Thrice Baked Cinnamon Rolls

A couple of weeks ago I bought some frozen bread dough to try a couple of recipes. Yesterday I took it out to thaw, but it was too late to use for dinner. At 11 pm I realized I needed to do something with it. So I scoured the Internet (and, of course Pinterest) for ideas. I settled on cinnamon rolls. It would be perfect. I'd get up a little early and feed my family homemade cinnamon rolls.

Well, I'm determined to share my successes, as well as my failures, as I take this journey to learn to cook. Today's experience falls somewhere in the middle.

The rolling the dough and doing the butter, cinnamon and sugar was easy. Even cutting and putting into a pan went smoothly. I covered them and put them in the fridge to rise over night.

If you are a baker, you probably noticed the problem: too many rolls--too close together.

After baking about 20 minutes, they looked (and sounded--tap, tap) perfect. I covered them in homemade glaze (did you know the glaze is just powdered sugar and milk?!?!).  I did intentionally leave that left side unfrosted.

Unfortunately, the yummy goodness only went skin deep.  More than half of the dough was still raw (yuck!). After several make a few changes (separating some out, flipping all of the rolls) and 3 times in the oven, they looked like this:

They may not look as pretty as Cinnabons, but they tasted good.

Rag Curls Revisited

When I was a kid, my mom used to tie my hair with rags to make ringlets. I never learned how she did it (I'm gonna have to have her show me next time I see her) but this is what it looked like:

I've seen several posts on Pinterest about "no heat" curls. I tried the sock bun with little success. (I don't think my technique was right.)

Last night I tried another sock method. The blogger suggested using men's dress socks, but I figured if I was gonna tie socks in my hair I should use cute ones!

This is right after I took the socks out. (I know....I'm not quite awake, but I did think to grab my phoen to take a picture!)

With my face (but not glasses) on.

This last picture is 6 hours later.  After church I put my hair in a clip. Then I fixed and ate dinner. I took this picture after the kitchen was cleaned up.  That's a lot of curl left (for me!)

Individual Monkey Breads

For tonight's dinner I decide to revisit the Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread that I made a couple of weeks ago. This time I decided to try individual ones.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cans of biscuits (cheap store brand)
Mozzarella cheese (either shredded or chunks from string cheese)
Pepperoni slices
Melted butter

I quartered the biscuit dough and pepperoni slices. I cut the string cheese into fairly thin slices.

TWFDS Challenge: Day 5 Kitchen Tools

Today's challenge is about our favorite kitchen tools.  Right now, my favorite is the crock pot.  Since I am still so new to home cooked meals, I like the idea of being able to throw ingredients in the crock pot and have a dinner waiting when I get home.

I'm looking forward to learning how to use other kitchen gadgets.  (I was surprised how much I enjoyed zesting the lemon with the microplane this week!)

Your turn:
What are your favorite kitchen gadgets.  Which ones would you grab if you had to leave in a hurry?

Remember, all comments on the challenge posts earn an entry into the drawing.

TWFDS Project: Day 4 Go-To Meals

Kathi Lipp talks about how every family has their go-to meals.  You know the ones...when all else fails, you make this.  I don't really have any of these--yet.  I used to make spaghetti about once a week.  I boiled noodles and heated up a can of Hunt's (or Wal-Mart brand) spaghetti sauce. Add a can of corn and a can of olives, and dinner is on the table in 20 minutes.

It was meals like this one (and ones with frozen chicken nuggets or corndogs) that made me decide I needed to expand my repertoire to offer my family better choices.

Your challenge:
Today, share you family's favorite recipe. What's the one (or two?) go to meal that you make almost every week?  Remember, comments on this series will get you an entry to win a copy of The What's For Dinner Solution.

For more ideas, Kathi has a newsletter filled with great recipes and tips for every area of your home. Plus when you sign up for the newsletter, your will receive The Ultimate Guide to Man Food an e-cookbook that will rock your husband’s culinary world. Head over to her website at KathiLipp.com