Sticky Buns

The recipe this week for Tuesday With Dorie was sticky buns. OMG are they good.
They took two days, a lot of butter, a hardworking Kitchen Aid, and some patience but I guess that's what sticky buns are about.
It all starts with a brioche dough (lots of butter), a rise (I used the proof mode on my oven because I had to go to work), a rest in the fridge (it got a little harder than I thought it would and didn't really rise more like other people's).
Also, I didn't roll it out quite enough and after I trimmed the edges and cut a couple too wide, I only ended up with twelve buns. A couple even tried to escape out of their rolls when put in the oven. The glaze was slightly harder than I would have liked but just a little flavor in your teeth to savor later.
I wish I could figure this whole blogging thing out (links, renaming links, moving around my photos) but I'm sure I will eventually. I just don't have a lot of time on my hands obviously. I'm off to fold laundry, clean house, and prep dinner before my beautiful little monkeys wake up from their naps. Oh yeah, and try to squeeze in a shower.

SNICKERY SQUARES

The recipe pick this week for TWD was tradtional Madeleines. I don't own a Madeleine pan and really didn't want to buy a pan that was for something so specific so I decided to make snickery squares.
First I had to make dulce de leche. Usually when a cookbook claims you can find an ingredient at your supermarket or local ethnic market, you won't find it here. So I bought two cans of sweetened condensed milk, covered them with water and simmered away for three hours. It worked!
The next morning I set about making the squares propping the children in front of the tv for Madagascar. I've tried making carmel this way before and it hasn't worked. The sugar has never turned back to carmel for me. It just stays crystalized so I was pretty skeptical and I'm not sure if this was how the peanuts were supposed to look. I was expecting something more like peanut brittle. I also am not sure if I should have simmered the condensed milk a little longer because the squares didn't really set up. The dulce de leche oozes out. They are very delicious though.

Horton

A lot of people will think this is weird but at the age of 36 I have discovered how great libraries are. I grew up in a very small town and the only library was the one at school and it was not spectacular to say the least. When we first moved to
Whitefish, I had a library card but took some books back late and then was scared to go back because I was afraid they'd want money.
Well, I finally went back because Lucy absolutely loves books and I can't keep buying them. Some children's books are a little spendy. It's been great and I've even been getting books for myself. I know, at 36.
So anyway, we got Horton Hatches the Egg. We read it a few times and one day we were out walking around and Lucy picked up a few river rocks. One really flat one and later on I discovered she was carrying it around and then sitting on it. Even putting it under her bumm in her car seat. She's keeping it warm and waiting for it to hatch. We're trying to figure out a way to make it hatch.
Kids sure are hilarious.

We went to dinner at a friends house last week and he had some great pine cones from some ponderosas at his house. All the pine cones around here are from spruce trees and not all that cool. I read that a great project for preschoolers is to paint pine cones with peanut butter and then roll them around in sesame seeds to make a bird feeder so we gave it a try. It was fun. Lucy really liked it. We tied one up in a bird house in the back yard and another at the end of a limb in the back yard. The next morning Lucy was very excited to see if we had any birds and then was very disappointed to discover the squirrels had got the one tied to the limb. And the one in the bird house hasn't been touched. Maybe it's too cold still.

Florida Pie

I tried all morning to get this done and my 1 1/2 yr. old just wouldn't leave the buttons and mouse alone.
So anyway, this weeks pick was from Tuesdays With Dorie was Florida Pie. I really like lime and have never had Key Lime pie. I once read in a Cook's Illustrated magazine that the difference in flavor to regular Persian limes isn't really worth juicing the little suckers. And in this little corner of Northwest Montana I would never consider driving all over the valley with two young kids looking for Key Limes.
I don't usually have a lot of success getting juice out of limes. I usually try rolling them around on the counter to soften them up but the first one I tried didn't yeild much at all. I've always heard another way is to warm it in the microwave but I've never tried it. It worked A LOT better. I only had to use four limes.
Also, I got impatient with my first attempt at heating the egg whites and ended up scrambling them. I tried to whip them up anyway but of course it didn't work. I had to separate four more eggs and took it a little slower and it worked great.
Overall, I thought this pie was really good, but if I made it again I would probably leave the coconut out of the meringue. I thought it was a little too much.

peanut butter torte

I was so excited to make this dessert, with good reason. It was so delicious. However, being time to get into a bathing suit, I had some trouble with it. I'm really hoping next weeks pick will be something not so fattening. And I'm one of those that thinks if you're eating dessert, you might as well eat dessert. I don't like to goof around with low-fat, no-fat, I prefer desserts as they're meant to be.

I was scared of this one. Whipping cream, cream cheese, peanut butter, Oreos (which I have a serious distaste for), what's a girl to do? I ended up taking this to two different dinner parties and still had two pieces left which my husband put down no problem. He has an incredible metabolism. He's been weighing himself before bed and again in the morning and somehow while he's sleeping he loses seven pounds. Why doesn't that ever happen to me?