Christmas DIY Wreath

John and I had a great Thanksgiving at John's parents house with lots of family and friends. There was so much wonderful food and of course I ate 'til my tummy was full. After the feast we had a ton of fun playing Kinect. That's that new game for Xbox where your body is the controller. We bowled, threw a javelin, and hit volleyballs with our head, feet and hands. Kinect is so fun and quite a workout. Some of the boys were really sore the next day. I'm tellin' you, it'll get your heart pumpin', that's for sure!

The day after Thanksgiving, I convinced John to help me get the Christmas decorations out of the attic. I just love putting up the tree and decorating the mantle. We had some garland in the box that I used last year on the tree. I wasn't feeling the gold on the tree this year, so instead I wrapped the garland around the clock that hangs above the mantle and created a do-it-yourself wreath. I really like the way it came out.


Have you started decorating yet?

Dining Room Update

After giving away our dining set, I was super anxious to find a new table and chairs for our dining room. So I started scouring Craigslist and on Tuesday I found a great deal. The set came with 6 chairs! 6 chairs! The table even expands to seat 8. I am thrilled! And I think it looks great :)

Whole Wheat Bread / Rolls

Last weekend I found this recipe for whole wheat bread on allrecipes.com. What drew me to this particular recipe was that it substituted honey for sugar, something I had been wanting to try for a while. The original recipe yielded 3 loaves of bread. Well, that's just too much for John and I all at one time so I decided to cut the recipe in half. The great thing about using allrecipes.com is that the website will do the calculations for you! You can reduce the number of servings in the recipe and the website will recalculate the amounts. It's genious, I tell ya.

Since I cut the recipe in half, I essentially had enough dough for 1 and a half loaves. So I filled my bread pan with enough dough to make one loaf. Then I broke apart the rest of the dough into small balls to make rolls. I read about doing this in one of the reviews for this recipe and I thought it was a great idea. I baked the loaf of bread as the recipe said. But for the rolls, I reduced the bake time to 15 minutes.

THIS RECIPE MADE THE BEST ROLLS!!

I would have never thought I'd find a great roll recipe using bread dough. Absolutely incredible! I'm making a batch of these rolls for Thanksgiving and I'm so excited!!!

Whole Wheat Bread

(yields 1 1/2 loaves)

1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)

1 package (or 2 1/2 tsp) active dry yeast

2 tablespoons + 2 tsp honey

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 tsp butter, melted

2 tablespoons + 2 tsp honey

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

All-Purpose Flour, enough to flour surface

1 tablespoon butter, melted

In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast and 2 Tb + 2 tsp honey. (Let stand for 5 minutes.)

Add bread flour, stir to combine. (I use my kitchen aid mixer for this part.) Let stand for 30 minutes until big and bubbly.

Mix in 1 Tbs + 1 1/2 tsp melted butter, 2 Tbs + 2 tsp honey and salt. Stir in whole wheat flour. (Again, I use my kitchen aid mixer for this. Mix until dough is not sticking to sides of bowl. This took about 7-10 minutes on speed 2 using the dough hook.)

Turn dough out onto surface lightly sprinkled with all-purpose flour. Roll into a ball and place in a well greased bowl. Turn the dough once to coat the surface. (I use oilve oil or Pam to grease my bowl. Both work fine.)

Cover with a dish towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. (I place my bowl on top of the stove and turn the oven on to 200 degrees. This heats the stove top just enough to help the dough rise. It takes about 1 and a half hours for my dough to rise.)

Punch down dough and divide. Place about 3/4 of the dough in a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Break apart the remaining dough into 9-12 small sized balls and place in a greased 8 inch round cake pan. Allow the dough to rise again until the the dough has topped the pans by one inch. (It is ok if the rolls are touching after they have risen. This won't affect the baking process and they will be very easy to pull apart once they are done.)

Bake the bread loaf at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Do not overbake. (The bread should be firm to the touch.)

Bake the rolls at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. (The rolls should not be as firm as the bread.)

Lightly brush the tops with the remaining melted butter. This helps prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely on a wire rack. (Or eat the rolls right out of the pan while still warm. They are delicious!!!)

**Note: The picture above was taken from the allrecipes.com website. I didn't snap a picture of my bread or rolls when I made them because my camera was out of battery. But I'll take a picture of the rolls when I make them for Thanksgiving. Also, I didn't sprinkle oats on top of my bread as shown in the picture above. I only brushed melted butter on top after baking.

Good Bye Dining Set

Our dining set is getting ready to go to it's new home. I wish we had many dining sets to give away because apparently there are quite a few of you in need of tables and chairs. But alas we only had one set and we're pleased that it's going to a good home.

Now that the old dining set is on it's way out, I get to focus on what's coming in to take it's place. My main desire in a new dining table is that it be regular height, not counter height. I'm not that tall and I've learned that counter height chairs are not that comfortable for me, so moving to a regular height table is a must. Also, I would like the table to seat at least 6 people, more if needed. This means I'd like a rectangular table and it would be ideal if it had a leaf to expand the table. But that's not a necessity. With a regular height table we can always pull up more chairs and squeeze another guest at the table. We couldn't do that with our counter height table because our extra chairs were regular height and they weren't tall enough to pull up to the table.

So the search is on for a new dining table and some chairs. I'm scouring Craigslist and thrift stores to find a table with good bones that we can sand down and paint or refinish. That's my first priority - to find a good, cheap table that we can makeover and will fit our needs. Then I'll be on the hunt for some chairs. John and I are thinking that getting a bench for one side of the table would be a fun addition too. So maybe 4 chairs and a bench...or 6 chairs...or 2 head chairs and 4 side chairs. There are so many different ways we can go with the chairs that I still haven't made up my mind yet.

Here are some tables that I'm admiring right now. I'd love to find one of these at my local thrift store :) Which one do you like?

Crate and Barrel - Basque Honey

Pier One - Carmichael

World Market - Sourav

Another Fabulous Freebie

Are you in need of a dining table and chairs? Do you know someone who needs a dining table and chairs? Then this is the post for you!

John and I were so blessed when our friends gave us this counter-height dining set as a wedding gift. They were upgrading their dining room and excitedly passed this set along to us. And we were just as excited to receive it. The table has a black finish and a frosted glass insert for visual interest. And the neutral fabric on the chairs gives this set a really modern feel.

As much as we've enjoyed this dining set for the past year and a half, it's time for us to move on to something different. Which could be good news for you, if you need a dining table. :)

John and I are giving this dining set away for free. We were blessed when it was given to us and now it's time to pass the blessing on to someone else.

If you are interested in the dining table and chairs, please contact me at jackiedodson24@gmail.com or leave me a comment here or on facebook.

October Madness

I just realized that my last post was way back on October 8th! I can't believe it's been that long. You might say that life has been a little crazy lately....madness!

For the past 12 months I've been engrossed in the journey towards obtaining my CPA license. This journey included lots of grad classes as well as taking the CPA exam. The CPA exam is now 4 separate tests, each of which must be passed with a grade of at least 75. I took my first test in November 2009, my second test in May 2010 (after tax season), and my third test in August 2010. And I've passed each of these sections. I took my last test on October 11, 2010, just a few weeks ago. I think it went ok, but I'm nervous. I'm nervous because this is the final test and I really don't want to have to take it over. It takes approximately 6-8 weeks from the day I took my test to receive the score. So I'm hoping to find out my score by the end of November. Oh the anxiety!!

The weekend after I took my final test was a fantastic weekend for us to get out and play! :) We went with John's entire family, plus some cousins, to a Corn Maze in Zellwood. It was pretty awesome. We had to wait over an hour in line in the hot, hot sun, but it was worth it. When we finally made it to the entrance of the maze, they gave us a flag in case we got lost and needed help finding our way out. John was in charge of our flag. We broke up into 3 teams and headed in. Our team was me, John, Daniel, Joanna, Amy, Kaleigh, and Kelli. And we dominated that corn maze.





The next weekend in October was the perfect time for us to take a vacation. John and I originally planned a weekend getaway to Tennessee, but unfortunately an unexpected meeting came up that John had to attend and our plans had to change. Instead, I took 2 days off from work and John and I had a "stay-cation." John's parents took Layla for those 2 nights and John and I just relaxed. It was absolutely marvelous....just what the doctor ordered.

In the next few weeks, John and I will be posting more recipes that we've successfully made and loved and want to share with you. Also, we will be starting our first blog series called "Eat Around Orlando." Every other week, John and I are going to try a new-to-us restaurant in Orlando and blog about the food. We've started compiling our list and I'm super excited to try some local, hole-in-the-wall restaurants around our house. Stay tuned for our reviews and recommendations. And if you'd like to join us for dinner, we'd love to have you! Let us know and we'll keep you posted about dates, times and locations.

How was your October?