By by Michele Gerlach
Patricia Barnes – “Sister Schubert” to most – knows a secret about bread, and it’s not the recipe for her famous rolls.
For Barnes, who learned the lesson at her own grandmother’s table, no meal is complete without bread, and grandmother from whom she learned to make her now-famous rolls usually included two choices with a meal.
It is the recipes passed down through her family, as well as her own story of “starting a business with the title to my station wagon” that make up Sister’s new 180-page coffee-table cookbook, Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters, which will hit the streets this coming week.
She said the book is about “going back to comfort and family,” and that the simple, down-home recipes represent “many happy memories, from cheesecakes to boiled custards.”
Her family doesn’t eat out often, she said.
These days, her family still eats at home, and they eat lots of grilled foods.
An alternative to overcrowded state institutions, Sasha’s Home provides a warm and loving temporary home for 40 abandoned children while they await adoption by their “forever families.” In the Ukraine, “Sasha” is an affectionate nickname for children named Alexander or Alexandra. Barnes chose this name for the home in honor of her adopted Ukrainian-born son, Alexsey.
Sister said she expects to do a book-signings for her new cookbook. Meanwhile, books can be purchased through a Web site created for the book, www.castyourbreaduponthewaters.com. Books purchased online will be autographed.