Lovely Easter

My parents raised me to have a healthy admiration for many sports, one of them being baseball. Yes, my sister and I may have spent the first couple years of baseball games playing with dolls and coloring, but after a while, we finally started looking up every once in a while. Baseball was unlike any other sport I had been exposed to. It wasn't fast-paced like basketball and it didn't have the testosterone-induced aggression of football. It was calming and refined and I found it charming that the players wear perfectly white uniforms.

I've grown to love baseball, and I'm lucky enough to have married a man who loves baseball, too! BYU's baseball season started a few weeks ago and last weekend was the first nice weather we've had all season! Thank you Provo for throwing us a bone every once in a while.

We stopped by the Wilkinson Center to buy a tasty Navajo taco, my first one since my first one at the New Mexico State Fair. We shared one of these beauties and I only spilled a little drop of chili on my shorts. I call that a success. 

The weather was perfect and we had to move under the overhang because it was too warm. Can you believe that? Too warm. We didn't win, but the weather was wonderful.

After we went to a delicious dinner at Aaron's great-aunt and great-uncle's house, Aaron's brother Travis came over and we watched Avenger's while we dyed Easter eggs. I love this Kool Aid method that Bri used last year. It smells a lot better, that's for sure.

One of my eggs turned out a little . . . unexpected. However, I think it looks like a dinosaur egg. Dinosaurs are cool. Don't mock.

We ate way too many Cadbury eggs and we made Travis stay up way too late for his early morning job, but it was a wonderful Easter with my family!

I've got to share this recipe. Easter morning, I woke up early to make these incredible cinnamon rolls. I don't make cinnamon rolls very often because they take so much time, but these cinnamon rolls were super easy and only required about 10 minutes to rise! I may have almost killed my Kitchen Aid (Just kidding. But really.). You've got to try these.

One Hour Cinnamon Rolls

Adapted from Valley Ridge Recipes

Makes 24 cinnamon rolls

Ingredients

Dough

3 1/2 c. warm water

3/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. vegetable oil

6 Tbsp. yeast

1 Tbsp. salt

3 eggs

10 1/2 c. flour

Cinnamon Sugar
1 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Frosting
1/2 c. butter (seriously, don't substitute the real stuff)
2 dashes of salt
2 tsp. vanilla
6 c. powdered sugar
milk

Directions
Mix together the warm water, sugar, vegetable oil, and yeast.

Then add the salt, eggs, and flour. Mix together for 10 minutes, then let it sit for 10 minutes.

Combine the sugar and cinnamon together.

Oil your counter (make sure you've got a big enough space), and dump out dough. Divide in half. Roll one half out into rectangle. Spread with 1/4 c. melted butter and pour it onto the dough. Spread it out across the dough (turns out using your hands is a really fast way to spread butter!) Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Roll up tight, but try not to strangle it. Roll it gently. Slice the dough into 12 rolls and place on greased cookie sheet. Repeat with the other half of dough. Let rise until the dough is as big as you'd like. Bake for 12–15 minutes at 400˚ F.

While the cinnamon rolls are cooking, mix together the butter, salt, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Add enough milk to reach whatever consistency you'd like. As soon as the rolls come out of the oven, spread the frosting with a rubber spatula over the warm rolls until they are warm and gooey, or wait until they are cool before frosting. The frosting is enough for both batches, so be generous!

The rolls are frozen very easily. Place in a freezer-safe container, and when you're ready to eat them, microwave a cinnamon roll with frosting on it for about 1 minute. It's pretty handy to have breakfast for about a week!