Sun and Cinnamon Sugar

Last week I made Monkey Bread after an employee asked when I was going to make it again.  I don’t make it too often, mostly because it’s very time consuming at the last minute and it usually makes a royal mess in my oven which used to send the smoke-alarm bambini off and wake the dead in the neighborhood plus drive me nuts with her little ‘Fire. Fire. Fire.’ 

Since we’ve moved the smoke alarms don’t seem to be quite as sensitive or my ventilation system is better here so I thought it was time to make it again.

Oh, and it seems each time I make it I make more then the last time so I don’t have a neat little timed routine figured out for it.

Last week I took my recipe times four and this is what my kitchen looked like.

I had purchased an extra pack of rolls (4 tubes per pack) and decided to just add it into the mix.  Monkey bread is pretty forgiving.

My sink with even a few empty rolls already in the trash.

Remember I said I made more then before….. I already have 3 bundt pans and wasn’t wild about spending the money for yet a 4th one.  I haven’t found them to be too cheap.  I went online to see if it HAS to be made in a bundt pan.  I found plenty to sufficiently convince me that I could use a loaf pan. But as I was collecting my pans I saw my angel food cake pan (NOT a good idea for monkey bread cuz all the sticky goo runs out the bottom) sitting inside a deep 1/4 size catering pan and had a light bulb moment.    Wah-laa!!  It worked perfectly.  I love it when my aging mind surprises me with straggling strands of brilliance – OK, at least straggling strands of a good idea.

An ample supply of cinnamon sugar.  Believe it or not, it gets ‘better’.. or worse, depending on calorie watching.

 

Yep! that’s EIGHT sticks of butter melting away with some cream and brown sugar and BEFORE I added 3 more cups of sugar.

I poured the ‘coronary juice’ over my four pans of cinnamon sugar coated rolls.

After I had these in the oven I turned to finish making the rest of my breakfast and found that the sun was pouring in the window and kissing the sugar mess on my counter.

Then I started filling my sink with a different item.                      Eight dozen egg shells.

 

And eight dozen eggs in a bowl.

And I beat ‘em up with my favorite kitchen appliance.

And before you can finish singing Jesus Love Me they’re ready to add to a pan that I’ve fried 2 pounds of bacon and 1/2 of a large onion.

Occasionally I have some potatoes in one form or another left over from a meal and if I remember they get added to the eggs and bacon.  This week it was a dish of fried potatoes.

After my bacon and onions have fried I take some out and put into a smaller pan – my large stainless steel fry pan but it’s smaller then the first one – and put 1/3 of my scrambled eggs in that pan.  When the eggs are almost ready I add cheese to them, cover with a pizza pan.  I set the first smaller pan in the back of my car and cover with an old quilt because this pan won’t be served until 1/2 hour after the first one but when I uncover it the steam is pouring out so it’s still nice and hot.  This pan of eggs is a tad under cooked because it continues to setup while sitting in my make shift holding oven.

And last by not least I make 4-5 gallon of ice tea. 

 

No pictures of the finished monkey bread – sorry.  I turn the pans upside down on a large bakery sheet and they stay covered until right before I serve them.  Once I start serving there is no stopping to pick up a camera.

But this is my usual Thurday morning routine – the warm carb item is just switched out from week to week.

 

No pictures of finished product but you can make them yourself and see how yummy they are.  There are oodles of recipes for monkey bread but this one works very well for me.

4 tubes biscuits (refrigerated)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 additional granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup evaporated milk (I was out but had half and half)

1 cup butter

2 tsp. cinnamon

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1.  Cut biscuits into quarters.  (I was in a hurry this week and cut them in half).  Combine 3/4 cup white sugar with cinnamon.  Roll each biscuit quarter in the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

2.  In a cake pan or baking dish (bundt pan is best), add the biscuits.

3.  In a saucepan, slowly bring milk, remaining 3/4 cup white sugar, brown sugar, and butter to a boil.  Remove from heat. pour over biscuits in the pan.  Bake for 30 minutes or until it is cooked to your liking!  Flip pan over onto a serving dish and serve right away.

Viola!  (that’s what my recipe says)  =)

 

My ice tea recipe is one that I’ve been making since before I was married.  One afternoon while I was visiting Jay at work his mom sent me into the house to make a gallon of ice tea and I’ve been making 2-3 gallon a week ever since. I never made it before that day and I vividly remember standing in her kitchen saying to myself ‘please don’t mess this up, please don’t mess this up’.

To a small sauce pan of boiling water add 5-6 tea bags.                  Let tea steep for a minute or two.

In a gallon pitcher add scant 1 cup sugar and 6 oz. frozen lemonade concentrate.  Pour tea from saucepan over top – dissolves the sugar and lemonade.  I add hot tap water to tea bags and squeeze out more tea from the bags.

Fill pitcher with cold water and ice. 

I’m drinking some while I type this blog.  I use Weis brand Decaf Black Tea.  It’s decaf so we can drink it anytime and the tea bags aren’t individually wrapped in an paper wrapping.

Although we prefer it with lemonade sometimes I don’t have lemonade concentrate and it’s a nice change to drink it without.  Or add something.  This week I noticed that Turkey Hill makes a  light Peach Mango Punch.  So I filled my glass with iced tea (that was made with no lemonade) about 3/4 full and topped it off with the fruit flavored punch.  My new favorite.

OK, this post got way too long.  Go make some ice tea and relax.