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A Yummy Experiment and Dress-Up Fun

Weekly Happenings: This past week, we were coming down from the high of Halloween and gearing up for the official holiday season (the stores were really helpful, since they have Christmas stuff up already). We didn’t really do too much out of the ordinary, to be honest. It’s going to get progressively busier the closer we get to the end of November and into December, so it’s nice to have down time.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been typical fall weather: cold mornings and warm afternoons, followed by mild evenings. We haven’t had any rain lately, but could really use some!

What Paul’s Been Up To: He was the only one in the office at work (everyone else was at a training). He’s also been asked to help with the camera for the recorded parts of church services that we broadcast to the church members who are more comfortable staying at home due to COVID.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I tried a new roll recipe! This was the “yummy experiment” I referred to in the title. It’s the first time I’ve ever actually kneaded dough by hand (well, I watched my mom plenty of times when I was little, but I don’t remember actually helping her do anything other than making my own little roll every once in a while). They turned out pretty good, but they were quite a bit denser than I expected. The recipe said to let the dough rise for an hour, then to form it into rolls and then let them rise again for 20-30 minutes…which I don’t think was long enough. I think I probably should have let them rise for forty-five minutes, or even an hour. Every other bread recipe I have says that both rising times need to be an hour. So, I think that the next time I make them, I’ll try letting then rise for longer for the second proofing and see what happens.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a great week at school and is excited for the upcoming holidays (especially since he gets a full week off for Thanksgiving and two full weeks for Christmas). He was also excited that we found him a costume for next Halloween already. Target was trying to get rid of their surplus costumes, so they had them for half off, which was great!

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She was also excited to get a couple of costumes from Target’s half-off sale. I got her a couple since she likes to play dress-up (I got them big enough that she can wear them right now for dress-up, but they’ll still fit her next Halloween).

This Week in Pictures:

After getting the dough all together…that silicone pastry mat in the background was a life-saver. My counter tops are slightly textured, so dough has a tendency to stick quite a bit. Having that nice, smooth surface to work on made it way easier. Plus, I was able to just kind of scrunch it up and bring it right to the trash to dispose of my extra flour, so that was nice, too.
Doubled in size after the first rising.
Portioned into rolls…
After the second rising (and brushed with honey butter). I can tell they’re bigger than they were in the first picture, but I don’t think they’re quite doubled in size. Next time, I’ll definitely let them rise for longer during the second proofing.
The finished product! The honey butter made them nice and golden on top…though, it looks like one side of my oven might be hotter than the other side, haha. Maybe next time, I need to flip the pan around halfway through the baking time. It’s all an experiment, really.
Costume number one (not the leggings…she just didn’t want to take them off)! She loves witches and bats and anything shimmery, so this one was a given.
She made a “magic potion” that she made me taste…then told me that it turned me into a frog. A little while later, she told me that since she was a nice witch, she would make another potion that would turn me back. 😀
Sporting my dad’s old hat. <3
She was about to point out that she could still see the moon when I snapped this picture. I just wanted to make sure I documented just how much she loves unicorns right now.
Costume number two! She likes that she has brown eyes and brown hair just like Belle.
I love multi-use kitchen items. These bowls are meant for batter, but I use them for so many other things: tonight, the little one is the perfect vessel for some fresh guacamole.
So…after I tucked away my spiderweb fabric with all the other Halloween stuff, I felt I needed something to break up the two different browns (the table and the charger). A trip to Target yielded the perfect solution: a fabric napkin! I really like how it breaks up the brown without drawing attention away from the focal pieces (my Harp Design Co. candlesticks).
All ready for church! She said she was pretending to be a giraffe and that Paul needed to take her picture, so he did. 😂