About the Book

Pork Chops & Applesauce
A Collection of Recipes and Reflections
A Family Cookbook of Recipes & Stories
By Cynthia Briggs

Pork Chops & Applesauce, A Collection of Recipes and Reflections is a heartwarming collection of stories companioned with comfort food recipes that will bring back the fond memories of Wednesday night meatloaf and Sunday fried chicken, dinners which were shared in the company of loving friends, family and neighbors.

The author, Cynthia Briggs, has always possessed a curiosity and interest in cooking, and through her culinary journey she began realizing that sharing our bounty with others and exchanging recipes to prepare meals is a connecting link that weaves families and friends more tightly together.

Pork Chops invites everyone to gather around the dinner table to share their favorite stories and comfort food recipes, which offer a slice-in-time respite of the past, and brings home the importance of valuing our sterling relationships of past, present and future.

Food is symbolic of what weve done in our lives; and Ive written Pork Chops with the hope it instills a curiosity about the good old days or that it rekindles the memory of gentler times. I invite you to enjoy the following story, which in my nostalgic cookbook, Pork Chops & Applesauce, A Collection of Recipes and Reflections is titled Having a Bun in the Oven; and Id like to encourage you to experiment with the recipe for Basques Sheepherders Bread on a relaxing wintry day to learn the joys and rewards of making homemade yeast bread its not difficult, is all it takes is a little love and a lot of patience.

     Bread is an intriguing, cross-cultural household commodity that most of us instinctively want to share. Whether were eating tortillas, pita bread, a baguette, naan, a cinnamon raisin bagel or sourdough rolls, bread is present in all cultures and has a common language. If we break bread with peasants or with presidents, our meal would probably include some type of grain formed into a bread-like accompaniment.
     Making bread from scratch, with my own two hands, is a rewarding experience. I always analogize it somewhat with pregnancy. When youre making bread (or expecting a baby), theres no way to get around the necessary process and the patience it entails. Guesswork is ever present, and pain is usually inevitable.
     Conception begins when the yeast is mixed with the sugar. It has to be done just right so the yeast (baby) can grow. The bread maker (mother) must maintain a sensitive balance between keeping the bread (baby) warm and not letting it get too cold. Adding the flour comes next, which is a guessing game (is it a girl or a boy?). No recipe is the same and everyone seems to have his or her own opinion or method.
     Using good old-fashioned muscle power, the bread is then kneaded until your arms feel like theyre going to fall off (labor). The dough is placed in a very large glass bowl where it doubles in girth. Youve heard the term, You cant hurry love. Well, you cant hurry bread (or a baby) either! The bread is ready for the oven when the cotton towel, draped over the bulging bundle, no longer touches the kitchen countertop.
     Im always proud of my precious creation when it comes out of the oven. And Im sure Ive been seen tenderly patting each loaf (new born) with motherly adoration.
     Making homemade bread isnt all hard labor - in fact, its a lot of fun! The first time I made this larger-than-life loaf of sheepherders bread it reminded me of one of my favorite I Love Lucy television episodes when Lucy and Ethel were baking bread. A huge loaf of bread, which looked like a log, ominously emerged from the oven. Utterly stunned and speechless over their monstrous concoction, the enormous loaf took on a life of its own when it slowly backed Lucy and Ethel out of the kitchen.
     The Basques originally baked sheepherders bread in an open fire pit of glowing embers, which is a method Ive never been courageous enough to try. I continue using my conventional oven, a baking method that comfortably places me between building an illegal fire in my backyard and learning how to use one of those new-fangled bread-making machines.

Basques Sheepherders Bread
3 cups hot tap water
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 packages active dry yeast
9 - 9 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, do not sift
Salad oil
     In a bowl, combine the hot water, butter, sugar, and salt. Stir until butter melts, let cool to warm (110 to 115 deg.). Stir in yeast, cover, and set in a warm place until bubbly, about 15 minutes. Add 5 cups of the flour and beat with a heavy-duty mixer or wooden spoon to form a thick batter; stir in enough of the remaining flour (about 3 1/2 cups) to form a stiff dough. Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth, about 10 minutes, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking. Turn dough over in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
      Punch down dough and knead on a floured board to form a smooth ball. Cut a circle of foil to cover the bottom of the Dutch oven. Grease the inside of the Dutch oven and the underside of the lid with salad oil.
      Place dough in the pot and cover with the lid. Let rise in a warm place until dough pushes up the lid by about inch, about 1 hour (watch closely).
     Bake covered with lid, in a 375 deg. oven for 12 minutes. Remove lid; bake for another 30 to 35 minutes, or until loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from oven, allow to cool for 5 minutes; turn onto a rack to cool (youll need a helper). Makes 1 Dutch oven sized loaf.

Recipe originates from Sunset Magazine, How do the Basques bake sheepherders bread? June 1976.