Super Sunday

Okay, so I played hookey and stayed home from church on Sunday. I was really sick Saturday and Rome had a fever so it was kind of justified. Anyway, I felt much better Sunday morning and decided I wanted Cinnamon Rolls. Yum! I saw this recipe on the Crap I've Made blog for 1 hour Cinnamon Rolls and wanted to try it. We got up late, but I still thought I had time, so I dove right in.
First Special Step (one of Rome's sayings lately): mix the dough. Not too tough. It might have turned out better if I had listened to the recipe and only added 2 cups of water. It looked really dry so I added 3 and then spent the rest of the mixing time (and some) adding in extra flour to get it not super sticky. I forgot that I was making BREAD because I am so used to making COOKIES. I had to get my hands in there to mix it all up. It might have been really easy if you had one of those fancy Kitchen Aid mixers, which I don't. Rome wanted to help, of course. And then he needed help with anything and everything while my hands were stuck in the dough. Um, NO, I Can't help you NOW. Josh was a good sport though and took the climbing baby and distracted (sort of) the helpful 2 year old.
Second Step: Roll it out. By now Rome is super close, right next to me on the counter (which is not cleared off, just pushed over). I pull out just enough parchment paper to roll it out on. I have tons of dough so it is pretty thick on there, but I get it rolled out without too many extra fingers in it.

He is mixing cereal in the cups I was done using and some he got out.
Third Step: Fill, Roll, Cut. Yup, did those.

They look good right. They were HUGE.
I was feeling pretty good about these only taking an hour when I put them on the stovetop to raise. Then, they didn't. Of course. So I turned the oven down to 200, waited for it to cool down and tried again IN the warm oven. It worked much better.
The kitchen mess.
Last Step: Cook, Frost, Eat. Simple. The cooking went fine. The frosting was great. I used the cream cheese I just happened to have left over in the fridge. Then, eat.
They look tasty don't they. Josh thought they were good, but I disagreed. I thought they tasted like tin can. Yuck! I used my food storage flour and all I can taste is the tin can it came out of. So it took me 2 hours to make 1 hour Cinnamon Rolls that tasted to me like crap. Special. I was highly disappointed. I have heard that you can leave the top off of the flour for a day and the smell will go away, but I have not had any luck with it. Mine still smells, and tastes, like a tin can. I gave one pan away to the boys down the street (and their mom Cathy, I just love her!) they didn't have any problem with them. Maybe it is just me. Maybe I still have super crazy smelling powers left over from being pregnant. Either way, my flour is gross and I wish I could make it more appetizing. It really ruins my baking. And I hardly have any time to bake so that is just Terrible!
On a completely separate note, I started working on Rome's race car costume for our Halloween party this Friday. I think it is stinkin' adorable! Now to keep him from playing with it (i/e crashing and ruining it) until friday...wish me luck.

What I Did Last Night

I was craving Molten Lava Cake, but I didn't have the stuff. Then, I thought of Boston Cream Pie and that sounded delicious too. But what do you do when you don't have 2 round cake pans, or cream or patience? You make do. I am good at that.
Here is what I came up with. Chocolate Fudge cake (from a mix) baked in a 13x9 pan and cut in half. I even did it right and put the slightly smaller half on top. Instant chocolate pudding for filling(yay for Kroger brand with no yellow!). Topped with half a tub of milk chocolate frosting(I found one kind that has no food coloring, yay!) I put an apple on the top with sprinkles to make it look pretty. Everything tastes better when it looks pretty.

Looks fabulous! It was tasty too! Mmm, chocolate cravings satisfied for today.

Food Mishaps

I wanted to make peach salsa out of these delicious *free* peaches because we didn't find any at the peach festival.

Well, we did but it was just regular salsa. Boring. Anyway there is this guy down the street with 3 peach trees filled with fruit that he doesn't want. So, we asked and he said we could pick them. Cool, free peaches! They are good too! Anyway, I found a bunch of recipes on the internet for peach salsa, but I didn't know if they were good or not.

So, I got all ready and was going to try a few of them. First one...Gross! Tasted like eating green peppers. Second one...tasted too sweet with tomatoes and peaches. So, I gave up and made chunky peach jam. I gave it away and only kept a little for me. Oops! It was good too! So much for peach salsa.
Next...
Ever tried to make bread out of this
or
I have had it before and it was good and it is supposed to be really easy. Well, I tried it out and this is what I got.

Looks tasty right? Wrong! It was so nasty! I thought the whatever in the beer was supposed to make the bread all nice and moist and yummy. Umm, no. It was very dry and crumbly and bitter. Yuck. I would definitely not do this again. Next time I will just throw the stuff away.

Domestic... Please

So, lately I have been feeling all domestic. Not that I have been cleaning. No, that is not happening. I am barely keeping up with all of the messes I have been making. Anyway, I made a pre-Valentine's Day pie. I used a shaker pie crust recipe and food storage dried apples for the pie. I also tried out 3-4 food storage recipes. None of which turned out too well. (potato lasagna, magic mix pudding, magic mix mac and cheese and something else.) I think I need a new food storage cook book. Then, today I made Jam! I saw on some random blog that they made blueberry syrup because they were on sale. Well, strawberries were on sale for $1. Yes, $1! So, I bought a bunch and made freezer jam. It turned out pretty well because it only took 35 minutes and Rome woke up from his nap right when I finished. Score!

Before---------------------> After, So Pretty! My pies never turn out this good!

All ready to go----------------> Finished!
Now, if only I can organize all of my scrapbook supplies and move them into the office. Then, organize the office and move it into the kitchen. Yea, it might take a while.