Mayor’s Row…….by Ned Mitchell
We hope you had a joyous Easter celebration and that amid all the friends and family that you were able to reflect for a time on the meaning of the weekend. The ministerial alliance in Sesser and Valier hosted a community Good Friday service in Sesser. The service was very well attended and those gathered at the Sesser First United Methodist Church enjoyed music by the Methodist choir, the Community Choir under the direction of Gayla Stubblefield, and a dynamic message by Sesser First Baptist Church minister Karl Barnfield.
Family gatherings and holiday meals is how we’ll start this column off today as the events took place on this Easter weekend. Some time ago I got my mother’s recipe for corn bread since she makes the best corn bread anywhere. Along with that came one of her iron skillets, a Griswold in fact, one of the best. At the same time she passed on my grandmother Nella Mitchell’s recipe for dinner rolls. I’m thinking about Sunday dinner and what a treat it would be for us to be able to enjoy dinner rolls just like grandma Mitchell used to make. What a neat idea I thought as I conned my wife into joining in the simple task of making fresh dinner rolls.
As we set about to find all the ingredients we were able to round them up in no time except for the fresh yeast cakes. I have several years experience in working in grocery stores as a kid and I well remembered what the yeast cakes looked like. Try as hard as I could though nobody really understood what I was looking for. I tried the local food store and one of the largest chain stores in the country and had no luck. There were all kinds of dry yeast available but no fresh. Thinking I had to do this right I made the trip to Marion and found the fresh yeast cakes at the Kroger store. We’re all set, I proudly announced to the wife. Let the fun begin!
Following my mothers advice we thought maybe we should try a batch out Saturday night before Sunday dinner just to perfect the art of making dinner rolls. We set about loading all the ingredients into the KitchenAid mixer and away we went. After mixing all the ingredients it came time to knead the dough. I thought about my grandma as we kneaded the dough on the counter top. This was hard work and as I remembered grandma, she was a small woman. I’m anything but small and I soon found out this was not fun but pure and simple hard work. After much kneading we put the dough in a pan and covered it for it to do something called rise. We looked and looked and looked some more, trying to figure out exactly what would happen next. Honestly speaking I went to bed and left the finishing touches to the dinner rolls to the wife. I woke up about two hours later to the smell of fresh baked bread. I jumped out of bed and headed for the kitchen to sample the masterpiece. Funny thing, the rolls did not look like my grandma Mitchell’s dinner rolls and boy were they heavy. I tried one and the taste was good but that was the extent to how they resembled grandma’s.
Sunday morning I was up bright and early and quickly set about making another batch. So after waiting three hours on this dough to rise I find it is roughly the same size as when I started. Something is amiss here so we moved on the next dinner treat which is the wife’s stuffed mushrooms. They are always perfect and a big hit. We’ll have to work on grandma Mitchell’s dinner rolls though.
Cleaning up the mess in the kitchen reminded me that the only thing I had done that closely resembled grandma Mitchell was the fact that I washed all the cups, spoons, pans, and mixer parts by hand in the kitchen sink. The reason for that was the dish washer was full of clean dishes and well I just hate to be the one to have to empty the dish washer and put all the clean dishes away. I did the clean up the old fashioned way, just like grandma Mitchell did! All was not lost on dinner rolls though because I wisely went to a bakery and asked for some home made yeast dinner rolls, you know, the kind like my grandma used to make. I’m glad someone still knows how to make them!
Correspondence from Congressman Jerry Costello, in my opinion the best Congressman in Washington these days, outlined some bad news for Americans. President Bush has proposed a budget that will whack just about every program that we need in our area as well as other parts of the country. The President has proposed eliminating the Community Services Block Grant, cut Medicaid by $17.2 billion dollars in the next five years and by $42.3 billion dollars in the next 10 years, cut rural health programs by $133 million dollars less than last year, cut grants to fire departments by $292.45 million dollars, and cut the COPS program by $376.3 million dollars.
I’m sure we all understand that money to fund these programs has to come from somewhere and that we all get what we pay for. We know the phrase there is no such thing as a free lunch and others like that. What troubles me though about this is some of the other programs at the federal level. We are spending billions of dollars fighting a war in Iraq and one to this point that I have supported. I am thankful for every man and woman in the service of this country and our freedom. I question the need to spend billions of our tax dollars however to build roads, schools, and fund other projects in Iraq while cutting the same in this country. Iraq is sitting on one of the world’s largest supplies of oil so what would be wrong with letting them rebuild their own country? Isn’t it enough that we are over there fighting for them to have freedom? To add insult to injury President Bush has also proposed cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans to boot. Congressman Costello has voted against all of these cuts and will continue to do so. We need to thank our Congressman and then write to President Bush and make our thoughts known about all the cuts that are being proposed. Make your voice heard!
A very important event is forthcoming this Friday night at Sesser-Valier High School. The Teen Action Project (TAP) is having a dinner/dance at the school to raise funds for the coming year. This group is heavily involved during the Christmas holiday season helping those among us that need it. They also pitch in to buy such things as eye glasses during the school year as the need arises. The tickets are $10.00 and you will be treated to a meal catered by our own Dyel’s Catering. You may purchase your tickets at city hall or at the school office. We hope to see you there for this worthwhile event!
The town wide yard sale event sponsored by the Sesser Jr. Women’s Club is coming up the first Saturday in May so you will want to make plans to either have a yard sale or attend some. The usual map will be published and for $1.00 you can get your name and address listed on the map which will direct shoppers right to your location. See any member of the Jr. Women’s Club for more information.
If you need us give us a call at 625-3611 or 625-5322. You may also write to us at P. O. Box 277 Sesser, Illinois or email us at nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org. You can even do the old fashioned thing and pay us a visit in person. We value you opinions as we strive to make Sesser a better place to live, work, and play. We appreciate all that you do in helping make that possible!
| |
|
