Ryan’s Sweet Buns
Caramel Rolls, Sticky Buns, call them what you will but I will call them “Ryan’s Sweet Buns” because Ryan really enjoyed having these for breakfast every morning last week.

These rolls remind me of the pecan rolls from Cinnabon. They are baked in a shallow bath of caramel sauce and pecans, which makes for one deliciously gooey roll. I doubled the caramel sauce in the recipe below, because I thought they would be even better that way, though they were pretty good the way I made them originally, too. Total active time in the kitchen was only about 20 minutes and the machine does the rest.

I am not a bread snob, and I am happy to have a machine that knows just when and how much to knead the bread. I love my bread machine. I highly recommend them, and Bread Machine Magic by Linda Rehberg and Lois Conway.

The dough I used for these rolls was SO easy to work with.. No overworked, tough rolls here. I am usually terrible at rolling it out with only a few swipes of a rolling pin, but with this recipe it was a snap They were delightful and light, especially right out of the oven.


Ryan’s Sweet Buns
Adapted from “Basic Buttermilk Sweet Dough” from Bread Machine Magic by Linda Rehberg & Lois Conway and “Cinnamon Rolls” by Cathy Nowell on Allrecipes.com

For 1 ½ lb bread machine
7/8 C buttermilk (or 3 T buttermilk powder with 7/8 C water)
1 egg
3 C all-purpose flour
1 t salt
4 T butter
¼ C sugar
¼ t baking soda
2 ½ t fleischman’s active dry yeast or 1 ½ t Red Star brand (there are about 2 ¼ t in a ¼ oz packet of yeast)

2/3 C butter
1 C brown sugar
1 C vanilla ice cream
1 C pecans (optional)
½ C butter, softened
1 T cinnamon
½ C brown sugar

place all ingredients in bread pan, select Dough setting, and press Start.

As dough is being made, melt 2/3 C butter in a small saucepan. Add 1 C brown sugar and 1 C ice cream; bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Pour into 9x13 inch pan. Spread Pecans over caramel, if desired

When the dough has risen long enough, the machine will beep. Turn off machine and turn out dough onto floured countertop. Roll out and spread or dot with ½ C butter. Sprinkle 1 T cinmamon and ½ C brown sugar on the top. Roll it up and seal the edge. Cut into 12 rolls, and place in prepared pan of caramel. Allow to rise until doubled (I let mine rise for about 75 minutes in a slightly warm oven, though it might take only 45 minutes)

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Serve upside down, so the caramel and pecans are on top

New Years Resolutions are to blame for my outdated blog.

I have realized that cooking, though I enjoy it, is the enemy in keeping up with housework.

So, meet my new best friend, T Marzetti's Asian Ginger salad dressing. As a salad dressing, its not that great, but I have found it to be a versatile chicken marinade. I add a little bit of fresh ginger with the dressing and marinade chicken for as little as a couple of hours or overnight. I have been using it to top Won-Ton Chicken salad, sticking it on skewers with red peppers and grilling it, or if I forget to marinade it, I just put some chicken peices in a pan with this dressing, ginger, and peppers for a stir-fry to be served over rice.

It is so easy to make and, more importantly for me, easy to clean up!

Instead of cooking, I am trying to make my new hobby working out.

we'll see about that.

Anyway, mytastebuds really miss the variety in my dinners. If anybody has quick and easy dinner ideas, feel free to post them in the comments section! We could use a few more in the rotation. 

Friends, it has been too long since I last blogged on the glutton.

And sadly, my entries might continue to be sparse.

This is a picture of our breakfast a couple of weeks ago: banana bread french toast with berry topping and whipped cream. Toni told me about this delicious dish and it was as good as she described (very good).

I used Mark Bittman's banana bread recipe from How to Cook Everything , I won't post the recipe because it wasn't my favorite and I don't want to get in trouble. The banana bread has coconut in it, which I thought was nice and it went well with the berries.

So use your favorite banana bread recipe, make french toast out of it, and warm some frozen mixed berries in a small pot with a bit of sugar, and a dash of salt for a topping. It's delicious!