thanksgave

i’m a few days late with my thanksgiving post, but i just wanted to share a few leftovers with you. (tee hee!)  we enjoyed thanksgiving day with friends.  we were in charge of bringing the sweet potatoes, so i used my all-time favorite streuseled sweet potato recipe from cooking light.  it is soooooo good and always gets rave reviews.

and because this blog is about “happy stuff” i won’t tell you about poor mr. happy stuff’s run-in with our new! sharp! vegetable peeler and a sweet potato.  and his middle fingertip.  but if you really want to know the story you can ask.  i’ll just say that the “happy” parts are that now, three days later, he’s finally taken the bandage off and we are now well-stocked in the medical gauze and waterproof tape department here at chez happy stuff.

i also made some nice wheat bread rolls (sorry, no photos) and crescent rolls.  i used my grandma’s recipe for crescent rolls, but instead of half butter/half shortening, i used all butter and they turned out fine. (*recipe at bottom of post if you want it.  if you ate these rolls and don’t want to know how much butter they had, look away.   look away.*)

i know this photo looks dangerous (metal in the microwave?!), but relax.  i just put it in there to rise.  i read a tip somewhere once and i like to use it–heat a rice-filled heating pad in the microwave, then set your bread dough in the microwave on top of the heated pad to rise.  the heating pad isn’t so hot that it will bake the bread, but it retains heat well enough that it helps the dough to rise.  the small enclosed space of the microwave also is a humid environment and your dough won’t dry out on top even if you don’t cover it with a tea towel or plastic wrap.

this is such a fun dough to work with!  there is so much butter in it that it sticks to n-o-t-h-i-n-g.  i almost don’t even need flour on the counter.  when i split it into wedges for rolling into crescents, the dough just pulled away from the cut lines–it doesn’t even stick to itself!  (please ignore the fact that i’m cooking in my bathrobe.  i was just too lazy to throw on real clothes before i started cooking.)

here you can see what they look like when you roll the wedges from the wide end up to the tip.  ta-da!  crescents!  again, please ignore whatever that is on my sleeve.  this robe went right into the wash when i was done.

mmmmm…… crescent rolls rising….i made a double batch.  hooray for leftovers!

here are a few other shots from the dinner (i got too distracted after the appetizers and first course and just ate instead of taking pictures.  you can use your imagination (or–likely–your short term memory) to know what brined turkey, sweet potatoes, roasted root vegetables, stuffing, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce look like.)

the rest of thanksgiving day was a very relaxing affair filled with card games and conversation, cups of coffee

and fancy chocolates.

we stayed there until way too late, watching charlie brown thanksgiving specials and snuggling with their kids on the couch.  thanks, dear friends, for hosting such a comfy, cozy thanksgiving dinner.

recipe for grandma b’s golden crescent roll dough (sans shortening):

2 pkg active dry yeast

3/4 c. warm water (105-115 degrees)

1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1/2 c. soft butter

4 c. flour, divided

dissolve yeast in warm water.  stir in rest of ingredients (only 2 c. flour).  beat until smooth.  mix in remaining flour until smooth.  scrape sides of bowl.  cover and let rise in a warm place until double (about 1.5 hours).  divide in half and roll into circles.  cut circles into wedges and roll from the wide end to the tip–press the tip firmly into the roll, then curve into crescent shapes.  Let rise until double.  bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes until golden.  makes about 16 medium sized rolls.

note:  this recipe also makes a fantastic base for a fruit pizza or “scandavian sandwich wheel“