Scattered Sundays

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Merry merry Christmas to those who celebrate! And for those who don’t, may your Sunday morning be filled with cozy jammies, delicious food, and joyful people.

We are at home this morning with my inlaws to open some gifts, eat cinnamon rolls, and celebrate the incredible gift of this day. This afternoon we are headed to Troy’s cousin’s house for dinner and more gifts with extended family.

I’m bringing rolls (it’s this recipe but the dough is rolled into small rounds and baked for ~20 minutes), salad, and Sage Sausage Stuffing. I very much enjoy cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner, and I also very much enjoy being a passive participant at other large meals.

This was the last week of school before break, and the one thing I did not want to happen was to have a single snow day this week. So, naturally, we had two. Oooph!

All my “get things done before the boys start break” list went straight to hell. All the presents were not wrapped, despite the boys constantly badgering me with “when will the presents be under the tree”.

At least Jack had a moment of realization on Tuesday afternoon when he said “you can’t put the presents under the tree because you can’t wrap them with us here, right”. And I told him that was correct.

He “graciously” offered to take Bennett downstairs for an hour so that I could wrap. And I laughed and laughed and said it takes much longer than an hour to wrap gifts.

I’m trying to raise my male children to be fully-aware future parents and partners and I think Jack was a bit taken aback by the amount of work that it takes to make holiday magic “happen”.

We had planned to ship the boys off to my inlaws for one day during the week, but per usual, Bennett started to get snarfy early in the week. The law of averages is that anytime we make plans, Bennett gets one of his episodes.

But, we watched and waited, and nothing actually developed with him. He was snarfy in the mornings and then fine all day. And unlike his normal super high fevers, his temp remained the same. We gave him a ‘rona test and then shipped their butts off to grammy and grampy’s house.

With them gone, presents did finally get wrapped. And because I’m a terrible wrapper, I used our cloth fabric bags. The actual wrapping process isn’t hard…it’s figuring out where all the presents are hidden around the house and then organizing them in one space that takes so much time.

I had planned to make cinnamon rolls for staff and a few teachers at Bennett’s school early in the week. In looking at the forecast for snow, and knowing that schools close at the drop of a hat around here, I busted my butt to get everything made and delivered by the end of school on Monday.

This was my most ambitious cinnamon roll-making extravaganza to date, and I definitely got over my skis with this one. There were a few hiccups that made the process take much longer than expected, but I rallied.

Our local restaurant supply store stopped carrying the disposable pans I always use for gifting cinnamon rolls. So I was forced to order some and didn’t realize until I went to use them…that they smelled horrible! They had a weird tinny smell to them that I have never experienced with other pans.

Nervous that they would ruin all the cinnamon rolls I was busting my butt to make, I soaked them in hot soapy water and then “cooked” the empty pans in a hot oven for 10 minutes. It did get rid of the smell but added a bunch of work that I wasn’t expecting.

I have a standard-sized kitchen aid mixer and was able to make two batches in the mixer at a time. This saved me a lot of work, as I ended up needing six total batches of rolls.

After starting the first batch, I transferred the dough to a bowl, put a hot damp towel on the top, and then placed it over our heating vent. Yes, if you come to my house and are enjoying a yeasted dough, chances are it was on the floor by a heating vent. Just go with it. 🙂

It was so cold outside and even with the furnace going, the dough wasn’t rising at all. I was freaking out because the idea that I had wasted that much butter, flour, and eggs was pretty devastating.

I thought perhaps the milk was too hot and killed the yeast, but then remembered I could proof the dough in the Instant Pot. I put the dough in the Instant Pot, plopped the glass lid on it, put it on the yogurt setting, and then prayed. And…it worked! So well.

Even after making a giant batch of brown sugar the day before, I ended up needing to make more the day of. Which is fine. Brown sugar is super simple to make, but again, it was just one more thing I wasn’t expecting to have to do.

The good news is, the powdered sugar I made the day before for the frosting was more than enough, and I didn’t have to make any more on the fly. The frosting turned out beautifully and had just enough orange zest to make it extra interesting.

I gift people the cinnamon rolls unbaked so that they can bake them within 48 hours or freeze them for later. Not baking them ahead of time also makes the process of mass-cinnamon roll production much more streamlined.

We have to leave the house around 3 to get in the pickup line at Bennett’s school. I finished boxing up the last batch and cleaning the kitchen at 2:46 pm. Phew! I was beat and nothing else I wanted to do that day got done, but I made the deadline.

I rolled up to school like Santa with a giant bag of cinnamon rolls and handed them out in the office. I gift them to the amazing office staff, B’s teacher (and his beloved kinder teacher from last year), the specialists (PE, music, library), our custodians, the school nurse, paras who help out in first grade, the principal, counselor, and the other amazing support staff we’re blessed to have at our school.

My rush was not for nothing as school was indeed closed for the next two days due to snow and ice. I can only hope people took them home that night as I encouraged them to do. His beloved kinder teacher messaged me the sweetest note on Wednesday that they were enjoying them that morning.

Sadly, the one thing I forgot was to make sure Jack took his teacher gifts to school that morning. Middle school and high school teachers seem to be forgotten for the gift-giving holidays, so fingers crossed they still enjoy their gift cards to a local coffee stand in January 2023.

The snow, ice, and low temps this week made me so very thankful for our woodstove. I’m always the first one awake in the house and I would quietly start a fire and get the house so cozy by the time others stumbled out of bed. There is nothing like a fire on a cold morning.

Our stove is so efficient that we can heat the entire upstairs of the house with ~1 log per hour. If we burn all day, by the evening, we’re cracking a few windows to cool the place down. It’s the absolute best.

I was even more thankful for the stove on Thursday morning when we realized that our furnace which was well beyond in need of servicing…stopped working. You know, on the coldest day of the year.

The roads were sheer ice and the idea of making an HVAC person come out to fix it was too scary to consider. We’re so fortunate to be able to have a secondary source of heat.

Even with the snow and ice, I was still able to get out each day (except for ice rink Thursday) for a walk. Sure, it took a lot longer to go my normal distance because I was trying to not slip and die. But my snowboots are fantastic and my Carhartt mittens kept my ice-cold fingers as warm as possible.

During large snow storms, our hill usually takes 4-8 days to see a snow plow. With the accumulation being light this time, the plow came up the first afternoon that it snowed.

There is no way to get out of my neighborhood that doesn’t involve going up or down an extremely steep hill. I noticed that the snow plow left a bunch of slush at the bottom of our hill and I figured it would probably turn into a (cold) hot mess overnight.

I love shoveling snow (probably because I only have to do it a few times a year), so I happily scraped all the remaining snow and slush off the bottom 100 feet of our steep hill. The next morning on my walk through the neighborhood, I saw cars trying (and failing) to not slide at the bottom of their hills. Ours? Well, it was bone dry. You’re welcome, neighbors!

A friend moved from Iowa to Seattle this summer and she messaged me during the first snow “event” that she finally understood the tricky combo of ice and hills. 🙂 You can be super used to driving in snow, but if everything is flat, you get a chance to exercise some new skills navigating steep inclines.

READER SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK

So many comments have been coming in this week, and let me say thank you so much for taking the time to leave a note and a starred review.

Bloggers are small businesses and our overlord, Sir Google, loves those stars and reviews. It’s a totally free way to support food blogs, which spend enormous sums of money to…give you free content.

I’m going to share one that I received thru my DMs on Instagram about our Overnight Cinnamon Rolls because it absolutely made my day. I woke up grumpy because school was closed due to snow, and this message was one of the first things I read. It completely changed the trajectory of my day.

A long-time reader J (she didn’t post this on the blog so I’m leaving her full name out) told me: These were SPECIFICALLY requested for Christmas day lunch by my father-in-law. He was a tough cookie to crack but the day he ate these, I swear, was the day he started hugging me hello and goodbye. Doesn’t hug anyone else.

I’m not crying, you’re crying!!!!

ON SUSTAINABLE COOKS THIS WEEK

Onion Pizza – This incredible Onion Pizza is simple, delicious, and so comforting. Sweet caramelized onions, fresh thyme, and cheese come together in a delicious and simple homemade vegetarian pizza recipe. {Pin this recipe}

Air Fryer Ravioli – Crispy and packed with flavor, these Air Fryer Ravioli are a fun and poppable treat! Perfect as a quick appetizer or a healthy game-day snack, toasted ravioli is sure to become a crowd favorite. {Pin this recipe}

Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts – These Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts are absolutely delicious. Perfectly caramelized in the air fryer, these roasted and crispy brussels sprouts are ready in under 10 minutes. {Pin this recipe}