Top 10 Gentle Joy Homemaker 2015

The top 10 posts published in 2015 on the Gentle Joy Homemaker blog are listed here.

Feel free to click on the title of each (it is actually a link) and the post will come up for you.

           Number 10

 Garage Sale Series-Hints and Tips









                                           
                   



                Number 9

   Small Garden-Part 3-More Beds

                Number 8

   Pulled Chicken on Homemade Buns

        Number 7 

Small Garden-Part 4-Companion Planting 

      Number 6

Small Garden-Part 2-Growing UP 

         

                  Number 5 

 Small Garden-Part 1-Crop Rotation 

         Number 4

 Yes, I'm Sleep Deprived, So What??? Part 2 

                 Number 3

                Dress Up A Plain Cabinet 

          Number 2

8 Things To Do When Sickness Strikes 

        
Number 1 for 2015

Trip To The Amish Store 











It's been a challenging year, but it has also been a good year. Thank you for joining me in it. I hope you have a wonderful 2016.  





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Hot Cocoa Cup Cookies

Every year our family takes some fun food to our "Christmas Crunch" time at church or other times during the year.   You can see some of our other fun foods here.  
Fun Foods We Have Made

This year, I had seen cute little cups made of marshmallows on pinterest, so we experimented and made some.  They were very popular-especially with the little ones. :)

The first step is to make or buy some cookies that will work as a "saucer" for the cups.  I wanted them to be about 3" in diameter and thankfully, I had a cookie cutter that size.

I used the next smaller size cookie cutter to press a design into the edge, although I ended up covering it up with frosting. 

 I wanted to have a scalloped edge of some kind... and this worked.  Plain circles would work fine... or buy some cookies at the store of a similar size. 

Next, spread some chocolate on the top, as shown in the picture. It could be chocolate frosting.... or I used some homemade fudge that didn't set up quite right.  :)











I didn't know what to do about the little marshmallows on the top... I was figuring this out as I went....  I ended up just tearing off little pieces from a big marshmallow and it worked fine. I put 3 little marshmallows into each "cup". 

Next, I used a sharp knife to dig 2 little holes in the side of a regular sized big marshmallow-not a big hole, but enough to allow the broken candy cane handle to go into the marshmallow.

 I had to shop around to find little candy canes... a couple of places had some that were too big, or the arch was too much for these marshmallows...  Finally, we found some that would work.

Just break off the end, so there is a U-shaped piece. Push into the side of the marshmallow. Yes, it can make it a bit oddly-shaped. and the bottom wasn't flat, but it worked.

See how we used the leftover pieces of broken candy cane here....
Easy Edible Doors!

I got tired of doing these one at a time, so started a bit of an assembly line method...

 I put a layer of white frosting on each cookie-saucer, then decorated it and put some matching decoration on the cup.  I did have some decorations - the stars were from some after 4th of July sales, but I did also buy a package of 4 different candy decorations. If you have time and desire to do it, you could use only frosting also, but I was in a hurry.

 I put extra frosting on the bottom of the "cup" before I put it on the saucer... and we learned to use that frosting to make the cup as level as possible.  The bottoms of the "cups" weren't flat due to the candy cane handles.

We had so many comments on these... and the younger kids LOVED them and even used them as play food before they ate them. 

 Are these simple and easy and fast? Well.... no... but they aren't hard either... just a bit time-consuming.  We got a lot faster as we went and as we figured out how to do them.  We made 29 of them, so that took a while, but we were very glad we made them.

   These are great for Christmas or New Year's, but they would also be wonderful for a sledding party or Valentine's Day or a summer garden party.... or a little girl's tea party.  :)   There are so many possibilities with these.

We served them on stands, but they would also be great served in other ways. They can be made all the same... or varied as we did.

By they way, you don't have to be too fussy with these... as my son reminded me, "It won't take long for the kids to eat them.":)

Thank you for visiting my blog today... and I hope you and your family remember to give thanks to God for the wonderful gift of His Son, Jesus, during this season. What a blessing that Jesus came, and lived, died and rose again...defeating death and sin... so that we could have eternal life. That is the best gift ever.

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Apple-Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

My family really loves cinnamon rolls and I also like to experiment. Last year, I experimented and came up with these:
Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls

That post  has been my
Number 1 post on my blog! My family also loved it which is why I posted about it.








Well, this year... I experimented again! :)  Instead of using apple butter, I decided to use apples and pecans... and these are also a hit at our house.  The in-house reviews are totally positive and these do not last long at all. They are moist and full of wonderful rich buttery flavor and pieces of apple and pecans. Such a delicious roll.  I love it when an experiment works. :)










So, I am sharing my new experiment with you. We still love the Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls too, but I think these new Apple-Pecan Cinnamon Rolls are my new favorite. I love the bits of apple and especially the wonderful crunch of pecans in the rich cinnamon roll flavors.

The first step in making these is to start with some bread dough. You can buy frozen bread dough or make your own. I like to use this easy recipe:
Basic Homemade Bread Recipe

Choose how much of it you want to turn into cinnamon rolls and roll it out. I love having lots of rolls in my cinnamon rolls so I use a large sheet of dough, as shown.

This would probably be about all of the dough from one batch of the above recipe.

Here are the apple pieces... I mixed them with cinnamon and let them sit in a bowl until I was ready for them.

That worked great, but the next time, I skipped this step and just put the diced apples on the cinnamon roll dough and that worked just as well and saved a step... and a bowl to wash. :)  I love cutting corners on dishes when I can.

I use the diced apples from about 3-5 apples for this amount of cinnamon rolls. 

The next step is to spread butter all over the dough.  I probably used about 1 1/4 sticks on this amount of dough... it was about 24" x 24", so it was quite large. You can use more or less butter... depending on your preference. 

 This picture shows 3 steps...
1. Sprinkle with white sugar all over the buttered dough....
2. Put brown sugar all over that layer and flatten it a bit....
3. Sprinkle lots of cinnamon all over.

 Note: the picture shows my first time of making these Apple-Pecan Cinnamon Rolls and there was cinnamon on the dough AND on the apples. The next time, I only put cinnamon on the dough, so I used a lot more cinnamon than shown here. Again... it is up to your taste.

The apple pieces... with or without cinnamon.... go on next.

Then sprinkle pecan pieces... lots of them are wonderful. I did less the first time and more the second and the second batch was definitely better with the extra pecans.

Time to roll the dough... start and one end and start rolling. If it sticks, use a pancake turner (as shown) to loosen the dough and keep rolling... 

Yum..... lots of good flavors packed in there. 

Keep rolling all the way... 

Now there is one "log" of cinnamon roll dough. 

Just a big roll...

Time to cut... use a sharp knife and cut slices... I did mine about 3/4"-1" thick. 

Put the slices into a greased baking dish. You can see here that there is space between the rolls... that is okay... they will rise.  It may take an hour or two.

Here they are after time to rise... they have filled in those empty spaces nicely.

I bake the cinnamon rolls at 350 degree for about 30 minutes or so... sometimes a little less or more. 



After they are baked, take them out of the oven and let them cool.

Mix up some glaze or thin frosting and drizzle it all over... I use powdered sugar, pinch of salt, vanilla, a little milk and some butter. Mix it all up until it is rather runny and drizzle with a fork or spoon. I was in a hurry and used a spoon... as you can tell.  :) 

That big cinnamon log roll I started with made 3 of these 9" x 13" pans of cinnamon rolls. 

 The frosting can be put on the cinnamon rolls after they are completely cooled... or when they are still warm. I like to do it when they are still warm since it goes down inside a bit and adds to the moist goodness.


 I hope you get a chance to try these. Don't worry about exact measures...  they are tasty with more or less sugar... and the apples add some sweetness also.





These CAN be frozen and used at a later time. It is a good idea and I have done that before...what a treat to put a pan of frozen cinnamon rolls in the oven to warm for a wonderful breakfast snack. In my house; however, they usually do not make it to the freezer any more as they get eaten so fast. :)

 Thank you for visiting today. I hope you have a wonderful week. :)







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