The Best Christmas Gift Ever (+Aunt Arlene's Refrigerator Rolls)

If you're looking for a gift for your family, then shop no more.

A few years ago my mom gave all her kids, me and my three brothers (or perhaps their wives), a cookbook. But not just any cookbook, this was her cookbook!

A simple binder, filled with all the family recipes we've loved all our lives. As she converted her hand written recipe cards, her Sunset Magazine clippings, her dog eared cookbooks, to new typed recipe pages, she compiled a binder for each of us. It is a treasury of family times. A legacy for my children as well.

I've been adding my own favorite dishes, the things I discover on blogs or google, favorites I pick up from my husband's family, and my own recipes I've been making since college. The binder has grown so big, I need to get myself a larger one! It would be fun to see what my sister-in-laws have added to theirs.

Now I want to share one of my mom's best! But really, it's not even hers, it's her Aunts, her Aunt Arlene's.

These are the rolls that we have had for every Thanksgiving and Christmas for as long as I can remember!

Aunt Arlene's Refrigerator Rolls

2 pkg dry yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup shortening* (or butter)
8 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar

Soften yeast in warm water. Add shortening, sugar, eggs, four cups of flour, and salt. Beat until smooth. Stir in remaining flour and knead until it feels like a newborn babies bottom. Cover tightly and store in refrigerator until needed. When you want to use it, make your rolls and then let them rise.     You may make fresh rolls for up to a week.

If you want to use it right away, let tit rise until double in bulk. Punch down and form your rolls. Let rolls rise until double. Bake at 400 degrees fahrenheit for 25 minutes, or until done.

*My mom says she doesn't use shortening anymore because of the trans fats that are bad for you. You may substitute unsalted butter or if you only have salted butter leave out the called for salt.

I am grateful for good good and good friends to share it with. 

Do you have a recipe that's been in the family for as long as you can remember?