Friday Food Fun, & Other Things...

First... Friday Food Fun --

I just can't wait to share this totally deee-lish recipe with you. And for those of you with a gaggle of kids, I know that the Pillsbury Pop 'n Fresh ones might be easier, but I also know your kids will love helping with this, it's easy, and everyone will love them!!! Here it goes...

Mmmm-Mmmm-Gooey Cinnamon Rolls
(Yield: 16 rolls )

1 loaf frozen white bread dough, thawed in refrigerator (very important)
Flour, for dusting surface

Filling:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2/3 stick butter, softened

Icing:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to form a 15 by 7-inch rectangle. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside. Spread 2/3 cup softened butter (I know all this butter sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen, but don't skip this step!) over dough and then evenly sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Starting at the long edge, roll up dough like you would a jelly roll. Cut roll into 16 slices and then set aside in a warm place and allow dough to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Divide rolls among 2 lightly buttered round baking pans. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden on top. While the rolls are baking, combine the icing ingredients with an electric mixer until fluffy. Frost the warm rolls with the icing. Serve warm with plenty of napkins!

Let me know if you try this recipe out!
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Okay, moving on to other more mundane things ... funny things that happened to me the other day at work.

Wednesday, my secretary (oh, okay ... she's not my secretary... she's the departmental secretary - whatever) any way, my secretary asked me how my son was doing on solids. I told her that he hates meat, loves pears, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots and squash, likes bananas and applesauce, and tolerates chicken and noodles (all either stage one or two foods). She then shared with me a special food that not only her son loved, but she loved too. She warned me that it's a little fattening because it's made with heavy cream, but oh so worth it. The to-die-for food? Beech Nut Sweet Potato Sawful. So, I repeated it back to her in form of a question... "Beech Nut Sweet Potato Sawful?" And she said, "yeah, Sweet Potato Sawful - it's sooo good, but hard to find." So, being stumped, I asked her to spell it for me so I could look for it... and yes, this was one of those AAAHHH HAAA moments that confirmed my suspicion that there really are moms out there that prove men's suspicions that we really do loose part of our brain when we deliver the placenta... the spelling of SAWFUL -- S-o-u-f-f-l-e. (As in SOO-FLEEH. The french stuff.) Yes, it took all my will power to control the muscles in my face and prevent them from bursting into laughter, because she was serious as all get out, and I wasn't about to burst her bubble. So, once my child is old enough, I'll be looking for Sweet Potato Sawful, errrr... I mean ... Souffle ... so he can experience how the upper crust lives. Oh, Lord forgive me anyhow... I'm sure I've made some vocab flub-ups like this! (umm... like just the other day?) And rest assured -- I'm not gossiping. She's a friend of mine, and after I taught her the correct way to say Souffle, I asked her if I could blog about it because it cracked me up so much.

So a little while later (oh, around 10-ish in the am), one of our new, and very young and GQ-ish college hires, with a matchy-matchy izod sweater over his plaid untucked shirt with neatly folded cuffs and pointy collar came over to the cube next to mine that houses yet another very young college hire with spiky (and I do mean stiffly spiked) hair, and this is the very educated (they went to the same College) conversation that ensued... GQ: Dude, here's the book I was telling you about. Spiky: Like, what is it? GQ: It's theeee BIBLE for project scheduling! Spiky: Oh, killer red binder! GQ: Yeah, killer! It cost me a fortune! Spiky: Dude, I'm totally broke! GQ: No waaahhhaaahhhaaayyy! Spiky: Totally! I got a cup of Jo this morning, and used the last of my green! GQ: Bummer! Spiky: Yeah, but my mom packed me a rockin' lunch, so I'm not bummin' too much, dude! GQ: Maaan. Wish my mom would do that! I hang out at the cafeteria for lunch, totally yacking.

Okay, I need to break here and just say ... this is the future of our corporation? THIS? Duuuuuddde that's like, totally scaaarrry! Well, I guess we all started out somewhere, huh?

Oh, and on this oh, soooo eventful day ... I was headed back to my desk from the cafeteria to scarf down my Chicken Marsala (which incidentally, I think the cafeteria prepared for the geriatric employees (that would be 90 and over) because it had absolutely no.salt.whatsoever). I was coming up to a very tricky three-way hallway intersection ... so tricky that maintenance installed one of those round bubble mirrors on the ceiling so you could see what was around the corner... And coming around the corner at a rather fast clip, was a woman, and a man, and they were talking, paying very little attention to the mirror that would indicate that IIIII was coming and had the right of way. And you know how a mom will hold her hand out to slow down a speeding toddler? Well, she did just that. Held her hand out. At toddler height. Right into the mans crotch.

Needless to say, an embarrassing moment was had by all. Red face, red face, red face! I'm sure she'll be checking that mirror as she comes 'round that corner next time, and she'll keep her hands to herself!

And finally... because I care so much about each and every one of you, I feel it is my duty to bring to light a very serious matter ... there is a number you should be aware of... twenty. As in, 20, or for some, twen-tee. Yeah, you heard right. That's the number of Oreo Thin Crisps that come in the 100 Calorie Pack snack bags. I know this, because I was counting. And, really, they are very tasty, but if you like to count up to, oh, let's say, 60 (as in six-tee), like I do... then, you'll need three bags of snacks, and we're looking at 300 calories instead of the original 100 that we started off with. I just thought you might want to know.

That about wraps up all the very important things that happened in the course of one very important day. All so fascinating, huh?