And more food fun!

A few weeks back it seems that EVERY customer ordered their cinnamon pastry warmed up -- the reduced-fat cinnamon swirl coffee cake, the cinnamon roll, the morning bun -- you name it, they wanted it warm. Well, the next question would be then, is do you know how intoxicating and inviting the smell of warm cinnamon is?!!? The put me on the hunt for a cinnamon roll recipe that would be gooey, soft, and DELICIOUS!!! Well, this is what I found! And I've even had requests from Tiana for it and that is an amazing thing! She doesn't usually fall prey to such horrid things, but these are something she's willing to risk a stomach-ache for! These are not meant to be healthy -- so enjoy every last buttery morsel! ☺

OOEY-GOOEY CINNAMON ROLLS

This recipe is adapted from copykat.com’s cinnabon recipe:
Warm 1 cup milk and 2/3 cup butter in microwave
Add 1 cup warm water, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 Tbls salt, 2 beaten eggs & 2 Tbls instant yeast, mix.
After a sponge is formed, add 7-8 cups of flour while mixer (with dough hook) is running on low.
Place in greased bowl to rise, cover. After an hour (or when dough is doubled in size), punch down and turn out on floured surface. Roll into a big rectangle.
Filling: 3/4 cup melted butter, 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup ground cinnamon
Spread butter over rectangle. Mix cinnamon and brown sugar and spread over butter. I use my hands and I get really messy, but it works.
Roll up rectangle and cut into rolls. I use white thread, but unflavored, unwaxed dental floss works. Place in greased pans and let rise (or, you can do what I did: put it in the fridge ((unrisen)) overnight and then bake in the morning) . Bake 350 degrees 25-30 minutes. If baking cold, put pan into cold oven and bake about 35 minutes.
Frosting:
1 stick butter
4 oz cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla (I use 1 tsp. vanilla and omit the lemon juice)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
Beat everything until smooth and then for another 2 minutes until really fluffy. Frost while warm.

A good day...

A beautiful Sunday! Loved every minute of it! I started out by throwing together a batch of rolls to go with our dinner. We had Gent, Elaine, Victoria and Grant stay for lunch after Meeting! I LOVE to do that kind of cooking and entertaining! The meal was really quite simple, but so yummy. We had ham, potatoes au gratin, salad, rolls and a relish tray. For dessert we had pumpkin cake and coffee, of course!! I really need to cook more often! I do enjoy it, but it just seems, I don't know, like busy work, I guess, when it's just for the 3 of us! Anyway, here's a recipe for you -- and it's fairly healthy, too!

PUMPKIN CAKE
1 can (29 oz.) pumpkin puree
1½ c. fat-free milk
¾ c. fat-free dry milk
6 egg whites
¾ c. sugar
1½ tsp. cinnamon
1½ tsp. ground allspice
1 pkg. (9 oz. Jiffy brand!) yellow cake mix
1/3 c. brown sugar (I don't pack it)
¼ c. butter
¾ c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350º. Coat a 13x9" pan with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat pumpkin, milk, and dry milk until smooth. Beat in egg whites, sugar, cinnamon, and allspice. Pour into the prepared baking dish.
In a medium bowl, combine cake mix and brown sugar. Using a fork or pastry blender, cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle with walnuts, if using.
Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15-20 minutes longer, or until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan before cutting.
16 servings

Per serving: 188 cal., 5 g protein, 33 g carbohydrates, 5 g fat, 2 g fiber

'S About Time!!

So, I've wanted to do this for a long time, but it's much harder than it looks! We've had "family" pictures taken with Coda, but it's really hard to get a photo that shows his goofiness! Not to say I was super successful today either, but here's a sampling of what I got! (click his photo!)

Randomness

What a busy weekend! Friday night was High School Stadium Jam. The big "get out and cheer for your team" crosstown rival football game! Kaylin came and she and Tiana got together these FABULOUS outfits to cheer on their team.Later that night (oh, their team won!) Victoria came over and spent the night and Karissa joined us Saturday morning so we could take them to the Fair to join up with 7 other young kids for a day of fun. We left there just as it was starting to really rain and came north to a large picnic with our church friends. Sunday is always busy since I pretty much always work. After Gospel meeting a few of us went to pizza which was a lot of fun!

Now it's Monday and this is how it starts for me:

No joke, this guy is over 3 inches long in leg span, his body is 1" and the peaks of his legs are probably 1" off of my towel! Freaking out just a bit!

A long weekend away!

Last Thursday Kent took me downtown to catch the Light Rail to the airport so I could fly back to D.C. and meet up with some of the women from Cuppas and Cards for a Cozy Crop weekend. Once I landed in D.C. I immediately went up to Maryland via Metro and MARC (a commuter rail). I spent the evening and night with Jeanne and her sweet family and then we drove up to Pennsylvania on Friday morning. We met Joanne and Deb at Stamp-ede on our way to Lancaster. I did manage to find a coffee stamp to use and since it so worked out just right, I ran to Starbucks to buy a cuppa for myself and some VIA for my cards! That's the first supply I bought for the crop weekend. I brought nothing but 2 magazines for ideas and that meant I got to fully participate in their shopping extravaganzas! From there the four of us headed to Five Guys for a burger and then on to Cozy Crop in Lancaster. We got settled in and I started the dinner for that night since I really didn't have anything to work on yet. Later that evening, though, like 10 pm, we took a drive to an old one-room schoolhouse in Lititz where they were holding a crop and so were open until midnight! What a very cool little town that I MUST go and visit another time! Of course, we're in Amish/farm country so the smells took me back a few years to my childhood. Such a quiet peaceful atmosphere! We got home and most of us stayed up until at least midnight working on various projects that we'd brought. Saturday we went out a Mennonite stamp shop that was just beyond cool! On the way there we passed a full blown Amish buggy and an Amish horse cart. The stamp store was in the basement of this most gorgeous house. When I looked in the open garage across the drive from the house I noticed horse stalls. It was then that I realized that this Mennonite family still uses horse and buggy, too. They had at least 2 buggies, one in the house garage and one in the stable garage. The 14 year old daughter was manning the store and her 2 adorable little sisters were "helping" her! They were sure enjoying the opportunity to perform for some appreciative "Englishers"!!! The prices and selection in this little store were just excellent! From there a few of us went into Bird-in-Hand to the farmer's market. Colleen and Jeanne were so generous to take me there so that I could hopefully have a slightly greater chance of witnessing and experiencing Amish country! We weren't disappointed! The little town -- what I saw of it -- was so quaint. They were having a town garage sale including some Amish women who were selling some of their clothing! I should have bought one for Tiana!! ☺ I managed to buy a few souvenirs, some chow-chow which my friend has to ship to me, and get a photo or two of Amish in their buggies. Considering I packed nothing whatsoever in the form of supplies, I managed to make over 10 cards while I was there! Sunday we packed up and I went home to stay in Virginia with Colleen and her awesome family. Even with a sick kid at home, she was very generous to take me into D.C. on Monday so I could visit the National Law Enforcement Memorial and pay my respects to the fallen officers of our area (from late last year). I also happened to remember my neighbor from long ago and his name was there and I even made a rubbing of it. That really meant a lot to me! Thanks so much to Colleen for indulging me! We took a VERY whirlwind tour of the Capital, serving only to whet my appetite for more time there! We then enjoyed lunch before we stopped back by her house to get my stuff and take me back to the airport for my flight home. I cannot begin to thank Jeanne and Colleen enough for being so generous to welcome me into their homes, drive me hither and yon and just take care of me! But I can't forget Deb who was so open to sharing with us all her knowledge of the local stores and for each of the girls for welcoming me to Cozy Crop! How I wish I could afford to make this an annual tradition!!! For a complete photo tour, well what I got of it anyway, click here!

And she's off!

I think this says it all! Three more years of high school!

Yay Me!!

Ok, you have to know that I think I might be ill! All 6 of the below articles were hand-sewn by ME!! I abhor sewing so to think that I sat down and made all of this in the last 4 days or so is a really big deal! I bought the fabric for the turquoise bubble skirt and the two aprons about 5 months ago. Well, you see how I did at that point! Now Tiana has 3 new skirts, a new pillow out of leftovers from a skirt of mine that's now over a year old, and Jonathon and Emily have new aprons for when they help mommy in the kitchen! On top of all of that we had Meeting here at home today, we ate a meal or two at home, I made a Low-Fat Whole Wheat Sour Cream Coffeecake and a completely-tweaked Double-Chocolate Cream Pie with a Nut Crust. So the tweak is -- I used coconut milk instead of the 1% milk and I used all almonds in the Nut Crust and I pre-baked it at 400º for 10 minutes. I have not yet tried it, but the little bit on the spatula tasted just fine! I'm going to take the recipe with me to Lancaster this weekend so that my friend can have some chocolate pie along with the rest of us! No wheat, no dairy but (hopefully!) all YUM!! And yeah, about this weekend. Thursday I fly out to D.C., leaving Kent and Tiana to fend for themselves for a few days! I'll join a group of women that I've known online for over 5 years as they enjoy their annual Cozy Crop scrapbooking weekend in Lancaster County, PA. I'm super excited to meet these ladies as well as take in Amish country!! So, I'll be back with you after the 13th!! I'm leaving this machine behind, turning my cellphone off and generally taking it very easy! I will let you know how the tweaks on the pie turn out, though! FOLLOW UP!-The pie is to-die-for! The coffee cake not so much. As a matter of fact, I took the link out to save you. The only thing I took away from the recipe is that when baking a coffeecake in a bread pan, layer the nut/crumb mixture in between and on top of the cake!