(Pumpkin) butter me up!

Hurray!  Dad is home!  If you read last week’s post, you know that our little family was struggling without him for 2 weeks, but he arrived home late this week, and we have had 2 days to soak his presence back in, you know, between him groggily trying to readjust back to our time since he was 19 hours ahead.

While my son and I had a hard time with his absence, it is my daughter that really has a hard time when he is gone.  Her world just isn’t complete, and her big feelings heart can’t really accept that reality.  I was proud of her for how well she did throughout the trip, but there were times when she just had to break down.  What I love about her doing that (in hindsight–never in the moment) is that she doesn’t see it as a failure on her part that she lets her emotions get the better of her.  She just feels.  I used to think that eventually she would learn to control that, and tamp down those emotions.  But honestly, now I am kind of hoping that I learn to be like her.  To no longer be afraid to admit being overwhelmed by my feelings at times and have a good break down.  Then, being me, no doubt, I will wipe my face, rearrange some pillows, or in general tidy something up and move on to the kitchen to make some bread.  But still, her fearlessness in allowing her own feelings impresses me.

With the above high emotions playing in the background this week, I played around trying to make some pumpkin butter brioche rolls with cream cheese frosting, thinking they would be a good option for this time of year.  They sound good, right?  I mentally congratulated myself on what I thought I would be a brilliant cooking triumph.  But meh, I just couldn’t get them right.  I brought them to work and they were definitely edible.  Even mildly enjoyable.  But they were not better than the sum of their parts.  They instead tasted exactly like their parts.  Brioche, good.  Pumpkin butter, good.  Cream cheese frosting, good.  But there was no moment of transcendence when put all together they became something more–like with a really great cinnamon roll or sticky bun.  I decided gifting a loaf of brioche with pumpkin butter in a jar on the side was a way better way to go this week.

Given all of the above, I let my daughter pick our recipient this week.  I knew who she would pick already, as she had been asking for the last month.  Just like this past spring, she picked her teacher.  I loved how happy and light her heart was when she packed her bread and was ready for school with the loaf in tow.  She has been gifted with the most generous spirit and nothing (well except her dad) makes her as happy as giving.  So all in all, it was a big and good week for my daughter and the rest of us with dad arriving home and bread properly gifted.  It feels good to be whole again and back to our normal.

P.S. I teased Sweet Potato Rolls last week for Thanksgiving, and if you don’t follow me on Instagram, you may have missed them, but I don’t want your Thanksgiving table to miss out.  These rolls tick off two boxes for Thanksgiving bingo–sweet potato and rolls, and they are just plain good slathered with butter, or, I have a hunch, piled high with turkey and cranberry.  I hope you give them a try and let me know what you think!