Dinner Rolls for Thanksgiving

It was not easy, but we finally created the perfect dinner roll! There are no commercial bread products available that meet our dietary requirements (corn and dairy free), so we decided to create our own dinner rolls for the Thanksgiving table. Simple enough, we will take a basic recipe and plug in our substitutions and viola! we will have scrumptious dinner rolls that everyone will fawn over. NOT!
 I found a recipe for King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread online, so we decided to start there. They were horrible, but if we tweak this and that... Attempt two, was slightly less horrible. Finally, I dug out my old fashioned cookbook. This is the Pillsbury book and I absolutely love it. I always start online for something and realize that my Pillsbury book has what I just spent hours looking for and it was sitting on the shelf, just flip to the page and here we go.  Again, my Pillsbury proved true.  There is a recipe for Hawaiian Sweet Bread. Similar, but very different from the first recipe.  Well, Sarah and I race to the kitchen to start.  The rolls worked better, but were still not right. Now they are too plain, need a little kick, plus the dough is way too sticky.  Now it is time to get creative.  We start pretending that we understand chemistry enough to figure out why did batch 4 not rise? Did we have too much salt and kill the yeast? Maybe the kitchen was too cold.  On and on we go until FINALLY! We had a viola! We now have the perfect recipe for rolls. A little sweet, a little wheat, soft yet firm, and very yummy! Quick, remember what we did? Oh, no, how do we repeat this success? We did get it written down and here it is... Our idea of a perfect dairy and corn free dinner roll!

Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup almond milk
2 T orange juice (at room temperature)
1/4 cup coconut butter
1/2 cup pineapple juice (room temperature)
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/3 cup mashed potatoes (or potato flakes)
2 cup bread flour
2 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
I used the bread machine on dough setting and then formed rolls.
Be sure to use parchment paper and to oil your hands, this dough is very sticky.
Preheat oven to 200 while shaping rolls. Turn off oven and place rolls in oven to rise, about 30 minutes, until doubled.
Remove from oven and preheat to 350, then return to oven for approximately 15 minutes.

Paper Clips

I guess my first post should explain my title.  Paper clips are one of the little things in life we take for granted, but they can make a big impact.We use them to stay organized: notes that belong together, bills with the payment, grocery list to the coupons, even marking our page in a book or calendar.  They can also be used in countless ways as makeshift tools: on a string to get the car keys out of the a/c register, as screwdriver or the end of one to fit in the tiny hole to re-boot electronic devices. Link them together to make jewlry, or the median for match box cars. The uses of paper clips are endless. I like to remember that the little things do matter, often more than we realize.


Paper clips took a special place in my heart, however, this winter when our middle child was attending Air Force Basic Military Instruction (The military can't be content to let us call it basic training anymore).  When he first arrived at basic he was, of course, homesick, scared and questioning his commitment to this career choice.  In an effort to help with his morale, I was sending notes every day. 
I remembered a time when he was a little boy of 4 or 5 and was having trouble keeping his room clean. Everyday, I would take away the toys that did not get put away.  Before long he had not a single toy in his room. I checked on him during nap time, certain he would be in bed as there was nothing left to play with in his room, I found him playing with a box of paper clips he found in his desk. Quite content and happy, he had a new toy and it was great, as good as the legos he was currently not allowed to play with. 
I recounted this story to my son in one of my letters and said, look for the paper clips at basic.  Find those little things that can brighten your day, and hold on to them.  After that, with every letter or card sent, I clipped a paper clip to the corner.  I also told any friends who were sending him notes to do the same.  By the end of basic he had a long chain of clips.  Each and every one of them was special because it said, "I love you! I know you can do this!"

This blog is to be my paper clips, a place to organize thoughts, store recipes, share stories, and remind myself of the good things I want to hang on to.