i made monkey bread!

Now that’s something I haven’t made in, oh, since we lived in our first APARTMENT in Ohio… Guess I’m not a big fan, huh? I think it’s because my mom’s monkey bread always came out a little burned and the pieces (except for those few cherished center ones) came out really hard and crunchy. (Andrew said the same thing, so it must be normal.)

Anyway, last week Andrew asked–no, begged–for monkey bread and I said I’d see what I could do.

While I love to make bread, I don’t normally get up so early that I would have dough already risen and ready to go into the oven before he even leaves for work, at least not these days. So, I cheated and bought the frozen bread dough at Tops. (Apparently you can use canned biscuits for an even quicker version.)

Forgive the picture. Andrew snapped it quickly to send to his sisters (what a nice brother, bragging to them that he got monkey bread and they didn’t…) and I hadn’t anticipated blogging about our breakfast. Not sure why the dough looks yellow… Reason number 506 that I can’t WAIT for our new house: LOADS of natural light!

Anyway, I hadn’t a clue how long it would take to bake or in what proportions I would mix the cinnamon and sugar, so I Googled. I found Pioneer Woman’s recipe and it looked slightly different than what I’d made the last time, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. I’m glad I did–Andrew said it was the best he’d ever had. Must be the butter and brown sugar mixture you cook and then pour over the top. No, people, this is not health food. Not one bit.

And before I leave you, I simply must tell you the story of how Andrew made monkey bread that time long ago in our apartment (well before blogging, but oh, that would have made a great post!)…

Here’s the scene: I come down the stairs to the kitchen to find him standing in front of the stove (one of those with the four coil burners on the top), on one side of the stove top was a bowl of melted butter and the dough pieces, and on the OTHER SIDE of the stove top was the bowl of cinnamon sugar. I watched him take a piece of dough, dunk it in the melted butter (the way I assumed monkey bread was made until I read PW’s post) and DRIP DRIP DRIPped across the stove to the cinnamon and sugar bowl, and then DRIP DRIP DRIP[ed back across the stove top to the Bundt pan. I still remember the horrified gasp I let out when I saw the mess he was making.

It’s funny now, but I still wonder how someone with THREE degrees (two of them in Engineering!), does the things he does and still makes it through the day. Guess we’re all good at different things, huh? Now that I type that, I think that’s what 6.5 years of marriage has taught me; I love him, despite his “imperfections,” just like he loves me, despite mine. And oh, I have some imperfections! (Mine just don’t include making messes…)

I love you, honey, and I was so happy to make you that special breakfast today 🙂

how do I top thee?

I made bread today. Well, my bread maker did while I was viewing online lectures for my summer class.

I chose whole wheat cinnamon bread with apples and raisins, a combo I’ve been thinking about for awhile now. To heck with the fact that it’s not ideal meat-and-cheese sandwich bread! Or is it? (I’m betting it’s fantastic, but then, I’m an adventurous eater surrounded by wimps. Humph.)

Andrew’s out biking in the sunshine, so I was in my own for dinner tonight. This is what happened:

My textbook (I couldn’t run the risk of cracking the third Hunger Games book open; I’m too close to the end to stop!), two slices of bread (I couldn’t bear to waste the heel after I cut myself a piece, so I decided I’d just eat it, too), and fruit and veggies with homemade ranch dip. I use ‘homemade’ loosely, since it’s just the last of the cream cheese and the last of the ranch dressing mixing together, but whatever.

My quandary? What do I put atop my bread? Will plain butter allow the bread’s own taste to shine best? What about the classic strawberry jam? Or my usual, a nut butter? And what about this craving for honey, I’m having…?

Here they are people, in order or appearance:

Strawberry jam, blueberry nut-flavored honey, crunchy almond butter, and plain butter.

The verdict? On toasted bread, I’m going to go with plain butter, and a pb&j sandwich would be excellent as well. The flavored honey was way too sweet, but the jam was nice.

Can’t wait for toast tomorrow!

a breakfast Pioneer Woman would be proud of

Or dinner, rather.

(And yes, I know I shouldn’t end a ‘sentence’ with ‘of,’ but it’s not really a sentence, and it just wouldn’t sound the same any other way.)

ANYWAY….

This is what ‘cooking’ (a.k.a. piling things on top of one another) looks like in my house right now. Can I just say that Pioneer Woman has a dream house AND a re-done ‘lodge’ with a potentially nicer kitchen than her own? Seriously jealous. Not that I ever want two houses to clean. EVER.

So, I decided tonight would be ‘breakfast for dinner’ night since it was supposed to be sometime last week when we had no food in the house (does anyone else revert to pancakes for dinner when you have nothing else??), but it never happened. I’ve been dying to make PW’s Lemon Blueberry Pancakes since they appeared on her blog awhile back, and when they were included in the new cookbook, I put them in the rotation ASAP.

Note the plate of pancakes ON TOP OF the yogurt maker. (I also made bread and hummus today, in addition to yogurt–AND I had a class, AND swimming, and two dog walks, and two loads of laundry, and vacuuming–whoever wonders what I do to fill up my time, well folks, that’s where it goes. Unemployed Holly doesn’t know how employed Holly ever made it.)

I can’t tell you how sick I am of the yellow light in our dining room…. And the tiny kitchen. And the carpet…I’ll stop before I a) bore you, or b) start sounding like a whiny brat. CAN. NOT. WAIT. UNTIL. DREAM. KITCHEN. WITH. NATURAL. LIGHT.

The reason I say P-Dub would be proud is because I also made canadian bacon and eggs with salsa. Well, I eat eggs with salsa, Andrew doesn’t. But since he didn’t even start eating eggs until we went on a backpacking trip in the Boundary Waters a couple years ago, I’ll take it.

I hate to admit it (I really do), but they were a bit anticlimactic. Good, definitely, but not so amazing that I can’t wait to have them again. Andrew said they tasted like a blueberry muffin and that the blueberry flavor overpowered the lemon. I told him he didn’t know what he was talking about since he a) doesn’t even really like muffins (according to him), and b) doesn’t eat blueberry pancakes. EVER. He’s a bit of a purist; plain pancakes, vanilla ice cream, strawberry yogurt, no mayo or mustard… Whatever he is, it’s BORING. (But I love him…)

All in all, they were pretty good and I’m glad I have another serving in the freezer, just waiting for me to drizzle a bit of my ginger maple syrup on them… Because ginger goes so well with both lemons and blueberries!

And, in case you were wondering if we had any more counter space to spare…

Nope, not so much. Dishes done compliments of Andrew, who has become dishwasher extraordinaire. Seriously, he does them in the morning before work as I’m packing up his breakfast and lunch, then he does them immediately after walking in the door after the gym as he dumps his lunch stuff into the sink and I’m in the kitchen making dinner, and then (if I haven’t gotten to them yet), he picks up after we eat where he left off while I was prepping dinner! Whew! WHO IS THIS MAN?

If you like lemon and you like blueberry, make the pancakes. If not, make Foster’s Market’s Panama Pancakes…you won’t regret it!