Sweets to Hang and Sweets to Eat

I'm not a very crafty mom, I decided. I can never think of many easy projects for the girls to do, and I hate the mess it makes. And then what do you do with all of their projects? There's only so much space to hang things. I prefer to let them help me in the kitchen and make something that won't be hanging around, cluttering the house for the next six months.

But... they love glue. And glitter. And pompoms. And creating stuff out of paper. Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought I'd help them make some decorations. (Crafts that serve a purpose and won't be hanging around forever. Right up my alley.)

I didn't want to go out and buy a bunch of stuff (another peeve of mine... I have no place to store craft supplies), so I used what I had. I cut hearts for them out of white paper and let them glitter them up.

This was only the beginning. We had glitter ALL over the table, their hands, and the floor. And the couch.

 After they made the hearts sparkly, I used a round cutter and cut some circles out of scrapbook paper (I do like scrapbook paper, even though I'd rather have a cavity drilled than do another scrapbook), attached the sparkly hearts with a gold brad, then tied them to a long piece of kitchen twine with some pink ribbon.

Eh. Not bad. (It's a lot cuter in person.) The girls loved it.

Another project I did last week was a step-by-step tutorial for the Tasty Kitchen Blog. I made my grandma's pineapple pie, which I hadn't had in a LONG time. I've been craving it since Thanksgiving. The girls were good sports and kept their fingers out while I was taking photos. They even held up some props for me.

Then we had pie.

Ivy really liked the meringue.

Like, a lot. Then she at the crust. And left about half the filling on her plate. Silly girl.

Weekend with the Grand's

My parents decided to celebrate my dad's birthday out here with us this year! The weekend went by way too fast.

It's kind of a tradition in my family for the kids to get a Halloween box from Grandma. We got ours as kids and now my kids are getting theirs from my mom.

These glasses were pretty popular...

We went to the Perry Farm's pumpkin patch. (One of the few around here who don't have those annoying bouncy houses.) And of course, we had to get a photo in front of the entrance.

We tried to get everyone smiling at the same time.

Or smiling period.

Ivy didn't crack a smile until she started climbing on a giant pyramid made of straw bales. I think she's going to be our mountain-climbing-extreme-sports child. She's fearless. And she likes climbing high.

After saying this a thousand times, "K, girls, sit close. Sophie, scoot over. Ivy, scoot over. K, look at me. Look at me! Smile! Smile! SMILE!!"

Result:

And of course, blowing out candles with grandpa. (And still no smiling for Ivy.) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I called that cake, "Winter at the Crater" which might not make sense to 80% of you. What does make sense is three layers of cake, malt-fudge, and toasted marshmallows. I'll get that posted to my recipe blog shortly.

Brownies and Traditions

For the past two years I've made these brownies and Sophie has helped me. And for the past two years I've let her lick the spatula and then made her cry while taking it away from her -- all while snapping pictures like an insensitive mother. The second time I did it, I wasn't intending it to be a tradition, but it kind of did anyway. (See this post if you need a reminder.) Seriously, though? I think it's nice to get a few pictures of your kids riled up. That's how my kids are about 60% (some days around 87%) of the time, and I like to capture a few photos to keep things real. I like to look back at these when they're sleeping and think, "wow, they're actually pretty cute when they're mad."

Anyway.

We started out with the blissful pictures of Sophie licking the spatula:

But when I took it away from her, I got this look:



Kind of a confused look like, "why did you take that from me and are you giving it back in the next 15 seconds?"

Not the drama I was looking for. On to my next subject:



Licking a chocolate-covered spatula is true bliss.

Now for the moment of truth. Mom takes the spatula away and . . .

Bingo. Just what I expected. I guess our little tradition of photos only lasts for two years per child.

Two Very Different Weekends

Weekend #1: Without Children (Yes, it IS possible.)

Over Memorial Day weekend we had Steve's sister Kimi take the girls back to Sacramento with her on Friday when she came to see Steve in the clinic.

Two days without children. I could hardly contain myself. We (I) thought of all of the things we (I) wanted to do while we've been here, but would bore the kids to death. By the way, Steve was a really good sport. He let me drag him where ever I wanted to go. I like him a lot.

After a session at the temple (on the list of "things that are really hard to do once you have kids"), we stopped by a farmers' market, grabbed some garlic cheese curds (ACK! so good!), bummed around San Francisco for a while, then went to Mill Valley.

Why Mill Valley? Because I wanted to go HERE:

Tyler Florence (if you don't know) is a celebrity chef who has a show on the Food Network. He lives in Mill Valley (a swanky little town just north of SF across the Golden Gate Bridge) and has a store there. Tyler Florence is probably on my top 5 favorite chefs list, and I've always wanted to go to his store (and camp out all day there in the hopes that he'd wander in). I found out that he was going to be there on Memorial Day doing some demonstrations and that he usually does some during the week. I was so close. Maybe we'll get a chance to go back and see him. I may just keel over from excitement if I ever do.

That picture of me in front of the store was the best we got. I should have ran across the street and got a shot like this:

image courtesy of flickr photographer "rocor"

. . . but I hate feeling "touristy". I'm regretting it now. We had lunch at a little organic flatbread joint (it's a bit crunchy up there, but the "I only shop at Whole Foods and my home furnishings look like they came from an 18th century farmhouse" version of crunchy.)

And then we left San Francisco. . .

to head home and purge/organize the girls' toys. Best to do that while they're not around.

Then we went and got the girls after church on Sunday. (Um, church was nice, but sorta boring. After being released from the Primary presidency AND not having two toddlers to chase during Sacrament meeting, it was like going back to our early years of marriage. Nice, but not nearly as interesting.)

Yes, I missed the girls, but then I had to live through a 3-4 day "attention and wide-open spaces" hangover. Just in time for this weekend.

Weekend #2: Without Steve

Steve's been in Philadelphia for three days (he gets home tomorrow, yippee!) finishing up the last seminar for his wellness certification. And because it's such a long trip home (9 hours of travel -- ugh) he couldn't get a flight out until tomorrow morning. He had Sunday afternoon to kill, so he hopped on a tour bus. When I found out he was going to be wandering around (without kids) snapping pictures of the Liberty Bell and eating cheesesteaks, I got a little jealous. No, a lot jealous.

So I decided to do what I've been wanting to do for the last couple of months, Steve or no Steve. I took the girls to the beach.

We hopped in the car yesterday morning and drove an hour down to Santa Cruz and hung out for a few hours. It only took one trip down to the water for them to decide they never want to go near it again. They stayed right by me the entire time and played in the sand. They only got their feet wet once. I wonder why I even bothered to put swimsuits on all of us.

We've had a lot of other things going on this weekend with friends, so the girls have been going almost nonstop since Steve left. Despite a serious regression in potty training (AHHHHH!!) things have been going well. Considering. I haven't entirely lost my mind either, but there are still quite a few hours left to go.

Going Chestnutty

Speaking of trips, Steve's in Atlanta right now at a conference. I've been mostly by myself with the girls since Thursday afternoon and honestly. . . besides the heat, it hasn't been that bad. I hate to admit that to him because then he might think that I don't really need a break (OH, BUT I DO!).

Dr. Chestnut with the fam.

I've been trying to figure out a way to sum up the seminar we went last weekend in a few sentences, but it's difficult. Just to give you an idea . . . Dr. Chestnut is among other things, a chiropractor, and just about all of the attendees were chiros or wives of chiros or people who work for chiros. He developed a program called "Eat Well, Move Well, Think Well" to promote wellness and to certify chiros to use in their offices. Steve plans on implementing it in his. (The light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer!) This particular seminar was the "Think Well" portion of the program.

Listening to Dr. Chestnut is like drinking from a fire hose. I guess, in over simplistic terms, he spoke about how to empower people to take charge of their emotional and physical health. Our physiology is affected by our emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health. Our physiology.

An interesting thing about this seminar is that I found I was making connections to religion, although he left religion mostly out of his lectures. Because I'm religious, I'm already aware of my values and beliefs, which is something (he says) that some people aren't sure about, whether they're religious or not. He talked about relationship dynamics, having integrity (acting according to your beliefs), being optimistic, and realizing our worth as human beings.

He also spoke a lot about how most chronic illnesses (heart disease, diabetes, obesity, infertility, high blood pressure, just to name a few) aren't the result of genetics, but of lifestyle choices -- choices we make both psychologically and physically.

A big (and perhaps the most shocking) part of his program is "Eat Well". There are many who say he's pretty extreme (including me), but the beautiful thing about his program is that he doesn't tell anyone to give up anything. The reasons why diets don't work is because we try to give up things that we love. Chestnut suggests always adding positive things instead of removing negative. He used "pizza and beer" quite often as his example. He said that you can keep your pizza and beer, just have a salad first. The point isn't to follow his guidelines perfectly from day one, but to make easy, gradual, and comfortable changes. Swearing off all sweets isn't any of those things. But eating an apple or a carrot a day is. The point isn't to lose weight, either, but to become healthier. When you become healthier, your body will naturally find a healthy weight.

He also said to eat your favorite food while naked, in front of a mirror . . . on a mini trampoline. Jokingly, but I see his point. :)

I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be as far as nutrition goes, but I do notice that when I eat more things that I should be eating, I lose a little interest in things that aren't healthy. Just a little. Sometimes I still drown myself in a bowl of popcorn/ice cream/cookies because I'm bummed out. Or eat seven pancakes just because I feel like it (now regretting it as I stare down at my "pancake belly") I just start over the next day. And I feel better because I ate some broccoli at lunch.

Dr. Chestnut went on a few rants throughout his lecture, and one of them was about the health care crisis. He said that neither option from the political parties would fix the problem. Everyone keeps talking about who's going to pay for what, who's going to have coverage, and what prescription drugs will be available, but no one is talking about how to make people healthier. We don't need more money, we need fewer sick people. I agree with him.

He didn't just pull all of this stuff out of his head, either. For every statement or concept he spoke about, he listed several studies and/or academic articles to back them up. The research this man has done and the influence he's had on people is incredible. He's literally helped people save their own lives with this program. Occasionally he threw some things out there that made me roll my eyes, but for the most part, I think he's spot on.

I feel like I'm jumping around, and if you've read this far, you must be at least curious, right? Visit his website at https://www.eatwellmovewellthinkwell.com. There's a video of some snippets from Dr. Chestnut's lectures that sums up his philosophy as well.

Lent and Gluten

Steve and I decided to give something up for Lent. No, we're not Catholic, but some of our friends and family (go Mary!) do it for fun, and they aren't Catholic either. Sometimes I think it's silly, but I like having an excuse to push myself to do something I wouldn't normally do. (Or something that I probably should do, but don't have the willpower - like my Lent goal a few years ago of giving up sweets. It was actually easier than I thought it would be, but I was frustrated that I hadn't lost an ounce of weight.)

So, we're giving up gluten. That's right. For the next 40 days we're going to be eating gluten-free. (If you're not familiar with "gluten-free", it's basically giving up everything that has wheat flour in it, as well as barley and rye, but we don't usually eat much of that anyway. A lot of people have gluten intolerances and either give this stuff up or get sick.) Not that gluten is a bad thing . . . we're just curious to see what it would be like. We're already eating a lot less bread and pasta to cut out some carbs, so I don't think it will be torture. What might be tough is cutting out pizza. And cookies. And our weekly pancakes/waffles (or at least changing them drastically).

I'm anxious to see if this will allow me to drop the remaining 10 prego-pounds I'm carrying around more quickly. Probably not if my ice cream consumption increases as my gluten consumption decreases.

P.S. Mary, I didn't even notice until now that you weren't on my blogroll. Forgive me, cuz

My Little Foodie

In the afternoons I sometimes watch a little Food Network to relax before Steve gets home and I have to start dinner. Television has never been able to catch Sophie's attention for more than 5 minutes (probably because I rarely turn it on before 4PM), but she likes FN. Particularly Giada de Laurentiis (Everyday Italian), Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) and Paula Deen. Atta girl.

Baker's Initiation or When Dad's Not Here

Sophie likes to stand up on a chair while I'm in the kitchen and watch what I'm doing as she grabs things from the counter and makes twice the mess to clean up later. Today we made Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl Brownies. (Um... if you like pumpkin and chocolate together, you have to go make these right now. Seriously.)

Steve and I are usually pretty strict about not giving Sophie a lot of sweets and junk food. Until today, I'd never given her a spatula from something I've been baking. I figure eventually I had to start. What kind of childhood would she have if she never got to lick spatulas*? This spatula happened to be covered in brownie batter. Below you can see the progression from complete bliss to total devastation when I tried to take it away from her. The third look down on the left almost made me give in and let her make a complete mess of herself. Almost.

A few tears, a clean shirt, and an extra big package of paper towels later, she forgot all about it. Easy to upset. (mostly) Easy to please.

*Yes, there were raw eggs in the batter. Honestly, I'm not worried. If there was a real danger from eating raw cookie dough and batter, I'd probably be dead by now from how much I've eaten in my life.

No Tomatoes For You

Has anyone else heard about the 16-state salmonella outbreak from raw tomatoes? I just read about it in one of the Etsy forums -- of all places. Luckily California Romas are safe. Those are my favorite.

Most fast food places, including In-n-Out, have pulled fresh tomatoes from their food. Your burgers will have to go tomatoless for a while.

Here's an article for more info.

Cake #3

I really wasn't looking forward to going to class last night. No, wait, I wasn't looking forward to making another cake and making three batches of that nasty Crisco icing. (I think that was the consensus among all of us, too.) We all had fun, but are relieved that the class is over.

I'm pretty happy with my cake, though. I just used a yellow cake mix, added a little butter flavoring, then put leftover chocolate frosting from last week in the middle. Oh, and sliced fresh strawberries. I'll show you the inside when I cut it. Or when Steve cuts it. I can't handle that right now.

The smell of that icing makes my stomach do somersaults. I didn't even want to lift the cover off of this thing.


I hope I'm not ruined for the rest of my life because I did this while I was pregnant.

Cake #2 and a Lazy Saturday

Speaking of lazy, I didn't even post my cake from Monday's class. Actually I forgot. It's hard to remember things with prego brains.

Here it is:

I went with a nice, safe, chocolate cake. (The Phillips Chocolate Cake recipe -- it's the best.) No experiments this time.

The flowers look OK if you don't see the picture of what they're supposed to look like. :)

So, today we had good intentions of going to the beach, but we got a late start (I really needed a nap) and decided to go to the park with some friends instead. We thought there was going to be an area for kids to play in the water, but the water wasn't turned on. At least we got to be outside. And Sophie got to wear her suit again without getting it wet.

After we got home, washed all the sand off of Sophie and put her down for a nap, we hung out in our skibbies the rest of the day.

Cake #1

I wasn't sure where to post this entry, so I may just post it on both blogs.

Like I said before, I'm in a cake decorating class. Last night was the first class that we brought cakes to decorate. Everyone's turned out darling. Here's mine:

I added this shot so you can see how smooth my corners are. A-mazing.

I'll give you one guess at the flavor of the cake. Tangerine? Correct. What else would you put on a tangerine cake than a giant tangerine made of frosting? My creativity knows no bounds.

Overall I was content with the outside. The cake itself is a different story. I tried out Paula Deen's Fresh Tangerine Cake recipe. Normally you can't go wrong with Paula. I tried to do my thighs a favor and replace the oil with applesauce. Usually you can't even tell the difference. Well, my poor cake has the consistency of banana bread. That's usually OK, but I tasted it today and it's really weird. Not gross, just. . . weird. I'm not sure if it was the applesauce or something else I unknowingly did. Whatever it was, I don't think I've messed up a cake this badly before.

On the bright side, the cream cheese tangerine frosting that went with it is really good. I have a lot of faith in this recipe, so I'm going to post it to my recipe blog.

Lesson learned: When Paula puts fat in something, you best not be messin' with it.

The Food has Moved

I decided that my blog has been overrun by PoshMama articles and too much discussion of food. SO . . . I'm not going to be posting articles or recipes and I'll even be taking off all of the foodie links from the side panel.

While some of you may be sad, probably a bigger portion of you are silently cheering to yourselves. Where will it all go?

Perrys' Plate

Yes, I decided to start another blog solely dedicated to food and recipes. I'll be posting the PoshMama articles there as well as new recipes that we love. I also plan on posting just about all of our family's favorites on that site as well.

Why?

1. Like I said, I felt like our family blog was turning into a "What the Perry's had for dinner" blog.
2. I, like everyone else who cooks, am always on the look-out for a new meal idea, and when I find something we like, I want to shout it from the roof-tops so everyone else can try it, too.
3. I wanted to have all of my recipes online so I can access them from anywhere and have a back-up in case our house burns down.

A little extreme? Maybe.

And no, I don't have to manually type them up because I already did that last summer. The site looks a little bare right now with one lonely Posh Mama article, and I still have to tweak it and add a bunch of content, but I think it will turn out well. I plan on indexing everything, too, so things will be easier to find.

OCD? Maybe, but I tend to be that way when organizing information.

If anyone has any more suggestions, I'm all ears :)

V-Day Report Part II: The Food

Steve sent me flowers yesterday, which made a beautiful centerpiece for the kitchen table. I LOVE getting flowers. :) This arrangement had a bunch of pink lilies (lilies are my favorite), purple irises and some other purple flowers that I don't know the name of. I can't wait until everything's open!

Steve's really difficult to buy gifts for (mostly because he never wants - or thinks he needs - anything), so for holidays like this I spend extra time in the kitchen. I get to play more and he gets better food. (Hopefully)

I got gutsy and tried out new recipes for Steve's V-Day dinner. With a little tweaking, everything turned out great! It didn't take that long either because I used my Crock Pot. I swear those things work magic on meat. I made shredded beef burritos with a roast I had in the freezer. When it was done cooking, the taste was lacking a bit, so I added some salt, lime juice and fresh cilantro. That seemed to do the trick.

Chipotle Beef Burritos
adapted from BHG.com

1 1/2 lb roast or steaks
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/3 c chopped onion
1 or 2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/3 c chopped fresh cilantro
juice from 1 small lime
warm tortillas
fresh pico de gallo or salsa
guacamole
sour cream
shredded cheese

Trim meat of fat and strange gummy parts and cut into about 6 pieces. Place meat in a 2.5-4 qt slow cooker. Add undrained tomatoes, onion, chipotle peppers, oregano, cumin, garlic, and salt. Cover and cook on low heat for 7-8 hours. Remove meat from slow cooker, shred with a couple of forks and return to pot. Cook for an additional hour or so until heated through and flavor has incorporated into the meat. Add cilantro and lime juice. Serve on tortillas with pico, guac, sour cream and cheese. (And anything else you feel like putting on there)

Nat's Notes:
1. I decided that chipotle peppers rock. You can use them in place of diced green chilies in about anything. They add smokey, spicy flavor to stuff. Mmm. They're super hot, though, so go easy on them.


For dessert I made a cheesecake. I don't know if I did this more for me or for Steve. I found this recipe during Christmas break in a book that my mom has and have been wanting to make it ever since. Are you ready for the name of it? It's Cinn-a-bun Cheesecake.

I'm definitely a cinnamon person. If I had to choose between a hot cinnamon roll and hot brownie, I'd choose the cinnamon roll every time. (Most of the time I don't need to choose. I eat both.)

There are no words in the English language to describe how good this cheesecake is. It's so good that I don't even have an excuse in my head when I eat it. "Oh, it's Valentine's Day" or "Oh, I worked out this morning" don't even enter my head. I don't care. It's that good. And that's why I've been trying to pawn off pieces to the neighbors -- so I don't give myself a stomach ache.

Here it is from the side.

Here's a shot of the back. Oh, baby.

Now without further adieu . . .

Cinn-a-bun Cheesecake
adapted from A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman

Crust:
1 1/2 c finely crushed Mother's Iced Oatmeal cookies or any spice cookie
1/4 c butter, melted
2 T brown sugar

Filling:
3 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 c sugar
1/2 c sour cream or whipping cream
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 c flour
1 c coarsely chopped cookies (same kind as above)
1 c raisins (optional)
1/4 c butterscotch or caramel sundae topping
1 tsp cinnamon mixed with 1/4 c sugar

Preheat oven to 325. Place a pan of water on the bottom rack.

For crust, mix cookie crumbs, butter and brown sugar and press into the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan. Spray the sides of the pan with non-stick cooking spray.

For filling, blend cream cheese, sugar and sour cream until smooth, scraping bottom and sides of bowl, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in eggs, vanilla and flour and blend well, 2-3 minutes.

Spoon 1/3 of filling into pan and top with half of each chopped cookies and raisins. Drizzle on some butterscotch topping. Dust on some cinnamon sugar mixture. Pour on another 1/3 of cream cheese mixture and other layers. Add last bit of cream cheese filling and finish top of cake with cookies and cinnamon sugar.

Bake 50-55 minutes or until cheesecake is set about 2 inches from the side and wiggles slightly in the center. Turn oven off, leave door open and let cheesecake cool until you can take it out of the oven without oven mitts. Leave cheesecake on the counter until it's room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.

Serve with whipped cream and butterscotch topping.

Nat's Notes:
1. I used light cream cheese and sour cream, although I think all hopes of improving the calorie count were already lost.
2. I didn't add raisins because I don't like 'em.

Sweets for the Sweet

PoshMama article for this week:

". . . there is something in me that will not succumb to the woeful state of calling Valentine's Day 'single awareness day,' or be sad that I don't have a valentine to cook heart-shaped waffles for. I guess it's hope that keeps me floating. I know I don't have to be sad because somewhere, there is someone who is dreaming of heart-shaped waffles as he puts on his red and white striped tie to go to work and makes the best of the Holiday of Love!"

Well said, Sar. I love my cousin's outlook on Valentine's Day because it IS the holiday of love and not just the holiday of significant others. Whether it's your S.O., your kids, your family or your friends, let them know you care. Oh gag, I'm starting to sound like a Hallmark card. Let's get to Valentine's Day treat-making business, shall we?

By the way, I think heart-shaped waffles are adorable, too, but save yourself the $50 and put a cookie cutter through a square one.

Speaking of cookie cutters and Valentine's Day treats, I love these cookie cutters at Sur La Table. I think what I love more is the painstaking effort someone took to decorate them. They're gorgeous!

Also at Sur La Table are single-serving, heart-shaped springform pans. They come in a set of six. How's that for portion control? :)

Always a favorite, and slightly less guilt-ridden is chocolate fondue. (C'mon, you're eating fruit!) You can pick up one of these cute little fondue pots at any retail store that sells kitchenware. I've definitely seen them at Target. For a quick, easy fondue, just melt a bag of chocolate chips and add a teaspoon of shortening for sheen. Then let them dip their little hearts out.

Or as a counterattack against the sweets your children will bring home from school, try making Healthy Hearts or Ladybugs on a Stick. The little ones will love them!

I've saved the best for last, though. I would be anyone's sweetheart if they brought me a pan of warm, gooey cinnamon rolls right out of the oven. I salivate at the mere thought.

What I like about this recipe is that a bread machine makes the dough for you! If you don't have a bread machine, I've added an alternate recipe at the bottom. I've tried both and they're fabulous! You could even color the icing pink to make them more Valentine-y.

However you decide to sweeten your holiday, I wish you lots of love,

Natalie


Cinnamon Rolls a lá Bread Machine
Recipe courtesy of the book that came with my bread machine

2/3 c. warm milk
3 eggs
6 T butter, softened and cut into pieces
½ c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp vanilla
4 c. flour
2/3 c. cornstarch
2 1/4 tsp yeast

Filling:
¾ c. brown sugar
2 ½ T cinnamon
4 T melted butter

Add ingredients to bread machine in the order listed. Run dough cycle for a 1.5-2.0 lb loaf. (If you have the option, if not, that's fine.) When finished, roll out dough into two large rectangles, about ½ in thick. Brush melted butter and sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over each. Roll up, slice, and place in prepared baking pan . Let rise for 35-40 min or until doubled in size. Bake at 350 for 20-25 min or until they sound hollow when tapped.

Let cool for a few minutes, then top with frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 oz cream cheese
¼ c butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ c pwd sugar
1 T milk

Makes 20-24 rolls.
____________________

Cinnamon Rolls a lá Your Hands
Recipe courtesy of the aforementioned cousin, Sarah.

1 ¼ c. warm milk
4 T. butter
3 T. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 T yeast
½ c warm water
4 c. flour

Filling:
¼ c. butter
1 tsp cinnamon
½ c brown sugar


Place yeast in warm water and let rest for 5 minutes. Combine all dough ingredients and knead about 20 times. Let rise in a warm place until doubled. (Perfect excuse to use a dough scraper!!) Roll out into a large rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick and add filling. Roll up, slice, and place in prepared baking pan. Let rise again until doubled. Bake 10-12 min at 400

Makes 15-20 rolls.

See Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe above.