Thanksgiving – What a tradition!

Uno! Clue! Fire Pit! Smoked Brisket! Ribs! Lot’s of Family! Those are just a few of the family Thanksgiving traditions that we look forward to all year-long.

As a kid I grew up in a very small family. It was normally just my parents and myself. My brother was 11 years older than me so by the time I could really remember Thanksgiving he was off having Thanksgiving with his own family, so that just left the three of us, and to be quite honest I don’t remember any tried and true traditions.

With that being said, when my husband and I had our son we wanted memories. I am really big on memories and traditions, so we try to do as many things as we can.

At Halloween we carve a pumpkin, well actually, my husband and son carve the pumpkin and I admire the handy work. (I am not fond of the slimy seeds.) We also go to the insanely busy fall festival at our church, where we actually have fun amongst the throngs of people.

At Thanksgiving, we begin to smoke a brisket the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. While the brisket is roasting we sit around a fire pit until we can’t stand it any longer and then we go inside and play Uno or any other game that tickles my fancy. On Thanksgiving, my parents and my husband’s parents and brother come over for dinner. Normally his brother hangs out after everyone is gone and we watch movies, play games, pig out, etc… Thanksgiving is like the kick off of a football game… it is kicking off the Christmas holiday.

I would love to continue to tell you about our Christmas traditions, but I will leave that for another day when I have pictures to show. Now… I would love to hear what your traditions are?

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No Rolls?? Say It Isn’t So!

“What do you mean you aren’t bringing the rolls for Thanksgiving!” was my panicked statement when my mother-in-law said she thought someone else could do it this year.

I guess she didn’t realize my idea of rolls were the ones you got at the grocery store brushed with melted butter and baked for 8 minutes, not her fluffy-oh-so-good rolls that we all looked forward to the entire year. And, my mom? Well, I love the food my mom makes, but the last time she tried to make yeast rolls they turned out to be hockey pucks. Definitely, not what I wanted for Thanksgiving!

So… enter Yeast Roll challenge. If I am going to make the rolls, I am going to make the rolls. I do not want to purchase anything of a semblance of a roll at the store. I want the individual components that I can whip into a beautiful and delicious Clover Leaf roll. But first I have to learn how. I researched on-line and perused my Joy Of Cooking book to find the perfect (I hope) recipe.

Ingredients

Make sure you gather all of your ingredients before you begin. It will make your life a lot easier. And, READ your recipe in its entirety. This is not one of those things you can skim. If you do, you might miss the part where it says to only use enough flour to form the dough so it can be handled easily. If you miss this part you might come up with this.

I think there may be a tad more flour than needed. I wonder if it will effect how the rolls rise? Probably not. I am confident they will be light and fluffy.

I don’t think they are quite as light and fluffy as I would have liked. The good news is, I still have two days to perfect my rolls before Thanksgiving. I can tell you that regardless of their lack of fluff, they are still quite tasty. I will keep you updated on the adventures of baking rolls. While I am at it, I would like to clarify I am a great cook, but I don’t bake. Big difference!

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Welcome to Kitchen and Kids and Everything in Between

Thank you for visiting Kitchen and Kids, very soon you will begin to see many interesting posts generated from my kitchen. My kitchen is where I write, where I cook for clients, where I cook for my family, where my daughter plays, where my son does school, where my husband and I talk, and where I meet with friends for coffee. The kitchen is truly the heart of our home. Enjoy!!

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