Cinnamon Rolls

Finally, I'm ready to share the cinnamon roll recipe that I promised yesterday. I have fond memories of eating cinnamon rolls made by my Mama Llama when I was a kid. It was such a treat.

This recipe is pretty close to my mom's, except that this recipe would probably be categorized as food porn by any self-respecting nutritionist. I think it has something to do with the giganto globs of saturated fat and sugar crack frosting. I think.

See, take a look at the recipe.


I've been making these cinnamon rolls for more than 20 years and it has evolved here and there. The biggest change has been going from kneading the dough myself, to making the dough in our bread machine with the dough setting. I really like using the bread maker because I don't have to touch the dough (it's an OCD thing) and there's less mess. Also, the bread machine provides a warm covered place for the dough to rise on its first go round. And yes, because I'm lazy too. Our bread machine and our Kitchen Aid mixer are the two small appliances that we use most, so you won't be talking me out of it anytime soon.


To start, add the first nine ingredients, in the order listed, to the bread maker pan. Then put the bread maker on the DOUGH setting and press start. You'll want to stick around while the bread maker mixes the ingredients together because you'll need to add more bread flour. You really have to go by the look of it. You don't want it to be sticky, but you don't want it dry either. You're goal is smooth and elastic. If you add too much flour, you'll end up with a big dense blob that doesn't raise. I've had this problem more since I've been using the bread maker, because when you handle the dough when you're kneading it by hand, you get a better feel for when it's perfect. When you're being lazy like me, you've really got to pay attention. And maybe touch it here and there. And if you accidentally pinch a piece of dough off and it jumps into your mouth, nobody has to know.


The dough should look like this when it's smooth and elastic. I have to tell you though, I took about 20 pictures trying to get this one, and it's far from perfect, but in order to take a close-up shot I have to hold my breath and be super still so I don't shake the camera. If the camera moves, I end up with a blurry picture. So, holding still while holding my breath is not easy to do for a roundish person like myself. I lack balance and spatial awareness. And yes, my morning coffee is also conspiring against me.

As if all that wasn't bad enough, I was resting my camera hand on the bread maker to help steady myself, but every time I snapped a picture, the bread machine would start the kneading again and knock me off. So I have lots of big, blurry, blob pictures.

It was exasperating, but I prevailed in the end.

Once the dough is smooth and elastic, you let it raise in the bread maker for about 90 minutes.


Then you take it out and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. You're going for a rectanglish shape here.


Then you brush melted butter on the dough.


And sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar.


By the way, I love these little Flour/Sugar Shakers from Pampered Chef. I have one for flour, one for powdered sugar, and this one for cinnamon sugar. They're so handy. If you don't have a Pampered Chef consultant, and you want to order stuff from a fellow mom blogger, you should contact Lisa at Yeah, I'm Still Here and she'll hook you up with whatever you need.


Oh yeah, and I had to sprinkle pecans on this batch because Smashley likes pecans in her cinnamon rolls. She's so high maintenance. Actually, I like pecans too, but sometimes they're buried in the bottom of my freezer and it just isn't worth the effort. Sometimes.

Some people like raisins too. Heck, throw in whatever you like.


Then start rolling it up from a long edge.


And keep rolling until it resembles a well-fed snake.


Then cut the well-fed snake into approximately one-inch sections.


Put them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.


Throw a kitchen towel over it.


And keep it warm in your hopefully not as nasty-dirty as my oven. I sometimes have kitchen mishaps that make it impossible to keep a clean oven.

Leave the rolls in the oven, all nice and cozy, for 30 minutes to an hour. We just want the rolls to rise a little. Or is it raise? I'm so confused.


This is what mine looked like when they were ready. I usually set my timer for the 30 minutes, because I tend to ignore my timer and get distracted with other things, so sometimes my rolls get to raise for the whole hour. No biggie. You can invite Ginormica over to share your cinnamon rolls with. She's very polite and pleasant to be around. Just don't let her sit in your good chairs.


Bake the rolls at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. You really want to keep an eye on your rolls here because you want to take them out just as they start to brown. Don't go getting distracted. I find this is a perfect time to mix up my frosting and wash a few of those dishes.


Then when the rolls are hot out of the oven, slap some of that frosting on them. Don't be shy here. Really let 'em have it.


Here, do you want a closer look? Oops, sorry. Did you fall in?

Carnage from Two-Song-Singing-Hannah Festivities

By now you're probably tired of hearing about my baby who just turned six, so I'll try to keep this brief. For her birthday, Stinkerbell requested a Hannah Montana party, and after denying my girls the opportunity to dress up as Two-Song-Singing-Hannah for Halloween, I figured using it as a lame party theme would be okay. Sort of the lesser of two evils.


So here was the party invite. It's all Hannah, but with Stinkerbell's picture instead of Hannah-Miley-Whatever. I don't know why I'm so cranky about Hannah, it could be worse. I'll take Hannah-Miley-Whatever over Britney Spears any day.

Anyway, I really was going somewhere here. We got a little crazy and invited Stink's whole class. Eeek! Thankfully the class is smallish since it is Kindergarten. I think I got daring because we decided to have the party at one of those kid places where they get to run around and scream their heads off. The kind of place where you can't leave without a sensory overload headache.

The part I was most worried about with inviting so many kids, was getting that many presents when we really don't need one more toy in this house.

I let the girls know before the party that they weren't going to be playing with any of the new toys until they went through their toys, decluttered and got rid of some of their old toys. Plus, they couldn't touch a new toy until a thank you note had been written for it. Aren't I mean?

I know. It's so much fun being a Mama sometimes.


So here they are, tearing the place apart and deciding what will go.


"YOU CAN'T KEEP EVERYTHING, ANNIKA!"

Can I just tell you how much my heart swelled with pride to hear Zoe say this?


"Blah, blah, blah. Whatever."

Annika is such a cucumber.


"There's a snake in my boot."

At first I was a little sad to see Woody in the discard pile, but then I decided that we'll give him to a friend who actually looks like Woody and the girls even call him Woody. They don't even know what his real name is. Woody will get a good home.


Eeek! Freaky doll head! Decapitated Donna is no longer loved? How sad. We must be ruthless though. I really just had to stop watching because I wanted to jump in and rescue toys. How pathetic is that?

We'll take the toys to the thrift store though, so hopefully there are kids out there who will be thrilled with these toys.


I was surprised at how quickly Stinkerbell jumped into the thank you notes. We tend to spread them out, so the toys are sitting in the guest room and coming out one at a time, as the thank you notes are slowly written. What surprised me, I mean really surprised me, is that the girls didn't even argue with me about this. I feel like I won the lottery or something. Or like maybe they think I know what I'm doing with this whole parenting thing. They're so gullible.


Oops, my pictures are a little out of order. I'm lazy though so I'm not going to fix it. This is just the girls putting the party favor bags together.


Once the bags were stuffed, I stapled treat toppers to them and then punched a hole in the corner for attaching a balloon. We didn't attach the balloons until we got to Leo's and I'm glad for that. They would have been a tangled mess otherwise.

I took pictures of the party, but I don't feel like I should post pictures of the kids without their parents' permission. And I'm too lazy to put happy face heads on all of them. So just believe me when I tell you that the party was a blast for the kids, and quite painful for the adults.

That's a wrap for birthday week. Tomorrow I'm going to try to put my Cinnamon Roll recipe up. If you're dieting, you might just want to stay away from Sabotage Station for the next day or so. Sorry.

Don't Blink

I don't know where the time has gone, but today my baby is six. When did this happen?

I chose the title for this post for two reasons. The first is the obvious, your babies grow up when you're not looking.

The second reason is that Peanut Head, the father of my children, Daddy, has gotten my babies hooked on the Dr. Who series. Which has been great up until the episode "Don't Blink." Now my kids cannot even use the restroom by themselves for fear of a weeping angel statue hurling them back through time.

Yeah. Good one Daddy.

Anyway, the point of this post was not to give Peanut Head the tongue lashing he so deserves, but to reflect on the highlights of Annika's last six years. Well, my favorite pictures anyway. I think she and I would disagree on what the highlights have been.

Here is the Annie we know and love today. All boisterous, in your face, and the boss of everything. I'm sure that this is the first time Zoe starting believing that Annika thinks she's a superstar. That's what she tells her all the time. "Annika, you think you're such a superstar. You think you're so hot." Zoe is a little bitter.

This is my girl. She knows how to put away some cake. How can you not love that?

This picture pretty much sums up Stinkerbell's attitude about life. She can do it herself and she doesn't need anyone else to show her how. In fact, tell her how to do it and she'll find some other way to do it and she'll take her sweet time.

I was pretty deflated after months of potty training Zoe and I just wasn't ready to face another round of that, so Annika took charge and did it herself. Thank you, Girlfriend! I'll be forever grateful for that.

Here's a little peek at the silly side of Stinker Dinker.

I seriously want to know why does my child know how to pose like a model? It's a little creepy.

Annika sees herself as the Fix-It Guy in our house, right along with Daddy. He's so proud.

Also like Daddy, she gets a little crazy about her video games. And that's not a very lady-like lounging position either, Missy.

Again, could you please not have so many cute pictures for me to choose from?

Little Miss Doesn't Follow Directions is sitting during her preschool graduation when she is supposed to be standing, twirling and singing. She's so prissy having to fix her hat and she won't be rushed. She couldn't give a rat's behind what everyone thinks.

I just love this picture. The caption on the shirt is a bit of an oxymoron in this case though. It really should say stinker.

I loved Annika as a witch. I thought she was the cutest witch ever, and I realize that I'm biased. She is believable as a witch though, she can be so mean. Although I should really just say that she is passionate, because she's just as lovable as she is mean.

First big girl bike, or in this case, big boy bike for a big girl. She's not a girlie girl, except for lip gloss and OCD things. For some reason Girlfriend is obsessed with lip gloss. Sometimes I find rocks in my dryer, and sometimes I find lip gloss. I just never know what I'm going to get.

Just a few months on those training wheels before she kicked them to the curb. Again, Daddy is so proud.

My baby went to Kindergarten this school year. That was a bittersweet day.

Being home with my girls during these first years has been the best gift I have ever received and I wouldn't trade them for anything. Watching them grow and learn is priceless.

Happy Birthday, Annika! But please, could you please, please, please just stop growing? Thank you.