Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! 

4/21/19

What a glorious morning to behold in central Wisconsin! The minute we arrived back from early church we threw up the shades and opened all the windows! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and we are both writing on our blogs at the dining table now in shorts, t-shirts and SANDALS! Yep, I wore mine to church just as I promised I would! I was very happy to see many other women did also! 

Mr. Quilter Cook and I are celebrating quietly today after our big road trip yesterday. We even ducked out of church before the Easter potluck breakfast. Instead, we feasted on some of the best cinnamon rolls I have ever baked!

What's so special about these cinnamon rolls you ask? I believe it has something to do with how you prepare this dough. Frankly, it's very different from any other kind of dough I've ever made before. It requires no eggs. I was dubious, but wow! Fabulous! 

 I found the recipe for these cinnamon rolls in The Pioneer Woman Cooks-Recipes From An Accidental Country Girl cookbook pp. 36-39. I'd highly suggest you go out and buy yourself a copy of this cookbook. They have them stacked up and ready for sale at Walmart and Sam's Club. I suppose just about anywhere else that sells cookbooks carries them also, but you'll find them the cheapest at Walmart/Sam's Club. This was the first of Ree Drummond's five cookbooks. All are simply delightful. If you watch her show The Pioneer Woman on the Food Network, you'll see many of the recipes featured from her series. (See recipe for the cinnamon rolls on the Favorite Recipes page on right hand side of Home page.) 

I came up with this grand plan to deliver freshly-baked hot cross buns to my friends and neighbors on Good Friday. (There's a recipe for the hot cross buns in The Pioneer Woman Cooks-A Year Of Holidays pp. 89-92,) Then I took into consideration that I was starting late on this baking project and quickly changed my mind to baking the cinnamon rolls instead as a present for Mr. Quilter Cook. They were so simple. This will now be my go-to for anything requiring a basic dough base. Five stars! 

I didn't forget the idea of delivering a handmade gift to the neighbors. I baked up a batch of Quilter Cook Sugar Cookies, cut the dough into bunny, flower and egg shapes and gave them away  tucked into Easter baskets early this morning. In truth, it was Mr. Quilter Cook who hopped from house to house while I was in the shower. I delivered the one to church to our pastor's family while he parked the car before early service.  

So, with all of that done we are now looking forward to a day of just relaxing. We'll have our oldest son home each of the next two weekends and are going to spend the Memorial Day holiday with our youngest son and his wife so we are all doing our own thing.  After many years of preparing huge ham dinners, dying eggs and baking my signature lamb cake for dessert-I'm fine taking a break this year. I sent out Starbucks and Barnes and Noble gift cards earlier in the week to the extended family so the Easter Bunny had them all covered.

During the day today, I'll be  working on some new pages for the blog. One will list my favorite cookbooks and another my favorite reads. I'll just keep adding to them so don't think if I only have three authors listed that's all I've read for Heaven's sake. I'm a voracious bookworm. I read at least 50-60  books a year. It's hard to pick my favorites off the top of my head. 

The cookbook list will be easy. All 200 plus books are handy on my kitchen counter or lined up on my special holiday bookshelf in the basement!

Enjoy a very blessed Easter Day! 

Rhonda