Fabulous Dinner Rolls

Are you looking for an out-of-this-world roll recipe to add to your Thanksgiving menu?  Look no further.

This yeast roll recipe comes courtesy of Meg from Little Bit of Life blog.  She got it from her great-grandmother Lola. 

And I ask you, does anyone make rolls better than a great grandma?

I think not.

I've gotta tell you, I am a staunch believer in my own garlic cheese rolls, a family favorite for a number of years.  Every roll I bake is measured against the venerable GCR.  Very few make the cut.

These?  Well just look at them.  I think, rather than Yeast Rolls, they should be renamed Mile High Rolls.  One roll stretches from chin to eyebrow.  Eating one is like eating buttery air.

This year, for Thanksgiving?  I will make two kinds of rolls.  My garlic cheese rolls (because we want no serious pouty-faces around here).  And these.

They are that good.

Five-Minute Christmas Food Gift

Got my scented candle burning,

my Big Band Christmas CD blasting (this one is outstanding, btw),

the dough for my rolls percolating in the trusty bread machine -- it's a great homemaking day here at the castle.

It seemed like the perfect day to power up my brand new super-duper whizmo blender that Kahuna got me for my birthday.

I think he may have gotten a tad tired of the BANG BANG THWAP of me pulverizing coffee ice cubes with a meat tenderizer for my mocha frappuccinos. 

Which leads me to:  strawberry butter.  Yes indeedy, a five-minute food gift idea that is truly stellar.  So what if you didn't make any homemade jams and jellies this summer?  All you need for this is frozen strawberries, butter, and powdered sugar.  Get a cute little ramekin and add a wooden spreader, and you've got a wonderful, quick Christmas or hostess gift.

STRAWBERRY BUTTER

10-oz. package frozen strawberries

1 c. butter, softened

1 c. powdered sugar

Let strawberries thaw and take butter out of fridge to soften.  Put all ingredients in blender and blend away until mixture is smooth.  Pack in cute little containers.  Makes 2 1/2 c.

Note:  I cut this recipe in half and it blended perfectly.  I also cut the butter into about 10 or 15 pieces before plopping it in the blender.  Recipe came from Better Homes and Gardens Gifts from Your Kitchen.

Have you ever made any special flavored butters?  I would love to hear about it.

Winter's coming

We are in winter preparation mode around here.  Step one:  Get these very green Roma tomatoes picked before they freeze on the vine; wrap them in newspaper, as shown here, so they'll ripen up.

Step two: Start pulling out tired gift bags emblazoned with random store logos and see if you can spruce them up with scrapbook supplies languishing under the bed because you last worked on your scrapbook in 2002.

Step three:  Get so inspired by your own creativity that you start splattering paint on brown paper lunch  bags.

Follow that with a raid on your grandma's button box.

Proceed with an episode of glitter.

Or two.

At which point you realize you have perhaps gone a little too far in winter preparation mode while completely neglecting to make any actual food for dinner.

Green tomatoes, anyone?

NOTE:  For more great ideas, go check out Works for Me Wednesdays at We Are THAT Family blog.