Snowly and Sally Lunn

The winter is going slowly, snowly by.

Here in the mid-Atlantic, we don't usually see much snow. But this winter, we have been walloped by three winter storms so far—one in December, one last weekend, and this one. Yikes! I had been enjoying winter's pleasures until this one...and now, I am officially looking forward to lovely blossoming spring!

To make the best of some of our snowed-in days, Kati and I have been working on organizing those recipes. Oh my. What a job. I began this task several years ago, but stalled out. Therefore, I had organized myself into a greater state of disorganization, meaning that no recipe had a permanent home. When it was time to look for a recipe, I might find it in the notebook I had begun to organize. Or maybe it was in the stack of recipes I had used recently ("recently" meaning in the past six months...or more). Or maybe it was in the Pier I shopping bag (yes) of folders that I had sorted into categories. Or it might be in that same shopping bag but not in a folder. Or it might be on my shelf of cookbooks, or inserted in a cookbook. Many times I have done what I thought was an exhaustive search for a certain recipe and come up empty...only to have Kati come to the rescue and put her hands on it within a few minutes.

So are you getting the idea that this gargantuan task was long overdue? It was.

I am happy to report that major progress has been made...and the end is in sight! (Thanks, Kati!)

A side benefit of spending quality time with all my recipes is finding some forgotten treasures. This past weekend, I made Sally Lunn bread for the first time in years. I used to make it quite often, but neither Kati nor Bekah had ever even heard of it, so it must have been a while!

There is some history behind this recipe. Sally Lunn bread dates back to colonial times. The name is believed to be of French derivation, "soleil-lune" (sun-moon), and describes the bread's golden color.

And the more personal history is the fact that this particular recipe came from Ron's elementary school principal. Now Ron and the late Mrs. T were not exactly on recipe sharing terms...not at all. (I don't think that they ever discussed bread on any of his visits to her office. ~wink~) I clipped this recipe that Mrs. T had submitted to our local newspaper years ago. (I will add that I had the privilege of meeting Mrs. T as an adult, and found her to be a delightful lady.)

Another aside: Bekah scorned the name. You may remember the unusual relationship of sound and taste in Bekah's world. Well, she disapproved of the "Lunn" part. "It just doesn't sound good," said she. So, at least for this time, we renamed it "Sally Rose Bread"! (And she loved it.)

Mrs. T’s Sally Lunn Bread (aka Bekah’s Sally Rose Bread) 4 1/2 cups flour 1/3 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 package active dry yeast 1 1/4 cups milk 1/2 cup butter 3 eggs, beaten Combine 2 cups flour, sugar, salt, and yeast into large bowl. Stir well. Heat milk and butter until warm. Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat at low speed, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and remaining flour. Mix well, cover, and let rise one hour or until doubled. Stir down and spoon into greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Cover and let rise until double, about one hour. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes. Serve warm with butter. Note: I usually use two loaf plans instead of the tube pan, and decrease the baking time to 35 minutes.