What's Cookin'?

It was a hot one today, 90 something or more I'm sure. We did everything we could to not go outside. We checked on our growing green beans this morning, they are looking fantastic. A menacing viney plant crept into our garden and wrapped it's mangy self around the wire for our green beans, I took care of that though. I pulled that little sucker extinguishing it's plague on our plants. While Alex took his second nap Luke and I decided to make something special for papa. We decided on homemade cinnamon rolls, and set to making them. They are a bit time consuming so we just started them and then set to starting dinner.
The cinnamon roll recipe is:
Ingredients:
3 cups lukewarm water
½ cup plus 1 teaspoon white sugar
2 Tablespoons yeast granules (or 2 packets), we use Red Star Yeast
1 Heaping Tablespoon salt
½ cup salad oil, melted butter, or melted shortening
11 cups all purpose flour
Directions:
In a large, warmed bowl, pour: 1 cup lukewarm water
In the water dissolve: 1 teaspoon white sugar
Over the water sprinkle: 2 Tablespoons yeast granules (or 2 packets), we use Red Star Yeast
Let stand 10 minutes, then stir until yeast is completely dissolved. Then stir in: 2 cups lukewarm water, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 heaping Tablespoon salt, 1/2 cup salad oil, melted butter, or melted shortening. Beat, then stir in 1 cup at a time: about 9 cups all purpose bread flour. (If you’re using a mixer, switch from paddle to bread hook when dough begins to get sticky on paddle. If you are mixing by hand, know that mixing in all that flour will be a workout, but it’s worth it!! )
To knead by hand: Scrape the dough onto a well floured surface, sprinkle it with flour and knead it. Gather the dough together in your hands and push it away from you with your palms. Fold it in half towards you, then turn ¼ turn and repeat pushing, folding, and turning, sprinkling flour on the dough to keep it from sticking, this may take up to a cupful more. Keep kneading for several minutes, until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.
To knead by machine: Leave in mixer bowl with dough hook, then set mixer on low, and let it knead for 5 minutes (check often to make sure that the dough isn’t “crawling” out of the bowl. If it crawls up, just turn off the machine and push it back down, then continue kneading.
After kneading, put the dough in a large oiled bowl, and flip to coat both sides with oil. Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and place in a warm place (near a woodstove or in an oven that has been preheated for 30 seconds then turned off. IMPORTANT!!! Always preheat the oven, turn off, and then put the dough in the oven. I’ve had it happen too often that I forget to turn off the oven and then it ruins the dough!! ) Let it rise for 1 to 2 hours, or until the dough has doubled. Cinnamon Roll: Roll the dough for 1 loaf an inch thick, and about 6x9 inches. Spread melted butter over the dough, then sprinkle it generously with white or brown sugar and cinnamon, and raisins or chopped nuts if you like them. Roll it as you would a jelly roll, and put into a loaf pan to rise. Bake as usual.

After starting the rolls on their initial rise we began making noodles for dinner. I love making my own noodles because they are simple and delicious. I buy my flour at Costco, because we use it so much, and with bread and noodles in one day that is a total of 5 1\2 cups of flour, needless to say Costco saves us on that.
The recipe for my noodles is:
INGREDIENTS
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (optional)
DIRECTIONS
1. Combine egg, salt, milk. Add flour. (For thicker noodles add baking powder to flour before mixing.) Separate into two balls.
2. Roll out dough, and let stand for 20 minutes.
3. Cut into strips and spread to dry--dust with a little flour. Let dry for approximately 2 hours.
4. Drop into hot soup or water--cook for about 10 minutes.

Later on Todd came home and we, I mean he, started work on our second garden. We decided that another part of our backyard should be utilized for gardening and set to make a second garden with our 2 compost piles. Todd dug 18 inches in the ground and layered cardboard boxes, then leaf compost, topped with food compost and a final layer of good top soil. We are planning this garden to start with sweet potatoes. We have not decided on what else will accompany them, but I'm sure it will be something good.