Storm Day!

What a day......

It started off with the temperature dropping more than 12 degrees

to well below freezing.

The water puddles and mud froze hard,

buses were cancelled, white-outs reported on the highways,

and crazy high winds made for treacherous driving.

I made an executive decision to stay at home!

The perfect day to make some of

Lil Regier's Golden Potato Rolls!

It took most of the day but was so worth it.

Lil’s Golden Potato Rolls

I met Lil and her husband Les when they spent a year volunteering at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate where I was working at the time.  They were from Saskatchewan and had three adorable little girls who are all grown up now!   We had the pleasure of babysitting the girl’s a few times and developed a wonderful friendship with this special family.  I remembered how impressed I was when Lil made her yummy dinner rolls.  She recently shared the recipe with me during one of our reminiscing sessions.

This makes a large batch (5-6 doz. buns) and I find that halving the recipe works well for me and my KitchenAide.  There's a special flavour that comes with using mashed potatoes or potato water yeast baking - I think it's the Taste of Home flavour!!

1 Tbsp. Yeast

½ Cup warm water

1 Cup milk

¾ Cup oil

1 ¼ Cups mashed potatoes

½ Cup sugar

2 Eggs – beaten

2 tsp. salt

8-8 ½ Cups White Flour

Combine milk, oil and potatoes.  Heat to warm temperature.  Put in blender if potatoes are lumpy.  Add eggs, sugar and salt.  Dissolve yeast in ½ Cup warm water in large bowl or kitchen aid mixer.  Add potato mixture to yeast.  Then stir in 2 Cups Flour.  Allow this mixture to stand for 2 hours.  Then add the remaining flour gradually.  Knead dough till smooth.  Place in bowl and let rise until double (approx. 1 hour).  Divide into 4 pieces, roll each into a long strip, flatten with rolling pin and cut into triangles with a pizza cutter (16-18 pieces/strip).  Roll up from the wide end of each triangle and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.  Let rise till double.  Bake at 350F for 15 minutes.  Hint – check your oven to make sure it’s not too hot – you may need to adjust the temperature and the time. 

While the dough did it's magic, I took

advantage of the day off to putz.

It was lovely.....

One of the nicest things that happened was a rap at the door

from the FedEx man - he made it through the storm!

I practically jumped for joy to think that my

book had arrived so quickly!

It was my iPhoto Israel book.

What a great keepsake and so glad it arrived

in time for our tour group get-together next week.

I LOVE STORM DAYS......can you tell???

Oh, and just one more thing,
I have in my hands Season 3 of Downton Abbey!
Life is good.....

Till next time .............. stay warm and safe!