Confessions and rolls

I have to confess three things:
1. I love tootsie rolls. A lot. Even though we just went through way too much candy over the past few weeks, I bought a bag of tootsie rolls on halloween clearance yesterday- the big, chunky ones. I have been eating them all day while my son has been vomiting. Okay, not at the same time he has been vomiting, because that would be terrible.
2. I didn't vote today because I'm not registered to vote in the state of Utah. Nate and I really don't want to get Utah driver's licenses or license plates, and are holding off until we absolutely have to. We do have liberary cards, though! I also am pretty sure that my vote is meaningless in this state, where politicians show up to high schools and tell students that college is stupid and that the state actually has plenty of money that it could spend on education but it won't because of Common Core. (Read more about that in a future post on my other blog.) It's hard to put the effort into doing all of the things necessary in order to vote when you are a small blue dot in a sea of red and your ballot might as well be used for toilet paper. Were I still in Oregon, I would have most definitely voted. Also because voting by mail is awesome.
3. I am starting to like it here. Sure, there are things about this place that are messed up, like a lot of really psychotic drivers (I had a guy freaking out on my the other day driving behind me because I was going the speed limit. Through a neighborhood. I'm not really into hitting people with my car.), church is quite different here- rather than the "Be a good example and love everyone" mentality that I am used to, we get a lot of "The world is a bad place, the end of the world is coming soon, we're all being personally attacked, etc." It's really strange. And the view of the pillaged Oquirrh mountains is rather dismal. But, we are meeting some pretty cool people that I am pretty sure aren't insane, there's a lot of amazing hiking and skiing (even though I can't ski this year and doubt I will ever get back into alpine skiing since the last time I went I was 13), tons of fun events and places to go, great parks (our kids are obsessed with Liberty Park), and if we do need to escape, then the Salt Lake airport is nearby. Plus, yesterday it snowed a ton up in the mountains and they look awesome covered in white. A huge improvement in the areas that have been cut away for the sake of minerals and granite countertops. I sometimes feel like a fish out of water, literally, because I actually like rain and am probably really some sort of amphibious creature, but the increase in sunshine has been good for the mood. I get really sleepy and lethargic when it's rainy and overcast, as much as I love it, and I am better about being alert when there is more sunshine, even though it kind of burns.

Now, onto the part about rolls:

I have an amazing roll recipe that must be shared. It's from my maternal grandmother, and I use it a lot. They're great dipped in soup, slathered in butter and jam, and if you make them huge, they also make great buns for sloppy joe's. It's also a great dough to use for making cinnamon rolls. If you are part of the Fryer clan and haven't had these before, you are missing out! Mine aren't the prettiest, but taste pretty darn good. And here you go:

Grandma Fryer's Roll Dough
1 pkg yeast
2 cups hot water
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 eggs
7-8 cups flour

*note: this recipe makes a LOT of rolls. When I made these a couple of days ago, I halved the recipe and still have a few leftover rolls.
Dissolve yeast with a little warm water and sugar. Combine hot water, margarine, sugar, salt and eggs in large mixing bowl. Add two cups of flower and the yeast mixture. Mix, then add enough flour to make a soft dough. Don't add too much flour-- it should still be a little sticky but not too hard to handle. Put in a greased bowl and let rise until double. Punch down dough and let it rest for 15 minutes before shaping into rolls or bread. Let rise again after shaping. Bake rolls at 425 for 12 minutes.

I sometimes get impatient and don't let mine rise enough, but they still taste good.

On a final, unrelated note, kids grow up too fast. Madelynn decided to start losing teeth this month, and has lost her bottom two central incisors. She's our little fashionista with opinions galore, is an amazing big sister (she took Ian to the bathroom this morning to throw up while I was in another room), has an amusingly high vocabulary, and likes tootsie rolls just as much as her mother. And now she is this big and is very proud of her new sparkly boots: