Friday, December 20, 2013

Merry Christmas!

For my devoted reader(s),

Today I am getting ready for our girl to COME HOME!

 
That means cleaning, and folding laundry, and
 
COOKING! 
 
So, because I love you so . . . My gift to you is this awesome, DECADENT Cinnamon Roll recipe.  You are welcome. And I'm sorry. 
 

Amazing Cinnamon Rolls

This recipe is a combination of Tupperware Bread, Paula Dean’s Cinnamon Roll Recipe, and a variation of the Cinnabon Frosting recipe. It’s incredibly decadent so don’t make it if you are counting calories, fat grams, carbs, or ANYTHING.  I don’t know how you would make it without a “thatsa bowl” from Tupperware
                                                                          
Ingredients:

Dough:                            Filling:                                       Glaze:

10 – 11 cups AP flour      1 ½ cups butter                         2 sticks margarine         

1 ½ cups milk                 2 cups light brown sugar            1 block cream chs

1 ½ cups water               4 Tbsp ground cinnamon           1 pound powdered sugar

4 eggs                             ¾ cup raisins (for half)               1 tsp lemon juice

2/3 cups sugar                                                                  1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp salt                                                                                     

4 ½ tsp yeast

2 sticks unsalted butter

Yield: 2 9x12 pans and one 8x4 bread pan of cinnamon rolls.                               

1.       Put 9 c flour in large Tupperware bowl. Make a well in the center, set aside.

2.       Scald 1 ½ c milk and cool with 1 ½ c water.  Don’t start the next step while you do this because it needs to cool while you do the next step.

3.       In a medium bowl beat 4 eggs, and then add 2/3 c sugar, 2 t salt and 2 pkgs. yeast (4 ½ t).  Mix thoroughly, and then add scalded milk.

4.       Pour liquid into well of flour.  DO NOT STIR!!!

5.       Seal, burp, and wait until seal pops.

6.       After seal pops, melt 2 sticks butter and pour into bowl.  Stir everything up, adding 1-2 c more flour to make thick but still sticky consistency. Seal, burp, and wait until seal pops again.

7.       Knead out all the air. 

8.       Refrigerate overnight.

9.       Divide into two. 

10.    Roll dough out to about 14” x 8”.

11.    Melt 1 ½ cups of real butter.

12.    Put about ¼ cup of butter in bottom of 12x9x2 pan

13.    Put about ½ cup of butter on rolled out dough.

14.    Mix 2 cups of brown sugar with 4 tsp cinnamon.

15.    Sprinkle some of this mixture in bottom of pan.

16.    Spread about ¾ cups of this mixture on dough.

17.    Sprinkle nuts on cinnamon if desired.

18.    Roll tightly

19.    Cut into 1” slices

20.    Place in pan close together.

21.    Repeat steps 10-20 in another 12x9 pan

22.    You may also need a bread pan for any cinnamon rolls that are left.  Repeat butter and cinnamon mixture on the bottom of this pan as well.

23.    Allow to rise about 30 minutes.

24.    Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until brown.

25.    While rolls are baking, mix 1 cup Margarine with 1 block of cream cheese till well blended.

26.    Slowly add in 1 lb powdered sugar.  After all of the sugar is mixed in, mix for a long time (12 minutes recommended).

27.    When almost done add in 1 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

28.    Slather topping on cinnamon rolls while they are still hot.
 

Monday, December 2, 2013

Warfare in Community

One of the great benefits of community - especially multigenerational community - is the realization that I am not the only one.  My sorrow, my temptation, my wound, is not against me alone; rather I find it is common to man - a part of being a broken person living among broken people on a broken planet. 

This revelation is both a comfort and a chastisement.  I have comrades who have faced my temptation and overcome.  Rather than my sorrow dragging me into self pity, it brings me into the tightly knit ranks of the wounded overcomers where I learn the deep truth that life is both bitterly painful and astoundingly, truly beautiful. 

I not only learn how to stand against the enemy's lies but I learn that I must stand against them, just as my comrades have stood against them - just as they still stand today.  I am welcomed into the battle, where my comrades will fight for me but will also expect me to fight beside them and we will joyfully and tearfully learn to wield our weapons, side by side.