Homemade Rolls

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and if you're looking for the PERFECT roll recipe look no further. You have found it. Give this recipe a whirl and enjoy! My mom always makes these and they're a family favorite. Here's the recipe:

Lion House Rolls Recipe -

2 Tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter softened (not melted)
1 1/2 cup warm milk (microwave for 1 minute)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
5-6 cups flour

And here's how to make them:

Mix warm water and yeast and about a teaspoon of sugar together. Let the yeast rise for 10-15 minutes. The water should be warm, almost hot (but not too hot).

(Side note: don't be afraid of using yeast. For some reason I used to always be afraid I would kill it or it wouldn't grow. It's really very simple. I've had people tell me they've tried these rolls and they haven't turned out so I think you've got to get the yeast right first.)

It should look like this after 15 minutes.

 

Transfer the yeast to your mixer. I use an old Bosch.

 Heat 1 1/2 cups milk in the microwave for 1 minute. Add to the yeast in mixer.

 Add the 1/2 cup of sugar.

 Beat the 2 eggs in a separate bowl and then add them to the mixture.

 Here's how it should look now.

Add your 1 teaspoon of salt. 

 Cut your 1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick) into chunks and add it to the mixer. Blend together. The butter won't mix in all the way until the flour is added.

Next, start adding your flour. The recipe calls for 5-6 cups. I usually end up using all 6. You just want to watch for the dough to pull away from the sides and not be too sticky but also not too stiff. I like to stay a bit on the sticky side so I can add more flour when I roll the dough out without it getting too dry.

 My dough looked like this after adding all the flour.

 Transfer the dough to another big bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until it doubles in size. This is how it'll look, I let mine grow until it touches the plastic wrap. Usually an 45-60 minutes.

 After it has doubled in size, flour your countertop and dump the dough out. Knead a bit of flour in until it's not sticky and then split the dough into 4 equal sections.

Roll out one section at a time into a circle about 1/4" thick.

 

With a pizza cutter, slice the dough like a pizza into 8 triangles.

Roll them up into crescent shapes. 

 

Transfer them to a greased baking sheet. Make sure you tuck the "tail" way under so it doesn't pop up when the rolls raise.

 You should get exactly 32 rolls from one batch. I lay mine out on the cookie sheets like this.

Cover and let rise. I put them on my stovetop with the oven on so it's warm. It'll take an hour or an hour and a half. Oh, and if you don't have these awesome plastic covers for your pans you can get them at Orson Gygi. They are the best! You can cover the rolls with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with cooking spray if you don't have lids.

 They should look like this after they have risen.

 Bake them at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

 Butter the tops of the rolls right when they come out of the oven.

 

Put them in a basket and enjoy these beauties! Is there anything better than fresh homemade rolls right out of the oven?

Another great thing about making these rolls is that you'll most likely have leftovers to eat the next few days for breakfast. Just broil them in your oven for a few minutes, butter them, and serve them with Grandma's Hot Chocolate. You will be in heaven! It's probably my favorite way to eat these rolls!

 

I made a little video tutorial so hopefully it helps to see them made in action.

 

Leave a comment below if you have any questions about the recipe. They look pretty complicated from the long explanation but once you make them you'll see they're not so hard. Good luck!

 

Master Bedroom Makeover

When we bought our house the master bedroom didn't need too much help. It just needed a fresh coat of paint, can lights in the ceiling, and that was basically it.

Here's a picture of the master bedroom before. It just had cream colored walls with a ceiling that matched. Just a boring blah color...

The first thing to do was choose a wall color. I knew I wanted something neutral and light so I looked at a few greige colors. I ended up choosing Benjamin Moore's Edgecomb gray which I'm very happy with. It looks lighter in the daytime sunlight but darkens up at night. We painted the ceiling Pure White by Behr.

 The finished walls.

 

 Trying to paint the baseboards with a little toddler on your lap is tricky work!

We were going to keep the original carpet which was just a tan color but since we had a flood from the swamp cooler that ruined it we "had" to re-carpet the whole upstairs. (I'm grateful for that flood now that it's over with because we got to fix up more of the house than we were originally going to.) We chose this darker brown/gray color from Giant Carpet One. It's pretty speckled when you look at it up close so it hides everything. I was very happy with the service I received there and I love how soft and full this carpet is! (I'll have to look up the exact color and brand it is.) 

I bought our bedroom furniture from Actionwood furniture in Salt Lake City. Their prices were very decent and I love the color and style of the bed, nightstands, and dresser. I got the recliner a few years ago from Ashley furniture but you can also order Ashley furniture at Actionwood.

The pillows are from Shopko. I always forget about Shopko but they had these pillows for 50% off when I went to look there so the price was right and I loved the gray and yellow colors. The cream duvet cover is just one I picked up from Smith's Marketplace and the sheets are from Tuesday Morning.

In our other house we only had one nightstand so I for sure wanted one on both sides of the bed. It's nice having a place to put all my books, alarm, cell phone charger, and what not and not having to share it with my husband.

I love the little window nook in this room and having this comfy chair there is a perfect spot to read and relax! The only thing left I need to get is a tall reading lamp right behind this chair. And maybe a cute valance to go over the window...

I still have a pile of stuff to organize on my dresser so don't mind that but here's how it looks in the room.

 

Overall I'm happy with the way our master bedroom turned out. It was a fun project and now it's nice to just enjoy this room! 

Kitchen Remodel

One of the funnest parts of our house to remodel was the kitchen! I loved picking the finishes out, the wall color, the backsplash, appliances, and watching it all come together.

This is how the kitchen looked when we bought the house. Not bad...but definitely nothing special. I knew I'd keep the cabinets and countertops but everything else had to change. 

A view from the other end of the kitchen. Notice the horrible bulk head that ran right through the middle of the kitchen ceiling. That was horrible but we were just going to live with it. In the middle of our renovation our house flooded (from the swamp cooler on the top floor) and ruined the ceiling in the kitchen. Since the bulk head was ruined we were glad to get rid of it. We also had electrical issues in the kitchen ceiling that had to be fixed so in the end the flood was a blessing in disguise!

 

The first thing I changed were the knobs on the cabinets. At first they were just a wooden knob that matched the cabinets exactly. I wanted something to stand out so I ordered these oil rubbed bronze ones from knobs4less.com

 The next thing we did was pull up the floor. It turned out that there were about 4 layers of laminate and vinyl flooring. My husband had a fun time digging that out!

 I chose a medium dark brown hickory hardwood floor. It turned out gorgeous and I love, love, love it! This is a picture of the floor in the front room which goes throughout the whole main level. I got my wood from Kalia Flooring in Salt Lake City. I love the wood but the service I received was horrible so I can't recommend them to anyone.

 I replaced the old vent covers with these decorative ones from Home Depot. They were around $15 each.

I wanted a blue/gray color on the walls so I chose Aloof Gray by Sherwin Williams. It went perfectly with the backsplash I picked out and was just what I was looking for!

Here's a picture of the bulkhead gone and the ceiling being replaced. It was a long, frustrating few months after the flood but fortunately it was worth it in the end.

With that bulkhead gone we were able to put in can lights right where it had been and it made the kitchen much brighter!

The backsplash I picked out is from Home Depot. I wanted something with blues, browns, and creams in it to match the countertop, appliances, and walls. This one was perfect! It's made of glass tiles and stone and I love the combination!

 Backsplash going in.

Here it is finished and grouted.

The kitchen in the middle of painting.

For our appliances I chose the GE Slate series which we bought from RC Willey. You can get a pretty good deal if you buy them in a package and GE had a mail in rebate too so that was nice. I liked the slate color because it's a smudge proof stainless steel looking type but it's a little more of a bronze/brown color.

 I love cooking on the gas range!

 We needed a certain size fridge (33" wide) but I wanted the French doors and luckily this GE series had just what we needed.

The dishwasher is great because its buttons are above where the kids can't reach them. It's also super quiet.

We switched out the kitchen faucet for this gorgeous Moen one from Standard Plumbing. It made a huge difference!

 I got the barstools from Overstock.com. You can find them here on Amazon too. They're easy to keep clean and were the perfect color for the kitchen.

 The kitchen rug is from Kohls.

We kept the pendant lights that the house came with but we switched out the glass covers for some whiter ones.

Here are a few pictures of how the kitchen turned out:

I'm so glad the ceiling is flat now and that the bulkhead is gone! What were they thinking when they built the house with that ugly thing anyway?

 

Here's a video of the finished kitchen. It was a fun project but it's nice to have it done!