It does sound lovely, except for the flat rolls, but enough mojitos and you're good, LOL. I love your description of your family, it sounds a lot like mine except we don't have a Mexican. Yet. Everyone from the college educated engineer to the police officer/firefighter to the old farmers, add a Jewish DIL on Elery's side plus his family from Tennessee and we've got a bit of everything. (grin) OK, the butterlake rolls recipe, easy as can be. Even San made a batch a few years ago and was successful and she told me she did NOT bake bread. Ever. This halves easily, I just use a whole egg, I don't try to halve it and I use all butter, no shortening. Butterflake Rolls 2 packages active dry yeast 2 cups warm water 1/2 cup sugar 2 tsp salt 6 to 6 1/2 cups flour 1 egg 1/2 cup shortening (use butter) 1/2 cup butter, softened. In mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add egg and shortening, mix well, stir in enough flour to form a soft dough. Do not knead. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, punch dough down and divide into 4 portions. Roll each portion into a 14 x 12 inch rectangle, spread 2 tbls butter over dough. Fold in half lengthwise and cut into 12 strips. Tie each strip into a knot, tuck and pinch ends under. Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Yield: 4 dozen And congratuations on the "grown up" dinner, it sounds perfect to me. Annie

I agree with Linda C - bake the rolls and then reheat them before serving. The horror stories I could tell.... You can also find recipes for par-baked (partially baked) rolls (similar to brown and serve rolls) you can make at home. Here's a recipe from the Kansas Wheat Commission - 2000 booklet - a special recipe developed by Cindy and Christy in the KWC test kitchen. Even if you use your own recipe, you can follow the freezer/thawing/baking instructions. -Grainlady FREEZER ROLLS 6-1/2 to 6-3/4 c. bread flour, divided* 1/2 c. granulated sugar 1/4 c. nonfat dry milk powder 1-3/4 c. cold water 1/2 c. shortening 2 large eggs, beaten 1 t. grated lemon peel 1 t. lemon juice 2 T. active dry yeast 2 t. salt *Variation: Substitute 2-1/2 c. whole wheat flour in the first step. In large mixing bowl, combine 2-1/2 c. flour, sugar and nonfat dry milk. Add cold water, shortening, eggs, lemon peel and lemon juice. Beat 3 minutes. Stir in undissolved yeast and 1 cup flour; beat 2 minutes. Add salt and 1 cup flour; mix 2 minutes. Add enough remaining flour to make a firm dough. Knead 15 minutes by hand or with dough hook. Divide and shape into 24 rolls. Place on greased sheet. Cover with plastic bag or wrap; seal well. Freeze until solid. Remove rolls from sheet; transfer to sealable bag. Use within 2 weeks. When needed, remove rolls from freezer and place on greased baking sheet; cover with plastic bag or wrap. Place in the refrigerator overnight to thaw. Place shallow pan of boiling water on bottom oven rack. Place covered rolls on top oven rack. DO NOT turn oven on. Let rolls rise until double, about 1-1/2 hours. Change boiling water half way through rising. Remove rolls from oven. Preheat oven to 400°F. Uncover rolls; bake 15-20 minutes or until golden. Remove from sheets; cool on racks.

I agree, you can freeze it. Mother keeps those frozen biscuits in her freezer for a couple of months and they still are fine, and I keep yeast bread for a couple of months, but after that time the yeast seems to, as LindaC says, "lose the oomph". I've also frozen scone dough, which is basically a sweet biscuit, but haven't tried to keep it more than a month, mostly because I eat them before any longer! So I believe you should be able to freeze that recipe without problems, but I wouldn't try to freeze it long term, longer than a month or so. Annie

Do you freeze them before or after they rise? I sometimes freeze already baked rolls, but they don't taste as good as fresh baked. I want to serve marigene's dinner rolls on July 4th. My family loves them. I'll be working all that week so I'd like to mix, knead and put them in pans a few days early, and just bake them off on the day of the barbeque. Has anyone tried this? At what point during the process should I freeze them? If I let them rise first, will I need to let them thaw before baking? I'm organized enough to make them the same day when I'm doing the dinner. When DH does a BBQ - I try to stay out of his way! Marigene posted this recipe quite a while ago (I usually skip the second rise). They are easy to make and always a big hit! The Spicery Rolls 1 1/2 cups boiling water 1/2 cup margarine (I use butter) 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 cup sugar 1 1/2 cups water (hot but not boiling) 6 ounces evaporated milk 1/4 cup yeast (yes, that is correct...I use Instant yeast) 9 1/8 cups flour In a large bowl, pour boiling water over butter. Add salt and sugar and stir well. When butter is melted, mix in additional water. Stir in evaporated milk. Slowly add flour and yeast. Turn out onto floured board and knead for about 10 minutes. Next grease a large bowl thoroughly, put the dough in it and turn it over so the surface will be greased. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, punching down twice, about an hour. form into dinner-size rolls. Let rise until doubled. Bake 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 36 large rolls.