2017. What a year. Some would say this was the year I lost my mind just a little bit. Some would say this was the year I also found myself just a little bit. 2017 was the year Ryan and I turned 40 – which we each handled very differently. It was the year we made some difficult decisions personally and spiritually. It was the year of growth to say the least. Here is our unofficial Christmas/New Year’s letter – affectionately known as The Ronne Recap.
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Tag: Homemaking
A Healthier Cinnamon Roll Recipe
Who doesn’t love a warm, gooey cinnamon roll on Christmas morning, and in my opinion, it’s even better if you can sneak a little nutrition into them as well! Here’s my take on our favorite Christmas treat.
Add 1/2 cup honey to tepid water. Stir with a fork. Add 1 and 1/2 TB yeast. Stir. Let proof for ten minutes.
Add 1 1/2 tea salt, 1/4 cup melted and then cooled coconut oil. Mix. Slowly add 6 cups of bread flour and 1/2 cup wheat bran or flax seed. Mix well. Let rest in a well oiled bowl for about an hour.
Roll out on a floured surface. Spread melted butter over the surface. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top of butter. Roll up the dough and cut into 1-2 inch pieces (depending on how big you like your rolls). Place in buttered 9×13 pans with towels covering. Let rise until doubled in size. Cook at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. let cool and then ice.
Icing.
1-2 TB melted butter.
Add 4-5 cups powdered sugar
1 tea maple flavoring
1-2 tea coffee
few TB almond milk
whisk all ingredients to a pourable consistency.
Enjoy!
Broken Baby Jesus – The Beauty of the Christ Child’s Sacrifice at Christmas
“MOM! Annabelle broke baby Jesus again!” one of my children shouted from the family room.
I sighed and walked over to my youngest who was gently holding a delicate, ceramic baby Jesus in her small hands, a ceramic baby who had been placed front and center on our coffee table during the holiday season and usually replaced every few days with a fresh application of hot glue because Annabelle had somehow managed to dismember his arm from the rest of his body once again.
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Pizza Dough Tutorial {for a good hearty dough and a good hearty laugh!}
This past Sunday morning, a morning draped in hazy weariness due to the time change the night before, a morning where all the Ronnes were moving just a tad bit slower than usual, a morning like so many of our Sunday mornings where we gather around the table to eat cinnamon rolls, and drink coffee, and I make pizza dough for our traditional Sunday night pizza party.
A morning where I stood in the kitchen at around 10:00 am and realized my house was eerily quiet.
I glanced outside and noticed a few children playing. I peeked down the stairwell and into the basement where I heard a few more. Ryan was off tinkering with something that needed fixing. I hollered out to the whole house “Who has Annabelle?” to which I heard my oldest daughter reply, “I have her Mom! She’s playing in my room!”
Alrighty, I thought, it’s as quiet as it’s ever going to be in this house. I think I’ll finally follow through on my promise to record a pizza dough tutorial. I grabbed the laptop, threw my hair into a pony tail, put on a little foundation and mascara, and hit the record button.
Honestly, this was a one shot deal. Whatever I recorded was either going on the blog or I was not going to be releasing a pizza dough tutorial for quite some time because seriously, it is NEVER that quiet in my house. I can get the first 7 of my offspring to be quiet for a decent amount of time but THAT BABY ?! She’s two and not easily persuaded to do anything she doesn’t want to do.
I preface all of this to say, I was really quite proud of myself for managing to stay organized and functioning through all 6 minutes of the recording, at least I was proud of myself until Ryan watched it and pointed out a blooper so tragically ridiculous that we both just laughed and laughed and laughed. I considered scraping the whole thing with the unlikely chance that I might be able to find a few rare quiet moments to record a new tutorial and then decided against the idea. This was the video, plain and simple, the good, the bad, the mispronunciations, the ridiculousness, and all of the laughs. I pride myself on embracing all of my messes (jessplusthemess) and rejoicing in them. I pride myself on not staging my life on social media and by the act of not staging, I hope woman understand that my life is not perfect, but it’s still good. So, if you get nothing else out of this tutorial, I hope you at least get a good laugh at my expense.
Rustic Pizza Dough
Mix 1 1/2 teaspoon yeast + 1 1/2 tea salt + 4 1/2 cups bread flour. Slowly add 2 cups of cold water. Slowly add more flour if needed.
Knead dough for about 5 minutes.
Place in a well oiled bowl and let rise for at least an hour.
Bake at 500 Degrees for ten minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
Just keep livin!