Buttery Sourdough Rolls

 I made some delicious rolls tonight!  These will be perfect for Thanksgiving!  I made these pretty big so that we could use them as buns, so if you make rolls I would recommend making them half the size.  I cut them in half for the buns, aren't they pretty?

 Ingredients
1 cup sourdough starter
3 cups flour (I used two cups unbleached white and one cup hard white whole wheat)
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda (helps with the rising for a fluffier roll)
1 large egg
5 tablespoons soft butter
2/3 cup lukewarm water

Directions
1)  Combine all of the ingredients in a large bow, mix and knead to make a soft, smooth dough.  I let it mix in my stand mixer for five minutes on a medium setting, but my mixer has a 1,000 wattage, so your mixer might be different.  This does all the kneading for me.  I did add a little flour since it was  too wet and kneaded it for a couple of minutes by hand while forming it into a ball.
2)  Place the dough in a lightly greased container and let it rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.
(You can go ahead and form into balls here and bake or do a second rising.  Both worked well.)
3)  Lightly grease a casserole dish or cookie sheet.  I think next time I will use my stoneware.  I made big buns, for rolls, make them half the size.
4)  Cover the pans and let rise for 60 minutes. Don't let them rise too long.  Towards the end of the  rising time, preheat the oven to 350F
5)  Bake the rolls for 22-25 minutes and buns for 32-35 minutes, depending on your oven.
6)  Brush the tops with butter after you take them out of the oven.  Serve warm!
We put barbecued beef on ours.

If you are having problems with your dough rising (this is for yeast and sourdough), there are a couple of tricks you can try.  I keep my house pretty cold in the winter.  (a)  You can fill your sink with hot water and turn a bowl upside down and set the dough in a bowl on top of the upside down bowl.  The steam and heat will help your dough rise.  (b)  wash your dishes and set your dough on top of the dishwasher, again the steam and heat from the dishwasher will help with the rising.  (c)  today I sat the dough right next to my crockpot and the heat from the crockpot helped.

Be sure you do not leave the burner on!  We were sitting there eating supper and I asked my husband if he smelled something burning.  He ran into the kitchen and my favorite pot holder, which hangs above the stove, had caught on fire!  He said a couple of more minutes and there would have been flames!  I'm so sad over the loss of my potholder, what a stupid thing to do!  Luckily I had pulled the pan off the burner already.  My kitchen is green and yellow and matched perfectly.  Can you see my sad face?

If you have extra rolls, you can put them in the freezer and pull them out as you need them.
If you have any questions, be sure to ask!
Happy Baking!
Missy

Bright Granny Squares

 After cutting the blocks for the prayer quilt, I decided to go ahead and cut the blocks for my quilt.

 I am hosting a quilt along at church and wanted to make the granny square.  Wanna join in?

 I got the idea from Lori Holt, here.  She had a Quilt along on her blog, but I could not join in at the time, so I asked my friends if they wanted to do one with me!  I'm following her tutes!

 We aren't starting until December, but I wanted to go ahead and cut my blocks out so I can help my friends and let them use my cutting stuff.

 This quilt will be for my niece for Christmas next year(she will be seven).  I am making the colors; orange, yellow, green and pink.

 I couldn't decide on the background color, but after testing out the fabrics I had, I decided to use all three!   Unfortunately, I don't have any green.

 The colors look better in real life!

 This Gerber daisies was my inspiration!  I am making a big border with it.

 I haven't decided what I am going to use for the sashing, I'm considering the dark pink paisley here.  I'm not sure.

 The only thing I'll have to buy is a sheet for the back and the batting, which I'll get on Black Friday!

 If my math is right, and feel free to correct me, but 20 blocks @12 inches with 2 inch sashing and a big border, should be a good size for a twin size bed?  It would be 70 inches by 54?  That's with a four inch border.

 Of course Pippi had to make sure she liked the blocks!

 I cut a lot of 2 1/2 inch squares, but with my binding ruler it was easy.  This block is great for small scraps too!

 I love this material!  I bought it for my kitchen, I think I am going to start buying more fruity material, I really like it in quilts!

I still need to cut the background rectangles, but that can wait until later!
Have a great weekend ya'll!
Missy

More Granny Squares

I got the navy blue background cut for the prayer quilt.

The quilt will have 12 blocks.  I had to cut 144 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 and 48 2 1/2 x 5 inch navy blue rectangles.  I really like the navy blue background.

To see the rest of the squares click the link above for prayer quilt.
I need some help with quilting math. I have some material I want to use for the border, I want to cut it 5 inches giving me a 4 1/2 inch border. I have about 60 inches by 34 inches. My finished top will be 36 inches by 48 inches. How do I know if I have enough? Math has never been my strong area. Would there be enough to cut it 6 inches? We are embroidering it with verses from the bible. (Not me, but a friend is)

Back in January, I had told ya'll about my friend who is making a documentary about how to survive off-grid.  You can go here for that information.  Well, tonight he has an interview on the radio at 8pm central time.  Sorry for the short notice.
Listen in this Wednesday, 8 PM CST for Sophek's debut on Michael Bunker's radio show!
blogtalkradio.com/michaelbunker 

The discussion will be Sophek's upcoming documentary Beyond Off Grid. 

Again, hear the show:
Wednesday, November 7
blogtalkradio.com/michaelbunker

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/michaelbunker
Be sure to check it out!

Have a great day ya'll!

Missy

Quick Dinner Ideas

I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago the trouble I had been having with my asthma.  It is allergy and stress induced and every fall and spring, I have a couple of weeks of not getting anything done.  I also have mitral valve prolapse, a very mild heart condition that I don't even notice most of the time.  The two conditions exacerbate each other though, so when one acts up, the other acts up.  I used to take a heart medication, but I stopped, I have very few memories from the years I was on it.  I used to use an inhaler, but I don't use that either.  Steroids are very bad for you.  I know use essential oils and diet to control both.  I am going to be honest and admit I forget to use my oils sometimes, and those are the days I have problems.  I don't have to use the oils every day, just during times that I know are going to be rough.  I use Tranquility and Vitality from Butterfly Express for my heart.  I apply it on the bottom of my feet, the top of my spine, the inside of my ring finger (that vein has a direct link to your heart, symbolic, huh?).  Lavender and sweet orange are also good relaxants to slow down my heart beat.  I have to avoid caffeine also.  For my breathing, I use Aspire and Breezy, more oil blends from Butterfly Express.  I also use peppermint and eucalyptus.  I put these on my sinuses and pulse points and top of my spine.  All of the oils get rubbed over my chest since that is where my lungs and heart are.  And the bottom of the feet.  I also try to keep peppermint diffusing in my home to help keep my air passages opened.   So with that said, this is what I did for supper on days I didn't have the breath to labor over the stove.

When I make my homemade spaghetti sauce, recipe can be found here, I make a big batch and freeze some of it in canning jars.  So the first day I made spaghetti, and since I put meat in my sauce, I didn't have to worry about that.  I made the whole package and put the extra noodles in the fridge.  The next day, I made spaghetti pie.  My husband had shredded mozzarella, Parmesan and Romano cheeses for me and mixed them together the day before, so all I had to do was throw the noodles in a deep dish pie pan (any casserole dish works), pour sauce over it and a couple of tablespoons of water to keep the noodles from drying, then top top with a lot of cheese and bake at 350° for about 30 minutes. You can also use a blend of mozzarella and cheddar if you prefer, I had planned it for the next day also, but my husband (and I) had eaten 3/4 of it, so there was not enough.  I looked in the fridge and grabbed two leftover buffalo burgers and topped them with the spaghetti pie and I loved how the two flavors blended! It was a fake buffalo parmigiana!  So I had three separate meals that was similar but different and took 5 minutes of prep time!  When I made my buffalo burgers the week before, I added some bread crumbs, an egg, a tad bit of milk, cumin, garlic salt and dried onions and fried them.  They were delicious!
I hope this gives you some ideas for supper when you are super busy!
On my sewing list is:  I need to finish cutting the material for the prayer quilt, finish my friend's dress, finish quilting my Dresden plate quilt, and I want to make some mug rugs for Christmas presents!
What are you up to?
Missy

Design Wall Monday

We started a prayer quilt ministry at our church.  Our first quilt was this one, even though we hadn't officially started the ministry yet.
The next quilt we are making is going to be a Granny Square quilt.  I got the blocks cut out and kitted up, but have not cut out the background fabric yet.

The solid is actually a sage green, it looks blue in the picture.

the calico is a dusty rose and the solid is a dark red.

I used material that was donated for the quilt. 

The background will be navy blue.

I have the same square in the middle of each block.  It is the same material that I will be using for the border. 

 These are all the blocks "kitted" up waiting to be sewn!

All the squares are 2 1/2 inches.  I can't wait to see it when it was done!
Missy

Feline Friday

I have had many people ask for an update on Midnight, the kitten that had been rescued here.  She was such a sweet baby!  I was at my friend's house the week before I went out town and snapped a couple of pictures.  She still likes to be fed from her bottle, even though she is four months old!

She was so sweet and cuddly and wanting to be held an petted by everyone.  Just adorable!
My friend, Ebbye, went out of town the day after I went out of town, but Chris offered to kitten-sit even though I was not there to help.  As you know, we have 6 cats.  Chris was at church and they put the carrier in the car and he did not see her until he got to the house.  He put her in the office so we could keep her separated from the other cats for a couple of days until they got used to each other.  It didn't quite work that way this time.
She thought Chris had kidnapped her!  She took up residence on his desk and would not let him near his desk the entire week!

You can see the mess she made on his desk, knocked everything down.  It was funny.  Anytime he tried to pet her, she scratched him.  I'm sure it didn't help that my cats kept going in there hissing at her.  He won her over with treats by the end of the week.  She would eat the treats out of his hand but would not let him pet her. One day he opened the door and she leaped off the desk, jumped across the room and attacked his bare foot!   He was bleeding everywhere. 
I got home on Saturday and she at first was hissing at me, she finally let me pet her a little, but would scratch me out of nowhere.  Chris started leaving the office door open Thursday night.

Well, we were trying to sleep in (8 am) on Sunday morning when at 5 am there was a ruckus on the bed, scared us half to death. Chris turned on the light and there was Midnight in attack mode on the bed hissing at everybody!  LOL  We had to get a toy (string on a stick)and lure her out of the bedroom with it so we could go back to sleep.  We couldn't pick her up.  That's how we got her in the carrier too.  He lured her in and pushed her from behind when she got far enough in!
FYI, the office is my husband's domain and he will not let me clean in there, he's afraid I'll lose something!
Ebbye had to go out of town again a week later, this time I was home to help out and we left the office door open the whole time.  She was like Dr. Jekyl and Miss Hyde.  One moment all cuddly and lovable and the next a little terror!
She loved sleeping on either the printer

 or the office chair.  We put diatamceus earth on her and my cats to kill the fleas.  And it is a great natural, safe way to kill the fleas.  Isn't she adorable, she was wanting to be loved on here.  I love her tabby belly!

One night, she took up residence with my sewing machines.  She would not let us walk pas her without attacking our feet, which meant we couldn't get in the bedroom.  Not a good picture, but that was the closest I could get.  Doesn't she look innocent there?

 I had to use a chicken nugget to get her out of there.  You can see her hissing at us in this photo.

 (The powder is diatamaceus earth, you can see the vacuum behind her, I was afraid of spooking her more) She calmed down a little as she was playing with the chicken nugget.

She paid another night visit to the bedroom one night.  I think she was surprised to find all the cats on the bed and she was hissing and my cats were hissing, it was funny.  She had been playing on the bed and we took her out before bed (via her toy again).
I called Ebbye on Halloween to make sure she kept Midnight in, black cats disappear on Halloween.  People snatch them and kill them.
I hope you enjoyed this post!
Missy