Pumpkin Rolls

I made this recipe a few years ago for Thanksgiving. Then we wanted it again for Christmas and couldn't find the recipe. Looked for it again another Thanksgiving, couldn't find it again. Looked for it again this year for Christmas and...FOUND IT!!!!! So I'm writing it down here so we don't lose it again.

PUMPKIN ROLLS

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. warm water
2 c. warm milk
1/4 c. butter, softened or melted
2 c. mashed cooked pumpkin (I usually use one can of pumpkin.)
2 tsp salt
1/2 c. wheat germ (can omit and use flour instead)
10-12 c. all-purpose flour (Can use a mixture of whole wheat and white. If so, go 1/3 wheat to 2/3 white. The recipe says 10-12, but I have never used that much. For the ones that are rising as I type this, I think I used about 9 cups. It probably changes each time due to weather and other varients.)
7 tsp. dry yeast (This equals three full packets of the standard-type of yeast that you buy in the store in a 3-pack.)

In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, water, milk, butter, pumpkin, and salt. Mix well. Add wheat germ, 7-8 cups of the flour, and yeast. Mix and then continue adding flour and kneading until dough is elastic and not sticky.

Place dough in greased bowl; grease top of dough, cover with a towel, and set in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour). Punch dough down and divide into thirds. Divide each third into 16 pieces and shape into balls.

Place on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes, until tops are golden. Brush with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven. (Note: These rolls usually look somewhat dry when first coming out of the oven. Wait about 15 minutes and they will look and taste great!!)

Yield: 4 dozen rolls. These rolls will go quickly (espceially if there is gravy to go with them). Don't expect too many leftovers unless you double the recipe!!

A generous blog

A friend of mine has started a new blog and is already giving stuff away!!! Check it out!

http://www.educatinglucy.com/2010/11/giveaways-galore.html

A recipe

I just want a place to save this recipe before I try it. I'll probably try it this week, maybe for Thanksgiving breakfast like the writer recommends. Anyway, here it is.

http://www.thethriftymama.com/2010/11/apple-oats-breakfast-pudding-recipe.html

Christmas time again.

It's coming. Do you have your Christmas cards ready?

Personally, I can't decide. Shutterfly has so many great choices, I'm having a hard time deciding.

Here are a few of my faves:

I like this one because it just seems nice and simple and classic -

But then this one is great as well -

I really like this one because you can type your little Christmas letter right on the picture! I've never even seen one like this before! I love it -

And then there's this one. How can I not love it? It has my name written all over it...literally -

So the decision is a hard one.

What do you think? Any other suggestions? Check out the selection here. They even have Thanksgiving cards! How fun! One of these days when I'm a much more organized type of mom, maybe I'll get around to those, too!

I do think I'll order some of their Gift Tags as well. What a great idea! I don't know why I haven't thought about getting some of those before now!

Just to let you know, Shutterfly is currently offering 20% all holiday cards, so it's a great time to get ahead in the game of Christmas Cards!

Dirty Potato Soup

When I make a meal that the entire family enjoys, I like to write it down for future reference. So here's what I made tonight that everyone loved.

Dirty Potato Soup

(I guess you could call it Loaded Potato Soup, but honestly, it looked dirty to me and this is my version, so Dirty Potato Soup it is.)

Saute onions, green pepper, and shredded carrots in EVOO.

Add chopped bacon. I used turkey bacon and browned it in with the veggies.

Add leftover shredded chicken.

Here, I also added garlic and parsley mixes.

Boil potatoes, skin on (I used the yummy little red potatoes), then smash, but not pulverize.

Throw potatoes in with veggies and meat.

Add one cup (or so) of chicken broth. I used my recently homemade chicken stock and loved it! (I'll post on that later.) BTW, this is where the "Dirty" part came in. The darkness of the chicken broth mixed with the skins of the potatoes suddenly made the whole soup look dirty!

Add a good bit of yogurt and sour cream.

Let simmer. If needed, add milk to thin. We like our soups pretty thick around here, so I only added a touch at the end after it had simmered maybe a little too long.

I served this with shredded cheese on top and the whole family devoured it.

A year later

Weird that I choose to write a post almost exactly a year after the last one that I did here. I don't even know if anyone reads this, but if you do/did - Sorry I dropped it by the wayside for so long. Lots of life changes have happened in the past year and have taken up more time and energy than I thought possible.

I don't have a new recipe to share, which is what I normally put on here (it's a great place to reference all my favorite recipes. For me, it's easier than keeping them in a cookbook.), but I do have something fun to share.

I love my stroller. If you ever have any need for a stroller, I highly recommend checking out Phil & Ted's. I won't go into the details of why I love this stroller so much or why I believe it to be one of the best products ever made because that's not what this post is about. If you want my full take on it, just let me know. I can type a mouth full about it! (Does that make any sense?)

I generally take very good care of things that are important to me, especially when they cost good money. However, with two kids in tow, sometimes things get overlooked. Things like a beach towel that I didn't know was wet that got left on top of the stroller in the bed of the truck for maybe a week or so.

What happens when wet fabric gets left on dry fabric in a hot and humid environment? MOLD. MILDEW. NASTINESS. Whatever it was, whatever you want to call it, my stroller had it. I was not a happy camper. But it was my fault, I had only myself to blame. (Which is lucky for my husband, because I'm afraid I would have been really mad at him if I thought it was his fault!)

Oddly enough, I met a friend at the park one day and she said her stroller (she has the same one I do) had been left on her porch without her realizing it and it rained and got the nasty mildew as well. She got around to cleaning hers before me and wrote me an email saying all she had to do was spray pure vinegar on the nasty spots, then let it dry in the sun and it came right out!

First of all, can we say, "Easy!" Second of all, vinegar is one of my all time FAVORITE cleaning agents!! I was thrilled. I tried it. Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy for me. Maybe mine was deeper set than hers? I don't know. I do know though that I was bummed. So I did a little more research on how to get rid of mildew.

I googled how to clean a Phil & Ted's stroller and found an interesting blog post about a person who bought a used Phil & Ted's and they said it was absolutely nasty, but they got it for a steal. So they took it home and figured out how to take the fabric off to wash it in the washing machine. I hadn't even thought of that. I went to do that and realized to take the seat part off was going to take a lot more dissecting of my stroller than I cared to attempt during naptime. So I took off a couple of easy pieces and threw them in the wash along with some Borax (Holy cow, this is a new addiction for me! I LOVE this stuff!!), vinegar, and of course, laundry detergent.

Now for the rest of the stroller than I didn't want to take apart. I googled how to clean mildew. I found a "How to" that included my two most favorite cleaning agents of all time - Vinegar (of course) and Baking Soda! I knew this was going to work. Why I didn't think of it myself, I don't know.

So, I doused the stroller with vinegar. When I say "doused" I really do mean it. I soaked that bad boy. I let it soak in for awhile, then I covered it with baking soda. And yes, I really did cover it. Then I scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed. I figured if I was going to all this trouble, I might as well do it right. So I scrubbed some more. Then I realized I wasn't quite sure what to do to get all this scrubbed in baking soda out. I decided to take it outside and hose it down, power-wash-style.

I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed. It was disgusting! The first several times I dumped water out, it was brown. The white baking soda was pulling out so much grime, it all turned brown. Nasty. I knew my stroller had mildew, but I had no idea it had that much dirt in it as well!

Once it was clean, I set it out in the sun to dry fully. I replaced the parts I had taken off and voila! It was like a brand new stroller! It looks good, smells good, and is nice and healthy for my precious kids to be sitting in!

Maybe this isn't the most exciting post of all times, but hey, it is what it is. And I'm super excited to have such a nice clean stroller!