Barbara, I've done a lot of bread searches, and found some interesting archives, lots of recipes of people's own childhood breads, but no clues about yours. What concerns me is the "My". The following words could actually say something like "Molly Jones shares her mother's famous egg bread." Otherwise, to me it seems more logical that it was your mother who said it, maybe even wrote it in the book. But it could be either way. My BH&G is newer than your mom's, but still old. There's one recipe called Egg Bread: 6.5-7.5 c. AP flour 2 packets ADY (equals 2 cakes fresh yeast, equals 4.5 tsp ADY) 2 c. milk 1/4 c. sugar 1/4 c. butter or margarine [N.B.--it does matter which for the texture, but either will make good bread.] 2 tsp. salt 3 eggs Two loaves, double rise, 375° F. 35-40 min., cover with foil last 15 minutes so it doesn't over brown. This is a very standard enriched bread. If you want a picture of the recipe with full directions let me know.

Had lunch with my Chinese friends (in a pizza joint LOL) Got another lesson in dim sum culture: 1. Dim Sum does not really mean âÂÂa little bit of heartâÂÂ, âÂÂsmall heartâÂÂ, etc. it is a common misinterpretation of the essence of the concept. Dim means to point, or to focus. In other words, itâÂÂs all about the heart. 2. Dim sum is not about eating originally. Even today, a Chinese will not invite you to eat dim sum, instead, he/she will say,â LetâÂÂs go sip teaâÂÂ. 3. WiKi is inacurate in saying that: â At first, it was considered inappropriate to combine tea with food, because people believed it would lead to excessive weight gain. People later discovered that tea can aid in digestion, so teahouse owners began adding various snacksâÂÂ. It was a common greeting in China, â Hey, congratulations, looks like you have gained a few pounds.â Fat was considered a very good thing, because you would be looking like Buddha. 4. Not too long ago in China, dim sum eating was a different thing. In the morning thatâÂÂs where scholars would meet, with their pet canary birds in exquisitely crafted bamboo cages to compete to see whose bird could sing better and they would exchange poetry and artwork. Commoners would bring their pet cricks in highly decorated boxes to have cricket fights with each other. Much like dog fights elsewhere, a lot of money would be involved, and the well known lineage of crickets could be very expensive. Little kids would bring their per spiders in match boxes, a special kind of spiders known as âÂÂGolden hair catsâÂÂ. They would have spider fights also. House wives and concubines would walk around the room to chat with relatives and friends they knew. Matchmakers would also be around to drum up business in arranged marriages. Cricket fights Such picturesque imagery. I asked him to recommend a few movies which would depict China in the old days. Hopefully with subtitles of course. dcarch

Hi Msazadi - Yes, I did it on the stove top, but it cooks at a bare simmer, so I think you could easily do it in a 300 or 325 degree oven. Now that you mentioned it, the recipe calls for 2 inch pieces of butternut, but that seemed enormous to me. The largest pieces I did were about 1 inch square, and I did some that were smaller. Next time I will actually do most of them that 1 inch size, because since I cooked it so much longer than the 1 hour called for the smaller pieces kind of disolved into the sauce... Though then again, that did make the sauce extra delicious... Emily

Good recipes are where you find them. :) Most of my mentions below (which I won't edit out in case they're of interest to anyone) are for baking and the cooking ones are for a specific method or flavor. I realized in thinking about this, that most of my cooking is what I learned at home. Another great learning experience, however, was cooking through a bunch of recipes that I was editing, and needed to photograph, for a newsletter. Many were things I wouldn't have otherwise made, most were decent to good, if not great, and inviting people to lunch, regularly, to eat the results made for great socializing. Think Julie and Julia, without the drama. :) So I'd suggest you go through the books you have and make every recipe that has ingredients you like and see what you get. :) I don't make a lot of recipes from cookbooks, but I will use them as guides. I have dozens, and like to read through them for inspiration. When I was trying to raise my game with braises, which I love because they're inexpensive and you just throw everything in a pot, I made a few from All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking by Molly Stevens. The duck legs with sour cherries is worth the price of the book. :) But it's a lot of doing stuff for a braise, and I haven't made it again. Recently, I was given Plenty by Yoram Ottolenghi and it's fabulous, but I haven't made anything from it yet. I also use recipes from the 'net. I like finding ones that have a lot of comments. That's better than lab testing! I have many baking specific cookbooks and couldn't find a good recipe for plain chocolate cake. I wanted it to make cake with an 8-year-old, so I wanted a plain old cake, and not a mix. I could have invented a chocolate pound cake, but I finally found this on Add A Pinch blog. It really is that good, and we made it (twice) without the secret ingredient (espresso powder), and it was still that good (I used Valrhona cocoa). The best bundt cake recipe I ever made was also from a blog, which is gone now. It had a perfect crumb and was truly delicious. My most popular cake is a pumpkin chocolate marble bundt from Sunset magazine. The linked fig pie is also a big hit. The Black Family Reunion Cookbook from the NCNW (which is a from the store, bound volume) is another favorite, with all kinds of different recipes for cornpone and corn muffins, my favorite Passover green vegetable kugel is from a local congregation cookbook, and the "family" matzah ball recipe originated with one put out by the local Hadassah. When I make bread pudding, I refer to the recipe in It's All American Food by David Rosengarten, but I don't make precisely that. I do make the arroz con pollo as directed (more or less--it's my mother's recipe (her book, that is) and I think there are some changes she's made over the years) from The Spice Cookbook by Stuckey, Day and Spier from the 1960's. What I'm trying to say is having a favorite recipe from whatever source, is normal. Don't think of it as underutilizing your cookbooks. Think of it as cherishing the best they have to offer. :)