A Special Mother's Day Surprise

Happy Father's Day.  Even if it's a made up holiday, it is still nice to honor all fathers and father figures.  My husband got his token gift which he picked out himself.  It was a 26 piece screwdriver set he found at Costco.  Now all his screwdrivers will be in one place.  A place for everything and everything in it's place.  Something we have been striving for.  Today we went to a breakfast on the farm with some of the family and then later almost everyone came over for ribs, sweet corn, mashed potatoes, 7-layer salad and strawberries on pound cake.  I think all the father's and mom's for that matter had a good day.

I can't remember what I bought for myself on Mother's Day, but I'm sure it was something I wanted or needed at the time.  We aren't much for surprises, but I may have to change my mind.  I can't even convey how surprised I was last Mother's Day.  I have been waiting to blog about this surprise gift.  My daughter also gave one to my sister.  I didn't want to spoil my sister's surprise because she did not receive hers until recently.

It all started in April.  My daughter asked if I had any recipes hand written by my mom (her grandma).  I didn't think a lot about it, she is a very sentimental girl.  She wanted a recipe that we remembered mom making.  Several days later I thought I should look for one.  Mom made up recipes or changed them so I couldn't really think of any off hand.  I have a whole box of recipes, but the ones I use most often are in a kitchen drawer.  I opened the drawer to see what I could find, and there on top was one written in my mom's handwriting.  I had never really noticed it before.  When I looked at it carefully, it was a recipe for her Cinnamon Rolls.  It was dated 10/21/53.  It was called Delicious Rolls so I may have thought it was a recipe for dinner rolls and didn't ever read it.  It also said she got it from a Mrs. B.  I don't know who that could be.   We know a few possibilities, but we will never know for sure.   My mother made hundreds of pans of cinnamon rolls in her life.  It was kind of her signature food.  Whenever we had a family brunch, she always made cinnamon rolls.  When I married my husband, she would make a pan with raisins and a pan without raisins for him.  To this day, we make a pan of cinnamon rolls for family breakfast meals.  They are never as good as we remembered mom making.  I had ask her to show me a few times, but she never gave me an actual recipe.  I think she even forgot she had this one.

I found a couple more recipes written in mom's handwriting and the next time I saw my daughter I gave them to her.  That was the last I thought about it.  I thought they would go into a scrapbook and that would be it.  When it was Mother's Day, she gave me a present from her and her sister.  When I opened it up, I couldn't believe it.  There, laser engraved onto a cutting board was mom's recipe.  It was a very special gift, and I will treasure it always.

This is the finished cutting board and the original recipe card with a cinnamon thumbprint included.

*I am updating this blog I wrote a couple years ago.  I finally got around to making these rolls.  They turned out very well.  The first pan I made, I followed the directions exactly.  I squeezed them into a small pan and they turned out well.  I cut them into 12 pieces instead of 24 so I thought that would work.

I didn't think this was enough rolls for our family brunch because I always overdo things.  I decided late in the day to make another pan.  This time I put all the ingredients into my bread machine and set it for the dough cycle.  They turned out the same or maybe a little better.  This dough is very easy to work with.  It isn't sticky at all.  I am so happy to have finally made my mom's special cinnamon rolls.