Cookie & Elsie, Cinnamon Star Bread

I hopped up Sunday morning (12/10) and put together the dough for the Star Bread and left it to rise before heading downstairs to get my computer chores done (emails, blog, SHQ minutes).  I finished that up and went back upstairs to check my dough, which looked like it hadn’t risen at all.  Our house is very chilly, so I zapped some water in the microwave, and then put my bowl of dough in there so it was in a warm, moist environment.  Michael and I both headed back downstairs.  Although I have finished quilting and would love to get those quilts off of the long arm and load up 2 more…my cutting table already has 4 patch stuff all over it: 

so I decide to finish those before tackling the new quilts.  I didn’t get them all done before Michael left at 1 PM for a matinee performance of Scrooge, but I headed back upstairs anyway.  When I got there, this was happening:

I’ve been trying to get my candy making done when Michael is not home, so it was time to dive back in…unfortunately I had another task first.  It has been a LONG time since I had a bread problem, but my Star Dough still looked pretty punky.  I did another pan of hot water and put the dough right on top of it and left it to rise again.  I headed out to the garage to get down the air popper for my Caramel Popcorn, but it was on the top shelf and I couldn’t get it down without raining a bunch of things down on my head, so I decided I would give up candy making for the day yet again  :~).  Instead I made a big cup of hot chocolate and sat down to finish up the ENDURANCE book by astronaut Scott Kelly.  I absolutely LOVED this book.  I thought he really did an excellent job conveying what it is like to live and work in space and it is DARNED hard!!!  This book was incredibly interesting and I just want to urge everyone again to give it a read.  When I finished it my star bread was looking better, and I finally got it baked before Michael was home after 5:30:

We settled in with dinner, and then popcorn to finish out the evening watching the PSYCHE movie.  We were big fans of the TV show and the movie was a fun romp as well.