Read Your Recipe!
Really, why mess with a good thing? These rolls are basic – a simple, tender dough rolled up with brown sugar and (lots of) cinnamon. Instead of a thin, runny, sugary glaze they are smothered with a thick cream cheese glaze. The glaze is tangy instead of sickly sweet, so it pairs perfectly with the sweet rolls.
You should know – there aren’t actually oatmeal cookies in these muffins. They are muffins that taste like oatmeal cookies.
Here you go, Lynnie my love!
These muffins are not fancy, by any means. They are from Joy of Cooking and they come together in ten minutes flat. Seriously, they are one of fastest, easiest baked goods for you to have a go at. The thing is, I’m not a fan of fancy most of the time. These don’t need coconut milk, brazil nuts or cocoa nibs to be enticing… the smell in your kitchen will do the trick.
Whenever we sell our current home, I am going to make this bread before the open house. If you walked into a house that smelled like this bread, you’d make an instantaneous offer well over the asking price. It’d be a reflex, you’d not be able to help yourself. It smells like cinnamon, and also like Christmas morning. It tastes slightly sweet and yeasty… amazing. The best part is, you don’t need (or, knead, mwahaha) a bread machine to make this!
Banana and chocolate. Chocolate and cinnamon. Chocolate and almonds. Chocolate.
Chocolate.
Warning – if you make these and think you can keep them around the house for a while, prepare to gain a quick five pounds. Don’t get me wrong, you should definitely make them, but it’s only safe to have a few around at a time. Give them to your friends or coworkers or freeze the extras. When these were in my kitchen I found myself making up excuses to hang out in there, just so I could piece off a bit (or five). “No seriously, honey, I don’t mind doing the dishes/feeding the baby/making your lunch”. I ended up giving them away because I felt slightly crazed when I was too close to them.
You gotta love an egg sandwich. I have a secret dream to have an egg sandwich shop; all egg sandwich, all the time. Now, if you hate runny yolk then turn away, you won’t like this sandwich. I personally believe that runny yolk is sort of like heaven and if you think you don’t like it, it’s probably that you misunderstand it. Just add salt.
One of my best friends just had a BEAUTIFUL baby girl named Avery. She is the picture of perfection. With a baby brunch plan intact, I asked her what she wanted me to bring her. She says, “something warm, buttery, cinnamon-y. Hmm…blueberry buckle, but with apples… can you do that?” Oh heck yes.
I’m not done with pumpkin. Maybe you are, and that’s fine, but I’m not. Pumpkin. Is. The best.
I figure January is the last month for pumpkin. February is chocolate month, and then it’s spring. Let’s make some pumpkin bread!
My students always ask if I make amazing, gourmet meals for my husband at dinnertime. Ha! Not only would that be pricey, it’d be super annoying for me, the one who does the cooking. Though I grew up in a house where dinner meant dinner: a meat, a starch, a veggie, this theory didn’t seem to rub off on me. My thoughts are that food should taste good, and the categories are dumb.
That being said, we have eggs for dinner. A lot.
I’ve never actually had Irish soda bread. Come to think of it, though I’m half Irish I’ve never had any Irish food. There’s a reason for this; it’s not very good. If you are Irish and an adept cook, then please know I’m speaking BIG TIME in general. I mean, do you know that many restaurants that specialize in Irish fare?
Even if your new year’s resolution has something to do with saving money or cursing less, I’m willing to bet “get healthier” is somewhere in your mind. Maybe, like me, you’ve been on a sugar roller coaster since Thanksgiving and you’re starting to feel the effects. Regardless, the Monday after New Years is a GREAT time to make a change.
Okay, listen up. If you don’t have a fun Christmas morning food in mind, you NEED to make these. Direct quote from my mom, who cooks and eats extremely well. “Those rolls were the highlight of my Christmas”. The woman doesn’t mince words.
I have three fantastic brother-in-laws. Two are my husband’s brothers. Jimmy is the younger of the two. He’s great because he gets really excited to eat anything I make him. I like cooking for him more than for my husband to be totally honest.
This morning he came over after church for pancakes. I’ve wanted to make these gingerbread pancakes for a while so I was super pumped for the opportunity. I enjoyed the pears from the recent parfait so much I wanted to cook some apples the same way. Extremely easy and delish. The apples are sweet and the pancakes spicy/sweet, so the cool and creamy Greek yogurt was the perfect complement. It was a plate full of happiness. This would be great for Christmas morning – special but quick and easy.
Had a “sprinkle” on Sunday at my house. Have you heard about sprinkles? Basically girls like to get together and have no boys there, so we make up new terms for our girl parties to substantiate them. A sprinkle is a celebration for baby number 2.
Scones are comforting. Like how mashed potatoes are comforting? That’s how scones are to me. They aren’t so sweet like a cookie, or bready like a biscuit. They are SO SO good with hot tea or coffee, and they’re somehow fancy but not the least bit pretentious.
The cranberry would be like the really mean cranky great aunt in the berry family. Super sour, pretty much inedible when eaten alone. Add a bottom-load of sugar, though, and good things happen. Cue the cranberry sauce. Cranberries pair famously with oranges, cue this delicious bread. As easy to make as banana bread, but MUCH more festive.
So this was an impromptu pancake decision. Some friends were coming over for Sunday pancakes and I realized that since I’m on the Monday-pumpkin-recipe kick, I might as well make some pumpkin pancakes!
I love pumpkin. I love baking with pumpkin. I have even been known to stir some cinnamon and sugar into plain canned pumpkin and eat it for a snack. Yum.
