It’s Eugene Ma’am.

That is one of my favorite lines from the book Watch Out for the Chicken Feet in Your Soup by Tomie dePaola. The story is of a boy named Joey, who takes his friend Eugene to visit his Italian immigrant grandmother. As they are walking to her house in the beginning of the book, Joey warns his friend that she pinches his cheeks a lot, her house smells kinda funny and to watch out for the chicken feet in the soup!

Throughout the book she calls his friend Eugeney and he politely tells her, “It’s Eugene, Ma’am.” His feeble attempts at correcting her are hilarious to me.

At the end of the book is a recipe for the bread dolls that Joey’s grandma makes in the story.

We followed this recipe with a few minor changes and made our own. And since we made these, we had to have spaghetti for dinner too just like in the story. It was great fun.

Here’s Mrs. Sayuri modeling how they turned out. Also, Bear made her own with her mommy too.

Here’s the recipe if you want to make your own. And Yes, that is an egg in the bread!

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1. Scald 1/4 cup of milk. Add 1/2 cup shortening (I used butter). While this is cooling, mix 4 cups of sifted flour (we used whole wheat), 3/4 cup sugar (we used less), 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. cinnamon in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Dissolve 1 package of dry yeast into 1/8 cup warm water. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp. sugar on top to activate yeast.
3. Make a well in flour mixture. Beat slightly 4 eggs and pour into the well along with shortening (butter) and yeast mixtures. Mix together thoroughly.
4. Turn out on floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. Put the dough back in bowl and brush top with oil. Then cover with plastic wrap and a towel and set in a warm place until it doubles in bulk. This should take about 2 hours. Punch it back down and knead slightly. Let it set for 5 minutes and heat the oven at 350 Fahrenheit.
5. On a cookie sheet divide the dough into 3 lemon-sized pieces and 3 orange-sized pieces. Roll the pieces into ropes. Place an uncooked egg on end of short rope.
6. Place long rope around egg. Braid. Cover with dish towels and let rise again. Mix an egg yolk with a bit of water and brush over doll. Bake about 45 minutes.

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