Cinnamon Rolls

My friend Shelli makes the BEST cinnamon rolls ever. Everyone always wants her to make them. A year or so ago, Shelli taught a class at Church about making cinnamon rolls. I got the recipe but never got around to making them. For one thing, I've never felt very confident about making cinnamon rolls--I haven't had much success in the past. The other thing is that most "good" cinnamon roll recipes use a lot of flour and so you really need a mixer (I mean, like a Kitchen Aid or Bosch) to mix and knead the dough.

Well, Shelli helped me out with that, too. While her son is on a mission, she let me borrow the Kitchen Aid that she lets him use while at school. It's so nice to have a big mixer like that. It's let me do recipes that I normally would avoid.

Anyway...

So I used her recipe for the first time today. And, after only one phone to Shelli for help, I turned out these beauties....my best cinnamon rolls ever!!! Mmmmm--sugary, cinnamony goodness!!!

Thanks, Shelli!!

Before frosting.....
After frosting.....

I bet you all want to come over to my house, huh? (Better hurry--they won't last long)

Happy Fourth of July!!

We really missed our friends and family this year and being in Provo, but we had a fun time staying home, too. Now if the air will just clear out so we can breathe again--whew!!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

Love, The Garrards

Lemonade Stand

Calista decided she needed to do a lemonade stand. She also decided she needed something else to bring in cash, too, so we did Rice Krispy treats. Turns out those were the big seller. Her friend Olivia helped out. It was fun to see the nice people in the neighborhood who would stop and purchase some goods.

Calista and Olivia. (Dylan and Olivia's little sister Annie helped out, too.)

You could choose from lemonade or strawberry-kiwi. And, of course, we had Sonic ice to make sure people weren't just getting a glass of tepid Kool-Aid.

The last, lonely Rice Krispy treat. She totally sold out of them a few minutes later. (Sold a dozen altogether.)

Her final profit total was around $6.00. Next time she is adding brownies and cookies to the mix, too. (By the way, it was probably about 95 degrees as she sat out in the hot sun for a couple hours.) But I think she had tons of fun, too!!

BEAR CLAWS!!!!

When I was about 12 or 13, our Young Women's group from Church decided we needed to do a fund raiser to earn some money for camp. We came up with the idea of making several pastry items: bear claws, pizza pockets, ham and cheese rolls, apple turnovers, etc. The interesting thing was that we used just one recipe of dough to make all the different things. (It was a very lucrative fund raiser.) I was thinking about that recipe the other day and found it in some old papers.

I've had fun with the dough. We made ham and cheese bread and these BEAR CLAWS!!!

They were very yummy and easy. You can't tell in the picture, but I also made a vanilla glaze to go over them that used REAL vanilla beans. Mmmmm!!

I still have a little dough left--not sure what to do with it yet. Strawberry danishes, anyone??