I'm sorry, little blog.

Whoops.  I learned an important lesson over the last few months:  If you'd like to accomplish anything between November and February, do not work in a mall.  My goal was to post something new about once a week here.  Honestly, I have done little cooking (most of which has been crock pottery) since early last fall.  I just haven't had the time.  Any free time has been spent sleeping or bitching about how sore my feet are; the latter resulted in a lovely, super-deluxe bubbling, massaging foot bath for Christmas :)  Anyway, both of my mall jobs are done.  I quit the first one and the second was a seasonal position that wrapped up last week.  I haven't taken many pictures lately, but here are a few.  Most are food-related, and I am still trying to figure out how to take good pictures.

 Thanksgiving 2009 - Cranberry bourbon pecan pie.  This shit was awesome; this was my second pie crust ever.  Also, that a deep dish Pampered Chef stoneware pie plate.  I got it brand new at a thrift store for $7.  Hell yes.  

 Thanksgiving 2009 - Brie en croute with carmelized, candied walnuts served with Ritz and green apple.  The snowflake Ritz crackers take this to a whole 'nother level of classy, I know. 

 I signed up for Pop-Tarts Sprinklings earlier this summer.  They send samples and coupons periodically.  It's meant for moms, but T eats Pop-Tarts for breakfast every day.  Sure, he's 24 and he's my hetero life mate, but it's close enough.  TL;DR:  I signed up because a gross number of Pop-Tarts are consumed in our household.  

I love limited-edition and new products.  I love free stuff, and I love getting mail.  Thank you, Pop-Tarts.  They sent me a sample of the blueberry muffin tarts when they came out.  A few weeks ago I received these new wild grape tarts.  They are sweet and a little tart (these tarts are tart) and they look like 1990s Zubaz pants.  This makes them a win in my book... on all accounts.  They're in stores now and I've actually bought some. 

 Elephant garlic is goddamn awesome. 

 This is a peeled clove of elephant garlic with my big girl knife and a penny for scale. 

Pangea Organics makes the best bar soap ever.  I had a question about a bar of soap that irritated my skin (it wasn't even a complaint), and they explained, apologized, and sent me all of these fantastic samples with a hand-written, personal letter.  What a great company!  I was going to keep using their stuff anyhow, but if you a) give me free stuff b) through the mail, I will follow you to the end of the earth. 

  Mkay.  So I've never made cinnamon rolls before.  I'm kind of intimidated by kneading (the cat hair!) and I've actually avoided most recipes with yeast.  However, I had some fun with bread this summer and GODDAMMIT I have a KitchenAid with a dough hook now.  No more excuses.  These are the overnight cinnamon rolls; you mix them up, let them rise, roll them out, roll them up, cut 'em, and then put them in baking dishes and throw them in the fridge overnight.  Come morning, you set the pans on the counter for half an hour and then cook them.  The recipe uses a 13x9" pan for 12 rolls, but I'm using two smaller pans with six rolls each so I can give a pan to T's school buddy L (she basically gave us her old washer and dryer and has generally been very good to us.  That, and I really don't know anyone else.  I think T pissed off our neighbors by accidentally breaking one of their decorative plastic candy canes while shoveling our joint stoop, and they are the only other people I could easily pawn baked goods onto right now.  Maybe they've just been scarce because it's winter.)

Here's hoping those cinnamon rolls turn out!