Holiday home stretch.

I have my sous chef by my side baking up the last batch of cookies today with no less than 3 pounds of sprinkles. Apparently, when you're nearly 3 years old, you like very little cookie with your cookie adornments. I guess she has years and years ahead of her to be understated...or not. Hey! Look! Her hair is finally long enough for braids and she let me do it! I can conquer anything now. Seriously.
But I digress. Just got a little excited there.

Something else we'll prepare for our Christmas Eve dinner is the dough for feather yeast rolls. I made these the first Thanksgiving we ever hosted in our home and had amazing results. "You made your own crescent rolls?!" is what I heard over and over as people popped pillowy, buttery rolls into their mouths. Why yes, yes I did.

If you have some extra time today (ha!), throw this dough together as you can put it in the fridge overnight. The recipe source claims these are "so good they inspired a marriage proposal." While I'm not in the business of seeking that sort of thing these days, I'll gladly accept the praise that comes along with their buttery goodness!

Feather Yeast Rolls
Three Rivers Renaissance Cookbook IV
Suzanne Martinson

1 pkg active dry yeast, dissolved in 1 TBSP warm water (105-115 degrees)
1 1/2 cups scalded milk, cooled
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
2 well beaten eggs
5 cups flour
additional 1/2 cup melted butter for brushing dough

Mix all ingredients, except flour, with an electric mixer. Stir in flour all at once. Cover and refrigerate 3-4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut dough into quarters. Working with one quarter of the dough, roll into a circle. Brush with melted butter. Cut circle into 8 pie-shaped wedges.

Roll each wedge up from wide to narrow end, tucking under tip; shape into crescent. Place on a nonstick or buttered baking sheet (parchment works wonders here). Brush crescents generously with butter. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Let rise 2 hours, or until double in size. Bake for 12 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Experience buttered carbohydrate comfort and joy... and peace on earth (or the dinner table) if but for a second.

These moments...

were brought to you by Mother Nature and Lands' End.

Holiday photo FAIL

Friends, we took our annual holiday tour through Phipps Conservatory yesterday. I've done that as long as I can remember, and it just so happens to make a great background for family holiday photos. You know, if your kid is into that kind of thing. While I was busy trying to capture The Boss and her oh so natural reactions to the flowers and decorations, she thought she'd try to "work it" and give me pretty everything I didn't want.

Enjoy the hilarity, I know I am!

Clearly, we need a lesson on sitting like a little lady.
She announced that this is her Mad FaceFollowed by a few variations of Happy Face.
Happy Face mixed in with Show 'Em What's Under Your DressAnd the 'Scuse Me I Have to Scratch My Butt
And the Sorry Mom, Trains Trump All--Photo Shoot Over.

Thankful for you.

Hi friends,
Today I'm not sharing anything today except my thanks for you! We are all incredibly busy people so the fact that you've ever clicked into this blog to read anything about me and my little life is a miracle. Many of you I know in real life, others may just pop in from my offerings on Tastespotting. Regardless, thanks for being here!

I love Thanksgiving. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want in terms of food, but I love that it's just about gathering, eating, and talking. Love. it. The more people stuffed into my house, the better. The Boss is under the impression that we are having a party for her. Then again, when I think about everyone coming over today, yeah, it probably is a party for her.

Hope you're wearing your comfy pants today!

Play dough.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I love the fact that The Boss is a ready and willing helper when it comes to measuring and dumping and stirring whatever it is I'm baking or cooking these days. She used to run when the Kitchen Aid was on, but she's made her peace. No doubt she can figure out good things come from it! She requests space on the counter so that she has the best view and doesn't miss a step. We're a good team.

I've been trying a variety of bread recipes in an effort to be a better bread baker and learn how certain ingredients will affect the texture. I'm getting better with practice and it makes me appreciate the fact that people once baked their own bread every day.

I find bread is a fun thing to do with kids. Sure there is a lot of waiting around time, but their attention is so easily diverted anyway. The kids sure do love punching the dough down after the first rise. Fun! The Boss and her buddy helped me out with this batch--I'm not sure if they liked punching the dough down or swiping finger licks of the cinnamon sugar mix better.

The bread was good warm on the first day and made great toast (and probably would make great french toast) the next day. You'll see my version didn't have raisins because we simply didn't have any. Unconscionable in a toddler household!Brown Sugar Raisin Bread
Williams Sonoma

1 TBSP active dry yeast
3 TBSP granulated sugar
1 1⁄4 cups warm water (105° to 115°F)
1 cup warm milk (105° to 115°F)
3 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
1 TBSP salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
6 to 6 1⁄4 cups bread flour, plus more as needed
3⁄4 cup golden raisins
3⁄4 cup dark raisins

Filling:
2⁄3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
mixed with 4 1⁄2 tsp. ground cinnamon

In a bowl, sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of the granulated sugar over 1⁄2 cup of the water and stir to dissolve. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the remaining 3/4 cup water, the milk, butter, the remaining granulated sugar, salt, egg and 2 cups of the flour. Beat on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the yeast mixture and 1⁄2 cup of the flour and beat for 1 minute. Add the raisins, then beat in the remaining flour, 1⁄2 cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Switch to the dough hook. Knead on medium-low speed, adding flour 1 TBSP at a time if the dough sticks, until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. My dough took another 1/2 cup of flour, so don't be surprised if you need a lot more. Transfer the dough to a greased deep bowl and turn to coat it. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1⁄2 hours.

Lightly grease two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Divide the dough in half and roll or pat each half into an 8-by-12-inch rectangle. Lightly sprinkle each rectangle with half of the filling, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Beginning at a narrow end, tightly roll up each rectangle into a compact log. Pinch the ends and the long seam to seal in the filling. Place each log, seam side down, in a prepared pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until the dough is about 1 inch above the rim of each pan, 1 to 1 1⁄2 hours.

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Bake until the loaves are golden brown and pull away from the sides of the pan, 35 to 40 minutes. Turn the loaves out onto wire racks and let cool completely.

Makes two 9-by-5-inch loaves.