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New Blog: Let Me Explain Myself, a blog by Brittony Hodgins

Reminder: This blog has moved, soon it will be taken down. Head on over to brittony.hodgins.me for all my new posts.

James wrote me an amazing letter. Read it here.

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A few days ago, I heard someone state that they don't think a good relationship should be hard work. That it should just mesh together. I was stunned, floored that she said that. It boggled my mind that a person could think that a lifelong, good quality relationship wouldn't require good amounts of effort.

In any relationship , you are asking 2 people with different-sometimes wildly different- backgrounds, families, and basic value sets to interact closely and constantly for the REST of their LIVES. 

In a lot of ways, I think this attitude might be why there are so many divorces, people aren't willing to work for their relationship. It also may be why so many women tend to breakup with guys based on relatively small offenses. 

People, unless you are marrying yourself, you are going to have to work at accepting that person. I guarantee that they are going to have traits or habits that you dislike. It's just the way it works. Expecting the perfect relationship is just plain dumb. 

James and I were raised with very similar values, both of our families emphasize the same things. We still had huge fights about some of the smallest things that you just don't notice until you start living together. Things like how each of you tackle the cleaning, your morning routines, how you express love when in the day-to-day grind, how you deal with your day ... the list goes on and on.

I'm not saying you should put up with gross personality differences, abuse (emotional or physical), or infidelity (physical or financial). Just be aware that each partner needs to make an equal commitment to adjust to each other and work together to make a long term relationship work. 

If you go to my new blog then you could see the pretty pretty pictures that go with this Kolache recipe.

So, besides being one of my 101 things I just love Kolaches! It's a Texas tradition, coming from our huge population of German descent settlers. Unfortunately, this part of Texas did not get our quota of tasty bakeries. When James needed a breakfast for his morning meeting I jumped at the chance to learn to make these yummies.

I used a recipe from King Arthur Flour who got their recipe from two different Texas sources. I doubled this recipe.

For the Dough:

1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine (If you use unsalted butter or margarine, add an additional 1/4 teaspoon salt.), melted
2 teaspoons instant yeast OR 1 packet active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 large eggs
4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

DOUGH: Warm the sour cream gently, and combine it with the sugar, salt, and butter or margarine in a large mixing bowl, the bowl of an electric mixer, or the bucket of your bread machine.

Cool the mixture to lukewarm (if it isn’t already that temperature), and add the yeast (if you’re using active dry yeast, dissolve it in the water first), warm water, eggs, and flour.

Mix and knead the dough, using your hands, a mixer, or a bread machine, till it’s soft and smooth. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate the dough overnight. This dough won’t rise much, so don’t worry about having to put it in a huge bowl. (Do NOT over knead, just get the stuff incorporated, the dough gets handled a lot later, so don’t go crazy with the kneading)

Next day, remove the dough from the fridge, and divide it into about 20 pieces, each 1 3/4 ounces, about the size of a golf ball. Place the pieces on lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving about an inch between them. Flatten the balls till they’re about 1/2-inch thick, cover them with a proof cover or lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow them to rest for 10 minutes.

PINEAPPLE FILLING
20-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained(If you’re using cornstarch as the thickener, reserve 3 tablespoons of the pineapple juice, in which you’ll dissolve the cornstarch.)

1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch OR Instant ClearJel(r)
2 tablespoons melted butter

This recipe used pineapple, but you can sub the ingredients for just about any pie filling. For example, I used frozen blueberries instead of pineapple.

 Apple, apricot, cherry are popular. As is a cream cheese filling. Heck, you can use fruit preserves and call it a day.

 In a medium-sized saucepan, heat the drained pineapple to boiling. If you’re using Instant ClearJel(r), mix it with the sugar, and stir this mixture into the pineapple. Immediately remove the filling from the heat, and stir in the melted butter. Cool to lukewarm before using.

If you’re using cornstarch, mix it with the reserved pineapple juice. Stir the dissolved cornstarch and the sugar into the hot pineapple, and cook over medium heat, stirring, till the mixture thickens and becomes clear. Remove it from the heat, and let it cool to lukewarm before using.

STREUSEL TOPPING
2/3 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 cup sugar 1/3 cup (about 5 2/3 tablespoons) melted butter

These measurements don't need to be exact and I added cinnammon.

 In a small bowl, mix together the flour and sugar, then add the butter, stirring till crumbs form.

ASSEMBLY: Using your fingers, make a wide, deep indentation in the center of each flattened dough ball. Don’t be afraid of being decisive here; you want to make a deep enough indentation that it doesn’t just disappear as the buns rise and bake. Place about 1 tablespoon of the filling into each bun; crumble a little of the streusel on top. Cover the kolaches, and allow them to rise for about an hour; they won’t necessarily double in bulk. (The colder your kitchen, the less they rise at this stage)

Bake the kolaches in a preheated 350°F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, till they’re golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and serve warm, or at room temperature. 

SAUSAGE KOLACHES

The dough for these is the same as for the pineapple kolaches above; just the shaping is different.

Cook however many sausages you want. Polish sausage are the best, but things like beef bratwurst work great. You can get all fancy with the brats that have stuff like jalepenos in them. I used beef brats, cut in half. Allow them to cool.

Divide the dough into 20 pieces, and shape each piece into a flattened oval. Place a sausage on each oval and pull the dough over it, sealing the edge and ends, to enclose the sausage completely. (Feel free to ad some cheddar cheese.) Smooth out the kolaches as best you can, so they look nice. Cover them, and allow them to rise for 1 hour; they won’t necessarily double in bulk.

Bake the kolaches as directed above. (Brushing them with an egg white wash is a good idea) Brush them with melted butter when they come out of the oven, if desired. Yield: about 20 sausage kolaches.

(Do you know how hard it is to get these cats to stay still?)

Tonight, I made a cookbook. No seriously. 

You see, I was sick of not doing anything in the evenings, and while my knee is injured (Thanks Canada) I can't really walk around. So I decided to make a cookbook. I have all these recipes floating around in different cookbooks that I use, and even more printed out from online. I gathered them all up and sorted though the ones I actually use. I put those in clear sheets and collected them all in one binder. 

I even got a little artsy and put different colored stickers on the sides to indicate Main Dishes, Sides, Appetizers and Desserts/Misc. I put them in my pretty binder in alphabetical order. In the front, I made a list of the recipes, plus a list of meals I make not using a recipe. This is what I'll use when planning our meals for the week. 

All in all, I'm pleased. I have a cute cookbook, and all the rest can go in the back of the bookcase where I don't have to worry about them getting sauce all over them (ask me how I know this is a problem).

That's another thing. You know when you make a meal and everyone is all "I must have the recipe," and you're all "I just wing it!" Yeah. How do you deal with that? While in Canada, I made Mexican for James's family. I made sour cream green chili chicken enchiladas, cheese enchiladas, spanish rice and refried black beans. I didn't use a single recipe. The food went over well. In fact several people offered me the honor of coming home with them and cooking. But everyone wanted the recipe. It's not that I don't want to share, it's that I just make it up as I go. 

So, I sat down and spent a few hours (yes hours) writing out the recipes and sent them off. Now I'm scared to ask how they went. What if I forgot something? What if I am just awesome, and they weren't able to recreate my food? WIll they think I was holding out? Yes, these are the things I worry about.

Last week, we made an emergency trip to Canada for James' grandfather's funeral. The drive up was hell, I twisted my knee, the drive down sucked too, but we got to see family!

Truthfully, it wasn't a bad week. Poppa's health was failing, so his passing wasn't as big a shock as it could have been. I hope when I go, that I will have had as long and as full a life as Poppa.  It was the ultimate truth to the saying that families only see each other for funerals and weddings though. James and I haven't been up for 9 years, and I had never met his Aunt who lives in Australia. We also got to meet some of his new cousins, and our 4-month old niece.

(I might have mentioned it on Twitter multiple times, but I don't want a baby. I'm not really a fan, and prefer kids who can talk and are potty trained.)

Anyways, getting to see our niece was one of my 101 things!! So we got to visit with her, and I have to say, she is cute! Her mom was way more patient than I would have been with all the family wanting to hold the baby (and you would be shocked at how many parents and grandparents had no idea what to do with a 4 month old). It did give me ooey-gooey feelings to be able to hold her and cuddle with her (she liked me the best!). I've dealt with babies before. I had the distinct opportunity to help raise my little sibs. Unlike many teenage siblings, I babysat, changed the diapers, and anything else you can think of alot! So no baby fever here folks, that's just overactive hormones.

Last time I updated you, we had $123,915 in total debt. As of January 5, we have $121,892 in total debt. We reduced the debt by $2,023. We are getting better!

I trust everyone had a good Christmas and year's end. I traveled to my parents and watched alot of football. (Even for me, it was a ton!)

I don't really have any resolutions, unless you count actually sticking to my budget. James and I recommitted ourselves to be better partners when it comes to money. We just were not communicating enough. I would make the budget, and James would do whatever I tell him. Since I need him to help me stick to the budget, and he never really had an investment in the making of said budget and didn't really know what was in the budget, you can guess how well this worked out.

SO we have both recommitted to each other. He promised me that he will put himself in the budget more, and be more firm with me when my crazy spending sprees take over. I promised to include him in the budget and try to listen. That's all, that's it. Our one and only "resolution."

On to happier things, Ginny and I might be entering our first agility competition in February. I will update you after a private lesson this weekend.

You don't realize how much you treasure peace and quiet until you don't have it anymore. When we had that stray dog in our house last week, I remembered the sheer amount of work required to train a new dog and lost the calm that James and I had cultivated in our house over the past few years.

James and I are both creatures of routine. In the morning and just after work, we rely on those routines to get past the tiredness of the day. James especially needs those routines so he doesn’t forget anything. Having the extra dog who wasn’t used to the routines threw what felt like everything out of whack.  We swung wildly from wanting to just drop him at the shelter and finding him to be absolutely adorable. In our heart of hearts, we knew we could never take him to the shelter. Lubbock has some of the highest euthanasia rates in the state, and he wouldn’t stand a chance.

This weekend, we found the stray a home, and in the few hours after he left, the house was almost completely silent. I think the cats were waiting to make sure he really was gone, and the dogs were just tuckered out. I felt ridicoulsy happy. It was like a weight had been lifted off. He was going to a home who knew what to expect and had experience. I didn’t have to worry about having this dog’s life depend on me. The cats slowly got more active and soon were chasing each other around the house. Hirshy and Ginny insisted on cuddling the rest of the weekend.

Yesterday, we had a movie day. It was heaven.