Yes, this is outdated and essentially old news. But then again, I’ve only just peeled myself up off the floor after Easter and so I could hardly have been expected to mention it earlier!
Here’s what happened. In the comment section from last week when everyone was giving their ideas for Easter menus, I loved the suggestion (from Cindy I believe) to make Resurrection Rolls. I mean, how festive is that? (I should mention at this point that I also made Cheryl’s deviled egg chicks . . . because how could you look at that picture and then NOT make them? Mine looked like googly-eyed owls wearing flight goggles, but still quite a striking presence on the table. They lent a high tone to the whole proceeding.)
Anyway, I thought I should definitely make the Resurrection Rolls for Easter breakfast. But since I didn’t get around to that until about 10:30 pm on Saturday night, I decided that I would just do the old trick of letting them do their second rise in the fridge overnight and baking them in the morning. I made my favorite dough for cinnamon rolls which makes a lovely, squidgy dough – and wrapped them round the marshmallows, dipped them in butter and stuck them in the pans And now we come to the moment where I stop, drop, and show you a picture of my fridge. Brace yourselves.
(I would also like to take a moment to congratulate myself on my great spirituality . . . I didn’t even photoshop out the grimy floor underneath, or even reduce the resolution so that you can’t zoom in, check out the smudgy shelves, and raise your eyebrows. No, I am simply flinging wide the door and telling you to drink it in.)
Now – there are several things to note here. The first is that this little fridgette is the only little fridgette in the house. It’s not as if the real one is lurking around the corner, out of the way of the camera where you can’t see it. This is not the overflow fridge, the safety net fridge, the one you keep in the back porch in case you accidentally buy too much milk. No, this is the one and only.
The second thing to note is that I have 8 people to feed, 3 meals a day. And sometimes one of those meals is Easter dinner. Picture in your mind’s eye this little fridgette containing a leg of lamb, a large ham, a cheesecake, 15 chocolate pots, a large amount of cannellini bean salad, 15 stern looking googly-eyed deviled owls who can’t be touched for fear of messing up their very artful features, various marinades and glazes, an extra large batch of bruschetta topping, a potato salad, asparagus, green salad fixings, strawberry sauce for the cheesecake, an assortment of creams, the champagne and white wine for dinner, and then your basic fridge items like milk and mustard and cheese and whatnot. Now that you have that firmly in mind, ask yourself where (late on a Saturday night) am I going to put 2 trays of Resurrection Rolls to rise? Right. Not in the fridgette, that’s for sure. At this stage of the game a jelly bean would have caused the door to fly open and I was in no mood to dig out the bungee cords and try to tether it shut. I was also not in the mood to hang around while the rolls finished rising and baking. I’d spent most of the day hunkered down in a squat in front of that fridge trying and retrying to fit everything into it, and I was just plain done.
So we checked the weather and it was supposed to get quite cold but not freezing . . . and thus we decided to bung them outside for the night. If you start questioning my judgement and looking askance at this point then I just ask you to scroll back up and take another look at that fridge.
We wrapped and double wrapped the pans (9×13 ceramic baking dishes) in saran wrap and tin foil – and then set them outside for the night. I went to bed with that smug, self satisfied feeling that I had handled a problematic situation with the innovative skill always so necessary for this strenuous life in England . . . and I looked forward to a morning with mimosas and Resurrection Rolls as hollow as the Easter tomb.
The next morning (yes, I know, you’ve seen this coming for the last 6 paragraphs) we came down, turned the oven on to preheat . . . and popped outside to retrieve the rolls. And what do you think we found? Empty trays of course! What else would you find on Easter morning? The tin foil was scattered hither and thither, as were a number of the marshmallows, but the rolls were wiped out. So our symbolic Easter breakfast had the symbolic part down alright . . . it was the breakfast bit that got goofed up thanks to a gluttonous and pillaging fox, or . . . or . . . actually let’s not think about that. I’m really not fine with the idea that it was rats, so please no one suggest that it might have been rodents. A fox I’m ok with. I hope he suffered agonies with indigestion, but I’m pyschologically alright with the local fox having done the deed. But rats, no. I draw the line at rats outside my kitchen door.
So, winding to the conclusion, here’s my hot tip for all of you for next Easter. Just bake the rolls on Saturday.
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Oh Bekah,
I just really like you! I can’t get over the size of that fridge. At any given time I have six gallons of milk in my fridge as I like to go shopping only every other season or so. What a great adventure! (and only for real adventurers!)
See you soon! PC
ahh…I missed the post on the resurrection rolls..can you help me find it?
It is still, after all, Easter season and they will make a great treat for the kiddos this Lord’s day!
Thanks
Karla
Hi Karla!
Here’s the post – Cindy’s comment is #4
http://www.feminagirls.com/2009/04/07/easter-planning/#comments
Oh, Rebekah, I’m honored that you tried! We certainly enjoyed ours, though one batch didn’t rise properly (old yeast). Maybe you could try again for the Ascension or something? If you do make them ahead, definitely warm them again for the gooey goodie on the bottom of the pan!
In related tales, I went to the back of my bedroom closet for stocking stuffers late one Christmas Eve, thinking especially of the little chocolate coins in gold foil, inside net bags. But there was nothing there but net bags and little shreds of gold foil. 🙁
And hubby once had three ducks as pets–Donald, Daisy, and April–and lost them one night to a fox, which was lolling painfully on the lawn the next morning, at a time when most self-respecting foxes have retired for the day. There were three piles of feathers strewn around. 🙁
I’m sure your feast was wonderful anyway!
Oh my. I’m sorry. But so glad you decided to share this with us.
Well, I knew that *something* was coming, but I fully expected to read that the rolls had risen beyond the intended size to become some sort of a resurrection rolls “risen indeed” pun incarnate.
Bekah- that’s an awesome story. Love it! I have great ambition of doing resurrection rolls every Easter too, but haven’t yet. And, actually, I think that is perhaps partially due to the fact that my deviled chicks I made for 3 years in a row- always drove my husband bonkers (he had to help me with the tedious, meticulous work on them)- ALSO, always ended up looking like owls. 🙂
Really a funny story and so well told. Thanks for sharing! Maybe I don’t feel so badly about the schmoo under the front edge of my fridge now?
My hat is off to you!
Bekah, rats OUTSIDE your backdoor is better than inside! We’re experiencing a mouse plague at the moment and you should see what my husband did to them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bfhoyt/3446323399/
A little thought for next time:
If you have similar weather, you could us your car as an “extra fridge”.
We are often in the same boat as you, though our fridge is nowhere near that tiny. We just leave the cold stuff in the car and retrieve as needed.
And it entertains the neighbors to see me dash out in my robe to bring in the ham.
Great, great story – I laughed outloud! for quite a while….. You have to save these stories for the kids to tell in your old age. 🙂
Thanks for sharing.
Only in the strength of Jesus, God and The Holy Spirit can we (as Proverbs 31 says…) “Laugh at the days to come” (LBT)! If you had been a heathen girl you might have thrown a fit and ruined Easter. Grace Grace Grace!
My new translation:
“God chose the insuficiant refrigerators to produce a wonderful Easter dinner to shame the Viking kitchens. He chose the laughter around cardboard tables to shame the stilted conversations seated at Hepplewhite antique showpieces.
I just had to share this with my daughter! We love your little adventures! I am impressed with the immense amount you get in your fridgette.
On another note, a comment on Franci’s picture, GROSS! 🙂 I bet our husbands would get along famously!
Love it! And I am sure that you are right on that it was a fox and not some gross rodent!
Cindy-
we made them at our house too! Thank you for sharing the fun idea – we are always looking for something different for Easter, and these may have become part of the tradition. We did not feed the local wildlife with them, but I did freeze them which worked out great. Thanks!
We tried them too and they were a hit! Though not surprisingly, my husband thought that mine needed a bit more goo. 🙂
Like many of you, I had spent a good deal of time in the kitchen on Saturday and when I finished with all the prep for Easter dinner I was pretty much DONE. But I really wanted to have those rolls for Easter breakfast. So I used Pillsbury bread stick dough from those cans and wrapped them around marshmallows that morning and dipped ’em in butter and Wallah! Surely not better than homemade dough but better for my sanity after a long day in the kitchen. 🙂 Thanks for the fun idea Cindy! and for the fun story Bekah!
Oh Bekah, you are a delightful storyteller! I just laughed out loud! I especially enjoyed the googly eyed owls part! You have the gift – thank you for making time to share your adventures.
I have the same refrigerator! And our water is terrible, so half the middle shelf is taken up with a water purifier. I do cook for hordes, but only occasionally, so I know just a piece what you are going through. I have used the trunk of my car–living in the city, if I left food visible in the car, it might be windows broken, gone. Parking is a bit of a problem, and then once we have a space we don’t want to give it up, so sometimes there is a rather lloonngg trek to retreive the groceries. Do you all have a car?