SHELDON, Iowa | Thirty-some years ago Patsy Vander Schaaf listened to a cooking show on the radio as she drove down a Sioux County road. A recipe for Sunny Orange Rolls caught her attention.
"I think I came into the house and wrote the recipe down as fast as I could, making sure I wouldn't forget it," she says.
Her memory served this baker well. Vander Schaaf made a batch, then more and more and more. She eventually tweaked it through trial and error. She submitted her recipe to the Sioux City Journal for a cookbook contest in 1985. She was chosen as the winner in the Breads & Rolls category.
"I remember going to the Journal for that contest," she says, recalling an April day 31 years ago. "I baked my rolls and we each got to sample the winning dish from the other categories. I think the judges were there, too. It was a lot of fun."
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Baking, too, has provided Vander Schaaf much enjoyment on the farm she maintains with husband, Dennis Vander Schaaf. For years, Patsy treated Dennis and their three children (Eric, Emily and Evan) to all sorts of Sunny Orange Rolls, breads, cookies and bars. There was always something fresh on which to chew.
With the children now grown and working in South Dakota (Eric and Emily) and California (Evan), there's not near as much on the kitchen counter or in the freezer. That doesn't mean Vander Schaaf has turned off the oven permanently.
"I use a bread machine once or twice per week," she says. "And I still make the Sunny Orange Rolls for our family. I serve them for breakfast on Christmas morning, it's one of our traditions."
Tradition plays a role in the skill Vander Schaaf has honed in her kitchen. She comes by it honestly, as her mother, the late Sonya Ruth Vander Schaaf, was a real pro in the tradition of the German "house frau," or "housewife."
"My mom was born in Germany and met my father, Leonard Van Bemmel, when he served with the Army in Germany in the 1950s," Patsy says. "They married and came back to Doon (Iowa), where my dad ran Red's Service. My mom centered more on cooking in her kitchen, and she let me bake."
Patsy grew up eating her mother's fried potatoes and German delicacies like spaetzel, a dumpling noodle, and rolauden, a rolled meat dish.
"I didn't know those dishes were specifically German until I went to Germany and made those connections," Patsy says.
Sonya Ruth Van Bemmel became a U.S. citizen in 1972. She died several years ago. Patsy says she's proud to see her father, who still resides in Doon, learn his way around the kitchen.
"I remember as a child wanting an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas," Patsy says. "That, and a sewing machine and a piano. To this day, those are still things that interest me."
Patsy does some quilting and she learned to knit, taught by her mother. She also sings alto in the Sioux County Oratorical Choir, which will perform this year with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra.
And, she still bakes and cooks, admitting that baking is her forte.
"I enjoy baking, maybe because what I do tends to turn out," she says. "I enjoy the process."
While intense demand for her baked goods has diminished at home with the departure of their adult children, Patsy still bakes for close friends and those in need. She'll often respond to a church email list by baking for someone who is recovering at home following a hospital stay, or a bout with illness.
"One of our members at church came home this week after suffering a broken hip," she says. "I made bread for him and some chocolate pie. He was delighted."
The recipe, she notes, might have come from memory, or from notes she scribbled hastily a couple of decades ago. Or, it might have come from a friend, or the Sioux City Journal. Patsy keeps all sorts of recipes, typed and written, on scraps of paper in a shoe box in the front closet, well within easy reach and recall.
Like her Sunny Orange Rolls, the shoe box system has served this baker well.
