Teatime to Tailgates

Food, community, K-State, friends - some of my favorite things. A presentation I heard last week by Jane Marshall, a food journalist in the College of Human Ecology at Kansas State University about her new book Teatime to Tailgates brought all these together. The book includes stories of K-State history, recipes, and tributes to the 150  year celebration of the university.
The food we eat tells about where we came from, who we are, who we want to be, and where we live. In Teatime to Tailgates we see the connections of food and fellowship that make a community. The chapters start with "Teatime on Frontier's Edge" which includes how to bake a pie in a cast iron pan and Cowboy Cabbage. Following chapters, stories and recipes take the reader/cook through the turn of the new century (1900), grasshopper plague (a recipe for Chocolate Chirp Cookies made with roasted crickets), early 4-H recipes, meals for wheat cutting crews, and international recipes of the 1970's. One chapter especially recognizes Kansas' agriculture products - meat and wheat -"The Land of Steak and Pie". The last chapter is a celebration of  food and K-State with recipes and stories of cupcakes, ice cream (Call Hall!), and carmel corn from professors, and the "Food for Fifty" and "Food for Five" books of the College.
This book is a delight. I can't wait to try some of the old favorites again, and some for the first time. One of my favorites is a K-State legend, I often had my kids bring home the K-State Crown Roll for holiday meals while they were students. When I was working as Extension agent, it wasn't a successful conference unless we had at least one meal in the Union with K-State Crown served. Thinking about it now motivates me put it on the plans for this year's holiday meals. This recipe is an update and mixes the dough in the bread machine.

K-State Crown Rolls

(credited to Merna Zeigler food service director at the K-State Union for more than 20 years)

1 ½ cups lukewarm water (100-115 degrees)

¾ cup lukewarm milk (95 degrees, warm 35 seconds in high-powered microwave)

1 egg

3 ½ cups bread flour

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons vegetable shortening or butter

1 ½ teaspoons salt

2 (.025 oz) packages active dry yeast

¼ cup pecan pieces

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3-4 tablespoons melted butter

5-7 whole maraschino cherries

Pecan halves

Load water, milk and egg into bread machine. Add flour, sugar, butter and salt. Top with yeast.

Set bread cycle to dough. Remove dough from machine upon completion of the cycle.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease with shortening or coat the bottom and sides of a tube cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Sprinkle pecan pieces in bottom of pan. Mix together ¾ cup sugar and cinnamon. Divide dough into 18 equal pieces. Form each piece into a uniform roll. Lightly coat each roll with oil and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Arrange twelve rolls on the outside and six rolls in the middle of the pan. Cover; let rise until double.

Bake for 40 minutes or until done. Tent top with foil if necessary to prevent over-browning. Garnish with maraschino cherries.

Yield: 18 servings

This has been a favorite of my good friend/relative Sharon F. also.
She made it for a family Christmas a couple of years ago.
Glad she could share the recent day at K-State with me!