Carolyn Free Cinnamon Rolls

Update on the mac-n-cheese: no one could really tell it was made with rice pasta.  The only thing anyone said that was bad: maybe make it with bacon in it next time.  Oh well.  Can't be perfect, but if it was that close I will be making it again.

Today I made cinnamon rolls successfully.  I made them back in March once.  And I sort of have made them a few more times, but they always end up being more cinnamon struessel muffins of some sort rather than cinnamon rolls.  After working in the cafe and selling everyone plate sized cinnamon rolls that smell amazing, I've decided that I need to make cinnamon rolls again.  I think I've figured out the problem.  The really cool thing is that they'd be easy to do dairy free, as well as the everything free that they are starting out.

Recipe:

1.5 C Rice flour
1 C Tapioca flour
0.5 C Yuca flour
1 tsp gum
1/8 tsp gelatin
2 TBSP sugar (i used vanilla sugar since I thought it'd be interesting)
1 TBSP baking powder
3 eggs
1/4 C oil (or butter if you don't want to do dairy free.  Butter works best)
Add TBSP of milk until moist like a pie crust dough (I used rice milk and it turned out really well)

For the center:
6 TBSP Butter
1 C sugar
2 TBSP cinnamon

For the icing:
2 C powdered sugar
3 TBSP vanilla
2 TBSP Milk

For the dough -- add ingredients in order making sure to mix well after each liquid addition.  When done then roll out dough on a floured surface (or parchment paper since I don't like to use excess flour that costs $3/lb).  Mix the center ingredients together and then spread out on the flat dough.  Roll to create a log.  Cut into pieces using a sharp knife.  BAKE IN A MUFFIN TIN at 350 for ~10 minutes.  (The muffin tin helps keep them together as well as make them into muffins if things haven't gone well.)  Ice when you take them out, or when you are ready to eat them.

Mac and Cheese

I believe that this winter I'm going to get fat, despite the fact that I'm working on growing a parasite.  I'm kind of supposed to, but I may go a bit overboard.  Tonight I'm attempting to make a mac'n'cheese bake thing.  Chris liked how I started the sauce -- with 2/3rds a stick of butter melting to sautee the onion.  Then I added some milk and LOTS of cheese.  I added some Muenster, Brie, and white cheddar cheeses.  I purposely made it kind of runny since I didn't cook the pasta before pouring the cheese sauce over them and putting them in the oven for 45 minutes.  We're about 10 minutes away now, and it looks tasty.  I just took the cover off so the cheddar I topped it with can brown a little. 

I got the idea from a magazine today that a lady at work as reading.  It had all these "roots" in it, and so I vaguely remembered it.  I've been wanting to try making my own mac'n'cheese for a while now though, so that kind of gave me the extra push that I needed to step out and do it.  :)  

So far this week has been good, and it was SHORT! I have to work Friday and Saturday, but that's okay.  Chris doesn't so we only have to get up kind of early on Friday morning, and we'll get to sleep in until 430 or 445, so that's almost an extra hour of sleep by not having to get Chris to the train.  Hopefully the cafe will pick up the pace some.  It was quite dead today, as in we got a total of about 20 people in the seven hours we were open.  Oh well, we'll have slow days.  Overall the cafe business is picking up, so that's helpful. 

Bring on the Turkey

Well, it is now getting close to Thanksgiving.  I've been meaning to blog about several things since my last post on Halloween.  It has been crazy here though.   Working in the cafe has taught me a lot, and while I enjoy it, I know it is a temporary thing.  At least I hope it is a temporary thing.  It is nice to successfully make drinks for people every day, and for the most part hours are good -- I get to open during the week, and close on Saturdays.  Opening is way more fun than closing, but really both are completely manageable.  One thing that was nice about the cafe happened on Thursday -- we went to Phoenix and Las Vegas from the 11th to the 16th, and I had the 17th off, so Thursday was my first day back at the cafe in a week.  I walk in and Bill, the manager, says, "Carolyn's back!"  In checking with him he basically had to go back to running the cafe 24/7, as he had done before they got me my keys.  The cafe being under staffed and underpaid is going to get old kind of quick.  I realize that we are in essence volunteering our time, and getting a bit of pay for doing so (that's how I look at it because it helps me mentally to do so), but we need people to work, be trusted, and trained.  I'm also not really liking the politics of the place.  I'm never big on politics, and as usual with a church organization, there are so many layers of politics it makes the US Congress look like child's play. 

Enough about the cafe, more about the trip.  We went to Phoenix first to get some friends married.  We got to help with set-up and be the general errand people for the bride the day before and wedding day.  Well, Chris got to be errand boy, and I got to help in the kitchen.  Her parents hosted the rehearsal dinner and it was fabulous.  Her father is Mexican and so they did Mexican food that was to die for (all what Chris thinks, and what I had was quite good as well, but not truly "traditional" with all the mods I make to it).  Her parents also have an orange grove in their backyard.  The fruit wasn't ready but it was definitely on the trees getting there.  We may get a box of oranges come Christmas, and they are the best oranges.  Friday we also frantically went around the mall looking for a suitable shirt and jacket for Chris, as he was the "stand in best man" in case one didn't show up, and they had one in mind.  It was craziness, as the bride was tense since this guy was having car troubles in Tucson and wasn't sure if he would make it -- she thought he was trying to ruin her wedding.  The ceremony was held at a golf course and was great.  There were a few lingering golfers, but for the most part they were gone by the time the wedding started.  There were only 50-75 people in attendance and it was great.  She wore red shoes with her dress, and he wore personalized skate shoes that had the wedding date on them, hopefully with the anniversary written on the backs of his shoes he won't forget it.  They had a sand ceremony -- kind of like a unity candle or something -- each had a color of sand (hers was white, his was red) that they simultaneously poured into a central vase.  Then the idea is that you cap it and save the mixed up sand somewhere.  Neat idea, especially for a place that has a LOT of sand.  Sunday we flew to Vegas.  Back in May the Bride asked us to go to Vegas with them, so we did.  My allergy card managed to scare a few kitchen staffs.  The Mexican restaurant we started at (it was in the hotel, so it was close when we decided that we were starving) was probably the best.  I talked with the chef as he was having drinks at the bar, but he told me it was completely doable to eat there and not get sick.  The waiter though, with all my questions (what do you put in this, do you shred the cheese or does it come pre-shredded, what do you use for this spice -- type of questions) apparently scared the poor kitchen staff.  The created a salad for me and gave me salsa to put over it.  For Monday we basically walked around the strip.  I got up and went to the hotel gym and then we walked around through casinos and shops and more casinos and more shops.  In all of our walking around we got tickets for Blue Man Group.  We went to the later showing and were able to get 2nd row, center seats -- as in Chris got squirted with goo at one point, and we had to wear ponchos.  The giggly girls in front of us who came in wearing expensive clothes didn't like when we called them shields and screamed when we got squirted with stuff, or had stuff thrown at us. 

A few pictures from the trip though --