Traditions play a big part in our family holiday gatherings. That’s not to say we don’t shake things up from year to year, but what we dine on remains traditional. I pieced together old family recipes and added a few of my own to establish our holiday traditions. A favorite, one I make both Thanksgiving and Christmas, is Bean’s Refrigerator Rolls.
Good does not begin to describe this buttery morsel; put a little dollop of cranberry sauce on one and the angels will sing. They are so good, and so tender, that one niece goes through roll withdrawal at the mere mention of Bean’s rolls; I took the recipe to Texas and made them for her college graduation party. I am now the favorite aunt.
What I love about these, besides their angelic taste and the fact that they make me look like an honor graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, is they are brilliantly simple. My daughter in-law ask me to teach her how to make them and I sheepishly said, “you know, I hate for you to see how easy it is; it blows my Martha Stewart, this–takes-years-to-perfect, cover.” I taught her in one hour. At Thanksgiving she went on to astonish her parents and sisters with her dough handling agility.
It means a great deal to me to pass the roll making tradition down to my daughter in-law as my mother in-law passed it down to me. I think it would make Bean happy to know that our holiday traditions roll-on.

Bean’s (Jimmie Best) Refrigerator Rolls
Make dough the day before you plan to serve rolls.
2 cups water
½ cup sugar
1-cup butter
2 eggs
2 packages yeast
1 Tablespoon salt
6 cups flour
Combine: sugar, yeast, salt and 2 cups flour in mixing bowl. Heat 2 cups water with butter in saucepan until warm (120 degrees) and butter is melted; don’t let it get any hotter. Add warm liquid to dry ingredients, beat at medium speed for two minutes. Add one of cup flour and eggs, beat at medium speed for two minutes. Add remaining 3 cups flour, mix well, cover and refrigerate. Dough can be refrigerated up to five days.
Melt 2-3 tablespoons butter in small dish in the microwave.
Roll dough on lightly floured pasty cloth or countertop to about one-fourth thickness. Cut with a biscuit cutter. Brush each roll with butter (I use my fingers) fold round disc in half and brush butter on top. Place half rounds on an ungreased cookie sheet slightly touching. Place in a warm spot, lay a piece of parchment paper over the top and allow to rise for two hours. I place mine on the clothes dryer and turn it on for 20 minutes or so. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Best of the Best: Rolls
The best-bought rolls are Sister Schubert’s Parker House Style Rolls; you can find them in the grocer’s freezer.
Follow-up from last week: The headline should have read- Proceeded through parking lot, to Pork Chop luncheon, with pretty Patty Pennington, perched in precarious posture, in pretty, printed, painful pumps. Really, the paper came out on Thursday and that very day, there she was, looking like a million dollars, tottering through the parking lot.

Cathy Best discovers new things daily.

Contact her to share local resources, books, blogs, Web sites and apps you’ve discovered: bestdiscovery@aol.com.

Printed in the December 20, 2012 edition