Reasons this weekend was awesome:

-I had no school on Friday, so my weekend was a whole three days long!

-Friday night, Dan and I went on an awesome double date with my cousin once-removed (...or second cousin?...long story), Autumn, and her boyfriend Devin.  We had a super fun time, even though the Mexican restaurant we were going to go to had closed (we just went to Pizza Pie Cafe instead).  Then, we went to the Nickelcade, and I almost won the jackpot on this speed demon game.  I just wasn't enough of a speed demon.  I did, however, almost hit an innocent couple in the head while playing the basketball game, all thanks to my awesome coordination and some super bouncy basketballs.

-Dan won both his soccer games this weekend!  I only went to one (on Friday--where I had an awesome political discussion with Lyse on immigration and history and other stuff).  It's ok though, cuz for the game I didn't go to, I went and hung out with him and his team at Wingers to watch a soccer game.  I'm so supportive!  (It helped I got to have some sticky fingers.)

-I am officially Queen of the Kitchen.

I made chocolate chip muffins from scratch for breakfast!  I was really worried they wouldn't turn out, cuz when I finished making the batter, I was like, "this looks a lot more like cookie dough than muffin batter..."  Then I realized I'd forgotten to add the milk...which you're supposed to add before you put in all the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips, but I guess it doesn't really  matter if you put it in last, cuz they were still delicious!

Recipe (From Williams-Sonoma)
 

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.  In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and 1 cup sugar on medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Turn off mixer and scrape down sides of bowl.  Add 1 egg and beat until blended. Add the other egg and the vanilla and beat until well blended. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl.  Add half of the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Pour in the milk and beat just until blended. Add the rest of the flour and the chocolate chips and beat until blended.  Fill each lined muffin cup with batter. Sprinkle the 1 tablespoon sugar evenly over the tops.  Put the pan in the oven and bake until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 21 to 23 minutes.  Remove from oven, set on wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Tip the muffins out of the pan onto the rack and serve warm or at room temperature.

Then for dinner I made homemade chicken soup and my Aunt Renae's rolls.  The rolls weren't as good as they are when Aunt Renae makes them, but practice makes perfect.  Also, new traditions I am starting:  every weekend I am going to make a breakfast from scratch, and every Sunday dinner we're going to have Aunt Renae's rolls.

Lion House Rolls (Aunt Renae’s Rolls)

2 TBSP yeast

2 cups warm water

Mix yeast and water and let stand for about 5 minutes.

Add:

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup softened butter

2 tsp salt

2/3 cup nonfat dry milk

1 egg

2 cups flour

Beat together until smooth.  This may take a few minutes…

Gradually add up to 4 more cups of flour until a soft dough is formed (I usually do 3 1/2.)  Knead until dough is smooth and elastic.  Place in a greased bowl.  Cover and let rise until double in bulk (about an hour.) Punch down and knead lightly then shape rolls.  Place on greased baking sheet and let rise until double (about 30 minutes.)  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

A few notes (from Aunt Renae!):

·         For butter I usually just use whatever part of a stick I happen to have in my fridge.  It doesn’t have to be exactly 1/3 cup.  You can even leave it out if you want to…I don’t know why you would want to…trying to be healthy or something???

·         If you don’t want to use dry milk you can use 1 cup water and 1 cup milk in place of the 2 cups of water.  I like to use dry milk because I store it in my food storage and it is a good way to use it up and rotate it.

·         There are lots of ways to shape rolls.  The original recipe calls for dividing the dough into thirds, rolling each third into a circle and then cutting each circle into 12 pie shaped wedges, rolling each wedge crescent style.  I like to divide the dough in half.  Roll each half into a rectangle like you are making cinnamon rolls (about 12x16 inches.) Brush the dough with melted butter, then use a pizza cutter to divide the dough first length wise so you have two rectangles (6x16.) Then cut each into 8 pieces so that you have 16, 2x6 inch strips.  Then holding the strip of dough at one end I flip it so that it winds itself up. So you end up with 32 treasure chest style rolls.  If that doesn’t make sense, let me know…maybe you will have to come over and make them with me sometime J

·         I think they bake up better in glass pans.  I like the bottoms of the rolls to be a little bit crusty, and in a metal pan the bottoms stay soft.

·         I usually cover the rolls loosely with foil for the last few minutes they are in the oven so they don’t get too brown on top. 

 -This is lame, but I wore a new dress to church today, and I looked super cute!