Aunt Dot came into my life the year after my mother died when she became engaged to my new stepmother's brother. Every Christmas, one of the presents our family received from Aunt Dot and Uncle Steve would be a loaf of her homemade nut bread, a Slovak delicacy. And every Christmas afternoon when we visited them, Aunt Dot would serve her nut bread and poppyseed bread. Shortly after we were married, I'm pretty sure I hinted broadly to Aunt Dot that Mark and I would love to receive our own loaf of nut bread for Christmas. Being such a sweet and kind lady, of course she obliged. One year as I raved again about her nut bread, Aunt Dot assured me that I could learn to make it--and she then proceeded to write out 4 pages of directions for me.
Now every Christmas I make Aunt Dot's nut bread. It's not quite the same, but I think it gets a little closer to hers each time I make it. For a self-taught cook like myself, making a yeast bread from scratch is quite an ambitious undertaking. The recipe calls for 10 cups of flour and makes 8 loaves! In honor of Aunt Dot, making nut bread is a Christmas tradition that I treasure.
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