Recipe - Cup Of Friendship Becomes Kitchen Quandary

AND THEN THERE ARE FRIENDS

QUOTED FROM: Rod Patterson's Column in the Oregonian FOODday Nov 15, 1994.

Last year, the 14yearold son of a friend had a baby. More accurately, he
had a 10pound sack of rice, right off the grocery store shelf, that he
swaddled in a worn, blue blanket. He wasn't supposed to let the precious
bundle out of his sight for a couple of weeks.
It was a school project, a lesson in responsibility. And a lesson between
the lines in the perils of becoming a teenage parent.

You think taking care of a sack of rice is hard? Try a real baby. That's
what the school wanted to get across. Ha! Our public schools should wise
up. Throw out the rice babies. Give the kids some Amish Friendship Bread
Starter! Then the kids would learn responsibility. With a capital R. Real
Fast! I'm three times the age of my friend's son, and I still had some
learning to do.

Another friend thrust a cup of the bread starter into my arms as I left his
house the other day. He shoved a piece of paper in my pocket. "It's Day
Six," was all he said as he and his family waved goodbye. I could see them
smiling knowingly in the rearview mirror.
I was the recipient of a breadstarter version of the chain letter. My
"baby" was given to me in an old plastic salsa container.

DAY SIX. The instructions, listing Day One through Day 10, said that was
the day I was to add to the starter a cup of milk, a cup of sugar and a cup
of flour and to mix well.

Great. I got home late. The milk in the refrigerator barely a cup left
~ was at the high end of its expiration date. I had just a cup of sugar.
And, well, less than a cup of flour.
But I was darned if I was going to go to the store when all I wanted to do
was go to bed. I dumped in what I had, mixed it up in a glass bowl and
covered it with a dish towel. That would have to do.

I liked Day Seven . It said to do nothing.
All I had to do on Day Eight was stir the stuff.
On Day Nine I was to do nothing again.

The peace ended on Day Ten though. I had to add more milk, sugar and
flour. I had to stir. Then I was to take out three onecup measurements
and give two cups to two friends, saving a cup for myself.

To the rest, I was to add a whole bunch of other stuff and bake some bread.
Only trouble was, I hadn't gone to the store, and I had been out of milk,
sugar and flour since Day Six. Day Ten came and went. So did Day Eleven.

The actual culmination of the Amish Friendship Bread into edible form
two beautiful, browntopped loaves came on Day Twelve, with no bad
consequences. In fact, the stuff was pretty good.
And good it should have been. After all, it took five days longer to make
than the whole world did!

Source: Rod Patterson's column. Oregonian FOODday; November 15, 1994 Typos
by Dorothy Flatman, 1995 From: Dorothy Flatman Date: 011395
Posted to MMRecipes Digest V3 #264

Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1996 07:36:49 0500

From: netdir@cyberspc.mb.ca (S.Pickell)