aprons

I know it well, war time England and the convent had to take me even though I was not a Roman Catholic. I literally caught it for everything, quite a bit of which I did not do, it was so bad my father took me away and even though it was not desirable for a small child to walk further than necessary with daylight raids etc. that's what I did.

Looking back, in those days nuns had to do what the pope ordered and likely many of them had no desire to teach children, not wanting marriage and children was maybe why they went into the church so I can understand why it happened, but it still doesn't excuse taking it out on small children.

I am still an atheist lol

Maureen's father put her into a Catholic school in Gillingham when she was five because the quality of teaching was (allegedly) high. However, she was swiftly evacuated to North Wales when her mother died (of sleeping sickness after sorting out clothing returned from the Middle East) in 1943 whilst her father was in Italy winning WW2 with the Royal Marine Commando. Having been caned for not singing the National Anthem in Welsh on her first day at school she has had an understandable aversion to anything Welsh since then

The closest I've come to making strudel dough is making potica which is basically Bohunk strudel (Bohunk being what the Slovenians call themselves and of which DH is one) :-). Anyway, I had a large old dining room table, about 40" wide x just over 80" long and it was the perfect size. I would make up the dough which fit -- with room to spare

-- in the old green Lg. size Tupperware bowl. Once the dough was ready the FIRST time I made potica, I did as instructed by my DSisIL and covered the table with a sheet and then dusted it with flour. I turned out that bowl of dough and somehow managed to roll it out so that it covered that HUGE table. I added the proper ingredients (butter, brown sugar, spices and finely ground walnuts) and lifting the sheet along the long side, rolled the whole shebang into one long jelly roll sort of structure. Then, using a saucer whose edge was dipped in flour, I cut the rolled dough into 5 equal pieces! And YES, i t took two people to roll that *(#*(&$&%#$% length of potica dough up, even using the sheet! Once I got it all rolled, cut and baked, I called my DSIL to ask her WHY in the world the whole thing had to be rolled out and then cut -- why not just divide the dough into 5 portions and roll each one separately. Her laughing response was "You did WHAT?" Hey -- what can I say, her written directions said one long roll not 5 small rolls and what did I know? I had never made potica before!!! I've only made potica 3 or 4 more times since then but it is made one loaf at a time -- and that doesn't change the taste at all -- LOLOL! And YES -- I wear an apron whenever I bake or cook or do anything messy :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

I learned to do them, haven't in years. Thank heavens for fitted sheets

Cheryl

We have fitted sheets for the bottom sheet but the top sheet still needs folding in and under the mattress (with hospital corners of course!)

I use a duvet, always have, so it is much neater with the fitted sheets. My eldest aunt thought fitted sheets were pretty sinful because how were you going to turn them when the middles wore ?

That's more or less what my grandmother did, except that her table was white enamel and it was probably about the same size. Now I wonder if she used a sheet too, in order to roll it. It brought back a really great picture of her standing and lovingly rolling and rolling and rolling, and then she filled it with a mix of nuts and raisins. She was originally from somewhere in Russia and your recipe sounds very much the same, without that name.

Lucille

I'm completely lost now. How would you turn it if it were a flat sheet. Doesn't the middle still remain the middle????

If I remember correctly, my grandmother would cut her sheets in half lengthwise, Join the two outer edge to make a middle seam, and then hemmed the two new outer edges. She had old linen sheets, which I hated, they had little darned patches where the sheet developed holes.

That was what my grandmother did. And my mother sewed together two double sheets to make one king size when she bought a new king size bed.

Lucille

It was common practice when the middle of the sheet got a little thin to cut it down the centre, seam side to the other side so the less worn fabric was now in the centre. That way the sheet lasted twice as long. Clearly, one can't do that with a fitted sheet.

Usually the 'turned' sheets were put on the kids beds as the centre seam was not that comfortable. Even when we came to Canada in 1967 I remember seeing 'middle seam' sheets for sale in Sears catalogue ! Presumably some sheet making factories liked to use the ends of the bolts and sell more cheaply.

"lucille" wrote

(snip)

When I was must a wee kid I made real strudel once with a Yugoslavian lady. The dough could only be rolled to a point, then you had to slide your hands under it and stretch it. So it required several people, including me that particular day. It did take forever, the dough was as thin as tracing paper. It was then filled and rolled. IIRC, and this is years ago, we made apple ones, which had a layer of breadcrumbs sprinkled first, and included walnuts and raisins. Poppyseed ones also--always a favorite of mine. After rolling, the tops were heavily dusted with icing sugar. Mary also used the same dough to make savoury strudels, with cabbage in them. Thanks for a memory of a day spent with floury hands! Mary is long gone, spoke broken English, but had the patience and love of her cooking to share it with a kid.

Dawne

I was the first and only grandchild until after WW2, and my grandmother thought the sun rose and set on my little head but touch her strudel dough, never, ever. I could jump up and down on the feather beds, and fool with the piano and use her foot pedal sewing machine. I could cook along with her and make sugar cookies and knead bread dough. I could dirty up her floor and do nearly anything except mess with her kosher dishes and cutlery for fear I would mix them up and then they would have to be replaced,, but touch her strudel dough after all that rolling and stretching was a very definite no-no. lol

That was potica (po-teet'-sah) you were making and Yugoslavians call themselves Bohunks -- at least all of DH's family uses the term. For outsiders to use the term is considered an insult but it's OK for MOI because my DMIL approved of me :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

If they did here, I wouldn't have known, not being one of them (BG). But the term was used here as a insult to describe Central Europeans in general, and so is not a word I would use, as some are rightly sensitive about it. Of course, it is often true that a term used as an insult by outsiders is used defiantly and with pride by insiders.

Mary always referred to what she made as strudel; whether she just picked up that term in the New Country, or called it something else to people who spoke her language, I don't know.

One of the real joys of Saskatchewan is our very mixed heritage, going back to the 19th C, so there is an amazing amount of great food.

Dawne

"Bruce Fletcher wrote >

My Swedish grannie liked aprons that covered the whole front from neck to skirt hem, with very large pockets, often across the hem like a carpenter's apron. These had straps that crossed in the back and went through a casing in the waist bank, then tied. She was definitely ready for anything the world threw at here with those!

My Scottish grandma preferred a more conventional waist tied half apron, perhaps to show that by, at least by the time I knew her, she had left the farm and was in no danger whatsoever of being spattered by anything unseemly in her neatly appointed kitchen.

Dawne

I think strudel is a German word and that's what my Bubby (Grandmother) called it. She was from Russia and spoke only Yiddish and English. I suppose she knew Russian but she despised that country and it's people and would never speak in that language. I don't know if she picked up the word strudel word here in the U.S. or that was what she called it in the old country.

All I do know is that it was very good and too much work for me to bother with.

Lucille

Lucille

"lucille" wrote

I think strudel making, as I encountered it, was probably an excellent excuse to gather a group of friends together for a morning of tea drinking, gossip, apple peeling and dough stretching, since the last bit required someone on each side of the kitchen table to stretch out the dough to cover the entire surface.

Dawne

When I first bought duvets for the kids I couldn't afford to buy covers as well. I used old sheets to make covers, and let the kids paint on them to decorate. They lasted until I could buy covers.

And by the way, I made my first apron in school, entirely by hand, when I was 9, and embroidered a rabbit on the bib.

Joyce in RSA.