My Week

We are right in the middle of all of the holiday magic, and I couldn't be happier.  Things always seem a bit brighter and people usually a bit happier than any other time of the year.  There is only eleven days until Christmas day!!  Seriously, time is going by quicker than ever even with trying to focus on the moment, but I am determined.  The house is all decorated and all of the lists are getting checked off and we've been celebrating a little every day.  We've had this for 20 years and it is the first thing that gets put out every year now.

  

And this is always next.  We had a fireplace in Florida to hang our stockings but not here, so I found this and really love it.

Meet Claire and Oliver. Before the bitter cold snap, TBG and I took a horse and buggy ride downtown around the Commons and it was so nice.  I really wanted to go to the Christmas parade, but the traffic and parking are always so annoying we decided to pass.  I think we're just getting older because traffic and parking never kept us from doing anything before.  😏

I've mentioned many times that we have an awesome farmers market and many farms to buy from.  Well now a lot of them have come together and they are doing a Winter Market inside the mall December thru March.  I was so excited!  My favorite farmer is there along with a lot of others.  There is fresh dairy, meat, some veggies and so many other things.  It's great to be able to buy things to support the locals and I love meeting more new people.

What we've been eating...

Chicken Tika Masala with rice and naan

BIG salad

Chicken, baked potato and salad

Steak, scalloped potatoes and green beans. The steaks were huge, so we split one for dinner and used the other one to make steak sandwiches.  SO delicious!

Beef taco over rice with a cheese roll up.

Tonight, we're having fish tacos with slaw.

                                            I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful time of year!!

                                                                Are you ready for Christmas?

Light and fluffy dinner rolls

I have made these three or four times now and they consistently come out light, fluffy and delicious.    It's nice to be able to make four rolls instead of two dozen that most recipes yield. The recipe does double easily if you need 8 instead of 4.

Ingredients

1/2 cup warm milk

2 Tbsp olive or avocado oil

1 Tbsp honey

1/2 Tbsp dry yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 egg beaten for the egg wash

Directions

Add oil, honey and yeast into warm milk.  Stir and rest until it begins to bubble.  Usually about 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Add salt and flour to yeast mixture and put in the stand mixer.  Using the dough hook, mix until the dough comes together and is slightly sticky but not sticking to the sides of the bowl. (I did do this by hand once and it comes together well)

Cover and let rise for 20-30 minutes.

Divide dough into four pieces and form into balls.  Place on a greased pan and cover to rise for 15-20 minutes.

Brush the rolls with the egg wash.

Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown and baked through.

Next time I make them I am going to divide each ball into three small balls and bake in a greased muffin tin like the clover rolls my gram used to make.  I'll let you know how that works.

                                            Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.