Flour, salt, yeast, water and oil

...half a loaf is better than none ...

Naomi said that the reason she could hardly wait for me to come is that I could make cinnamon buns for her.

I told Mary that I promise to make them -- more than once. So the day I arrived at 3 pm, Naomi also arrived home from school at that time and we pulled out the yeast, the flour, the salt and the sugar and began to stir and mix.

She is six. She loves getting her hands in the dough and kneading it. Rhiannon is more interested in tasting it. I didn't stop either of the girls from doing the tasks that interested them the most.

... the first one always  tastes the best ...

From the texture of the bread, it is clear that we do not have a bread machine. In fact, we didn't have enough flour or brown sugar to really do the job up right. The bread dough was a little wet and we had no flour to put on the counter to knead the bread on, when it was time to loaf it. I grabbed a handful of Mary's textured brown flour which didn't make much difference to me. And when we ran out of brown sugar to roll the cinnamon knots in, we just rolled them in butter and hoped that the scent of caramel and cinnamon would linger on them, even if the facts are that they had never been rolled in those sugary granules.

... round one is over and the sugar and cinnamon have been used up ...

Xavier wondered if he could eat his second piece of bread with no crusts.

Absolutely I told Mary. As long as I am here -- you cut the crusts off of every piece of bread that boy wants.

"What?", said Leo.

But what is a grandma for, if not to waste a little flour, salt, yeast, water and oil in order to make someone's fondest wish come true.

Arta