WhiteBread, White Beans, White Butter

White Bread, White Beans and White Butter

I love the old fashioned, simple, “comfort foods.”   As a child I loved to go to my Grandma’s house on the Farm.  Mealtimes were the best.  My Aunt Gayle was the cook.  She made bread every day.  The house smelled delicious.  I loved to watch her tip the loaves out of the pans and place them on racks to cool.  She usually made white bread but occasionally she would vary the routine and make whole wheat or sourdough.  Her white bread was beautiful.  The texture was perfect: small bubbles dispersed evenly throughout the loaf, crispy golden brown crust, and that heavenly yeasty smell.

These were the days of oleomargarine.  I am unclear as to the history of margarine, maybe it was a butter substitute developed during the war.  It came in many different forms and packaging.  The one I remember most was a solid brick of white resembling lard.  It came wrapped in paper.  Instructions were included with a small packet of bright orange powder.  We were to sprinkle the powder onto the softened block of margarine and stir until the whole thing was colored yellow.  Another way it came was in a sealed pouch with a blister of orange colored dye.  You had to break the blister and squeeze the bag until the margarine was colored.  Sometimes time was short and demand was high so Aunt Gayle did not have time to “fool around” with coloring the “Oleo”.  In that case we had “White Butter”.  It always amazed me that it tasted good, just like the yellow Oleo.  I loved to white butter on the fresh white bread.  Yum!

Another favorite was White Beans.  Aunt Gayle would make a huge pot of great Northern Beans.  She made them with a bit of ham or bacon, and some onions.  She served them in a bowl with some chopped raw onions sprinkled on the top.   I loved them with lots of black pepper, a thick slice of crusty white bread with white butter melting in.  This is still one of my favorites except White Butter is no more (thank goodness, I guess it was mostly transfats and has proven to be a factor in our health issues of today).  Still, it is a warm, cozy memory that makes me smile.