Bread Machine Sweet Potato Rolls

More success with the bread machine! Yeah! I mixed this roll dough in the bread machine and then baked them in the oven. They were super easy (though they did take some time to rise). These sweet potato rolls have a great texture and orange-ish color, but they do not have a strong sweet potato flavor. Their flavor is very subtle.

Mmm, homemade sweet potato rolls!

Ingredients: 

1/2 c warm water

1 medium cooked and mashed sweet potato (I cut mine up and boiled it)

4 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp softened butter

2 eggs

1 + 1/8 c whole wheat flour

2 + 1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 tbsp vital wheat gluten (not necessary if you're using bread flour)

2 tsp salt

1.5 tsp bread machine yeast

You want this dough to be pretty dry. It should be easy to handle, because you're going to create little balls out of the dough and then put them in a greased baking pan to rise and bake. I used pie pans, and my dough balls looked like this:

After rising for about 45 minutes, they looked like this:

Stick em in the oven at 375 for 15 or 20 minutes, and you've got some awesome rolls for fall and winter! Great rolls for a soup or stew. I served mine with roasted chicken and vegetables.

For these rolls, I adapted a recipe from Allrecipes. It provides instructions for preparing the rolls without a bread machine, using slightly different ingredients.

Homemade 'Rustic' Cat Tree

Remember back forever ago when Boyfriend and I built a cat tree out of debris from Hurricane Irene? I'm finally going to write about it. It had an accident and I finished screwing everything back together again yesterday. First, the finished product:

Homemade cat tree, placed strategically in my front window. With only half its sisal.

Looks good as home decor, too. Here pictured with all sisal in place.

The whole project took a couple days, plus a few more hours of gluing, screwing, and tightening. It was, I admit, a pretty giant pain in the ass. Still fun, though, and I'm very happy with the final cat furniture piece. Basically, what we started out with was...

:

3 Small-medium Branches

Leftover sewer pipe

Carpet Salvage (bought from Home Depot)

Plywood that was sitting around

I'm really lucky to have a boyfriend that works in construction. He had lots of tools and materials available, and he's very handy. Our materials were what was available at the time (except the carpet and sisal rope and some hardware, which were purchased). If you want to build your own cat tree, you could totally be creative. These 'rustic' hand-made trees can go for something like 700 bucks, and I got my inspiration from this awesome online store. 

We bolted the limbs to the plywood and then trimmed them to
height we wanted.

Once we had our limbs on the base, we decided we wanted a top cradle spot, good for cat-looking-out-window-and-maybe-sleeping business. We cut the pipe to the right length and then cut it horizontally to create a half-cylinder. This cutting was done with a pipe saw. I cut the carpet and glued it to our cylinder with carpet glue (patience is a must for gluing carpet--takes FOREVER to dry). Then we just screwed it to the two limb forks. We used the rest of the intact pipe as a nice hidey spot and our 2nd tree tier. I carpeted it, and then we just kind of wedged the pipe between our limbs, drilled holes where we planned to attach the pipe, and then screwed the pipe to the limbs.We had plans going into this project, but then for some reason, we disregarded them completely and just winged it.

After our two main tiers (pipe pieces) were in place, we decided there needed to be two smaller levels for jumping on. We cut them out of plywood to fit between the tree branches. After we created our 3rd level, it seemed obvious that we were going to run out of carpet. I decided to pad the third level with quilting fluff and then cover it in shiny gold fabric.

When we brought it home, Butter Bean was too small to really enjoy it. But she can climb it like a champ now. She sleeps in it at night and looks out the window during the day. It's like her bedroom.

She was so little when we brought home the tree!

After a few days of watching her on the tree, it seemed she was having some trouble getting over the big pipe and to the top levels. We cut one hole in the back-bottom and one in the top-front so that she can hop right into and out of the tube. This was done with a big hole saw. It turned out to be pretty successful, but it was hard to make the carpet look nice around those holes. 

Pipe holes are a success!

Pretttttyyyyy cute

Issues and warnings: If you're going to use a big giant heavy PVC sewer pipe like we did (it was free), use BIG screws or bolts to attach it to your tree. Ours fell down. Luckily the cat was not in it when it happened. Also, TREAT YOUR WOOD FOR BUGS. We didn't, and we had a little ambrosia beetle invasion. No big deal. They all died because they couldn't get any of the fungus they eat (their life cycle is pretty cool and I never would have known about them if they hadn't infected the cat tree wood, so it's all good). But you might get a more destructive beetle than we did and maybe your house will be eaten. So, let the wood dry before you use it. Treat it with some kind of glaze. I don't know what to do because clearly I didn't do my research, but you should google anti-bug wood treatments. 

Now that all the work is done, we can relax and enjoy our cat tree.
Butter Bean is pleased.

The only other cat I've had was adopted as an older man. Butter Bean, at 5 months old, is a wild thing. She's a monster. I'm really glad she has her cat tree to climb around on. She burns a fair amount of energy scampering up and down it. It's also her own personal space, up high where she won't be bothered but where she can keep an eye on things. I'm not sure how well it's prevented general destruction, but she does play on it and sleep on it all the time. She scratches on the sisal about as often as she scratches on her favorite chair in the living room, which I guess is a fair trade. I believe it was time well spent.

A Start to the New Year in Bristol

My long lost best friend has been living in China, and I haven't seen her in a couple years. She came home for the holidays, and so I took the opportunity to visit her in Bristol, Virginia (her hometown) over the long New Year's weekend. Boyfriend went with me, and we stayed in a sweet Econo Lodge (because it was centrally located, not because of its many amenities). We played a lot of board games, drank plenty of beer and champagne, watched Beetlejuice, heard some live music, and enjoyed each other's company. The Econo Lodge was not bad, actually--we got to watch a little cable television in a king size bed, and it was relatively clean and quite cheap.

I love the New Year holiday. It's a practical holiday, meant for reflection. No need to buy presents for anyone. No need to make up a character to deliver goodies to children. No forceful patriotic stuff. Just togetherness and champagne and resolutions for a shiny and bright new year.

In 2012, I will continue striving for constant, if subtle, adventures. I'd like a big vacation in Puerto Rico and many little ones in and around home base. I shall make good use of my tent. I also want to sew a dress for myself, though if that has to wait until next year, it'll be okay.

Maryland Fried Chicken (closed),
Next to the Econo Lodge in Bristol, Virginia

The word of the year will be: wholesome. I hope to make the right choices for promoting a sturdy mind, body, and sense of morals. I hope that I will choose to do the right thing, this year and always.

My general hopes for this year include a change of mood for the political outlook in our country. I know it's on many peoples' minds. I know a lot of us are suffering. Even as a person who tends to be mostly apathetic toward politics, I am saddened by the state of our country, especially after traveling to a healthy and happy Switzerland. I hope that American citizens will finally make a stand for what's right for people here, if it can ever be agreed upon. It seems so clear to me that capitalism is out of control. I feel ready to detach, move to the boonies, and simplify to the barest essentials, like a real crazy hermit. But... I won't make that resolution just yet. Maybe in 2013.

Happy New Year to you. May 2012 be good.