mamo's bowl

When I was a boy, my grandmother "Mamo Etlinger" would make kolaches, klobasneks and other simple breads for my family to enjoy. It was a good sign to see this bowl, draped with a towel and sitting on the countertop in her kitchen--for it meant kolache dough was fermenting and new treats were around the corner.

I love the smell of proofing dough; it still takes me back to then, when as I kid, I wanted to learn to make and bake bread myself. I knew I was on the right path, the first time I tried to make bread on my own, when I got a whiff of yeast after the dough proofed a while. It was the same smell as I experienced while in her kitchen in Moulton, TX, back in 1983 or 1993. It is my hope that my daughters, and their future children, will continue to use her bowl, and my recipes, in the years to come, as I have done.