around here, things are a special kind of crazy!

Monday, August 01, 2011

Carbo-Loading

Remember last post when I said we were planning on starting the day with a big breakfast? Well, I surprised Pug (and Pon) with scratch made cinnamon rolls!

Pictured: gooey, sugary deliciousness
I followed this recipe from The Sweets Life, and, despite murdering my yeast (my milk got too hot), it turned out wonderfully. I imagine that when I make it again and have a working food thermometer my yeast will live and puff up my rolls beautifully and they will be even gooier and therefore more scrumptious. I started the rolls last night then put them in the fridge overnight, taking the pan out to warm up as I preheated the oven. With two adults and a picky toddler, I have breakfasts and desserts for the whole week leftover! I may or not behave myself and not eat one cinnamon roll a day until they are gone...

I made chewy granola bars while I was waiting on the first rise of the cinnamon rolls:

Peanut butter pretzel granola bars
I found this recipe on Heavenly Homemakers, which I loved because it doesn't use corn syrup. I don't have anything against corn syrup, but it's not an ingredient I keep in stock. The bars are quite tasty, if a little goopy. I prefer chewy granola bars, which is why I sought this out in the first place, but these are almost wet enough to require a spoon. Pug however, loves them, and I can't argue with that. The original recipe called for "no more than a cup of" a variety of ingredients, none of which I had. (What kind on self-respecting baker doesn't keep a hidden supply of chocolate chips?? Oh, right, me...) So I improvised. With a peanut butter/honey base, I thought that some slightly mashed pretzels would taste good. And then I tossed in a handful of cashews, because I bought a can for a dinner later in the week. The result is quite tasty with the added crunch and pockets of saltiness, but I'll have to play with the recipe a bit to get it to firm up just a smidge more.

For lunch I taught Pug how to make my pasta salad, which was utterly consumed. He did an excellent job. :) Thanks, Pug!

We had dinner with the Stormy family. They'd been trying to get us out to their new house for practically a month and we finally managed to get our schedules lined up to make it happen. Purple and Pon ran around like, well, the crazy toddlers they are in the yard until the rain and lightning chased them inside where they continued to run around and have an absolute blast. They literally bounced off the walls for a bit too. Pug and Viking played some game on the XBox and chased the kids while Tink and I talked and worked on dinner. Tink made us two great recipes from the new Weight Watchers cookbook, meaty lasagna and a cilantro/lime oven roasted corn. Both were tasty, and I may start making corn that way too!

We took toffee crunch cookies (sans chocolate chips- I didn't have any, remember) and honey ginger lemonade. I don't have any pictures of those because the lemonade is gone and the pretty cookies were taken to the Stormy's and the ones I kept are a crumbly mess. I both crowded the pan and didn't let them cool enough before trying to move them for the first batch. The second was a similar if less crowded mess. The only change I made to the lemonade was to use a Tbls powdered ginger in place of the freshly grated (again, not a standard grocery item for me). It was delicious, but may be a bit intense, so feel free to knock it down to 1/2 Tbls if you try the recipe and need to substitute like I did.

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