A Little Pink Fairytale Cottage...and Mom's Amazing Dinner Rolls!

Good evening, all! Wondered if I'd ever get here tonight! It's been a crazy day, and we're not done yet! I think we're all in that mode this week--those of us in the States, anyway! Thanksgiving's not such a big deal elsewhere, is it?!

I don't have too much to show you tonight, but I love what I've got for you!

I have a favorite Mother/Daughter blog--they both write and share their crafting ideas, love vintage, and are so sweet and kind--they've become dear blogging friends of mine...Twyla and Lindsey are the keepers of Two Crazy Crafters, and their blog is just a delight to visit!

When you go and see them, take a peek at their beautiful header--it really jumped out at me the first time I visited, and the little pink cottage on the right just melted my heart! That's where I want to live when I grow up!

I finally got bold and asked if they would mind sharing the image with me so I could do something with it, and they every so graciously said yes! Don't you just love the generosity of creative women in this beautiful blog world???!!! So, here's what I did this morning:

I had so much fun with this! I printed out a few copies, because this little cottage WANTED to be dimensional--nothing I could do about it! The sweet, old image is so unique due to all the pink highlighting, on the clouds, the house, the grass, etc., and I just wanted to keep the feeling the same...it's just so charming! So, I used pink German glass glitter just about everywhere the image had the pink, and I really like the way it turned out! A little silver shavings glitter around the edge of the image, some lace, ribbons and buttons, and that's it!

Here's a bit closer up to see the dimension...

Isn't this the sweetest little cottage?! Thank-you, Twyla and Lindsey! You're the best!

Now, something good for the belly! My Mom is famous for her dinner rolls--and especially her cinnamon rolls! This recipe was given to her at the time of her marriage by a family friend, Ida Steele. Mom's used it for just about every occasion since then, and can even tell you the recipe by heart! It's requested for church socials, Christmas morning breakfast, weddings, just about anything!

Mom has changed it up just a bit over the years to make it easier to make, but just as delicious as the original! I'm grateful for that, as bread making is not my real strength in the kitchen!

I made a quadruple batch today...needed some rolls for dinner tonight, and the dough will stay just fine in the fridge for a few days, so I'll use the rest Thanksgiving morning for some beautiful crescent rolls!

Tonight, however, being in a bit of a hurry, I nipped off a bunch of dough and made some very quick cloverleaf rolls--not quite as elegant as crescents, but every bit as delicious!

Yum! Hot and flaky straight from the oven...!

Here's the recipe: This is the quadrupled recipe--it will make a lot, but since you can keep the dough for days, just think of all the great things you can do with it!

Mom's Dinner Rolls

In good-sized bowl, put 1/2 cup very hot tap water--add 4 Tbsp. yeast--mix gently to make sure all yeast is wet.

In large microwave-safe bowl, heat 4 cups milk for 9 minutes.

While milk is warming, in another bowl, put:

3 sticks butter, sliced

1 cup sugar

4 tsp. salt

Pour hot milk over these ingredients and stir until butter is completely melted. Let cool slightly...meanwhile, in a small bowl:

4 eggs, lightly beaten with fork--add to milk mixture when it's cooled down a bit--don't want to cook the eggs!

Finally, add 14--yep! 14 heaping cups of flour--2 at a time, and mix well--my mixer isn't big enough for all this, so I just do it the old-fashioned way--with my hands!

Keep mixing until dough is well-combined. It should be slightly sticky, but still easy to handle. Refrigerate at this point, or if you're going to use some right away, take some out to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes, then form in the desired way, and let rise 1 hour. Then bake in a 425 degree oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden on top. Give the rolls a nice brush with some melted butter, and enjoy!

I also made a big pot of thick and delicious split pea soup for dinner--oh, so good! I won't post the recipe here, because I just used the recipe on the bag of peas--easy peasy--literally! The only thing I changed, was instead of adding ham, I cooked up 1 1/2 pounds of bacon and broke it up, then added it to the soup--delicious! So just grab your favorite bag of dry peas, and cook some up!

Just a good old home-cookin' meal!

Hope you enjoy the rolls--try them as cinnamon rolls, too--a great day after Thanksgiving breakfast! Have a wonderful night...sweet dreams!