Busy Busy Summer

Hi JennyMac Fans!

Can you believe the summer is almost over? Those of you with kids I am sure are already celebrating in the south because your kids are back to school and those of you who are teachers like me may be on the spectrum of already back to school, prepping for classes to start or like me-- savoring the last few days before you are required to report back to school (August 25).
The county I work for starts the first day of school after Labor Day. Always, ever since I was kid and grew up/was educated in the same county where I teach now.  Have I told the story why we start so late? Skip down if you already know the story because you are my coworker and know the struggle is real.  We have an amusement park 2 hours away from here in Richmond, Va. called Kings Dominion and they appealed ("made a deal") to/with the state that since many students work for the park, to please open schools AFTER the biggest travel/last vacation weekend of the year (Really, it's not. That is Thanksgiving, but whatever.) So even though none of my students can work (middle schoolers) and none of the high schoolers are close enough to drive, we have to follow the same schedule.  I have a friend who works in a county about 30 minutes away and she starts school earlier and gets out earlier and clearly their county does NOT follow the "Kings Dominion Rule." So enough of my whining about something I cannot change yet everyone razzes me and says "whoa, you start school late" like I had something to do with it.

I know you haven't heard from me for awhile but life happens, you know....So let me catch you up to speed.

June 2015:
End of the year craziness. Keeping the kids educated and entertained (overly qualified babysitting services), keep myself sane wrapping up school while working through another Graduate Class, packing/cleaning up room, entertaining my "squad" after school, dealing with staff leaving our school for many reasons other than retirement and that is stressful and very sad.

July 2015:
Vacation to Virginia Beach (YAY!) and starting another Grad class on my vacation (BOO!). Yeah, K-man was NOT happy but the good thing is last year my very first Grad class started at the same place at the same time and that was new and daunting. However, now that I have the routine of online learning under my belt, it was not daunting because I became a better time manager of how to organize my work within the deadlines and still enjoy a vacation.  Online learning can be a beautiful thing once you get with the flow of how it all works. Started reading some fascinating books, they are so rich with information, you can stop reading however, you have to stop reading because it's too much to absorb.

The Book "Real Food Fake Food" I saw mentioned in an article that it was upcoming and I immediately pre-ordered it. I have been really obsessed in the past year with food science and the reality of the products we are eating that we believe is food. I am shocked and horrified how the government has much to do with it and as I go on in my little FACS world of teaching the MyPlate model to my students and how to eat a healthy diet, I really have to bite my tongue to go on a tirade. Some of my students find it fascinating, some shrug and some run home and make it dinner conversations and I get emails from parents how hard it is to get their kids to eat period and my education is causing issues.  My health education of our kids is a rough road.  Anyway if you care about fish, olive oil, kobe beef and other meats, cheese (mainly parmesan), wines, honey and coffee then READ THIS BOOK. If you don't care, (but you should) then try reading my other page turner.

I ran into Robert Lustig's work from a six degrees of separation thing. I was doing some article research for my class, found a very long article on The Sugar Conspiracy or Controversy (I can't remember which), which led to a reference to Dr. Lustig, which lead to my finding his lecture about sugar (The Bitter Truth) on youtube.com (it's over (90 minutes but fascinating) and there is a TED talk by him (The Elephant in the room), but if you want a short 8 minute version see my embedded ABC news segment of him below. Regardless, all of Lustig's work is based on another man's controversial and groundbreaking work on sugar who was swept under the rug- John Yudkin, "Pure, white and Deadly. I have that book too but will save it for another post. If you have been reading my past posts while I was on Whole30....the struggle is real and it is amusing to me how people have finally accepted that smoking is bad and that overeating is a problem but how people go "PHHHFFFTTTT" over how sugar is the underlying base to all our problems with eating and perhaps our health. I think our new food nutrition label this year is gonna shake up some things with sugar, hopefully. Fat Chance by Dr. Robert Lustig, proof if you need to digest this in smaller doses at your own pace. I highly recommend it. It's going on my whiteboard trough at school for kids to see and pick up and read out of curiosity, right next to the Real Food Fake Food.




August 2015:

This was not a good way to end the summer with a loss of our furry 4 year old boy Scooter.  You have seen some of my past pictures of his funny antics and goofiness which we adored. I am tearing up writing this and although all tragic ends have a story, going into all the detail will depress you and possibly electrocute me as I try to type it all out. So we are still grieving and focus on our other furry girl Bikini and keep her happy and watch her evolve in a different level of princess being the "only child" of sorts which has been interesting. Many people think that by saying "are you going to get another cat" is a good topic changer for such a devastating event in our lives but it is not. When people have a human death in the family such as a child or husband, no one should be saying right after, "are you going to have another baby?" or "are you going to get remarried?" Yeah, if you don't say that about a human, don't say it either about a cat or dog loss either. Okay?  Thanks.  I know that loss of any kind makes people awkward. Some people have finesse with saying the right thing or not saying anything at all but just hug. Others mean well and say things that only make the flood gates open for the mourner. No one knows what will trigger tears for one coping with loss. I think I am okay about Scooter and I wonder why I keep seeing a butterfly everyday around the dining room where I sit at my computer. Sometimes I think it is his spirit (since I never had so many butterfly visitations at one spot in a condensed amount of time (yeah, I am huge believer in departed souls and spirits, watch the Long Island Medium and see Teresa Caputo in action and you will be a believer too). Anyway, I have elaborated more than I intended here, sorry about that.

As I return back to school I will go back to posting my Whole30/Paleo adventures in cooking.  I warn you that since September will be a crazy month with my returning back to school routine AND finishing my Master Degree, I offer no guarantees when the next post will be but stay tuned.

A Survival Guide to a Book Signing....

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.....

The Pioneer Woman was in town for a book signing. YAY, I was so excited. I RSVP'ed through Facebook that I would attend. I warned K-man a month earlier and we plotted the best way to go about it. Afterall, he wouldn't want to be hanging around some many women and yet parking could be an issue. We saw that the Guitar center was across the street and Harley Davidson was nearby so he was entertained while I was doing the book signing thing. He was done in an hour....little did I know I still have a very time time to go....

I called Border's ahead after I raced home from work. How was this being handled? I was told that you arrived and got a slip (colored coded by groups and the groups would be taken in order). She was due to speak @ 6:00pm and start signing by 6:30 and the groups would be lined up one at a time. They were on group 4 already. They had ten groups slotted. 50 per group.

I got there @ 5:30. I got a beige slip and was group 6. The crowd in the back of the store was packed...I sidled off to the side hoping I could see. Thankfully, Ree was on time. She was nervous (as her per usual) about speaking and didn't want to be so formal and just opened up the floor for questions. Meanwhile, everyone is clicking their digital cameras above their heads. I must have taken 10 pictures of someone else's camera who got in my way as I snapped. Grrrrrr.

Who would think that raising your hand above your head and pressing the button to focus would make your hand shake so much. The only clear pix I got were of Ree's head turned and one with a 'unpleasant' grimace. She was probably swallowing or something. I finally gave up of after deleting ten more blurry pix of PW with two heads.

She spoke for only 15 minutes for she wanted to get started on the signing. YAY. Then we waited. I thought the groups colors thing would free us up from being stuck in line for hours. WRONG! They started calling the colors and someone took your name on a post it and put in your book where Ree would sign then they ushered your group over to the OTHER side of the store to line up for her to sign your book. Border's employees decided to start giving out post-its to any color as long as they didn't get in line before they called. COOL. I will get my post-it and get an iced coffee.

Luckily I was second in line...there was only 1 guy working the counter. I thought it odd to have only one staff member there on an evening when there would be so many customers. The food case had one brownie and two bagels left. Another bad sign. About 10 more people get in line for sustenance, poor coffee guy...he's in for it now. As I get my coffee I hear "LAST CALL BEIGE" Huh...what? I walked over and he was starting the pink group by the time I got to the other side of the building. I told the employee I was beige, he said, "Well your pink now." Sigh.

So you know all those bookshelves in the store?....they don't just hold books....they make a great LABYRINTH of corridors for organizing a line of people..... Oh and that calling one group at a time so you could at least pass the time by shopping? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Everyone was all lined up like cattle for slaughter zigging and zagging between each bookshelf from one end of the store to the other. We were stuck for hours in a line.

The Good:

• Bring a friend, husband, boyfriend to keep you company while you wait. They also serve purpose for keeping your place in line while you go to the bathroom. Which will have another long line BTW.
  
• Having another person with you is also essential for foraging food or drink from the outside since there is nothing at Border's to sustain you. If you thought you would WHIZ through and get dinner afterward, you are sadly mistaken.
• Many different people to talk to who are ahead, behind or across from you. I passed out a few of my blog business cards that Foodbuzz gave me last year. Perfect occasion for it.
• Having an iPhone to place an order to Chipotle and walk down to pick it up in 10 minutes. Sit on the floor for a Mexican picnic. We did not partake in this activity but the smell of burritos was driving me crazy.
• Having your husband there to walk the kids around, sit with them, take them out for a snack for waiting in a long line is NOT something a small child can endure.
• Bring your laptop, homework, reading material to keep yourself busy.
  
• Good to have your 'conversation piece' ready for when you meet Ree to appear charming, witty and NOT look like a total nerd without having to say: "HI, I am your number one fan!"
• A guy in line was saying "if I knew this author was so popular I would have rethought doing this." Our surrounding bevy of women asked why and he said he was surprising his girlfriend with a signed copy of the cookbook. We all say "AWWWWWW .....oh no....you will get MAJOR brownie points for this...good call!"
  
• Having K-man come over and surprise me with a diet coke because he knew I was parched and when I could get a drink was questionable.
  

The Bad:

• Staff at the coffee counter said they were not informed of the book signing when asked by the customers why there wasn't any food left. They also said that they usually have water bottles and little snacks to pass around during a signing. Who dropped the ball on this?
• Ree sat at a little meager table in front of a display of books of some other author. Why did she not have her OWN backdrop of her book with her picture? Or a big banner with her name? There was NO signage anywhere indicating that she was coming or even there!
• Bringing small children all by yourself. Lots of crying of bored and cranky children were heard. Many of them wanted a drink or snack and Mommy was not prepared it seemed.
• The Border's employees talking aloud about the event and not realizing that we could hear. For example: they thought only 150 people who RSVP'ed on FB were the ones attending. 500 showed up.
  
• They ran out of PW books to sell for signing @ 6pm. Perhaps they only ordered 150?
• A border's employee (with a cigarette behind his ear) yelling as he walked through the crowd..."EXCUSE ME! YOU ALL NEED TO KEEP AN OPEN PATH FOR THE EMPLOYEES TO GET TO THE BREAK ROOM."
• The girl behind me opened her book to place her post it and realized in horror she purchased a book that was already signed. She was very disappointed she waited in line with the rest of us to get her name added.
  

The Ugly:

• A group of fans singing their own version of "Home on the Range" personalized about Pioneer Woman.
• A woman yelling on the phone to her husband about buying a bag of Frito's for Ree. I guess I made some kind of face for she immediately explained to me that Ree said her dog Charlie smelled like Frito's and since she was away from him and missed him dearly that these Frito's were a gift for her to open and smell to remind her of dear dog. OK FREAK.
• Many attendees were bringing gifts to Ree. Was there a star in the sky? Is Ree the next Messiah we have to bring gifts to? GEEZ people. Although gifts are a nice gesture, these gifts really put a HUGE delay on the line moving along for Ree felt compelled to gush and thank and listen to their story WHY they bought their gift. By the time my turn came up there was a pile of 20 some odd gifts. How is Ree supposed to carry all these into her hotel room?
• I was about 5 people away from my turn. The lady who was taking our cameras to snap came over to me and said "where are you in line?" I said "Behind that gentleman in the blue shirt (he was 5 feet away between some bookshelves)" She said smiling fakely "well you need to get back into line." I was standing at the end of the book shelving waiting for him to get closer to me. My mouth gaped open over her micromanaging comment as another attendee spoke up. "We've been standing at the ends here waiting so the line doesn't go back into bookshelves....all these people packed between them makes it incredibly hot and I am about to pass out from it being so hot back there" "OH," the control freak employee replied and went back to her fake smile as she took the camera of the next person.
  

All in all I am glad to have my cookbook signed....as for my wonderful memorable comment to Ree...it was "hi....she said 'good to meet you and thanks for coming' I said 'thank you ' and took my book (after the picture of course)....I was so tired, hungry and with an aching back that I just wanted to get out of there. I hope Ree didn't hear me say to K-man on my way out..."SWEET FREEDOM!" If she did.....hope she didn't take it personally.

At least the good outweigh the bad but I sat finally at 9:35pm in the car and we ate dinner at 10:05pm. I am too old for this stuff.

Taking a nap now!

No ordinary buns for this pork BBQ!!!

Pepper Jack Rolls Baby!

I've been a fan of the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes book and have made my own bread a few times. Yummy! I used the Vermont Cheddar Bread recipe (page 106) as my springboard idea.

Pepper Jack Rolls
adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp. granulated yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp. salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
6 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup white cheddar powdered cheese
1 cup grated pepper jack cheese
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 egg, beaten

1. Mix the yeast, salt and sugar with the water in a 5 quart bowl (I used my lidded non air tight food container that I store my dough in).

2. Mix in the dry ingredients, grated cheese, powdered cheese and pepper flakes without kneading, using a spoon. You can use a 14 cup food processor with a dough attachment but mixing this dough directly in the container was just fine.

3. Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

4. The dough can be used immediately after the initial use, though it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 7 days.

5. When baking rolls, dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off dough pieces roughly equal portions (about the size of a plum) Shape each one into a smooth ball. Allow them to rest and rise on a cornmeal-covered pizza peel for 40 minutes (or just 20 minutes if using fresh unrefrigerated dough).

6. Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone placed on the middle rack Place an empty broiler tray on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising bread.

7. Just before baking, coat with beaten egg and stick a few jalapenos on top.

8. Slide the rolls directly onto hot stone. Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until deeply browned and firm.



Here is one of the final rolls in relation to the place size. Ginormous! Honestly too much bread for me. I think I overestimated my size of plums. LOL. Although K-man was ecstatic about his man sized pork BBQ sandwich!







I could have probably put more pepper flakes in the dough as you can BARELY see the pepper. The bread wasn't a cheesy as I thought it would be. Although bread was fluffy and tender. The crust held up GREAT to the smooshy BBQ inside.

AWESOME!

But when you still have BBQ left and a bit of dough what do you do to restyle your dinner?

BBQ Pork Rolls!

The dough that remained after making 6 ginormous sandwich rolls was just enough to cut into 6 small circles. Using my greased TEXAS sized muffin tin....

Place a handful of green onions on the dough about 1/4 cup BBQ on the onions. Pull up dough around the filling and place in greased muffin tin dough edges down.

Throw a few slices of jalapenos around the dough in the muffin tins. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and put tin on the stove to let dough rise enough to fill up the muffin cups.

Bake for 20 minutes until brown. Serve with chilly coleslaw...sprinkle a bit of chili powder on top of it to compliment your BBQ rolls. Pickles, some extra BBQ sauce on the side for dipping and PERFECTION!

BTW, making your own Pork BBQ is very easy too!

Bake a Pork Butt according to package directions. Rubbed with favorite dry BBQ dry rub (mine was 6 lbs and it took about 4 hours). Stick a fork in the roast until when twisted is falling apart. Remove from pan and put on plate and let cool until able to tear apart with a fork. Add your favorite bottle of BBQ sauce to pork shreds. DELICIOUS!

Made enough for 4 HUGE sandwiches, 6 pork rolls and package of BBQ for two more average sandwiches for the freezer for a quick dinner another night!

Oink!

Did you forget something?

No, I didn't get a new haircut. No, this is not a new recipe post. No, the trash doesn't need taking out....

It's my blogversary! I guess you don't scroll waayyyyyyyyyy down on the right margin of my blog to read my blogversary countdown badge. LOL. It's ok, if you have one, I wouldn't know where to find yours either.

Hard to believe that on New Year's Eve I made a such big decision and it STUCK. Think of all those diets, exercise routines, fads, promises that we've never stuck to or lost interest in....

My blog was a great decision. I love it. Wow, the time FLEW by and over the past 365 days I've posted over 250 times. I think if I was ever asked by a boss or professor to write that much due to THEIR request/demand in one year....I would have passed out or quit. I guess when you truly love doing something...it comes easy and it hits all my creative buttons.

Well since I don't have any food companies banging my door down (I don't know how some of you bloggers get so many of these companies to send you free stuff!) so I will go out on my own and have a giveaway that I will purchase with my own hard earned teacher's salary.

Knowing this blogversary was coming up I've been thinking long and hard to what I wanted to GIVEAWAY......hmmmmm. I thought since many of the blogs I've been reading was what influenced me to start a food blog. THAT would be my giveaway. Whatever blogger's cookbook you'd like...I'd send you. I have many bloggers cookbooks but NOT all of them. There are some other books that have stories with recipes that I also like perhaps you'd like to try one of them....

Here's the gist of my GIVEAWAY:

Write a comment and tell me which of the books that I suggested down below that YOU WOULD WANT for your collection. If you'd like to suggest a new book that YOU have and think I should get to add to my collection do comment about it.... and then add to your commentWHAT BOOK you WOULD like that Santa didn't bring you this year!

Here's my list of goodies I think everyone should get:

One of the first food blogs my cousin Sue referred to me was Orangette. I became a fan and soon enough during my first year of blogging Molly Wizenburg published her first cookbook. Her book is based on her food influences that turned her gift of writing into a passion of writing about food. She is currently crazy busy running a newly opened restaurant with her husband. Things are settling down and she is slowly returning to blogging more. Would you like her book? Here is one of my posts about one of her recipes.








Now, this author is NOT a food blogger but I've been a fan of two Culinary Murder Mystery writers. This is Joann's Fluke's most recent book. She has 12 total, a new one arriving in Feb 2010. I have used many of her recipes and I am very excited about her new cookbook that encompasses ALL her recipes from her books being published in Oct 2011. Here is one of my posts using one of her recipes.








The other Culinary Mystery Writer who was my first is Diane Mott Davidson. Here is my post about her books. Her latest came out this summer called Fatally Flaky. DO know that her books ARE a series.






Dorie Greenspan's book was probably one of my second blogger books. Her blog is about a group of food bloggers who pick a recipe to cook each week and blog about it. A very tough group to join but personally when it was open to me....I decided I couldn't handle that type of pressure to produce. Kudos to many of my friends who do follow the Tuesday with Dorie clan plan. Here is my post of the first recipe I made when I needed to 'break in' my new birthday KA mixer!







I have all these books by David Zinczenko. After I pour through them....I mainly use them in my classroom with my students. Some scary food truths in them. Here is my post about this book. Cook this, Not that is now HOT out in the stores on 12/29. What is cool about this new book is that recipes are included now. Finally. I can see some future posts in it already. Shall I pick you up a copy?






I found this book cross referenced through Amazon.com since they keep track of the many things you order and make suggestions. Baking Boot Camp is writer being assigned to attend the CIA for their baking training and write about it. Of course many recipes are included and they are top culinary school level!










Of course I like the baking boot camp book so much that I went and got the culinary school boot camp one as well. This book was written first and done by a different author both were interesting, especially if you think you'd like to enroll to in any of these CIA classes. I did....notice the past tense.









I love this book! Jeff Hertzbery (one of the authors) even commented on my post from recipe I made from this book. He must have one of those 'robo-search tools' that finds sites who cross reference his book. Ironically, I was also having my first giveaway of ANOTHER book, not his. I know stupid rookie blogger move. But I won't go into the stupid food porn picture site reasons why I wasn't thinking straight. Live and learn. Anyhow, I've made a few recipes and LOVE how easy the dough is to use. Here is my post about the sticky buns I made!

Jeff, if you are reading again. I'd love to try your Healthy Breads in 5 five minutes cookbooks to review and another of for future giveaway! Sorry about my food blogger faux pas! I've learned.




Confections of a Closet Master Baker I saw reviewed on another blog.
Honestly when I found out it was written by Sandra Bullock's sister (former resident of Arlington VA, like me) I was curious. Since it was a memoir and had recipes in it, I got it. It was a fun read. Sorry no post yet.








Not sure how I got into Ruth's books. I guess since I love reading biographies/memoirs, when I found out these were the memoirs of a food critic and recipes my curiousity was piqued. I tested out her first one Tender to the Bone to see how I liked it. Really wondering how she became fell upon such a prized job as a food critic. OMG. You GOT to read these....you will be amazed over the stories about her mother's horrible cooking and wonder how she developed such a fine palate. The second book is Comfort me with Apples and Garlic and Sapphires is the last. Wonderful memoirs! Here is my post from the G & S book.






Too many Cooks was one of the those books I grabbed to take on vacation with me. When I was going through the shelves the looking for more reading material....it caught my interest....again I love the storytelling fused recipes thing. This is a story about a stay at home mom who has 4 kids and how she struggles to expose her kids to food preparation and a variety of foods. Sorry no post from her book yet.









Oh Hungry Girl cookbooks are so fun! I subscribe to her site to my email where I get sent very informative things about lower calories foods and how to tweak recipes to make them less evil. I am working through her cookbook like a mad woman. Like here and here and here. Love HER!







Speaking of Love, I also LOVE PW. Pioneer Woman Cooks food blog came into my life shortly after I found Orangette. Ree Drumond is soooooo funny and a hellacious great cook. No way she has the figure she does and eats the amazingly evil food she cooks too! She must eat only like ONE spoonful and then eat a salad! Sheesh I've posted so many of her stuff....like this. She also now has an AMAZING recipe sharing site called Tasty Kitchen. Sorry you are going to have to go around and find more of the stuff I've posted of her because at this point in this post...I am wiped. All these reviews are making me tired and hungry for dinner.



So there you have it! My suggestions. I know that there are many other wonderful and fun books that I do not have. I haven't had the chance to peruse through Steamy Kitchen yet. I have the new Cake Wrecks book but she isn't about recipes just funny pictures yet I adore her site.

OK my friends and FANS....comment and tell me what BOOK YOU'D LIKE to win for my BLOGVERSARY GIVEAWAY! YOU PICK AND I WILL SEND YOU THE BOOK YOUR HEART DESIRES....sorry, I was screaming I get excited like that sometimes....

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED....CONGRATS TO NORAOLSON
Tick Tock!

5 minute Sticky buns and my first GIVEAWAY!

Well, kinda...

I am having my first giveaway....but the sticky buns aren't EXACTLY made in 5 minutes...

I used my Artisan Bread in 5 minutes dough to make them. As you know, cinnamon rolls, sticky buns -whatever are a bit laborious BUT these are totally worth it. I've made a few different recipes of sticky buns....this is my NEW - 'when you want sticky bun- make these' recipe! Get ready to bookmark this.

From Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a day:

Use your basic master recipe for Boule (Artisan Free Form Loaf) found on page 26 of the book. Here is the link from when I baked my first loaf.

I made the full recipe this time....I've been making only half recipe and my container was barely big enough!

Sticky Caramel Bacon Rolls
ADAPTED from page 187 of Artisan Bread in Five minutes a day

Makes 6-8 large caramel rolls

The book suggested using any of the refrigerated pre-mixed doughs: Challah (page 180), Brioche (page 189), or Boule (page 26). I used the Boule and it was perfect!

1 - 1/2 pounds of dough (use a scale rather trying to judge what canteloupe sized is)

The Caramel Topping:

6 T. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used light)
30 pecan halves (I had only chopped and I just 'eyed' the covering the sauce in the pan)

The Filling:

4 T. salted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped and toasted pecans
pinch of black pepper
MY ADDITIONS:
1/2 cup raisins (I put this on ONE half of the dough for K-man)
1/2 cup chopped BACON (we love bacon with sweet sticky stuff)

1. On baking day, mix together the butter, salt and brown sugar. Spread evenly over the bottom of of a 9 inch cake pan (FAT DADDIO works GREAT). Scatter the pecans over the butter sugar mixture and set aside.

2. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-1/2 pound piece. Dust the piece with flour and shape into a ball. This dough will be sticky, try to not work into too much flour.

3. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. As you roll out the dough, use enough flour to prevent it from sticking to the work surface. Again careful on the amount for too much will make dough dry.

4. Melt the butter and spread with basting brush onto dough rectangle. Sprinkle mixed sugar and spices onto the melted butter. Sprinkle with nuts, raisins, and/or bacon. Starting with the long side, roll the dough into a log. If the dough is too soft to cut let it chill for 20 to firm up. (It was too soft yes, but I just dealt with it....an extra 20 minutes was NOT in my plan!) You may need a metal bench/counter scraper to help you roll for this dough will be sticky in places.

5. With a very sharp serrated knife, cut the log into 8 equal pieces (BAH- I used dental floss - it doesn't smoosh the dough! and I cut it into 6 pieces. No way I could see 8 pieces fitting into that pan!) and arrange over the pecans in the pan with the 'swirled' edge facing upward. Cover loosely with plastic wrap (spray it with non-stick spray) and allow it to rest and rise 1 hour.

6. Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. If you're not using a stone in the oven, 5 minutes is adequate. Be sure to have a piece of foil, silpat or baking sheet under your 'buns'....the sugar may boil up and over (mine did)

7. Bake about 40 minutes or until golden brown and well set in center. While still hot, run a knife around the inside of the pan to release the caramel rolls (I sprayed the pan and the hot goo underneath it kept it from sticking) and invert immediately onto a serving dish. If you let them set to long they will stick to the pan and be difficult to turn out. (YES! The sugar was sticky by the time I put it on the plate and brought them to breakfast)

Freshly inverted and I can see the sugar 'stickifying'. OMG, BSOE! Best smell on earth! You can see the raisin ones for K-man and the non-raisin ones for me!

Let me tell ya. This bread was so SOFT and FLUFFY. Was not dense in the least. After eating one, you wanted another. It was worth dealing with the stickiness when rolling and cutting. The buttery goodness the sticky parts the crunchy parts. The toasted pecans with the smoky bacon! THUD....I've died and gone to heaven!
I woke up around 8:30 (fed the cat, made coffee and got a start on these) and we didn't eat them until 11. We were so starving but they were soooooooooo worth the wait!

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!!!

I made you wait long enough, didn't I? I didn't want to wait for my Blogoversary and I thought my 200th post was good enough.

Since summer is coming to a close and local fruits are starting to wane and we still don't want our kitchen to be hot for the next two months.... I want to send some lucky reader the book:

ICEBOX CAKES~
by Laura Chattman

There is a plenty in here to make with fresh fruits or canned fruits. You can bake your own cake or use premade ones like angel food or freezer pound cake. All the recipes you need for pastry creams, whipped creams, puddings etc. There is so much wiggle room for you to substitute with what works for YOU! There are also some fun cakes using twinkies and swiss rolls!

If you are interested...just leave a comment either about my sticky rolls or your interest in making some new fun ice box desserts for your family.

Sorry friends in other countries....only for US residents at this time!

I really think you'd want this book in your collection....I found it hard to give up and not keep in my own vast cookbook collection. I will have a boston cream pie post very soon and this book gave me the idea for it! Giveaway open until next weekend....my last hurrah before I go back to the classroom! - THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!

Enjoy!

Bread in 5 minutes? Yeah sure!

Weeeeelllll, not EXACTLY 5 mins. But a lot faster than any other bread I've made!!!

Let me go over the process a bit...then include the recipe afterward:


Water @ 100 degrees, plus 1 package of yeast, and salt. Mix a bit. You don't even have to worry about all the yeast dissolving they said in the instructions.

Dump in your flour and mix just until dry flour dissipates.







Put dough into a container (not airtight) and let rise for 2 hours.










Here it is after two hours.










YAY, it worked!


Now put in the fridge until tomorrow to make your first bread. You can bake some immediately if you want too.







I only made half of the recipe from the book. I didn't want TONS of dough when I wasn't sure if it would work. So I cut the dough in half with scissors.







Put cornmeal on your parchment paper (they suggest to do it without but honestly I just didn't want cornmeal all over the oven burning for weeks).









Place your "cloaked" dough on the cornmeal. Let rest for 40 minutes. My dough was still cold and rose just a little. I let it keep rising until I doubled (perhaps 1 hr-15 mins?)









Flour top, cut slashes into dough. Place this parchment on a cookie sheet turned upside down (so you can slide it right off)









Bake in preheated 400 degree oven. Slide dough on pizza stone. Yes, I HIGHLY suggest you get one. They aren't too costly and you can use it for many things! (A later post!)

Put one cup of water in a broiler pan that is underneath your dough ....STEAM BABY!

Bake for 30 minutes.




TA-DAH!

So crispy, crusty on the outside and so soft and fluffy on the inside. I tell ya....nuffin bettah than freshly baked bread!

Oh the smell in the house!



Now the recipe but afterward read the catch:

Artisan Bread in 5 minutes Master Recipe
by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois

1-1/2 cup of warm water (100 degrees)
1 pkg. yeast
2 tsp. salt
3 + 1/4 cup flour
cornmeal

Needs: pizza stone, container for dough storage, pizza peel would be nice, but not necessary

The CATCH:

You really need to buy the book. If you noticed my lack of instructions after the list of ingredients that is because the instructions are VERY DETAILED. Like 'cloaking'....I didn't know what that was until I read it. ALSO....if you buy the book it came to my attention that the authors made a website to correct some many many errors. Um, like the yeast amount to practically every recipe? Here's their link so you can correct the errors when you buy the book. I went through every page. I had to correct like half. I just changed it in my book. No biggie.

Lastly, Cassie (such a cutie!) from How to Eat a Cupcake made her own video and it really helped me visualize after I read the book. This is the part two. I highly recommend this book and recipe!