Scrumptious Buttermilk (and Cinnamon) Rolls

One sleepy afternoon, both my kiddos decided to take a long summer's nap. I took advantage of this opportunity by making delicious buttermilk rolls. I don't mind making rolls with them, but these rolls were going to be given to people, so I wanted to make sure they were perfect.
This is the recipe my mom taught me growing up, and making it has become second nature. I always make a double batch and store some in the freezer. It makes dinner time easier-we just cook up some fish or chicken with a veggie, fruit, and a homemade roll- easy peasy lemon squeezy.
The recipe is at the end of this post, but this picture is what the dough should look like after it has "glutenized." It should just pull like taffy. I had a video of how to make the perfect roll, but it wouldn't load. sniff. However, I made rolls a few days later with the kids and they just kinda plopped the rolls on the pan...they looked and tasted practically the same!
Here the pretty ladies are, all ready to rise under a dish towel (to keep them from drying out).

As mentioned, a few days later the children wanted to help me make cinnamon rolls. I used the same recipe, but I divided it into three big balls. One of the thirds I made into buttermilk rolls again and the other two balls turned into cinnamon rolls. So, very patiently, I let JoJo and Jeepers take turns rolling out the dough into a large rectangle. Then, JoJo brushed on 1/2 a cube of melted butter (making sure not to get butter on the far right edge). Jeepers sprinkled the white sugar and cinnamon all over the dough (ideally this would be an even layer, but he's learning).

We rolled the dough and pinched the end closed (which why it has to be butter-free).

I was always taught that the simplest way to cut cinnamon rolls was with a string, and I have to say, if my kids can do it, then it's pretty fool proof. Just shimmy the string under the roll- about an inch from the end- then overlap the string at the top, keep pulling, and the string will just cut right through...success!

Here are the rolls, almost risen and ready to bake...

The end result is just so amazingly delicious. You will never find anything at the store- or even a bakery- that compares to these savory little morsels. What's better than this?...

Well, a cinnamon roll version of it, covered in cream cheese frosting, of course!

I wonder why I wasn't hungry this whole day? Oh yeah, because I ate myself silly with cinnamon rolls!

Buttermilk Rolls

• 1 cube butter


• 2 cups buttermilk


• 3/4 c. sugar


• 1/2 c. ice water


• 2 eggs


• 2 T. instant yeast


• 7 cups flour


• 1 T. baking powder


• 1 t. salt


• 1 t. baking soda


• Bring butter, buttermilk, and sugar to boil. Put in mixer, add water, mix. Mix in eggs. Gradually mix in flour (start with 3 cups flour with 2 wells for yeast). Mix in remaining ingredients. Knead for 5 minutes or so until stretchy- do the gluten test. Let rise in mixer for 15 min. Form rolls. Rise on greased pan for 30 min or until ready to bake. Bake for 12 min @375.

Peachy Keen!

Two weeks ago, our family visited Schnepf farm, an actual farm, for their Peach Festival. Like many farms, they have tractor rides, a petting zoo, and play area. We took a little train ride to tour the entire farm. But the highlight of this farm was the pick-your-own area. A large field full of onions, lettuce, and other veggies, as well as acres of fruit orchards, await the public to pick as much as they please (for a price, of course).

We just stuck to the peaches today since they're in season- apricots are also in season, but we have a bunch coming off of our tree at home. Look at those beauties! Nature never ceases to amaze and impress me. It's just so beautiful and tasty and so good for you too! Brings a tear to my eye.

Here's Hubbies, the self-proclaimed Peach Picking Expert.
This may be Jeepers first time biting into an actual peach right off the tree. There's just nothing like it. Look at his eyes popping out of his head like, "Whoa, that's intense yumminess!"

We filled up a box of peaches for a little over $20 ( I think?). The unrelenting sun cut our trip a little short, but we were happy to bring our juicy treasures home.

I fully intended on bottling our jewels, but we began eating them so quickly that there just weren't enough left. When the Utah peaches get shipped to Arizona, I'll do some major peach bottling sessions with my mom (usually in August).

We did manage to make a delicious peach crisp/peach cobbler- not sure the difference...

Using fresh peaches was a little more work, but was worth it!
I tried teaching the kiddos how to peel the peaches. In a perfect world, the skin of the peach will just peel right off. This process was taking too long for their impatient tummies and they were gobbling up the peaches faster than I could cut them!

So, I just started leaving the skins on and it ended up tasted just fine. We filled up a 9X13 with a nice thick layer of fresh peaches.

I sprinkled the peaches with brown sugar and Jeepers lightly dusted them with cinnamon (a little uneven, but we are the only ones eating it).

We made the crumbly top (recipe below). JoJo helped cutting in the butter, but after a little while, we just needed to get in there with our fingers. So, Jeepers helped me mash all that butter and flour together. It was almost as fun as Play-Dough!

And the verdict...Sorry Mom, can't smile now. Too busy eating Fresh Peach Crisp...

Peach Crisp Recipe- Suburbia Farm version

Preheat oven to 350

5 large peaches sliced (peels optional)- layer in a 9X13 pan

Sprinkle the top with brown sugar and cinnamon

In a large bowl, mix 2 cups flour, 1 cup oats, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and 1 pinch of salt. Cut in 1 cup of chilled butter (finger mashing might be required).

Sprinkle crumb mixture over the peaches.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown on top.

Enjoy!

The Food Cannery

As part of our family's efforts in provident living and self-sufficiency, we stock up on food when we can. Many times we buy canned goods on sale. Other times we bottle, juice, or otherwise preserve food in it's peak of freshness. This time, it meant a visit to the food cannery for some heavy duty food storage. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints harvests, stores, and distributes all kinds of dry and wet food for people all over the world (usually members of the church, but they don't have to be) to build up their supply of food in their own homes. Having a year's supply of food is usually the recommended goal. I know you are thinking- That's a lot of food!- and you'd be right, it is.
So, on this day I visited the cannery closest to me in Arizona. Check out those huge silos behind me! There's ten of them there and they are all filled with wheat!...and you know how much I love wheat! When we lived in Philadelphia, we visited the cannery in Southern New Jersey a few times, but it was nothing like this!


This is the dried foods warehouse. It's filled with rice, oats, flour, wheat, dried apples, dried onion, dry milk, and more. The first step is to get your clipboard and figure out what you are going to can that day. This is my mom and Aunt Julie trying to do all their figuring- no time for smiles, this is serious business.

Now that we have all our food to can, we get all dressed up with our fancy hairnets (they're making a come back), latex gloves, and plastic apron. Lovely! Here's my Uncle Greg and my Mom distributing milk into the cans. If you open a 50lb. bag of milk you have to can all of it, even if you're only buying one can. After it's in the can, each can gets a freshness packet and a lid and gets sent over to me at that huge machine to seal the lid. (Surprisingly, I didn't hurt myself or the machine.) Each can gets a label with today's date so we know what's in there and when it's about to expire. Bye bye milk! See you in 15 years!

If stored properly, much of this food will last over 30 years in these cans and still be in perfect eating condition! So, here we are with our stock pile of food that we are going home with that day. I don't know why Uncle Greg is so excited about that bag of beans...Maybe because it's the magical fruit? (haha) All the other food that we canned but didn't buy goes out on the shelves for someone else to buy.

After I bought my canned goods, I'm off to home to try and find room for all of it...which means cleaning out the pantry- ugh! Here's some of what I have so far. It's not even close to a year's supply, but little by little and we'll get there.

I take pleasure in knowing that if we weren't able to buy food due to a food shortage or job loss or a natural disaster or any other reason, that I would be able to provide food for my family of four. It's not enough to have this food, but to know what to do with it once we have it. Which is why we regularly grind wheat- and make bread, grow fruit- juice and freeze it, go fishing- eat what we catch, find recipes that use our dry milk and potatoes- get our kids used to the taste...so that we are less reliant on the world's economy and more reliant on ourselves. And to teach our children the importance of it all so they can teach their children someday.

And speaking of recipes using food home storage- stay tuned for a recipe for melt-in-your-mouth Wheat Oat Pancakes! Yum!!

The Egg Peddler

Having this chicken coop has provided us with some fun laughs and great family time. It also is a great way to give little ones a chore or responsibility. JoJo's chore is to gather up the eggs, wash them off, and put them in the refrigerator. Here she is at the nesting boxes that are outside of the coop (facing inward so the chickens can lay, obviously). JoJo pulls down the door and checks each box for eggs.

By about 2:30 in the afternoon, all the chickens are done laying for the day. Regardless if she is busy or has friends over, she goes out and checks that coop. This has also been a great tool for Jeepers. He'll go out with his sister and learn how to count the eggs (he's great at counting to 8 because that's how many we usually get). It's also a wonderful lesson for him in being gentle-which is great for a 2 year old boy that destroys everything in his path!

Then, JoJo takes the eggs into the bathroom and very carefully washes them and inspects each one- noticing which are speckled, which are bigger, which are very light in color, etc. She gives me a report on all the eggs as I help her put them in the fridge.

And now here comes her reward...We eat the eggs, we even give some away, but about twice a month we find ourselves with a surplus of eggs (about 3 dozen). JoJo and I carefully load up her basket full of eggs and she becomes- The Egg Peddler!

I help her go door to door selling eggs to the neighborhood. She is learning so much by this! Manners, confidence, MATH! I'm also able to teach her about paying tithing (10% gets paid to the church) and she is learning how much things cost and how to save money for something she wants. We went to a farm yesterday and she wanted a pony ride. I told her that would cost 25 eggs! She gave me a face like- "that is not worth it!"

Knock, Knock- Who's there- Um, the cutest girl in America selling fresh chicken eggs...

How could you say no to that face?

You Won't Believe What's for Dinner

Here in the Arizona desert, we have a brilliant canal system which allows us to store and distribute water to residents all year long. Our house just happens to back up to the canal -see the picture below...our yard, our fence, canal jogging path, the canal.

Hubby came home from work one day and, with JoJo, jumped the fence and dropped in a line to see what would happen. I thought he would only get some nasty catfish or maybe a rotten boot full of weeds. After only a few minutes, they already had reeled in two large mouth bass! They were so excited. Then JoJo was taught how to hold a fish properly by the mouth.

Daddy decided that one of the fish was too small so JoJo threw it back, but she was determined to keep the larger one and eat it for dinner!

We took it inside and washed it off...

The fish held still just long enough for this picture, then flopped onto the kitchen floor.
Here's the video of the filleting and the excited kiddos anxious to try some fish. It would be nice to have a fillet knife, but we made do. Hubbies kept trying to "brain" the fish by hitting it behind the head with a knife, so that it would be paralyzed, but it still put up a good fight. This video may be a little graphic, so if you get grossed out easily, just skip down to the picture below, but you'll miss the best part when JoJo says, "There's the Blood!". I think Hubby and I are so quiet in this video because we feel like he is performing surgery or something.


Now this lovely picture is of JoJo bringing the fish carcass out to the chickens. When we opened the door to the coop all the chickens got out and the kiddos helped me gather them up to put them back! Ha,ha- I love that picture of Jeepers holding the chicken!

Then, back inside for dinner. Hubbies and I were going out for dinner, which was great because this little fishy had just enough meat to feed the kiddos. For more on cooking fish, see my post Here Fishy, Fishy.

Put it with some fruit, veggies, and a slice of wheat bread made earlier and we have a pretty cheap, easy, and healthy dinner.

And the verdict...they both liked it! JoJo won't eat beans or broccoli, but a fish right out of the canal- no problem!

The fish was actually very flavorful and couldn't have been more fresh. We've thought of getting a pond in our yard filled with Tilapia, and I love that idea! But for now, why bother when there's a canal of bass just behind our fence?