Happy Christmas

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day.   Since Alex and I are thousands of miles away from our normal celebrations we spent today doing something a little different.

Today:

We went for a 20 minute run/walk.

We are on week two of this beginners running schedule

I wanted to watch the first Harry Potter movie,

but could not find it on any of our streaming media, instead

I watched Forks over Knives 

and this TEDtalk

We prepared our Christmas meal of ham, mashed red potatoes, roasted asparagus, and rolls.

We made these rolls, glazed the ham with lime juice and honey, roasted asparagus with olive oil, and mashed red potatoes with a bit of milk, chicken stock, butter, salt, and pepper.

Parker House Rolls:

Ingredients:

• 1 envelope active dry yeast 
• 1/4 cup warm water 
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening 
• 3 tablespoons sugar 
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 
• 1 room temperature large egg 
• 3 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter 

Directions:

• Whisk yeast and warm water in a small bowl
• Let stand for 5 minutes 
• Heat milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until just warm
• Combine shortening, sugar, and salt in a large bowl 
• Add warm milk
• Whisk to blend 
• Whisk in yeast mixture and egg
• Add flour 
• Stir with a wooden spoon until dough forms 
• Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth about 4 to 5 minutes 
• Place in greased bowl turn to coat 
• Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 & 1/2 hours 
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Melt butter 
• Lightly brush a baking dish with the butter 
• Cut the dough into four pieces 
• Roll out one piece cut into rectangles 
• Brush half with butter fold over place in baking dish 
• Continue for other three pieces of dough 
• When all rolls are in baking dish brush tops with butter 
• Bake until golden brown 25 - 35 minutes