Homemade Refrigerator Rolls

My Mom makes some of the best rolls ever. I'm pretty sure that multiple people have participated in roll-eating contests at the dinner table to see who can eat the most rolls in one meal. When I would come home from college, I always looked forward to smelling and eating these rolls during our Sunday dinner. I adapted my Mom's recipe for my bread machine. Mom has an awesome bread mixer from "Tradio on the Radio" that can make at least eight loaves of bread at a time. My Bausch doesn't cut it. So I split the recipe in half and make it in the bread maker. I love to make these rolls and then put them in the fridge until I'm ready to cook them. Olivia, always the decorator, put Italian parsley on these ones and smeared them with melted butter prior to cooking.

Ingredients:

1 cup lukewarm milk

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening

3 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon yeast

Directions:

Put ingredients in bread maker according to manufacturer directions. Set to dough cycle. Grease 9 x 13 inch pan. When cycle ends, cut dough into 12 equal pieces and shape into round balls. Place in pan. Cover with tea towel and place in fridge until ready to cook. Take out of fridge and let rise for about 30 minutes. Or skip the fridge and cover and let rise for about 20 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

Sugar and Spice Pumpkin Seeds

If you have any pumpkins left in your Autumn decorations consider yourself lucky. I don't and so I have to fight off the temptation to snatch them from the neighbor's porch during the wee hours of the morning. I can honestly say I don't like toasted pumpkin seeds and so I actually tried to forget that Olivia requested to make them when we carved our jack-o-lanterns this year. But alas, she would not take no for an answer and that is how we came about with the best snack ever! Well, maybe the best. They are good. Good enough for me to scope out the neighborhood pumpkins.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds

5 tablespoons white sugar, divided

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

2 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Boil pumpkin seeds in salted water for 20 minutes. Spread out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Dry for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Toast seeds for about 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly golden.

Stir together 2 tablespoons of white sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pumpkin seeds and sprinkle with remaining 3 tablespoons sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar melts - about 45 seconds. Stir in sugar, salt, and spice mixture. Coat seeds evenly. Remove from heat and allow to cool before serving. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Pumpkin Spice Granola

At times granola is a staple breakfast food at our house. Luckily we all love it. This recipe has all of the best fall spices that make your house smell good. I also like that it doesn't have any oil like many other granola recipes. Olivia asked me if I could make it for her everyday. Um, no. It does have to cook for about an hour, so that would cut down on my sleep time. I told her I would make it about once a month. The good thing is that it makes plenty of servings that last for days in a closed container.

Recipe from Jessica Stegelmeier

Ingredients:

5 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 cup coconut
1 cup nuts
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together oats, wheat germ, coconut, nuts and spices. In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla. Pour over oat mixture and stir until well combined. Spread onto two greased cookie sheets. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. I like my granola really crunchy so I ended up cooking it for around an hour. Add dried cranberries after granola is cooked. Store in an airtight container.

* I didn't have any dried cranberries. If I did, they would be in there.