Cinnamon Rolls

Like I shared earlier, Aaron and I spent last weekend making cinnamon rolls. We made the dough Saturday evening and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. That helps cut down on the process, since it takes about two hours to get the dough ready.

In the morning we ate breakfast and then got busy.

Here is Aaron sprinkling the cinnamon and sugar onto half of the dough. We made sure to cover every inch so no one ends up with an end roll that doesn't have enough cinnamon.

The second batch rising and waiting for the oven to open up.

Cooling down. As you can see we had already started eating them.

The recipe says it will make about seven pans (with seven cinnamon rolls each), but we have found it makes ten pans, with a couple leftover (which we baked in a bowl). I keep thinking maybe our cinnamon rolls aren't fat enough, but if they got any bigger they would be bursting out of the pan.

It was our second time making this recipe and it was definitely easier this time around. I'm sure you could split the recipe in half or quarters, but if you are putting in the work you might as well make a lot!  They are nice to give to friends and still taste amazing after being frozen (frosting and all). This may just become a yearly tradition for us.

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to hop on here and wish everyone a very merry Christmas.  We have a very white Christmas in Madison and are having a day full of presents, delicious food, and drinks. After a week off, I am finally recovering from the semester and checking to see if my grades are posted every day!

Aaron and I have been enjoying time off together by making ten pans of cinnamon rolls and watching a lot of movies. We have also delivered said cinnamon rolls to friends and coworkers and enjoyed catching up with them and driving through the snow filled country (now that the roads are relatively clear).

I hope everyone's holiday is as relaxing and happy as mine!

**This is the best picture we could get together from my iPhone.

Snowed In.

As I'm sure no one failed to notice, there was a huge winter storm this week. There was rain, sleet, high winds, and lots of snow. We got the wind and snow part of the deal in Madison.

The snow began to fall Wednesday night and didn't stop until Friday morning. Luckily Aaron and I had already planned to spend Thursday at home, relaxing together to celebrate the end of my third semester in grad school. Turns out Aaron did not need to take the day off: everything in Madison was basically closed. If they weren't, they realized their mistake and closed early.

The snow was heavy and caused a lot of power outages. We were lucky enough to just have some flickering lights! Many of my friends had flights that were canceled and delayed travel plans, but I think they have all reached their homes safely.

Today we are turning this pot full of dough into delicious cinnamon rolls and delivering them to whoever we can find who is still in the area. We will keep a couple of pans for ourselves, but with over a pound of butter in the recipe, we don't need to keep very many! I recommend making them yourself sometime, you won't regret it: Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Roll Recipe.

Cheers.

Not for kids.

It has been a rough week, so I just wanted to post this cheery picture of eggnog that I drank on Sunday night and promptly got a stomach ache because it was so rich.

I know I am not alone in saying I was extremely saddened by the shooting that took place in Connecticut last Friday. I don't have much to say beyond the fact that for all of the wonderful things about the United States, I am disappointed by how easy it is to do something so terrible and how often it happens. I have considered both sides of the issue, but it is impossible to argue with the number of deaths by gun in the U.S. compared with other countries.

Between working on my final papers, I read many articles and opinion posts about the shooting and gun control laws. My favorite one was this: Stay in your heart, no matter how painful.

Today (hopefully), my group will turn in our final cost-benefit analysis project and there will definitely be a drink to celebrate that!

This week brought to you by: Cookies

It is officially the last week of my semester. Between now and next Wednesday I will turn in two projects and two papers and say adios to the semester from hell. I have already given two in class presentations this week and have one more tomorrow.  Not all of the work is the best I've ever done but it will be done, which is the important part right now!

Aaron decided to make cookies on Monday night while I was at a group meeting on campus. I think he is getting bored of watching stupid videos on youtube while I do school work (maybe). The reason we don't ever buy or make cookies is I ate three of them yesterday. At the end of the semester my scrutiny of what will make my body feel good becomes very blurred. Good thing we also had a raw kale and cabbage salad for dinner: Kale, cabbage, and carrot salad. 

Baby tree.

We got this baby Christmas tree on Sunday night after I spent all weekend (and by all I mean I had a couple of hours to shower and sleep in between but basically Friday night to Sunday night*) hanging out with my Cost-Benefit Analysis group. I needed some Christmas cheer.

We decided to get a real tree for three reasons:
1) We are staying in Madison for Christmas so we can't go without a tree like we did last year.
2) We have nowhere in our tiny apartment to store a fake one.
3) Our parents never let us have a real tree and now we get to choose for ourselves and we need to fill the gap in our childhood. Also, I remember being traumatized by how my parents wouldn't let us put up our tree until Christmas Eve. Well ours was up on December 2nd! So take that traumatized childhood. I'm rebelling.

We decided to get a baby tree because it was so cute sitting outside of Whole Foods!

Also it was just a lot less of a commitment than a big one... no tree stand, only one string of lights, a lot cheaper. Its like how couples get a puppy when they aren't ready to commit to a baby.

I love it! I hope it survives until December 25th. My track record on plants isn't so good.


* so you can see how good I look after marathon project writing in that photo, right?

Thanksgiving Break

Happy Thanksgiving one week and two days later! The work has been piling up and finally reaching its peak point for the last two weeks of school. I have hardly had time to shower let alone think about blogging. I'm currently waiting for a group my classmates to come over so we can work on a project indefinitely, so I thought I would post some pictures from Thanksgiving.

There was singing.

Saying hi to Ruth and Sean in New York.

Missing our other cousins!

Waiting for food!
                          

Great Bingo prizes.

More great prizes.

Aaron learning that toddlers don't actually eat things you prepare for them.

Apple pie making.

Someone's extra large piece. 

One of my best high school friends got married.

It was great to see most of our family and catch up with some high school friends I haven't seen in what feels like forever. We had a little too much fun and all of the food left me with a stomach ache!

Although I was too busy traveling and doing homework over the break to post anything about being thankful, I have been reminding myself all week how thankful I am to be at this point in my life. Sometimes I can't believe it is my life, and not in a good way (non-stop homework and studying can take people to dark places). But when I really think about it, I am so lucky to be going to grad school practically for free, having many opportunities open up for the life I want to live, and have a wonderful husband and family on top of it all.