Grace’s Blog

Happy 2010 New Year!  It’s time for the annual making of resolutions.  What will yours be?

One resolution many make in the New Year is to lose weight.  Is that you?  If it is, you have lots of company and lots of choices.

Those choices may not always be the best.

There are books about magic formulas, low fat, high fat, low carbohydrate, high protein. 

There are magic foods…grapefruit, cabbage soup, berries and chocolate.

I’ve tried a variety in my lifetime.

Cabbage soup….not my favorite.

The worst diet I tried was over 30 years ago.  I see it is still around.  My friend and I decided to do it together.  It was guaranteed to help us lose 10 pounds in 10 days.  This is the diet: Lemon juice, pure maple syrup mixed together and a cayenne pepper capsule.

Whenever I got hungry, this is all I would consume.

I lasted the entire 10 days without cheating.  On the 10^th day, I up-chucked, and it burnt all the way up.  I felt cheated because I only lost 5 pounds and for the next 2 months, my friend and I both caught every “bug” that flew by.  Not a pleasant experience.  It’s still a “Yuck” in my book.

Diets come with hype and lots of scientific sounding mumbo jumbo to show they work.  Despite what you read or hear, losing weight is solely based on the difference between calories in and calories out.

There is no “magic formula”, no “magic diet” and no “magic diet food.”  There are helps though.  Remember calories rule!

Calories in, calories out. 

The diet doesn’t have to be weird to work.

The diet should be healthy in the long run, not just for the diet’s duration.

Remember to exercise.  It increases lean muscle mass which in turn burns more calories.

Don’t start if you’re not going to finish.  It has to become a way of life, otherwise, you go back to your same old habits that got you where you are in the first place.

How did you do over the holidays?  The average weight gain is about 5 pounds.

This year I decided to do something different.  I drank a CINCH SHAKE twice a day as much as possible.  CINCH is a great meal replacement and the best breakfast on the planet.  I also took 3 in 1 BOOST to keep my metabolism going.

To my surprise and delight, I did not gain anything and even lost a bit. 

When making this year’s resolutions, change your life not just your weight.

 Shaklee Distributor

Grace General, Health Cabbage Soup, Calories, Diet, Diets, New Year, New Year's Resolutions

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, the song rings in our ears.  We do wish for you a Merry Christmas and hope this next year is a prosperous one for all.

I finally broke down and bought a fake tree this year.  I love the smell of fresh cut trees.  Several of our trees were living trees and they now live in our yard.  They have gotten really big.

Having a tree in the house with a wood stove doesn’t make for a long lasting tree.  The needles are soon dropping to the floor and we could only enjoy the lights for a short time.  We didn’t want it to catch fire.

 So the decision to get a fake one was made this year.  It really is nice keeping the lights on.

We have many Christmas symbols and the tree is one of them. The pure green color of the Christmas tree remains all year.  This shows the everlasting hope of mankind.  The needles point heavenward to remind us that our thoughts should turn toward heaven.

The candy cane represents the shepherds crook. The crook helps bring wandering sheep back to the flock.  It reminds us to show love because we are our brother’s keeper.

Lost sheep are found by the sound of a bell.  The bell rings for mankind to return to the fold.

We put bows on our presents to remind us of the spirit of the brotherhood of man.  As the bow is tied, it is with love and good feelings toward each other.

The symbol of the present reminds us that as we give gifts of love we remember the gifts the wisemen gave to the infant Jesus.

God promised a Savior for the world and gave us a bright new star that shone down from the heavens as fulfillment of that promise.

The wreath is round and represents the eternal nature of love.  It never ceases, stops, or ends.  It is one continuous round of affection.

We can enjoy the fun things of Christmas without forgetting what Christmas represents.  It represents the birth of Christ and His great love for us.  It gives us the opportunity to show our love for each other.

May your Christmas be filled with joy and love.

Grace Family, General Candy Cane, Christmas Trees, Love, Symbols of Christmas, We Wish You A Merry Christmas

When our family was very young, we wanted to start our own family Christmas Traditions.  Two have stuck with us for over 40 years.  Cinnamon Rolls and decorated Christmas Cookies.

We have cinnamon rolls Christmas morning with hot chocolate.  The other part of the tradition is we share those cinnamon rolls with our close neighbors and friends.  There have been times when I’ve made up to 16 dozen rolls to share.

As Christmas nears, I make a list of who gets rolls.  My grown sons make sure they are on the list.  One neighbor has moved to a warmer climate for the winter but makes sure she comes back around Christmas to get her rolls.

When I first wanted to make these rolls, I asked my mother for the recipe.  She gave me the ingredients, in no particular order and with no instructions.  I had seen my mother make cinnamon rolls for as long as I could remember. Putting them together came very naturally.

I want to share with you my recipe and have included pictures.  I hope yours turn out as well as mine do.  As a matter of interest, this is a very old recipe and the cup of water was used to dissolve the yeast before adding to the mixture.  I still include the water.  I also use a large capacity Kitchen Aid Mixer with a dough hook.  If you don’t have a large mixer, half the recipe in two. 

This recipe can also be used for doughnuts.

Cinnamon Rolls and Doughnut Dough

Mix together: 1 quart milk plus 1 cup water, warm in microwave…not hot.

                        5-6 tablespoons yeast  (I use 6)

                        1 cup sugar

Add:               1 cup butter

                        6 eggs, beaten

                        1 tablespoon vanilla extract

                        1 tablespoon lemon extract

                        1 teaspoon salt

                       12-13 cups flour

Add the yeast to the warm milk and water, then sugar.  Add the remaining ingredients. (I start with a mixing paddle and then switch to the kneading hook when the dough gets thick)  Mix well after each cup of flour until you get to about 10 cups.  Then add the flour ½ to ¼ cup at a time kneading well after each addition of flour.  You want the dough to be soft and just barely sticky.  Too much flour will make your rolls dry.  If you are making it in a mixer, knead for about 15 minutes after all flour is in.

Let the dough rise to double in size in a large bowl sprayed with cooking spray.  (Pam)  For Cinnamon Rolls, work with ½ the dough at a time. (Unless you’ve halved the recipe)  Roll dough out in a rectangular shape on counter sprayed with cooking spray.  Spread the dough with the following in this order:  Soft butter (use real butter in recipe for best results), sprinkle with cinnamon, light layer of brown sugar, sprinkle with raisins and nuts if desired.  (I use pecans)  Starting on the long side, roll dough into a long roll.  Cut into about 1 inch rolls.  Place on baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with Pam.  Let raise about 15 – 20 minutes. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Do not over cook.  You want them slightly brown, not dark.  Cinnamon rolls will continue to raise in the oven as they cook.  Frost while hot with icing made from powdered sugar, milk, and lemon extract. Make the icing thick and it melts into the rolls.  Makes about 4 dozen.

For doughnuts:  Roll dough out, cut with doughnut cutter, let raise, fry in hot oil, glaze with powder sugar, milk, and lemon extract icing.  Make it thin.

The trick to good cinnamon rolls and doughnuts is to not use too much flour or they get dry and hard.  You want the dough sticky but still able to handle without sticking to your fingers.

Mother said you can use this same recipe for bread rolls.  Reduce the sugar to about ½ cup and leave out the vanilla and lemon extracts.

Swithing to the kneading hook.

Dough is ready.

Transferring dough to larger bowl sprayed with Pam to raise.

You can see it is slightly sticky.

I punch it down.

Cover to let raise and double in size.

Dough is ready to roll out.

Spray counter with cooking spray.

Taking the dough out of the bowl.

Roll out the dough.

This is what it looks like.  Don’t roll too thin.

Spread with soft butter

Sprinkle on the cinnamon.

Then add the brown sugar.  A thin layer.

Add raisins and nuts as desired.  As you can see, I’m only doing half the rolled out dough.  I’m putting the following on the other side:  Mixed together 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp. maple flavoring and 2 tsp. cinnamon.  For a different flavor.  Icing is the same except I will use vanilla extract instead of lemon.

Starting to roll from the long side.

Rolling the dough.

All rolled up and ready to cut.

Cutting….

In the pan. Lining the pan with heavy duty foil makes for easier clean up and I can remove all rolls at the same time to give away.

Baked…and ready for icing.

Putting on the icing.  The thick icing will melt into the rolls.  Apply while hot.

All done and ready to eat.  Enjoy!

Grace Family, Recipes Christmas Tradition, Cinnamon rolls, Recipe for Cinnamon Rolls