Pictures and Recipes from the RS Birthday Party

Time to post a few pictures and recipes from the Birthday Party.  It was a small group, but we all had fun.  The food was delicious!

The company was great!

The games were fun!

And we shared memories of our grandmothers.

 Pretty things....

AND NOW, FOR THE RECIPES...
(If anyone else who made food for the Birthday party wants to get recipes to me, I'll add them to the blog!)

CINNAMON ROLLS (Linda B)
3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

Mix 2 cups of the flour and yeast.  Heat and stir milk, sugar, shortening, and salt till warm.  Add to flour mixture; add eggs.  Beat at low speed for 1/2 minute.  Beat 3 minutes at high speed.  Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can mix in with a spoon.  Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough.  Knead till smooth (6-9 minutes).  Shape into ball.  Place in greased bowl. turn.  Cover; let rise till double (45 to 60 minutes.) Punch down, divide in half.  Cover; let rest 10 minutes.  Roll each into a 12 X 8 inch rectangle.
Grease 9X13 cake pan or 2 9X1.2 inch round baking pans.  Brush rolled-out dough with melted butter.  Sprinkle with mixture of 2/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional), and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon.  Roll up, and slice into 12 pieces.  Place in pan, cover and let rise till double (about 30 minutes).  Bake at 375 for 18 to 20 minutes.

REGULAR CINNAMON ROLLS: Drizzle top of cinnamon rolls with frosting..

CREAMY CINNAMON ROLLS: Before you put them in the oven, pour 3/4 cup whipping cream over the cinnamon rolls in the pan.

CARAMEL-PECAN rolls: Combine 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 2 Tablespoons butter and 1 Tablespoon light corn syrup.  Cook and stir just till blended.  Sprinkle pan with 1/4 cup chopped pecans.  Pour carmel mixture in bottom of pan over pecans.  Place sliced dough on top of mixture.  Let rise till double (about 30 minutes).  Bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes.  Cool about 30 seconds.  Invert; remove from pans.

EASY CINNAMON ROLLS: I use the amounts in the recipe but put them in my bread maker.  I put the heated milk mixture in the bottom of the maker, the flour on top of that, eggs in the corner and the yeast in a hole on top of the flour so the yeast doesn't touch the eggs and set the maker on the dough cycle.  Easy and much faster and delicious.

AUNT RUTH'S BREAD RECIPE (Jewel B)
2 C warm milk
1 1/4 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
Mix these three ingredients and let sit until yeast bubbles.   Then add:
1 egg
1/4 C sugar
1/2 Tbsp salt
1/4 C oil
1 1/2 C flour

Begin mixing, adding in more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the bowl; I usually end up adding about 4 to 4 1/2 cups of flour total.
Once the dough has reached the right consistancy, continue kneading for about 8 minutes; then cover and allow to rise for 1 hour; after which, use it however you want--this recipe makes 2 loaves of bread or roughly 3 dozen rolls, and works well with either whole wheat or white flour.

CINNAMON ROLLS (Using Aunt Ruth's Bread Recipe)  (Jewel B)
Roll out one recipes' worth of "Aunt Ruth's Bread Recipe" -- it may be helpful to divide the dough into two parts before doing this -- to approximately 1/2 inch thick.  Spread with 1/4 C butter or margarine, and sprinkle generously with cinnamon-sugar mix*  (cinnamon-sugar should be noticeably covering all surfaces of dough)
Roll the dough lengthwise--cut into 1 1/2 inch-long sections with dental floss, place in greased baking pan, and bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.
While baking, melt 1/4 C butter, 1/4 C cream cheese, and 1/4 C milk; add 1 1/2 C powdered sugar (or more, to taste) and 1 tsp vanilla-- mix together until smooth, and pour directly over cinnamon rolls as soon as they are pulled from the oven.  Let cool and enjoy!
*Nuts or raisins can also be added here.

FRENCH BREAD (makes 2 loafs)  (Judy J)
1/2 C warm water
2 pkgs dry yeast
2 C hot water
3 T sugar
1 T salt
1/3 C melted shortening (have used olive oil)
6 1/2 C flour
Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Combine remaining ingredients slowly so that dough is well mixed.  Add yeast and mix well.  Knead until shiny and dough bounces back when pushed in.  Let rise until doubled (about 1 hour).  Divide into 6 equal size balls.  Roll into long snakes.  Braid 3 snakes together on a greased cookie sheet.  Spread with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Let rise until doubled.  Bake for 20 minutes at 375.  Brush with melted butter.
FOR PIZZA CRUST.  (It has even gone to Scout camp and can be used in the dutch oven.)
Mix dough and let raise for about 1/2 hour.  Roll out into a pizza pan or cookie sheets.  Bake about 10 minutes at 375-- this stops the dough from rising.  Add toppings and finish baking for about 10-15 minutes at 375.
BREAD STICKS  Mix dough and let raise until double.  Roll bread sticks about 6 inches long and one inch across.  Bake for 10-15 minutes at 375.  Brush with melted butter, or garlic butter and sesame seeds.