Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Bonsai!

Yesterday we met Paul and his boyfriend John (or is it Jon?) for lunch. My brother came with. We love this place. Lunch is perfect because its half the price of dinner and the portions are a tad smaller... you still get stuffed but its not as much food as dinner time. As it was, we all waddled out of there. This was Clare's first Bonsai experience and I think it freaked her out just a tad.

Uncle Cj sure was enjoying himself and the rooster sauce.


That's John... and that's our punk rock daughter who picked out her own clothes. I even tried to hide that shirt that's on top in the dresser. She pulled out ALL the clothes to find it and demanded I put it on her. You can't see the Chucks she's wearing... but they are really cute. We got them from a friend and they are Clare's new favorite shoes.


I think its ironic that this place has a Mexican making Japanese food. He's a pretty nice guy. Funny too. That's his onion volcano. You can't see the flame too well with the flash. Oops.



Clare's not too sure about that huge fire.


Paul was dumbfounded as well.


Then they decided lunch called for a Hi-Five.

Labels: , , , ,

Posted by MamaEscandon at 7:59 PM | | Comments

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Unlce Brian Comes to Visit

OK, so he isn't really Clare's uncle. But Brian is Paul's dear friend and was also the best man at our wedding. He lives up in Santa Cruz where he goes to school. Big congrats to Brain on his new internship/job at Cisco (he found out this morning at our house)!Clapping Brian hasn't been to see us since Clare was about 2 weeks old. It was great to see him and he was amazed at how big Clare has grown. They hit it off pretty well. In fact, if you look closely at the picture on the left there, they are both making the same face. Honestly, I think it was in response to Paul's new song; Cereal Killah. OK, Just kidding... I love you honey!


We had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner and in light of Brian's visit, I decided to go out on a limb and make my husband's favorite breakfast food snack dessert junk food. That's my excuse anyway. Cinnamon Rolls! I saw this recipe on Monday on Paula Dean and I wanted to try it. Brian's visit gave me the perfect opportunity to show off display my culinary talents.. uuugh I mean mishaps. (read below, way low)

These would be great for a cloudy cool day to warm up your home with the wonderful aroma of cinnamon and sugar. If you are feeling adventurous, you may want to try them!

Dough:
1/4-ounce package yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup scalded milk
1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter or shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:
1/2 cup melted butter, plus more for pan
3/4 cup sugar, plus more for pan
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins, walnuts, or pecans, optional

Glaze:
4 tablespoons butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 to 6 tablespoons hot water

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add yeast mixture.
Mix in remaining flour until dough is easy to handle. Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes. Place in well-greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, usually 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

When doubled in size, punch down dough. Roll out on a floured surface into a 15 by 9-inch rectangle. Spread melted butter all over dough. Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over buttered dough. Sprinkle with walnuts, pecans, or raisins if desired. Beginning at the 15-inch side, role up dough and pinch edge together to seal. Cut into 12 to 15 slices.

Coat the bottom of baking pan with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in the pan and let rise until dough is doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

Meanwhile, mix butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add hot water 1 tablespoon at a time until the glaze reaches desired consistency. Spread over slightly cooled rolls.



I am not a baker. There were a couple things I found silly about this recipe and I couldn't understand. Why on earth would I need to heat the oven up first thing if I am not going to use it for 2 or 3 hours??? The recipe calls for scalded milk and it is one of the first steps to add eggs to the milk and butter mixture. I started doing this... when I realized my eggs were going to cook and I had to start all over with a different game plan. My egg yolks did start to cook, but I didn't want to fuss with it so I just went ahead with the recipe. The recipe also says in this step to add the melted butter... again, we have the issue with the eggs and it does not call for the butter to be melted in the list of ingredients for the dough.

In spite of all this, I have to say I was pretty satisfied at my first attempt with this (albeit time consuming) recipe. They were mighty tasty and they really hit the sweet tooth with a punch!


And here is one more photo of our sweet, sweet, Clare Babe! I just can't get enough... can you?

Labels: , , , , ,

Posted by MamaEscandon at 2:28 PM | | Comments