Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Get-Togethers

This season is so wonderful. We love to see so much of our family and enjoy their company. That is one of our favorite things about Christmas. We wish that we could be with everyone, though. A special "Merry Christmas" to all those in our family who we won't see this year, Cathy's and James' families and Rob. Our hearts go out to you and hope this year finds you and your families happy and in good health. We love you!

--Tom, Camille, and Chalyse

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Hooray for being busy

I love to keep busy and have places to go but the phrase "careful what you wish for" definitely applies this next week. Tomorrow we have a nephew's birthday party to attend, Monday is my little sisters birthday party, Tuesday is my Grandma's Christmas party, Wednesday we are hosting Tom's family's Christmas party, Thursday is Christmas and we are going to dinner at my Mom's house, but it doesn't end there, Friday we go to dinner with my brothers and sisters (as our gift to each other this year we decided to spend some time together doing something fun), and Saturday I am hosting a baby shower for my friend. Now don't get me wrong I am super excited for this next week, plus the only cooking we will be doing is the food assignments for all these parties (toffee, soup, salad, rolls, vegetable trays, dips, punch), I am just glad we got our shopping done early. It will be nice when it is over and we can take a breath.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Chalyse Loves Noodles

Dinner Rolls and Thanksgiving

Here is the rolls recipe that Jeni wanted and some pictures from Thanksgiving.












Dinner Rolls
Ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup hot water
  • 1/2 cup instant potato flakes
  • 1 cup scalded milk
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 packages active dry yeast, or rapid rise yeast (scant 2 tablespoons)
  • 4 1/2 + cups flour
  • melted butter
  • poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic salt, etc
Method:

Combine hot water and potato flakes. Add scalded milk, butter, sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm. Beat 1 egg and stir into mix. Stir in yeast. Add about 1 1/2 cups of flour and beat with electric mixer until elastic (about 2-3 minutes). By hand, gradually stir in enough more flour to make a soft dough. Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place dough in clean greased bowl, grease top, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until double in size (approximately 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours). Punch down or knead out excess air. Follow directions below to shape as desired. Just before baking, beat second egg well, lightly brush top of rolls with egg for a shiny top. Sprinkle with seeds, garlic salt, etc as desired. Note: Ideas also work well with thawed, frozen bread dough. Recipe makes 24 rolls.

Divide dough in two. Roll each piece into a 16-inch circle, brush with melted butter, cut into 12 wedges. Starting at the wide end roll each wedge up. Place on greased baking sheet with tip underneath. Curve ends to form a crescent, cover and allow to rise until double in size (about 20-40 minutes). Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Hooray!!!!!!!

So today was a definite reason to celebrate. I went to my last class for my undergraduate degree! I have finals next week and student teaching next semester, but I'm done with course work if you don't count the teacher work sample (and I've already completed the bulk of that as a part of my methods class).

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Christmas Fun

Yesterday, Camille and I went to get our Christmas tree. We went to a tree yard close to our home and had a really good experience. The attendant was really accommodating and friendly even though he was really busy.

When we got home and got the tree in place, we found that we didn't have enough lights to put on the tree. So, we went to the local Target to pick up some lights. We found some that we liked, and as we went through the checkout, I discovered to my horror that I was missing my card. I looked all through my wallet, but it wasn't there. The last place I had used it was at the tree yard. After we checked out, we went back to the tree yard, but we couldn't find it. When we got home, after looking around some more, we called to cancel the card, just in case.

When Camille got the lights out of the box, she realized that they had a white cord. That just wouldn't do, so I was sent back to Target to get some with green cords.

After I got back and we got the tree all decorated, we got a call from the attendant at the tree yard. He had found my card. He said it was in a weird place.