Cinnamon Rolls

Hello, everyone!

Have you heard of Gypsophilia? I hadn't until very recently. Last night, I attended a barn dance at which Oro! Orkestra, a band very near and dear to my heart played before Gypsophilia. I danced my feet off. If you've never in your life had a night or day or hour in which you threw your various limbs in every direction at once because of the rhythm and energy of the music you were listening to, I highly recommend it.

Gypsophilia! And barn decorations!

These cinnamon rolls are brought to you by the calorie-burning dancing, clapping, jumping, twisting, and leaping with which I exhausted myself yesterday.

None of those people are me, obviously, but the center of that floor is where I was.

In this recipe, we return to the counsel of Joy the Baker. This lovely lady recently made cinnamon rolls with a level of pizzazz that I simply can't recreate, so I'm using the base of this recipe, cut in half, minus the pistachios, dark chocolate, and orange peel. Basic cinnamon-sugar is what I need today. 

First, we start by washing the pot.

Then we make the dough. You'll just have to trust me when I say I followed the recipe, because there's something about the distraction of making cinnamon rolls that makes me forget the presence of my camera. Oops. I'm totally rocking this blogging thing.

Anyway, I added to the recipe a little bit. Joy, the wonderful kitchen enchantress, bakes her rolls in a greased pan, but I wanted mine gooey. Goo is the best part of cinnamon rolls, depending on my mood, so I made some caramel in the bottom of the pot. Really the only thing you need is sugar and water, but I jazzed it up a bit.

Caramel:

pat of butter (2 tbsp-ish)

1/4 cup sugar (I like brown sugar, but that's up to you)

dash of honey or maple syrup or any simple syrup

pinch salt

Simmer all of these together on the stove at medium heat, reduce when the mixture starts to bubble. When the caramel turns a nice light orange, take the pot off the heat, because it'll cook some more in the oven. (I overdid the cooking, so it was more like an umber... not good, as you'll see later.)

Place as many cinnamon rolls as possible on top of this caramel and pop them in the oven. Still following the JoytheBaker recipe here, so no need for a second rise.

They come out like this!

Oh, you want a better look? Here:

Wanna see the underside???

LOOK AT THAT GOO! (I should have taken the caramel off the heat earlier, but burnt sugar has some redeeming qualities.)

And there you have a cinnamon pull-apart treat. This was gone in approximately 24 hrs, so it may behoove you to hide half of it, or make two batches. Enjoy folks!

Stew-Quiche

I have a roommate. Actually I have two, but I'm only talking about one today. She is sensitive and fair and kind, as well as ridiculously outgoing and gentle and willing to listen and commiserate. She also loves to make stew.

Only this last part is in any way a problem. The problem is, every time she makes stew, she makes enough to feed a small army. This is, perhaps, appropriate since she is actually a member of the Canadian Reserves, but it doesn't work so well when she only lives with two people. So we have a lot of stew. The below recipe is how I attempt to use up the leftovers of said delicious stew.

Here it is, in all it's glory.

Quiche is a food that has all the advantages of breakfast food as well as a potential for clearing out old food from the fridge. Anything can go in it, so long as that anything is followed by eggs, milk, and cheese. At least, that's what I think I proved with this dish.

I happened to make this before I remembered that I was supposed to blog about it, so I took some pictures after the fact and I hope that's good enough.

Ta daaaa!

Beef stew. With parsnips, carrots, onions, and potatoes. I added more potatoes on top. There is goat cheese mixed in with the eggs, and cheddar on top of the potatoes. Put all of the aforementioned things in a bowl and stir. Add into a waiting pie crust (recipe below) and throw the potato slices on top, along with more cheese (cheddar here). Bake at 350 F for about 40 minutes, or until cheese has melted and browned, and juices have begun to leak from the top. Yum.

The pie crust recipe is a lot easier than most butter + flour + water recipes, mostly because it doesn't require a whole lot of kneading.

1 Pie crust... which means one side. Double this if you want a top AND bottom crust.

1/2 cup vegetable oil 

1/4 cup milk

2 cups flour 

1/2 tsp. salt

Mix together dry ingredients, then wet. Combine wet and dry all at once and stir quickly, stopping when just combined. Knead with your hands until there are no crumbs left, and then roll out immediately. BAM, pie crust. Enjoy!