The Festival

Since April is National Autism Awareness month, I wanted to share a little more about my Dog Walker just in case you weren’t aware that he is autistic. Sometimes I even forget he’s autistic and then there are other times…so yesterday he was participating in the Region Orchestra Festival. He plays the trumpet as part of our school’s symphony, getting up twice a week for class at 6:00 a.m. Now I am barely coherent that early (unless I’ve been up all night) and my sweetie takes him to school and then heads off to work. 

The Festival bus was scheduled to leave the school at 3:15. School gets out at 2:25 and we live less than a mile away. This is ample time for him to get home, have a snack, change into his concert attire, and get back to the high school in time to load the bus. It is NOT enough time for him to search through his entire bedroom and the pile of dirty laundry to FIND his concert attire. That’s why I had him gather all of his things including his black suit jacket and bow tie and place them on the pew in the living room (Editor's note* Yes, you read that right.  If you missed that story go here.). I figured that way he’d be able to come in the house, grab a snack, and change in a nice leisurely fashion. Things rarely work exactly the way I plan them. 

As I headed off to bed I checked the clothes and shoes in its haphazard pile, satisfied that it would ease the confusion and stress of the next day. Unfortunately, I didn’t guess that he would come back upstairs from his room and gather the whole works into a garbage bag. When my sweetie was ready to leave in the morning, the Dog Walker slung his backpack over one shoulder and the garbage bag over the other. "What are you doing?" he questioned. All he got back was "I have to take these to school." Not knowing any better, my sweetie shrugged and they headed off. 

One thing you have to understand about the Dog Walker is that he WILL NOT use a locker at school. That means this garbage bag full of his jacket and tie, a white button up shirt, black slacks and socks and his black dress shoes (that he walks around in…outside!) will be hanging out with him all day at every class and during lunch. When I hear the situation, I fire off a quick text, but he doesn’t answer me. Teach finally gets hold of him during his final class period. "I’ll pick you up," she texts. No point in him carrying all of the clothes back home again just so he can change. 

She shows up at the high school, but there are no signs of him so she heads home. About halfway there she spots him…without the bag of clothes. She rolls down the window and motions him over. At first he ignores her, but finally succumbs to her pleas and gets in the van. 

"Where are your clothes?" she asks. 

"At the school," he says.
 
"I thought you were going home to change," she says. 

"I can change at the school," he replies. 

By this point Teach is totally confused. "Then why are you going home?" she asks. 

"To get the truck," he says. 

"Why do you need the truck?" He looks at her like she is a total idiot. 

"So I don’t have to walk home from the school," he says matter-of-factly. She gets him home and he leaves in the truck. We hope he made it to the festival on time, but even if he misses the bus, he won’t have to walk home, he has the truck…and a change of clothes.

Friday Freebies: Mailbox Jackpot!

I was in the Marketplace the other day (Editor's Note: As in Smith's Marketplace or The-Store-Formerly-Known-as-Fred-Meyer.) and they had a bunch of stuff on clearance. After sifting through piles of crap I found a nice fishing pole for my sweetie for Father’s Day. When I got home we were unloading the van and I handed the fishing pole to 2-year-old Curly. "What is it?" he asked. "It’s a fishing pole," I announced. He turned it over and over in his little hands. Finally, he asked, "How do you turn it on?"

**********************

Do you ever go to the mail and just wish you hadn’t bothered? For me it can be so depressing…full of bills and junk mail. Most days the Smith’s ad is the best thing going. Today the Dog Walker took Teach to work and on his way back in he grabbed the mail. He brought in a small package, a bunch of envelopes, and the obligatory junk magazines that promptly made their way to the recycle bin.

I was talking to my sweetie on the phone when I started opening the envelopes. The first one contained a rebate on his diabetes test strips for $6.11. Wahoo! I love "found" money. I saw another envelope with the same address so I opened it next. It contained another rebate from the Freestyle company, $50.00 this time. The kids caught wind of the fact that I had a package and they hovered around until I finally opened it. They were disappointed that it wasn’t the Tangled movie they had been waiting for, but I was excited about the free Tide samples and coupons Bossy ordered for me.
 
The next flyer was the one from my bank with the information I needed for my free $25.00 gift card I had been waiting for since Christmas. I couldn’t remember a mail day this good! The next envelope I opened had a $22.00 coupon for a free Fisher Price toy from the lead paint recall over two years ago and the envelope after that had a $22.00 rebate for the same thing! By now my sweetie was way passed impressed. "This sounds like a blog topic!" he said.

Think Scout would like this?

 I laughed as I slid my finger through the next flyer. I couldn’t believe it when I pulled out a JC Penney $15.00 off of $15.00 gift card. The next one was also a JC Penney envelope with my $10.00 rewards card. That’s $25.00 in free stuff from JCP! Bossy found a $10.00 off of $25.00 coupon for you link to print here. Next to Kohls, JCP is my favorite place to buy clothes for the kids. One of my kids (who shall remain nameless) wears the Girls Plus sizes and they are hard to find in cute trendy styles except at JCP.

The last thing I opened had the Staples logo on it. It turned out to be my $25.00 rebate card for the box of paper I bought last month. If you’re counting, folks, that’s almost $200.00 in free stuff and although I guess I knew most of it was coming, it was still a wonderful surprise to get it all at once. I hope you have a day that turned out as good as mine…and now I’m going shopping…see ya’!

Food for Thought: Amish Friendship Bread

I was introduced to Amish Friendship Bread by the same friend who gave me the sourdough starter. (She’s not Amish either…) She just showed up on our doorstep with a plate of this delicious sweet bread and a Ziploc bag filled with starter. I’m a real sweet bread fan and I’m not sure I bothered to share except with my sweetie, of course.

I’ve told you before that the starter kind of ruled my life for a while and for about 3 months Teach and the Dog Walker made Amish Friendship Bread every time we made sourdough. They started messing around with the recipe by substituting the applesauce for some of the cooking oil and using white chocolate chips instead of the regular kind. Actually, they weren’t really white, they were some red and green striped ones I bought on clearance and threw in the freezer for times when we were desperate. The kids decided that made the best tasting bread. I finally had to put the nix on this delicious treat because we all gained about five pounds. We also took six loaves to a family party and they were eaten up almost before the meal was started. Let me know what you think!

Amish Friendship Bread


1 cup sourdough starter
3 eggs
½ cup oil
½ cup applesauce
½ cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 cup flour
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding (sugar-free works fine)
1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk or white chocolate all work well)

Spray two medium loaf pans with cooking spray. Mix in separate bowl, ½ cup sugar and 1 ½ tsp cinnamon. Use ½ of this mixture to dust the bottom of the pan and the other half on top of the batter in the pans.

Mix all ingredients well before adding chocolate chips.

  Bake for 45 – 60 minutes at 325 degrees until knife comes out clean.

Good Deed

One thing I’ve definitely learned after having all these kids is that it’s much easier to go to the grocery store by myself. It’s not that the kids beg for things…they learn early on that if they ask there is NO WAY I will buy that particular item. It’s simply that trying to get everyone inside the store and then into a cart, and then contained while I figure out what I need to buy can be incredibly difficult. 

Cars from '08 Sport is asleep and I can't find one to show.  Bailed out by this fun blog.

Unfortunately, sometimes I have to take my entourage with me. Today was one of those days. Smith’s had an amazing deal on Cheerios and I had 23 coupons! (Not that it’s important to the story, but I got 4 boxes of 14 oz Cheerios for $3.30! That’s less than a dollar a box and each box also had a free pull-back racer in it…you can’t go wrong with a free car.) So I drag Scout, Curly, and Baby Doll all to the store. 

 The minute we enter the doors they are both running for the Car Cart. That suits me fine since I can at least keep them somewhat contained inside the car without a leash. I snap Baby Doll’s car seat in and we head to the huge cereal display. I proceed to load 36 boxes of Cheerios into my cart. Car Carts are great except that they have smaller baskets so I can’t get as much in there as I’d like, but I manage. 

Soon we are rolling slowly toward the bakery for our free cookies. (After all the Easter candy, I managed to shake my head when the bakery girl offered me one.) I toss in 4 loaves of bread, a couple of bags of bagels and some rolls for supper. We bypass the produce since we are already stopping every few feet to pick up a box of cereal or loaf of bread that kamikazed to the floor. Somehow I squeeze in a couple of gallons of milk and we head to the checkout.

I open my purse to pull out my coupons and necessaries. That’s when I realize my sweetie has the Fresh Values card in his wallet. I know, you are thinking, "No problem, just type in your phone number." But it’s not that easy. Teach works at Smiths so I have an amazing employee card that gives me an extra 10% off the Kroger products. That’s when I remember that Teach is out in the Fuel Center. I fire off a text, hoping that she has left her wallet in the Customer Service area and I can get her card and use it. 

Somebody pulls into the lane behind me and I look up to suggest that they move ahead since I’m not really ready yet. I’m pleasantly surprised to see Sterling, a friend of Teach’s who worked with her until only recently when he transferred to another store. I smile, "Hey, how are you doing?" I notice he is buying cereal and since I’m not using all my coupons I offer him some. He gladly takes them and I move aside my overstuffed cart to let him go first. We chat for a minute and then a new text comes in from Teach. Yes, she has her purse, but it is with her across the parking lot in the Fuel Center. That means I have to park my cart and drag all three kids across the parking lot to get her card before I can check out, and Curly has fallen asleep. 

As I’m contemplating my fate, I notice that Sterling is nearly finished with his transaction. He thanks me again for the coupons then he turns to leave. My desperation made me bold, "Hey Sterling," I call. He turns back to me, all smiles. "Could you do me a favor?" I beg. "Sure," he responds. "Could you run over to fuel and get Teach’s Fresh Values card for me?" He pushes his cart to the side. "No problem," he says and sprints out of the store. I barely had time to send Teach a text before she responded with one saying that he had the card and was on his way back. It only took him about 3 minutes tops, but Sterling, I just want you to know that you saved my day! Thanks for being such a great guy! You can have my coupons anytime.

Graduation

Bossy graduated with her BS from UVU in August, but she is participating in commencement this week. She is the first of our children to receive a Bachelors Degree, and we are very proud of her efforts! I know from personal experience how hard it is to go to college and concentrate on home and family at the same time. My sweetie received his BS in 1988 and that’s the same year I earned my MA. Bossy was three and the Gym Rat was just past one. 

Utah State had a fun program with a little degree called "Putting Him/Her Through" or a PHT. It could be awarded to kids and spouses of students. We got certificates for both of them. Then I made little caps and gowns and we put them through a mock ceremony at the house before the grownups headed off for commencement. Bossy insisted on being first and she threw back her little shoulders and thrust up her chin. She was so proud of her accomplishment that I knew then that school would be an important part of our lives always. 

Bossy was the cutest little girl! She had a double crown so her hair was incredibly thick and grown up from the time she was tiny. When she was three I took her to the salon for a perm. (Give me a break, it was the 80s!) The lady said she wouldn’t give one to a girl so small because their hair was too fine and it might be damaged in the processing. She took one look at Bossy and told her to climb into the chair. She still has long brown beautifully thick hair, but now she likes to wear it straight or pulled back. 

 

She was so bossy and mouthy when she was little. We thought it was cute so we let it slide. There were many times I looked into her dark blue eyes and whispered, "I can’t imagine what you will be like when you are all grown up." She would just give me a mischievous grin that seemed to say, "Just you wait…" 

We sailed through the elementary and middle school years playing basketball, softball, and throwing in just a little dance for good measure. She picked up a clarinet for the first time in 4th grade and that began a wild ride that finally ended with a college scholarship that paid all of her housing and fees at a junior college (her tuition was already covered with an academic scholarship). 

 High school was hard! We had many moments when I was tearing my hair out, wondering why I had given my own mom such a bad time. But there were some amazing moments too! She was a runner-up Sterling Scholar. Her Academic Decathlon team won the state competition and headed off for Nationals for the first time in the school’s history. She was a band officer and colorguard member. She got excellent marks and many scholarship opportunities. Before I knew it high school graduation came and went. She was only 17 and headed off to college. 

After she graduated from the junior college it was only a short time before she met Gamer and the two were married in a backyard ceremony by our Stake President. Taco came first and a couple of years later, Burrito. Gamer’s son, Bean Dip, also became a regular part of our family. And now, here she is…my own little Bossy (not so little anymore) graduating from the university.

I don’t have to imagine any more what you will be like when you grow up. Here you are, standing tall and proud (as you should be) facing the world once more in your cap and gown, diploma in hand. Go get ‘em Girl! ‘Grats…love you.

Guest Blogger: Drama Queen

As I was writing Sunday's blog about our Easter a dozen years ago, I sent out a few feelers to my crew to stimulate memories beyond my own.  As I've heard lately, my memory is not so good...anyway, the Drama Queen remembered that particular day rather fondly and she offered to make a guest appearance on our blog.  As you can see, my memory is a bit different from hers, but knowing both writers, hers is probably more correct.  I hope you enjoy her story.  Presenting...


A Copper Penny Easter
 
Dad woke us up in the early morning hours. The sky outside was still a little dim as the spring sunrise cut up over the mountains. A special treat for breakfast coaxed us into the van as the Gym Rat and Bossy loaded in the coolers. The Gym Rat wasn't as tall back then and Bossy could still score the aisle seat if she moved fast enough. 

Teach and I sat on the middle seat, our new stuffed bunnies sitting on our legs and getting gently dusted by showers of donut sugar. Mom herded the Dog Walker to the car, vainly trying to convince him into his jacket and carrying Princess's carseat at the same time. With the care of an artist moving a freshly-painted canvas, Dad carried his tray of deviled eggs. They were truly a masterpiece of pale whites and paprika-topped yolks. Back then, I didn't know the difference and thought chocolate was the best part of Easter, so the parade of the eggs that weren't even colored bored me. 

The drive to grandma's house always took the indistinguishable forever peppered with "are we there yet?" The sky up the canyon hovered overhead like a pewter bowl - the effects of an early brushfire or inversion high above the dusty bronze hills. Easters generate thoughts of plush green grass and vivid blossoms but this day was drawn in metallic tones like the bright copper pennies my great-grandfather sometimes handed out. He would let me lean against his side and chair as he clacked his dentures in and out: startling Teach and making Dog Walker frown with confusion at the strange sound. 

Bossy would laugh at us and flounce off to play with cousins as Dad tried to explain to my childhood moralities why it was okay to suddenly fling our carefully-tended, meticulously-colored eggs down the hillside when the night before we'd been warned to not let so much as a crack appear without the egg being deemed ruined and hastily peeled for a salted snack. Still miffed over such a double standard, I left the egg-rolling to the more enterprising and joined Grandma as she walked along the ridges. 

She told me stories of other Easters, and I imagined my Dad as a kid flinging eggs at his brothers. (It seemed all Dad's stories should involve his brothers ganging up on one another in a victorious fraternal brawl such as I had never witnessed.) Mom talked me into trying the coleslaw but the slimy texture made me grimace and it was only the threat of hurting Grandma's feelings that made me swallow it down. The wind sent napkins flying and barbecue smoke stung my eyes as it flew away to join the nickel-sky. 

Great-grandpa kissed my cheek before we left, and the leathery feel of his lips was like touching the musty books hiding in the cupboards of Mom's office. Cousins and siblings piled into cars as the distant white glow of the sun started its track west below the horizon. I lingered behind, not quite wanting that day to end. It's an Easter I still remember though so many have come after and so much has changed. But the memory is still there and every once in awhile it will remind me of itself, and I accept it as just another of Easter's special gifts.

Easter is

Egg Rolling and Deviled Eggs

One of my favorite Easter memories happened about a dozen years ago. As usual, the Easter Bunny had visited us on Friday night, so our Saturday was wide open. My sweetie decided maybe we should spend the holiday with his mom. We hadn’t seen her since Christmas and he was thinking it was way past time to make the 2-hour drive.

It was not one of those years we had tons of extra cash laying around, so we pulled out a cooler and loaded it with hot dogs, soda, hard-boiled eggs, and chips. Since the kids had all crawled out of bed at the crack of dawn, the drive down was relatively painless. We pulled into Grandma’s driveway about 2:00. After a quick pit-stop, we all climbed back in the van and headed toward the mountains. My sweetie’s Grandpa (his mom’s dad) was there, and my sweetie’s sister who still lives in his hometown, joined us with her kids. Even though Easter was late that year, it was still chilly as we drove until we could find some good hills for egg-rolling.

It didn’t take long before we found the perfect spot. It had been cleared for a shooting range in the summer so it was shaped like a bowl with nice little hills perfect for eggs. We had actually been sledding there in the winter so we knew the area well. We piled out of the cars and started gathering kindling to make a bonfire.

My sweetie used his scout skills to get a nice fire burning and the kids all grabbed their eggs and headed for the hills. The eggs bounced nicely down the sledding trails and soon they had a pile ready for us to peel and devil. Did I mention that my sweetie makes the best deviled eggs imaginable? I know it’s not Thursday, but I’m still going to give you the recipe when I’m finished with my story.

So we roasted our hot dogs and giggled and told stories and ate until we couldn’t possibly eat anymore. Daylight was beginning to fade with the coals from the fire as we toasted marshmallows and turned them into smores. No one wanted to leave, but as the fire continued to die down, it started to get cold so we piled into our vehicles and headed for home. There's nothing like time together with the ones you love. Happy Easter!

Deviled Eggs

1 dozen hard-boiled eggs
1 cup Miracle Whip
3 tbsp Mustard
Paprika
Black pepper

Peel the eggs and slice in half lengthwise.

Take out the yolks and place in a separate bowl. Take the whites of two eggs (we usually use the ones the kids mangled in the peeling process) and chop them into the yolks. It’s important to keep them nice and chunky when you mix them into the yolks.

Add the Miracle Whip (or mayo) and mustard. Sprinkle generously with paprika and freshly ground black pepper. Stir well, but remember it will be chunky because of the whites that are still in pretty big pieces (that is actually the secret to amazing deviled eggs!).

Spoon the yolk mixture back into the cavity of each egg white.

Sprinkle with additional paprika and serve immediately. Yumm!

Easter circa 1970

When I was a child, Easter was one of my favorite holidays! As I mentioned a couple of days ago, we didn’t have many specific food traditions, but we had lots of other traditions. About a week before Easter we would have to clean the entire main floor of the house and beg like crazy before Mom would let us get out the decorations. That was the first part of the adventure every year. 

Our house was a big old two-story with 10-foot ceilings. Mom kept the Easter decorations in a tiny cupboard at the top of her clothes closet. It required a chair that Mom would stand on and then the child who was selected for hazardous duty was hefted on her shoulders and up into this tiny hole in the wall. The cupboard was about three feet high and probably about five feet square. (It’s hard to remember exactly because I only remember being in it one time and I was pretty small then.) I have a tendency to claustrophobia, so I always moved to the back of the line. 

Each child had an Easter basket up there with grass already installed. My oldest sister’s was huge! The others were scaled down from there. We thought that was pretty unfair, but the Easter Bunny always carefully counted out each jellybean so we all got the same even if the baskets were different sizes. The other decorations I remember fondly were a couple of homemade bunnies Mom fashioned out of bleach bottles. She had cut a hole in the "belly" and you could see green Easter grass and eggs inside. Maybe once they were actually somebody’s Easter baskets, I’m not sure, but we thought they were incredibly cool. 

Mail in Kit from 1974 other vintage Easter crafts here.

When everything was decorated and our eggs were dyed we would set out our Easter baskets. That bunny always hid all the eggs and left us some candy in return. There was always a marshmallow peep or two, jellybeans and a few chocolate eggs. We would often eat all of our candy within a couple of hours so breakfast was usually unnecessary. 

After church (we didn’t have a block schedule then) we would pick up Grandma and Grandpa and drive up into the west hills. It was the only time I remember going west rather than east. The mountains to the east were much steeper with lakes and campgrounds. The west hills were low and gentle with just enough hills to make Easter egg rolling fun. We would park the car and get out and walk until the terrain was steep enough to roll the eggs down the trails. Then we would chase them as they bounced from rut to rut until they were ready to peel. 

We only had hard-boiled eggs at home on Easter, but Grandma and Grandpa had them all the time. Grandpa was a master egg peeler. He could pull it off in pretty much one piece. You know how eggs sometimes come off with the peel? Well, Grandma was a child of the Depression and when that happened and we wasted part of the white we were in big trouble for the rest of the day. 

After egg rolling we would hurry back to go to Sacrament Meeting and then have supper with the family. I love holidays, then and now. (According to Teach), holidays are special times that focus on family...and like the hokey pokey, "that’s what it’s all about!"

Friday Freebies: Egg Hunts

I don’t know about where you live, but where I live there are plenty of free Easter Egg hunts going on. To find a pretty good list, hop on over to Utah Kids’ Club (if you live in Utah). But unless you have a fabulous Grandpa to help you out at one of those, I would recommend staging your own. 

These eggs would be gone in a community event.

  Bossy has always loved Easter, so when she first got married, she decided to begin our annual Family (and a few select friends) Easter Egg Hunt. Taco was born in November, so he was very small at our first hunt. Bossy and Gamer lived in a little apartment right next to a busy road. There were six apartments in her building and they lived on the third floor. We arrived a little early and sat in the van while she and Gamer finished setting everything up. At the "Ready, set, GO!" the kids clamored out of the van and quickly gathered up the eggs and candy scattered around on the grass. Unfortunately, since we were on fairly public property, it was difficult to keep the neighborhood kids we didn’t know from joining in the fun. Shortly after that we started having the Egg Hunt at our house every year. 

Only at Grandma's can you sit and taste the eggs without missing out on other eggs.

We do invite other families to participate with us sometimes, but the rules are the same, no matter who comes. 

1. Leave the easy stuff for the little kids. 
2. If you find something with someone else’s name on it, leave it alone. 
3. When we are finished, we dump everything into a big bowl and then split it up equally between all participants.
4. Have fun! 

Bossy overseeing Rule #3 a few years ago.

 We rarely have any crying or fighting because we follow these rules. Big kids help little kids and we all have a great time. A few suggestions: use plastic eggs for things like jelly beans and M&Ms that will be spoiled if they get wet. We usually buy one bigger gift for each child like a Barbie or this year it is playground balls. We label those with names so everyone knows that there is one each. Things like small bottles of bubbles, tiny tubs of Play-doh, and sidewalk chalk from the dollar store can be opened and separated into many small gifts and scattered about. 

One year it was so wet outside that we had the Egg Hunt under the trampoline. My sweetie pulled a big tarp over the top early in the day and it was dry enough by the afternoon to set things out. Even though the area was small, the kids enjoyed it because it was different. Depending on the weather, we generally hold our Egg Hunt several days before Easter, sometimes as much as a week before. 

Bossy is OCD and apparently takes picture(s) like this every year. Bossy's eggs 2006.

Most years we dye our eggs on Friday night and the Easter Bunny visits on Saturday morning. That way we have a built-in excuse for skipping all the crazy egg hunts and we can save Sunday morning for celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and contemplating the religious aspects of the holiday. I firmly believe that the holiday seasons are big enough for secular and religion and by separating them a little we can enjoy both. Happy Easter!

He is Risen by Greg Olsen

Food for Thought: Bunny Rolls

I had never heard of Bunny Rolls until I met my sweetie. His family had way more Easter traditions than we did while we were growing up. Of course we colored boiled eggs and we usually ate ham for Sunday dinner, but that was about it. Sometimes we had Jell-o eggs and one year my mom even made chocolate eggs, but my sweetie’s family did the same things every year.

keyingredient.com

On Good Friday they always had Hot Cross Buns. Usually they made them and occasionally they bought them from a bakery. On the Saturday before Easter his mom always made chocolate cupcakes with green coconut frosting and jellybeans. She even used red licorice whips to make them look like miniature Easter baskets. And on Sunday they had Bunny Rolls.

Of the 28 years we’ve been married, we have probably eaten Bunny Rolls 25 times. And believe me…the other 3 times I’ve HEARD about it! They are basically a very tasty orange roll. Over the years we have refined the original recipe a bit. The kids love twisting the dough into various bunny shapes and maybe Bossy kept pictures of the ones Gamer made. I hope you enjoy them. Leave me a comment and let me know…Happy Easter!

Gamer's Mother-and-Child Bunnies

Bunny Rolls

1 ½ tbsp active dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
½ cup shortening
5 ½ cups flour
¼ cup orange juice (undiluted)
¼ cup warm water
½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
2 eggs
grated orange peel (optional)

Soften yeast in warm water, set aside. Blend milk, sugar, shortening, and salt. Stir in 2 cups of flour; beat well. Add eggs; mix well. Stir in softened yeast. Add orange juice (peel) and remaining flour to make a soft dough. Let rest 10 minutes.

To start bunnies, roll dough to ½ inch thick. Using a knife or a pizza cutter, cut dough in strips about 1 inch wide. Roll like snakes between hands. Shape in circle or twist bunnies.

"Kid-Friendly" Bunny

Fold "snake" in 1/2. Twist twice. Shape ears. Add tail with additional dough.

"Traditional" Bunny

 

Cut "snake" in unequal halves. Roll bigger piece like a sweetroll for "butt" Shape smaller piece into head. 

(Baby bunny optional.)

Let rise until nearly double. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Glaze right from oven.
 
Sugar Glaze
1 lb powdered sugar
¼ cup orange juice (undiluted)
1 stick of margarine or butter
milk

Mix sugar, juice, and margarine until well blended. Add milk to thin to glaze consistency (approx ¼ - ½ cup). Drizzle over bunnies.

Traditional (left) and kid-friendly (right)