Posts Tagged ‘Cinnamon rolls’

What We’ve Been Up To

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

In case you hadn’t noticed it has been awhile since I have done a "This Week’s Happenings".  There are several reasons for this, but I won’t go into them for now.  What I will do though is give a quick rundown on what we have been up to for the last two months.

We celebrated the Feast of Mother Cabrini.

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Joe all decked out in traditional gear for the feast day with Mikayla.

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The kids marching in for the mass in celebration of Mother Cabrini.

Mikayla and I got to go see the Queen Mother.

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We also took some pictures of the whole Cabrini staff.

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I hosted lots of baking classes with some of the high school students.  We made anything from pancakes to cookies to cakes to pizza.  It was a lot of fun getting to know the kids better and sharing with them my love for baking.  I think they enjoyed eating everything the most!  They also enjoyed taking lots of pictures of themselves!

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Played with sidewalk chalk a lot and enjoyed eating fresh mangos from our yard.  She is becoming quite the little artist!

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We hosted Thanksgiving for 20+ of our staff members.  People were coming and going all afternoon and evening.  It was fun, but I will say I slept really well that evening!

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The Feast!

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We had each of our guest complete a leaf for our Thankful tree.  It was quite full when everyone left!

During school time Mikayla wrote a really cool story in her journal.  See if you can figure out what it was about!  She has also been doing some great artwork in her journal.

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We let Mikayla decorate our Christmas tree.  She was really into Christmas this year and enjoyed every aspect of it.  She is actually still celebrating.  Today (December 30) she wrote a letter to Santa!

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We did lots of fun family activities as part of our Christmas countdown.  Including making salt dough ornaments, gingerbread cookies, and crafts!

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Making salt dough ornaments.

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Gingerbread cookies!

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I baked over 500 cookies and popped popcorn for 150 as part of the hostel Christmas party.

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We turned an old nightstand into a doll house for Mikayla’s Christmas gift.  I am pretty sure she loves it!

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We packed up the car (including our tree this year) and headed to Nelspruit, South Africa for a week long vacation and the Christmas holiday.  We ate a lot and relaxed even more!

We made cinnamon rolls…can’t have Christmas without them!

We took our traditional Christmas jammies pictures with cocoa!

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We headed to Kruger Park with the Sister Barbara and Sister Diane for a little game drive.  We saw a lot including elephants, zebras, giraffe, leopard, hyenas, monkeys, a really cool chameleon and lots of others.  It was rainy and muddy, but we still had fun.  Mikayla even got to use her adventure pack her grandparents got her for Christmas!

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We Skyped and chatted with a lot of family and friends.

We went to the doctor and found out I was pregnant!  Baby Kickert #2 is due July 4th!

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We rang in the new year with our friends Peter and Callista and their daughter Aviva.  I hope to get back to doing our weekly updates soon.

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Christmas Can Officially Begin

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

In case you missed my Facebook update this morning, Christmas Season can officially begin in our household.  Today was Cinnamon Roll Day!  Mikayla and I spent the morning making my Grandma Clark’s famous cinnamon rolls.  Which in my mind symbolize Christmas.  I love them so much!  Ben asked today why we don’t make them more often and I said they would lose their mystique if we made them more than just at Christmas time.  Last year I posted about the tradition, you can read about it here if you want.

Since cinnamon rolls are so big for my family, I have spent the past couple of years making triple or quadruple batches to fulfill our desires for their gooey goodness.  However, this year I just made one batch since I didn’t figure they would ship very well (sorry guys).  It was strange only making one batch and we were finished before lunch (this has never happened on cinnamon roll day)!  We had to make a few slight alterations (like swapping honey for the corn syrup), but they still taste a little like home.  To all the Clark family out there – we will be enjoying some cinnamon rolls this week while thinking of you!

We didn’t manage to take but a couple of pictures today (Ben left with the camera), but here are some pictures from several years ago when my sister and I made cinnamon rolls with my Grandma.

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Making cinnamon rolls with the best sous chef around!

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Slicing

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Sister and Grandma preparing the surface.  Please note the cinnamon sugar shaker on the left.  This was given to me a couple of years ago and I really missed it this year when making.  It makes the cinnamon sugar part a lot easier!

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Watching the master at work!

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Christa and me! (This was pre-Mikayla, Tanner and Taylor)!

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Family Tradition – Grandma’s Cinnamon Rolls

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Every year since I can remember my grandma would make homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas.  These aren’t your average cinnamon rolls, they are combination of sticky buns and cinnamon goodness.  In short, they are amazing!  So amazing that each year she would hide a few pans so they wouldn’t get eaten in one fail swoop.  No kidding, my family can demolish some rolls!  I could almost eat a whole pan in one sitting they are so delicous.

Well, as my gramdmother got older she enlisted help each year to make them, they are a day long process afterall (that is if you are making enough for the entire family).  My sister and I helped out for a few years and then last year my grandmother decided she couldn’t do it anymore.  My grandparents live in Florida for part of the year and with traveling and everything she wasn’t going to have the time or energy.  I got the bright idea that I would take over the tradition.  And last year that is what I did.  With the help of my dear friend Luella, I made cinnamon rolls (five times actually) and gave them out to each family member and neighbor.  They were a hit!  This year, I was working solo so I only made three batches.  (We opted for cranberry bars for the neighbors!)  It officially feels like Christmas now that the smell of cinnamon rolls fills my house!  There is nothing like the taste of one fresh from the oven!  Now I just have to figure out how we are going to squeeze our luggage and gear for a week, a baby, a dog, two adults and nine pans of cinnamon rolls in the Saturn.  Any suggestions?

Here is a play by play of how they are made.  Enjoy!

Step One:  Prepare the dough.

To do this mix 2 cups of lukewarm water wit 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 tsp salt.  Add two cakes compressed yeast (I used packaged) and stir until yeast is dissolved.  This is one of the most crucial steps in the process.  Next add 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of soft margarine and continue mix.  Gradually add in flour until dough can be formed into a large ball.  You will end up adding around 7-7 1/2 cups of flour.  Place the ball of dough in a well greased bowl and grease top of dough ball.  Cover and set aside in a warm place until dough has risen double in size.

Almost double in size!

Almost double in size!

Step Two:  Punch down dough (when it has doubled in size), this is my favorite step.

After you punch the dough, divide into small pieces.  Work dough on a well floured board (I used my kitchen table).  Roll out dough until about 1/2 inch in thickness

Step Three:  Prepare the pans (in my family this is the most important part of the roll)

Melt margarine to lightly cover bottom of pan.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans (be generous, this is the yummiest part).  My grandma would sometimes add raisins, but seeing as how I don’t like this part I omitted them.  My family likes sticky buns, so to make them sticky drizzle white karo syrup over the pans after they have been prepared but before placing in the rolls.  Again, don’t be stingy, this makes them yummy!  Your pans are now ready for the rolls, please proceed to step four.

Prepared pans ready for rolls

Prepared pans ready for rolls

Step Four: Prepare the rolls

Once dough is rolled out, cover with melted margarine and sprinkle with a cinnamon and sugar mixture.  Side note – Last Christmas my grandmother passed down to me her antique cinnamon/sugar shaker.  This made the cinnamon/sugar process a breeze!  Ok, back to the rolls.  Once dough is covered in butter, cinnamon and sugar, roll up dough pinwheel style.  Slice about 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick and place in prepared pans.  Make sure to leave space between all rolls to allow them to rise.  Cover, place in a warm place and all to rise until double in thickness.

Rolled dough with butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture

Rolled dough with butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture

Rolled into a pinwheel and ready to cut into individual cinnamon rolls

Rolled into a pinwheel and ready to cut into individual cinnamon rollsRolls in pans ready for the second round of rising

Double in size (they didn't rise as well as last year, I think it was too cold in my kitchen) and ready for the oven

Double in size (they didn't rise as well as last year, I think it was too cold in my kitchen) and ready for the oven

Step Five:  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Baked and ready to eat!

Baked and ready to eat!

Step Six:  Grab a fork and dive in!  They are best straight from the oven, but also very good warmed up.  To reheat, add some butter to the tops of the rolls and place in microwave until heated through.  Grab a large glass of milk and enjoy!

I ended up making a triple batch this year and between making the rolls and juggling a baby it took around seven hours.  Now, that might seem like a long time but it is so worth it in the end.  If you enlist the help of a friend you can cut your time significantly!  Happy baking!

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