Mom's Chamorro Sweet Rolls

It's especially during the holidays that we remember our family no longer with us, like my Grandmother on my Mom's side, we called her Mom. I call my own mother Mom too, but somehow we always knew who was who. But to other people, we would refer to her as Grandma Mom. She made great Chamorro Sweet Rolls. She taught me many things, how to crochet, how to make jam, how to make Hagun Suni, even if she made it with spinach, but that was only because it's fairly hard to find young taro leaves in Vancouver, Washington, on Guam she always used taro leaves. But I digress. It's the way her hands moved that I remember and how she laughed at the size of my rolls. We eat them because they're delicious but also because they help us to remember her, through her yummy food! I'd post a picture, but I can't find one and my sister Carma has wanted this recipe for a week now, and I've been busy celebrating the Christmas Cheer with parties, and a trip to Vegas!  Here's the recipe!  Happy Baking! 

Mom’s Chamorro Sweet Rolls
1 pkg yeast
1 ¼ cup warm water (105-115F)
1 tablespoon sugar
5 cups flour
1 cup powdered milk
1 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1 egg
2 tablespoons water

Mix yeast, warm water and 1 tablespoon sugar together in small bowl and set aside.  Put four cups flour, powdered milk and 1 cup sugar together in large bowl. Mix in butter (cold) until well mixed. Add yeast mixture to flour and knead dough, adding in the last cup of flour as needed. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Place into a butter greased bowl, flip once and cover with a clean tea towel. Let rise covered until double, this may take 2-6 hours depending on the ambient temperature in your kitchen. Punch down dough and knead again about fifteen to twenty turns. Make into little rolls, place in greased baking pan give them a little room so they don’t touch about an inch in between, cover with a tea towel and let rise for 2-6 hours again or until doubled (again, this depends on the temperature in your kitchen). Beat the egg with two tablespoons cold water in a small bowl, then brush this over the dough just before putting into the oven.  Bake at 350F 15-20 minutes until golden brown and delicious.

Glee Cast Knit Project on Ravelry

There are over 2000 members in the Glee Group on Ravelry, and they are some serious fans. I used to sing in choirs in high school in Boulder, oh so many years ago. It was good fun, and I have the fondest memories of those times and those friends, Piper, Nicky, Margaret, Carlos, Barry, Aaron, Elmer, Abby, some I know still through Facebook and others I have no idea how to contact. Well, I started this Glee group because I thought it might be fun to chit chat with other people who like cheesy stuff like this and are also knitters, and la de dah! There's loads of them! They're so enthusiastic that one member (KatyKoolKatt)thought, "wouldn't it be fun to knit something for the actors" and then two dozen people later, we got this bandwagon going! I volunteered to organize the contacting Glee folks, and shipping/packaging, documenting of everything we send them. It's a lot more involved than I originally thought. It's the only project I've ever done that was a fan based thingy.

Here's what we sent, and some of these items are just lovely. The quality of the fibers used (that's "yarn" for you non-knitty people) is just beautiful. The craftmanship is beautiful as well. I think they couldn't be happier to receive these things, and they might even end up on the show! Wouldn't that be cool? When I spoke with the Costume Supervisor she was delighted to hear about our project and was excited to learn of our little niche group.

Anyhow, here's what this group made.

Fingerless Gloves for my Twin 12 year old neices

I made these for my two little neices, Emma and Isabel for their 12th birthdays. Slightly different in the pattern but same yarn.

Apricot Jam

Apricot jam is fabulous if you add just a teaspoon or two to regular plain oatmeal. It's so yummy and I've been having just that for breakfast for the past week or so. It's so good!

I sent a jar of this and the cutie marmalade to my twin neices on their 12th birthdays. I hope they like it.

Cutie Marmalade

M doesn't like clementines. Five pounds of cuties is a lot to eat on my own. So I decided to make some marmalade with them. The color is beautiful. Next time I'll make more. I was cautious because it was my first marmalade. I didn't add any butter. The ingredients are just cuties, water, sugar and a pinch of salt.

So we start with these little guys.

Peel them up.
Get all the segments into the Cuisinart and put it on full whack!


Slice up the rinds.

Chuck all the pithy parts. They don't taste good anyhow.

Boil up the rind. Add juice, boil again. Add sugar, boil again. Then put them in jars! Then water bath and ta da! Cutie Marmalade!

Bath Salts for Christymas!

I made Bath Salts to give to my sisters, cousins and nieces for Christmas. I made them on Christmas Eve morning. It didn't take long, but here's my suggestion: warm the oil then take it off the heat and dump in the tea. The green tea kind of burned a bit. But it still smelled okay so I used it.

Mary Janes or Irish Dancing Shoes?

Do these look like Mary Janes or Irish Dancing Shoes to you? It all depends on your point of reference. I gave these to my girlfriend Michelle at her baby shower and she immediately declared, "Oh! They're little Irish Dancing Shoes!" Tara and I looked at each other, smiled and said, "it's all on your point of reference." They really DO look like Irish Dancing Shoes, and it's so cute to think of them that way. I tried my best to get a good picture but sometimes it's hard when the item is black, so I had to do some modifications before posting here. They didn't take very long either. Well, an evening, so you tell me if that's long. Heh heh.