monkey bread

I hadn’t heard of monkey bread until I stumbled across a recipe online recently. If you haven’t heard of monkey bread either, I’ll describe it for you, but first a warning: once you know what this is, it will get inside your brain until you get up at the crack of dawn and spend 2 1/2 hours on a weekend making it. Be forewarned.

OK so it’s these balls of dough, essentially cinnamon bun dough, dipped in melted butter (you could stop right there) and rolled around in brown sugar and cinnamon, stacked together in a pan, baked, and drizzled with a confectioner’s sugar glaze. Because the dough is in little balls, the loaf or whatever you want to call it just pulls apart and you get these gooey, perfectly bite-sized pieces. You can also be in denial about how many of said dough balls you’ve consumed (it must be less than a whole cinnamon bun, right?) HOW GOOD DOES THAT SOUND RIGHT NOW??

I’ve never made cinnamon buns before, but I do have a deep fondness for Cinnabon (and a healthy amount of shame over it). I am fairly new to yeast breads / doughs, but I loved this making this dough. It’s pillowy and gooey and when it rises it just fluffs up like a yeasty cloud. I mean, it’s a pain to work with because it’s pretty sticky, but believe me when I say that you will have no memory of the hardship when you take a bite of the completed masterpiece of monkey bread. I didn’t have a bundt pan, so I just did this in a 9″ round springform pan. You just need something deep enough — these suckers rise a lot.

Here’s a link to the recipe that I used. Make it now!

belated

When does something become so long overdue that you can’t even use the term “belated”? Extremely belated? Grossly belated?

In any case, here’s a rundown of a few of the Thanksgiving delicacies we enjoyed…

First up, house smoked turkey. Holy crap it was delicious. I’m pretty sure it went into the smoker at like 9 am and then didn’t come out until about 6:30 pm. Although it was not me slaving over the smoker, I can pretty confidently say that the amount of work it took was worth it. I’ve never had such moist, flavorful turkey in my life. And it looks pretty cool, too.

One of my non tradition traditions. Brie wrapped in Pillsbury crescent dough and baked. Gooey.

Spiced rosemary cashews.

Biscuit and Cornbread Dressing, a la Martha Stewart.

Roasted Brussels sprouts. Look, I know they taste like feet, but they taste like delicious feet, OK??

Pop. Overs. I bought a special pan just for these things and boy are they tasty! Recipe from The Kitchn.

Delicata squash for the salad (with pomegranate seeds!)

We also had cranberry butter, sweet potato pie, and red wine poached pears with mascarpone cream filling. Oh, and did I mention there were four of us? I recognize the perversity of that, believe me, I do. So does my belly.

turkey day, monkey bread, & more

Tonight! Tonight I promise to update with photos of the beautiful smoked turkey we ate at Thanksgiving, some delicious monkey bread I made Sunday (you’ll see…and want to have a brunch party stat) and hopefully some sort of cold-weather delight that is as yet undetermined for dinner tonight. Now that I’ve put it in writing, I’ll be forced to do it. Maybe I’ll even post pictures of the knitting projects that have kept me occupied in the evenings lately!