Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls- Amazingly Good!

My mother-in-law has been known far and wide for her famous cinnamon rolls and after 30+ years of making the same, wonderful recipe... she found this one, and she hasn't looked back once. They are amazing, really and truly. Everyone that I've ever made them for has universally pronounced them the best cinnamon rolls ever... and I agree!

The Recipe

Place in bread machine in this order:

In pyrex cup measure:

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 butter (in a pinch crisco works... but butter is always better)

Microwave these for 1 1/2 minutes and then pour in the breadmachine.

Then add:

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 4 T. instant vanilla pudding
• 4 T. instant butterscotch pudding
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 1/2 to 5 cups bread flour
• 2 1/4 T. yeast

Set your bread machine on it's dough setting, and let it do it's magic. I find with my machine I usually need to take a spatula and scrape down the sides several times during the first few minutes that it's mixing, or some of the ingredients don't incorporate fully.

After the dough cycle has completed... remove dough to a floured surface and roll out into a large rectangle.

Warm oven for rising... I set mine to 200 degrees and then turn it off after it heats up.

Melt 1 cube of butter (I never said these were good for you) and spread evenly over the rolled out dough.

Mix about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar with 2 to 4 tablespoons of cinnamon depending on how cinnamon-ey you like your rolls. Then sprinkle evenly over the buttered dough. starting at one of the long ends, roll up your dough.

Cut into about 2 inch slices and place in your greased pan. I have found that these cinnamon rolls do better in a bundt pan or in muffin tins as the dough doesn't fully cook on the inside rolls in a 9x13 pan.

Cover and allow rolls to rise until doubled in the warm oven.

Remove rolls from oven and then preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 15 to 25 minutes. This dough is really sweet, so it browns really quickly... I've found I need to cover the rolls for most of the baking time with some tinfoil... remove it for the last few minutes... like 3 or 4 minutes, to allow the rolls to turn golden brown.

Frost with cream cheese frosting.

I make mine by softening one box of cream cheese and beating in my mixer until smooth. Then I add 1 cup of sifted powdered sugar and about 2 to 4 T of milk or until it gets to a nice spreading consistency... or more if you want to drizzle it. I also add about 1/2 tsp. almond extract. In my humble opinion a cinnamon roll just isn't a cinnamon roll without cream cheese frosting :)

ENJOY and BE BLESSED!

Love, Jocelyn

Oriental Cabbage Salad

This is a summer staple recipe around my home.

It's delicious, easy, beautiful to serve to guests, versatile, and packed full of veggis!

This salad can be a side dish or a main dish by adding grilled chicken

(or whatever sounds good to you).

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Recipe

From the crisper:

• 1 head green cabbage, chopped really fine (or the same amount of coleslaw mix)
• 6 green onions sliced fine

I also like to add:

• Add 1 head of romaine lettuce (reduce cabbage to half of the above amount)
• 1 red sweet bell pepper, sliced in long thin strips
• around 1 cup of sugar snap peas
• 2-3 stalks of celery sliced on the diagonal
• 1 cucumber sliced in long thin strips
• and sometimes... a can of drained mandarin oranges

From the pantry:

• 1 package of ramen noodles (the original recipe calls for chicken flavor, but I like to use the oriental flavor... I think any flavor will work)
• 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup toasted almonds
• 1/4 cup toasted whole flax seeds (my addition)

For the dressing: Sometimes I double this... just to keep some in the fridge for other salads because it's so yummy.

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar (you can use white vinegar, but it has a stronger vinegar-ey bite to it than the rice vinegar... which is pretty mellow)
• 3/4 cup salad oil... like canola (I only use 1/2 c. to 2/3 c. or it gets too oily for me)
• 1 T. sesame oil (this makes the dressing... I usually double this amount)
• 1 T. Accent (this is msg... you can use table salt but decrease to 1/2 T. and then adjust to your own preference)
• 1 t. black pepper
• 1 seasoning packet from the above mentioned Ramen Noodle package.

Pour it all together in a jar with a lid and shake well.

If you want to make this salad a main dish, double or triple the dressing recipe and pour half of it over 4 to 6 chicken breasts and allow to marinate for several hours. Remove chicken from marinade and grill over low heat until no longer pink, and juices run clear. Slice in thin strips and set aside.

Mix all of the crisper ingredients together in a large bowl.

If your seeds and almonds didn't come toasted, you can toast them yourself in a skillet over med/low heat... watching them constantly (I can't tell you how often I have to throw a batch out because I walk away for 2 seconds and they burn :) just until they turn golden. Cool, and set aside.

Crush the ramen noodles and set aside.

Immediately before serving, toss all of the above ingredients (except the chicken, if your using it) with the dressing until it is all uniformly coated, and serve.

If your adding the chicken, plate each serving of salad and top with the sliced chicken along the center of the salad. You don't have to do this... you could toss the chicken with the rest of the salad, but it's so pretty to take this final step, that it's totally worth the extra time.

ENJOY and BE BLESSED!

Love, Jocelyn