, dissolved in tomato juice

Combine first five ingredients and simmer, stirring occasionally, until all vegetables are soft. Transfer to ricer and rice. Pour riced vegetables and tomato juice into saucepan. Add flour–tomato juice mixture. Add sugar and salt to taste. Heat, stirring occasionally.

Gardening the Amana Way, by Lawrence L. Rettig

Fourteen Wild Turkeys—from A WOODLAND COUNTING BOOK

A Woodland Counting Book, by Claudia McGehee

"One Dress"—excerpt from OTHERS HAD IT WORSE

We girls had one dress most of the time to wear to School all Winter. Some one would give Mom some things and Mom and Barbara would make it over for the rest. The small boys would get made over too.

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa, by Vetra Melrose Padget Covert and Chris D. Baker

January Gardening Tip—from GARDENING IN IOWA AND SURROUNDING AREAS

When cleaning your fireplace, save the ashes to spread on your garden. Potatoes, especially, will benefit from nutrients in the ashes. You can also put the ashes in your compost heap.
—Ester Dockstader, Des Moines Garden Club

Gardening in Iowa and Other Surrounding Areas, by Veronica Lorson Fowler with the Federated Garden Clubs of Iowa

Andrea M. Jones: reading & interview

Andrea M. Jones, author of Between Urban and Wild: Reflections from Colorado, will be reading from her new book tomorrow night in Salida, Colorado! Stop by to meet her and get a signed copy. For more information, visit our Facebook event page.

Reading & Signing
Date: Tuesday, January 14
Time: 6:30 P.M.
Location: The Book Haven, 128 F Street, Salida, CO 81201-2102

Andrea Jones recently did an interview with Trafalgar Square Books Blog. Check out her thoughts on indexing, horses, and her new book by clicking here!

Praise for Between Urban and Wild
"Andrea Jones's Between Urban and Wild is a touching account of her intimate connection with the natural world of central Colorado, a land that is, like her book, simultaneously severe and beautiful. Through a combination of flashbacks and present-day musings, she invites the reader to appreciate the joys, challenges, and sublimity of this landscape. She offers up a deeply personal, deeply affecting narrative of a life inseparable from the land."—Matthew Wynn Sivils

Between Urban and Wild: Reflections from Colorado, by Andrea M. Jones