PACKING!!!!
We've barely made a dent in our house in the packing department! And I have a fault in packing.... I want to go through everything & throw away junk that's been hiding in the back of drawers, old clothes that we don't wear anymore, make a list of things we need to replace in our next house (like 'Oh, I have hated this old file cabinet for years, I'm going to junk it, and purchase new ones for our next house....) Gives us a chance to purge & start anew...
Call it my OCD-ness, but I love to move, because it gives me a chance to organize. However, not necessarily on the time crunch that we are already in, but as Tim Gunn says, "Make it work!!"
And the worst part about it is, it's not that everything is going to the same place. Some of it has to go to storage that we don't need until our next house, some of it goes to storage, but in an easy accesible place that I will need to get to in the next couple of months, then some of it goes to the cabin that we will need readily available... Uhhhhh! Craziness around here!!!
So, we are going to take a little Christmas break from blogging. We are planning on going away for New Years this year for a relaxing 3 nights in a great hotel with a comfy King Sized bed, wonderful restaurants nearby, ROOM SERVICE!, and most importantly a spa downstairs from our room!! I told John that I didn't want us to get out of our robes except to go to the spa or to dinner. We plan on being completely useless this New Years and have a super relaxing weekend after the big move!
See you in the new year! And I will post some pictures of the holidays when we return, but I will leave you with my all time favorite thing to make for Christmas morning! These are the best things that will hit your mouth all year. I only make them for special occasions because they are the ultimate indulgence!
Neelley's Christmas Cinnamon Rolls
(*Note- These take about 3-4 hours to make from start to finish, but with lots of resting time for the dough to rise)
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees)
2 eggs, Room Temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 tsp yeast
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1 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted
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1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
a couple of spashes of milk
-Dissolve yeast in warm milk in LARGE bowl. Mix in sugar, margarine, salt & eggs. Add flour gradually & mix well. Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly wiith flour. (I pour the dough out, wash the large bowl, dry well, then spray a non-stick spray (Baker's Joy or Pam) in the inside of the bowl. Make sure that the bowl is covered lightly, but well with the spray. Put the dough back in the sprayed bowl, cover with a hand towel & let rise in a warm place (close to the oven or microwave, etc, etc) for about 2 hours or so... Until it doubles in size.
Once you see that the dough has doubled in size, take a small bowl & combine the brown sugar & cinnamon. Have the 1/3 cup of melted butter close by too. Turn out the dough on a floured surface & roll out to a 16" x 21" rectangle. (Doesn't have to be exact, but try to get it as rectangle shape as you can with it being as big as you can get it close to this size.) Spread the melted butter on the dough & sprinkle evenly with sugar & cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough & cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in lightly greased 9" x 13" baking pan. Cover & let rise for about 30- 60 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake rolls until brown, about 12-15 minutes. While rolls are baking, mix last set of ingredients (cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt & milk) in small bowl. Spread frosting on warm rolls (not hot!) before serving!
*Note- these make HUGE rolls- probably rolls that you would 1/2 with someone.
