Soft Gingerbread Cookies

Need a soft and chewy gingerbread recipe? My mom and I came up with this delicious idea for soft gingerbread about 10 years ago while talking on the phone.  I like to make these at Valentine's Day but they're delicious all year round!

Apple Cinnamon Rolls from Great Grandma's Kitchen

For the past month or so, I've been posting recipes in a series called Great Grandma's Kitchen.  I was given a box of my great-grandma's and great-great-grandma's recipes and cookbooks, and have been trying some of them out.  Today I'm going to share a disaster with you...and then redeem it with a great recipe!

One thing I learned from my great-grandma's recipe for Apple Rolls is that what she wrote and what she meant might not always have been the same thing!

When I found this recipe and read it over, I could tell right away that following it exactly would have scary results.  I decided to do it anyway---just for fun...

I used my Pampered Chef apple peeler/corer/slicer to prepare the apple slices.  I love this tool and imagine my great grandma probably had one too!

The recipe said to roll out the dough and place apple slices on top.  This was mistake #1:

Then I was supposed to roll it up like cinnamon rolls, slice, place in my pan, and cover with "sauce":

Finally, the baking:

These were pretty scary looking but my sweet kids ate them up anyway!

So...after a few minor  major adjustments, I made a second batch and got these:

And finally, this:

Which one would you like the recipe for?  Hee Hee Hee... I will give you the bread machine version that I made up.  If you don't have a bread machine, you can adapt a regular cinnamon roll recipe and use my filling and frosting parts of the recipe.

Bread Machine Apple Rolls

1 c. warm milk
2 eggs (room temperature)
1/3 c. melted butter
4 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. sugar
2 1/2 tsp. yeast

Place items in bread machine in order listed and run on the dough cycle.  Roll out dough in a large rectangle and mix the first three ingredients of the filling and spread filling evenly over dough. Then sprinkle with chopped apples.

filling

1 c. brown sugar
2 Tbs. + 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 c. softened butter
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped

Roll up into a long "snake" and slice off rolls to desired thickness.  Place in well-buttered baking pan.  Cover pan tightly with plastic wrap and allow rolls to rise for 30 min.  Remove wrap and bake on 375 for 12-15 minutes.  Mix frosting ingredients with an electric mixer until well blended and fluffy.  Before serving, cover rolls with frosting or melt frosting to drizzle over as icing.

frosting/icing

3 oz. softened cream cheese
1/4 c. softened butter
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt

Wow---now that I've written this all out for you, I want to go make another batch!

This week at Beverly's Pink Saturday we're celebrating with a Valentine's Day theme.  Check out Cainan and Selah's photo shoot in their new Valentine's Day outfits!

Making funny faces at Mommy!

 I hope you'll join me this week for my Homemaking Link-Up Weekend.  All posts related to the home are welcome:  crafts, recipes, DIY, encouragement, musings---I'm excited to see what you've got to share!  Please take a button to display on your blog so your friends can come visit too!


<a href="http://www.bloggingwhilewaiting.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc418/lostinavalon1/Homemakinglinkup.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a> Last week was the biggest yet at my linky party!  Thank you so much to everyone who visited and welcome to those who are new!  Here are a few of my favorite posts from last week:

Ruth from Antiques and Teacups showed off some of her tea towel collection.  This is a really informative post with some great images.  I have been sent several tea towels by friends overseas over the past few years---but I'm using them!  Oops...I didn't realize they were a collector's item.  Oh well---at least I'm enjoying them!

Debbie at Debbie-Dabble shared her Valentine's Day tree.  I am always enchanted by the neat way in which she decorates her home.  Her blog and photos are so inspiring!

I think this Welcome sign from Navy Wifey Peters is so adorable.  What a great way to honor her husband and his service!

Lisa from The Self Sufficient HomeAcre showed how she made her own cheese.  This is homemaking at it's finest---I'm impressed!

Hope In Every Season is on Facebook!  If you like what you've read here, please follow me and keep up with the latest posts.

Thank you, Mel, for featuring me on Inspiration Wednesdays @ MamaBuzz.   

Thank you to the girls at Ivy and Elephants for the feature!

Thank you to Melody from Countrified Hicks for featuring my recipe on her blog!

A Loving Home for a Sweet Baby

Hello friends!  

I was just made aware of this sweet couple and their desire and opportunity to adopt a baby.  The Hills have come up with an easy way that we can all take part and be a blessing.  Would you read their story and consider helping out?  I gave a small gift but every little bit helps.  Maybe you could contact Christie and have her send you a post like this to put up and make your friends aware of their need!

From Christie:
A week ago we received a phone call saying that we'd been chosen by a young birth mother in Florida.   Chosen for what?  To adopt her baby!  A story that started three weeks ago from a simple Facebook message has turned our world upside down, for the greater!  For the full story and our adoption announcement, please visit here.

Late last week our adoption agency gave us 15 days to come up with the first $10,000 needed for our precious baby girl's adoption.  To say that we were not prepared for this is an understatement!  As you read in our adoption announcement, we were waiting on fertility results the day that my friend contacted me.  So, to need $10,000 in such a short amount of time was a bit overwhelming.  But, the Lord soon laid an idea on my heart -- Operation 10:10:1 {10 Days: $10: 1 Baby Girl}!

I knew that friends and family were just as overwhelmed with the cost of adoption as I was and I figured, let's just chip away $10 at a time!  

In the last six days we have raised over $3,000 towards our $10,000 goal!  I've been amazed at the response, the love, and the support from the online community!  

When Sarah gave me the opportunity to share our story here, I knew that the Lord was giving me another avenue to give Him all honor, glory, and praise!

So, will you join us today as we seek to be obedient to the call that the Lord has on our lives?  We knew when we said, "Yes", that this was so much bigger than ourselves.  But, we knew that the body of Christ was big enough to accomplish it!

$10 and a prayer means more than you'll ever know!

Christie blogs at Satisfaction Through Christ