My Favorite Roll Recipe

I was given this roll recipe from my friend Jenny Brand:

2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
3 Tbsp sugar
1 cup very warm water
1 egg
1 stick butter or margarine
1/4 cup powdered milk
1 tsp salt
4 cups flour

Mix together the yeast, sugar, and water. Add the egg, butter, powdered milk, salt, and 1 cup flour and mix until smooth. Then add the remaining flour until the dough is the proper consistency for rolls. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Knead once more then shape and place in a greased 9x13 cake pan. Let the rolls rise until double in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-11 minutes or until golden brown. Butter the top of the rolls when the come out of the oven.

Little Helper

So, Owen has decided that he likes to help me do chores around the house. Since he's started showing an interest in helping me around the house I now need to find ways that he can help me with chores, rather than just waiting until he goes down for a nap to get everything done. Here are a few things that we did this week:

1- He helped me pick up the clothes off the floor and put them in the laundry basket, then he pushed the basket (it is on wheels) to the laundry room. After the basket was empty he proceeded to push it all around the house, picking up his toys and giving them a ride in the laundry basket.

2- He helped me make cookies. He had his own bowl, spoon, and measuring cup that he carried around the kitchen and living room while I made the cookies. Then he was more than willing to help me taste the cookie dough to make sure it was good.

3- He helped me take out the trash. I carried the kitchen garbage out while he carried the bathroom garbage out (Wal-Mart bag sized). He insisted on holding on to the bag with one hand and the handrail with the other to go down the front steps.

4- He helped me carry the groceries in from the car. He carried the small, light bags - or my wallet and keys if the bags were all to big for him.

5- He likes to help me play the piano. Last week Owen broke the music holder on my piano and Bryce had to take it off and fix it (Bryce did a wonderful job and it's now better than it was before, since we discovered that it had been broken before and poorly fixed). This resulted in the new rule that Owen is only allowed to play the piano with my help. So now I tell Owen that it's time for his "piano lesson" and he gets excited, runs to the piano and waits for me to pull out the bench and open the keyboard. Then he sits next to me on the bench and plays and sings his songs while I play mine. He even likes to reach up and try to turn pages on the piano books like he's seen me do.

I can't wait to see what Mommy's little helper will learn this next week!!

Cold Season

So, it has been cold season at our house the past couple of weeks. Last week Bryce came home from school with a cold - not fun for him but it didn't slow life down too much. But then this week I, then Owen, caught Bryce's cold and so life at the Allen household has ground to a slow crawl. I've managed to keep us fed, clothed and to get the neccesities done at work, but anything that requires much effort just hasn't happened. Owen has been napping well, and after several days of extra sleep he seems to be feeling a bit better. Today he seems to be almost better. I on the other hand haven't had much time to sleep, so I keep pushing onward, trying to rest whenever possible to keep my head from exploding, and today it seems to have started to work. My headache is now barely there and hopefully I can keep my cough from getting too anoying. Bryce, who seemed to get better for a couple of days has been dragging a bit the last couple of days, but since we don't have anything major going on this weekend we've both been able to rest and try to recover somewhat. But despite the anoyances that come with a cold, I hope that this will help prepare us for the fall and that our immune systems will be up to making it through the winter without any major breakdowns.

Cute Little Boys

Click on this link to see some pictures of some cute little boys playing together: Curried Cupcakes: Boys Will Be Boys.

Chocolate Chip Orange Cookies

I wanted to make cookies on Sunday, but halfway through I discovered that I didn't have any vanilla, so I came up with this yummy cookie variation:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp orange flavoring
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in the eggs and orange flavoring. Mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add chocolate chips. Place spoonfuls of cookie dough onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly brown. Cool slightly on cookie sheet then transfer to cooling rack.