Sweet Potato Knot Rolls

These are just delicious and so much fun to make! They are worth the trouble...light, moist and they go great with anything. I think they would be pretty for Easter Sunday.

I made them to go with some soup the other night, and were yummy warmed as a snack with honey :)

Despite their name, you can't taste the sweet potato. It just adds a fabulous texture and keeps the rolls from being dry. Also, there is something so satisfying about making bread from scratch. Nothing beats fresh bread from your own oven!

On another note, I put the dough together in the bowl of my Kitchen Aid mixer using the dough hook to add in the flour and knead it. It comes together in a snap without getting your hands dirty. Get out those dough hooks girls!

( recipe compliments of Cooking Light)

Sweet Potato Knot Rolls

1 package dry yeast

1 cup warm milk

1 can sweet potatoes, mashed

3 T butter melted, divided

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

5 cups bread flour, divided

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 F

Dissolve yeast in milk in large bowl, let stand 5 minutes.

Add sweet potatoes, 1 T butter, salt, and egg yolks stirring with a whisk.

Add 4 1/2 cups flour, stir until soft dough forms.

Turn dough onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Add enough of remaining flour to prevent dough from sticking to hands. ( dough will feel very soft and tacky)

Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat. Cover and let rise in a warm place free from drafts, 45 minutes or until dough is doubled in size. Gently press 2 fingers into dough, if indentation remains, dough has risen enough. Punch dough down. Cover and let rest 5 minutes.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide dough into 24 equal portions. Shape each portion into a 9 in. rope and shape into a knot, tucking top end under the roll, placing rolls on prepared sheets. Lightly coat rolls with cooking spray, cover and let rise 30 min. or until doubled in size.

Uncover and bake 11-15 minutes until rolls are golden and sound hollow when tapped.

Remove rolls from pans to wire racks and brush rolls with remaining melted butter.

Serve warm

Langers Pastrami

You gotta check this place out!

Andrew has gone here for a couple lunch meetings and their pastrami sandwich gets a lot of press...so I asked him to bring me home one and it was amazing! I mean really really good...super tender flavorful meat, awesome bread with a crispy crust ( best Rye i've tasted!) basically a perfect sandwich, and it's huge.

If you are ever near downtown LA go to Langers!

Red Stamp Fun

my mom in law introduced me to the fun app- Red Stamp. It lets you create fun things with pics, cards or whatever. I made myself a little motivational message for the fridge from a post from my friends blog

and then a little note about my boys...try it!

More Shaver Pics

We had a great time with our dear friends Kevin and Ayemi, but it was too short!

What great looking youth pastors, don't you think? :)

Weston and Gabe enjoyed bouncing around the "snow house" and Gabe even got his first bloody nose falling down the steps which were a no- no...this kid learns the hard way. Caught him in action here

One of the days was pretty chilly and wet, so we stayed inside most of the time, but Weston loved playing with the moon sand (kinda like play-do and sand mixed together) that Nanni brought him. He loves the stuff!

Then we got to go take a look at the Lake that is currently empty! Kinda cool though. I guess there was an old town that was covered up over 100 years ago at the bottom and a building has been preserved all this time.

The last night of our stay, it snowed all night! So we woke up to beautiful winter wonderland...and everything covered in snow which required chains down the mountain. Thankfully Kevin's awesome dad came to our rescue and drove an hour to bring us chains so we could come home :) yay!

forgot the poor little stroller was outside

Sous Chef

My little guy loves to be in the kitchen with me & I love that! I hope to teach him young how to cook ...here he's stirring up a veggie hash to go with our awesome all-beef & nitrate free dogs from Trader Joes! My new fav hot dogs. Love my little sous chef!

Sweet LOVE

What a fun day to celebrate those you love in your life today- & today we are celebrating these two little lovies!

They are just precious in their growing brotherly love for each other...they love being around each other now, wrestling ( yes, already!), playing, sharing, fighting, kissing, hugging and giggling!

We are having a "pink" party today, as Weston calls it, here at home since we just got back last night from Shaver. We have a few little presents and yummy treats to delight us through the day. Daddy requested a quiet night at home together...perfect!

This morning we started the day off right with a waffle cake! recipe and pics below.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Waffle Cake

Prepare 3 large waffles using your favorite waffle mix, making one batch.

Add in 1/4 cup strawberry jam and 2 tsp. red food coloring to the batter for the fun color!

Combine together 1/4 cup strawberry jam and 1/4 cup maple syrup and heat until runny. ( i did this in the microwave) Set aside.

Make the waffles.

Layer your cake by drizzling the first waffle with the jam/syrup mixture, topping with a few marshmallows and whipped cream , repeat with the next two waffles and you are done! Sprinkle top with red sprinkles and serve with more syrup if desired ( of course!)

Enjoy

Shaver Lake

We are enjoying our last night in Shaver Lake- Andrew preached for a highschool winter retreat this weekend for River Park Bible Church. And they spoiled us by getting us this "cabin" for the weekend! It has been nice spending time with our busy Daddy as we head into a season full of things to do and accomplish. From now until August, life is picking up to a dizzying speed for us & we would appreciate any prayers for our focus to stay on Christ in it all- since it's all for Him!

Big Boy Bed

We decided it was time to move Weston to a toddler bed- not because he seemed ready, but because his little brother is such a little stinker and has gotten too squirmy for the mini crib he was in. Gabe has been bouncing and rolling around, grabbing things out of the outlet in the wall and throwing everything out during his naps...he's just a crazy sleeper! It's so funny how different the boys sleep. Weston gets in bed and sleeps hard and wakes up often in the same position. But dear little Gabe takes 30-45 minutes to fall asleep and seems to do somersaults in his sleep! So I converted Gabe's crib to a toddler bed for Weston and Gabe is now in Weston's much larger and more secure crib.

It is going so much better than I thought it would! Weston was a little upset when I started to move things around, but as you can see in the pic, by the end of the day he was pretty excited about his big boy bed. And he is sleeping just as well as he was in his crib...such a big boy

Front Yard Picnic

Last week I was running out of ideas to keep my sick boys from going crazy at home, so a front yard picnic was just the thing! They loved it and the weather was gorgeous. We all felt a little better after our little "outing" :)

Hoisin BBQ Chicken

I tweaked a recipe from Cooking Light and got this recipe that comes together quickly and has lots of flavor for an easy weeknight meal!

Hoisin BBQ Chicken

1 1/3 cups hoisin sauce

6 T rice vinegar

6 T soy sauce

6 T ketchup

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 T minced garlic

1 T minced fresh ginger

1 cup crushed pineapple

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

about 4 lbs chicken breast cut into pieces and pounded flat to even thickness

Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl. Remove half of the mixture and set aside in fridge. Place chicken breast in the large bowl with BBQ sauce and cover to marinate for 2-6 hours in fridge.

Heat a grill pan to med/high heat or grill outside. Grill chicken about 2-4 min each side or until done, basting with reserved sauce. Place chicken in a serving dish. Bring any remaining sauce to boil in a small saucepan until slightly thick, about 5 min. Pour sauce over cooked chicken and sprinkle chopped peanuts over top.