Grandma's bread.

We have it on holidays, birthdays, and plenty of perfectly normal days when someone says, "Grandma, can you PLEASE make some bread today?" She doesn't mind, and we'd probably all be quite content eating it every day. See, this is not normal bread. It's a loaf (or two, or three) of soft white bread that tastes about ninety thousand times better than any bread you can buy, or that you can make. It's unique, somehow, and even when my mom and I attempt to duplicate it, we can never get it just right.

But what Grandma's bread really reminds me of, every time I eat it, is working cattle; a concept foreign to most of you, I imagine. My mom's side of the family has run a cattle ranch in New Mexico for over seventy-five years. I've been spending nearly every holiday of my life there since I was born, and I've been riding horses since I was two. Horseback riding at the ranch isn't a leisurely sport - it's work, and serious work at that. Most days involve my mom (when she's there, which is often) and/or her hired hand gathering cattle and moving them from pasture to pasture. It can take anywhere between an hour and all day, depending on how many pastures we need to gather and how difficult the cows are to control. Gathering is necessary so the cows can be in a greener pasture with more water. It grows continuously difficult, however, as we have been thrust into one of the worst droughts in the ranch's history.

In the spring we brand - one of the most important events of the year. For both branding and fall work, which I won't elaborate on just now, my mom hires a much larger number of cowboys and girls to help with the workload. There are usually around thirty people - people are needed to ride, gather, drive, rope, and flank. Gathering a few hundred cattle is definitely easier with thirty people than with three. But anyway, back to the bread! On days like these, Grandma and my younger sister always have "the cowboy meal" waiting for us when we arrive after working. This meal may include a variety of meats, vegetables, and desserts, but the staple is always the bread. It's the "glue" of the entire meal, which changes daily. The bread always remains, and tends to disappear before you can even consider picking up a second slice. Some butter it, some put Ketchup on it, some use it for sandwiches. Personally, I love the bread just the way it is. Fluffy, warm, and neither too sweet nor too salty. Since becoming active in theatre during the last few years, I haven't been able to visit the ranch as much as I used to. But I still see Grandma plenty, and she has an uncanny ability to sense when the family wants her bread. Eating it reminds me of all the hours I've put into helping at the ranch, but most of all it makes me appreciate all that both my mom and grandma do to keep it the wonderful place that it is.