Monday, February 27, 2012

Guacamole!

Holy Guacamole!
by Erin

We have found the best guacamole recipe ever.  This is not an exaggeration. I promise. And I would assume Rick Bayless agrees because it is his recipe.  Check it out here.  He made it for a 'luxury guacamole bar.' Sounds awesome and makes me wish that I was Rick Bayless' friend so I could be invited to said party.   Follow these step by step directions and you will have delicious guacamole in under 15 minutes.  No doubt.

Ingredients
I cut Rick's recipe in a 1/3 since it would just be two of us.  Yes we ate the whole thing in one sitting and yes it was delicious.  Anyway, you need avocados, garlic, cilantro, and a lime.


Start roasting two cloves of garlic over low heat in a dry pan.  Keep the papers on the garlic.  Roast the garlic until they are slightly browned.

Avocado chop up

Meanwhile, cut up your avocados and put them in a bowl.  About the time you finish that, your garlic will probably be lookin' like this!

Roasted garlic cloves.  Beautiful!

 The papers should slip off the garlic easily and you will end up delicious mushy flavorful garlic.


Chop up the garlic and put in with the avocado.

Combine the ingredients
Add the cilantro and top off with some fresh lime juice and a little salt.  Use a fork and coarsely break up the avocados and mix all the ingredients.  Then grab your chips, a cold beer with a little lime, and enjoy!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Leslie


Some days I just have to bake something.  A lot of times it's because I need a major sugar fix and nothing will satisfy it like a fresh-out-of-the-oven something or other.  But other times it's because baking just feels so good.  It's theraputic, almost.

I bake when I'm bored.  When I'm sad.  When I'm happy.  I can find an excuse almost anytime to bake something.  But this time, it was just because these cookies looked amazing.  And they were!

I found a bunch of different recipes out there, all of them using different techniques with the Nutella.  I wanted to be able to see the Nutella in my recipe, so I just mixed it in until it was slightly swirled throughout.


P.S.  This dough is delicious.

So, after baking these babies up, I know your worries will be washed away.  They really were great.  And although they are very similar to your typical chocolate chip cookie, the Nutella adds a little something extra.


I love the marbled look of them.


Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Al.com

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, softened)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup Nutella
1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prep baking sheets with parchment paper, or nothing, if you are me.

2. In a bowl, whisk together your flour, soda, and salt.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar.  When ingredients are incorporated, add the eggs and vanilla.

4. Slowly add your dry ingredients until they are combined.

5. Add the Nutella and give your mixer a few pulses to incorporate it. Finally add in the chocolate chips.

6. Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop the dough onto your baking sheets and bake for 9-11 minutes.



Enjoy these delectable delights!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Guest Blogger: Going Sugar Free

Hello all, Laura here.  I'm so proud to introduce the test nester's long time friend and neighbor (part of the 3rd street gang), Tessa.  We've asked Tessa to share her experience with going sugar free and she has done so wonderfully below.  Enjoy!  Thanks, Tessa for agreeing to contribute to the test nest.  We're honored to have you here!

By: Tessa

I’ve always admired the Test Nesters. By “always”, I literally mean ever since I can remember my sugar dusted childhood beginning. I was the youngest of the neighborhood gang and therefore probably the most annoying tag-along, but ever since my first successful cartwheel under the instruction of the Test Nesters (then 4Hers), I felt like I belonged. I’m thrilled to contribute to such a sweet blog.

Speaking of sweet, this is what they’ve asked me to blog about. Ya see,… I’ve got history with sugar. It really has become a sticky topic that my life revolves around. The history starts with finding out that there is such a thing as the American Association of Candy Technologists. Yeah, for real…a whole national group of food scientists focusing solely on candy! Sign me up! Ok, so I did sign up, and they must have sensed the sugar surging through my food scientist veins as they graced me with three years of sprinkle coated scholarships.  Oh, and they have plates of candy out for breakfast at conferences—I like these scientists!

Flash forward 5 years to today. I’m studying the crystallization of sucrose in Wisconsin in hopes to become a Master of Sugar Science (that unfortunately won’t be the actual degree title).  I still go to AACT meetings, but I’ve also been experimenting with removing refined sugar completely in my diet. …What?!?!

Back in July I wanted to see if I could go one week without eating refined sugar in any form. In our lab we are surrounded by candy, and in July, the National Confectioners Association holds their two-week industry candy course in our lab. Imagine the very first room that they go into of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory (the one with the chocolate waterfall), now subtract out the oompa loompas, insert undergrad assistants, and you’ve got the picture of our lab during this time.

This was the sugary outcome of one day of the 14 day course.



Avoiding sugar was no small feat! I was determined though, and made it through the first week easy as pie. Feeling pretty proud of myself, I decided to extend the challenge to one month, and to add a restriction of refined flour to the list.  Just when I thought this was going to be impossible, Leslie introduced me to a whole new world of baking with these: http://www.thetestnest.com/2011/06/black-bean-brownies.html  I just reduced the amount of sweetener and switched it for Splenda and I was set to succeed!

I won’t sugarcoat it and say that week two was like week one. Week two was rough! I can attest that sugar is addictive, and I was madly addicted. The second week of the sugar fast was spent taking 4-hour naps in the afternoon (thanks also to the flexible schedule of a grad student), popping Tylenol to kill the headaches, and turning my phone off as to not let the world know how utterly unpleasant I was. Like I said, it was rough…but it was worth it. Once I got over that hump of sugar withdraws, I started to feel better. Better than ever actually. I had discovered a new level of energy, the ability to sleep hard and fast waking up refreshed, and a loss of 12 pounds. **I need to add here that this wasn’t done for weight loss, nor should one expect such a loss in three weeks. I had racked up those pounds over the previous winter by dining on leftover coffee shop pastries after my closing barista shifts. It went on fast so I’m glad it came off fast too.

Before I knew it, the month was up. I celebrated by making a delicious four layer, 30-something pound cake for my mom’s birthday. I did, after all, get my full set of sweet teeth from her. This baby had over 2 pounds of butter in it, and enough sugar to balance that out!




This was the first break of the sugar/flour fast. I made it half way through a piece of thin and crispy taco pizza and two bites into the cake and I was done. I had expected that coming back to the refined side might take time, but I was not expecting such painful initial results…an instant stomach knot and a pounding headache! Don’t be fooled though, this cake was good, so good that I took the effort to ease back into it the next day. Eventually eating sugar again was normal and pain free.

Going back to eating sugar and flour gave further evidence of the benefits that I had experienced of being sugar free. My energy levels started to dwindle and sleeping was not so efficient anymore. I should have stopped here, but I was terrified to go through week 2 again!

I let six months pass and decided to give this deal another try. I figured that doing a ‘sugar cleanse’ every six months would be refreshing, so the New Year’s resolution for 2012 started with another month without sugar. I would have loved to clear my schedule for week two to allow for more napping and less communication with the world in anticipation for my not so pleasant sugar withdraw attitude, but week two happened to hold my first graduate fate determining committee meeting. Oh, and they wanted me to bring snacks…so they got these, which are terrifically delicious and semi addictive made with Splenda and cranberries instead of chocolate chips.

Surprisingly week two was not as painful as it was in July. Actually, nothing was really too painful about it other than preparing for the meeting presentation which ended up going well J It was just a little difficult to explain to a group of professors in the food industry as to why I am not eating sugar, yet spend every day working with sugar in the lab.

It is possible that this past month has been easier due to being more equipped with solutions, and my body may have retained a little bit of training from July yet. Since the month is up, I’ve decided to continue this loosely until April. “Loosely” is due to the jar of peanut butter I had waiting in the pantry that was not going to be thrown out! Also, I’ve decided to keep dark chocolate in the mix for a weekly treat. Other than those, I plan on remaining sugar free.

The benefits of being sugar free clearly outweigh the pains of it; otherwise I wouldn’t keep doing it. If higher energy and better sleep isn’t convincing enough, weight loss is likely to happen depending on current reliance on refined foods, but I’ll also report that in the past month, I’ve not lost any weight at all by cutting out sugar. I’ve also started lifting heavy again though too. My skin is much much clearer and bright, and my digestive tract is well…operating at a higher and more regular capacity. I’ve also noted that since July I have not gotten sick at all, even in the slightest sore throat or runny nose sort of way, and I seem to recover much faster from working out and even scrapes and scratches heal faster. The body just seems to run a lot better overall!

There are a few foods that have become new staples around the kitchen. If you plan on taking the sugar free plunge, I suggest stocking up on: FRUIT (whatever is in season is best, but I also eat frozen blueberries like candy), baby carrots, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, nuts, dried cranberries, chickpeas (to make these), sugar free black bean brownies, sweet potatoes, sugar free gum, and the most delicious raw brownies in the universe…

I have not jumped on the hippie raw bandwagon, but these babies are so-darn-good! I could see myself trying to go raw for a month (or maybe just a week) just for kicks. It might be fun to play around with some raw recipes!

There are a lot of good recipes that I could post, but just do some searching on Pinterest (or follow me there) and you can find more than enough to satisfy your unsweetened sweet tooth. I do still use Truvia in my coffee, tea, and a few recipes. Eventually I hope to not rely on sweet things at all, but that is not looking promising in my career confection direction.

With that, I recommend trying to cut out refined sugar for a while, but not forever. I still stand firmly that moderation is key and that sweets and candy can be enjoyed on occasion as a treat. You can count that I will always have a stash of dark chocolate somewhere within reach, and I will not feel guilty about it…ever.

Monday, February 6, 2012

My Colombia dresses in the flesh!

by Leslie

I know that since I posted my photos from my recent trip to Colombia, a lot of people have been curious about the dresses I had made there.

Let me just tell you, I think my seamtress, Maria is a miracle worker.  All I did was give her two little sketches of some simple silhouettes to go off of and boy, did she go off of them! She used no patterns and no dressmaking dummy.  One has to have a gift to do such a thing in my opinion.  Most of her clients come to her house with a picture from a magazine.  She then recreates the look in the fabric they want.

 It was a fun experience to have a dress made because I never have.  I mean, I have made things for myself and my mom made me tons of things when I was a kid, but this was different.  These dresses were made for me and only me.

Maria and I got along quite well and she definitely understood my style, despite the language barrier.  Jaime was skeptical that I would even like what she had to offer because according to him, "No young people have dresses made."  Well, in my opinion, they should start!  Maria took my measurements and pictures and six days later I had two dresses: one casual and one classy.

Here they are:

This dress was really more of an afterthought than anything.  When Jaime and I went to the store to buy fabric for the other dress, we found this awesome knit in the window.  I couldn't pass it up, so I bought it just for fun.  It turned out that Maria was willing to make a second dress, so I was in luck.  I found a similar dress online at Anthropologie, so that's what I used for my inspiration.  Pretty similar, eh?

This dress was designed to be an "all-arounder."  Something I could wear with anything to anything (anyone recognize what movie that comes from?)!  I found a great heavyweight grey cotton with a little sheen to it at the fabric store.  It fits great.  Please ignore the fact that it is horribly wrinkled.

So, there you have it.  The dresses I can't wait to wear.  I have to give a shout out to my mother-in-law for helping me express my ideas with Maria.  I don't think everything would have come together nearly as well without her.  Also, thanks to my lovely husband for waiting for an hour for the hems and zipper to be put in.  You are a peach!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Monkey Bread

By:  Laura

This last Friday the talk was all about the weather here in Nebraska.  We were in store for a huge snow storm over the weekend, and everyone was preparing for a couple of days all snuggled up at home.   And what is a weekend at home without something a little sweet, right?  That's what I thought, so I decided to start early with a sweet brunch.

Miraculously, Ella slept until 8:30 am this morning.  So, I popped out of bed at 8 to start some delectable monkey bread.  The prep is relatively easy, but a bit time consuming, so be sure you have 15 to 20 minutes to prep this puppy, (or should I say monkey, whatever, lame joke).

Begin by cutting the refrigerated biscuits into fourths.  Roll them in sugar, cinnamon and a little nutmeg.  Then place them into a greased bundt pan. 


Bring 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of corn syrup to a boil. 

Pour it over the biscuits....

Bake it for 28-30 minutes

And, oh baby, look at what you've got!

A sweet treat for a snowy winter morn.


So, even though we got a mere two inches of snow today (other parts of NE got 17 inches!), it still felt good to stay inside, eat sweets and get cozy with my fam.  What are your snow day traditions?  

Monkey Bread
Recipe courtesy of Mom

3 small packs of refrigerated biscuits
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. nutmeg

Cut the biscuits into 1/4 pieces and roll in sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Place in bundt pan.

Topping:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 T. corn syrup

Boil butter, sugar and syrup over medium heat until boiling.  Pour over biscuits and bake at 350 degrees for 28-30 minutes.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Guacamole!

Holy Guacamole!
by Erin

We have found the best guacamole recipe ever.  This is not an exaggeration. I promise. And I would assume Rick Bayless agrees because it is his recipe.  Check it out here.  He made it for a 'luxury guacamole bar.' Sounds awesome and makes me wish that I was Rick Bayless' friend so I could be invited to said party.   Follow these step by step directions and you will have delicious guacamole in under 15 minutes.  No doubt.

Ingredients
I cut Rick's recipe in a 1/3 since it would just be two of us.  Yes we ate the whole thing in one sitting and yes it was delicious.  Anyway, you need avocados, garlic, cilantro, and a lime.


Start roasting two cloves of garlic over low heat in a dry pan.  Keep the papers on the garlic.  Roast the garlic until they are slightly browned.

Avocado chop up

Meanwhile, cut up your avocados and put them in a bowl.  About the time you finish that, your garlic will probably be lookin' like this!

Roasted garlic cloves.  Beautiful!

 The papers should slip off the garlic easily and you will end up delicious mushy flavorful garlic.


Chop up the garlic and put in with the avocado.

Combine the ingredients
Add the cilantro and top off with some fresh lime juice and a little salt.  Use a fork and coarsely break up the avocados and mix all the ingredients.  Then grab your chips, a cold beer with a little lime, and enjoy!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Leslie


Some days I just have to bake something.  A lot of times it's because I need a major sugar fix and nothing will satisfy it like a fresh-out-of-the-oven something or other.  But other times it's because baking just feels so good.  It's theraputic, almost.

I bake when I'm bored.  When I'm sad.  When I'm happy.  I can find an excuse almost anytime to bake something.  But this time, it was just because these cookies looked amazing.  And they were!

I found a bunch of different recipes out there, all of them using different techniques with the Nutella.  I wanted to be able to see the Nutella in my recipe, so I just mixed it in until it was slightly swirled throughout.


P.S.  This dough is delicious.

So, after baking these babies up, I know your worries will be washed away.  They really were great.  And although they are very similar to your typical chocolate chip cookie, the Nutella adds a little something extra.


I love the marbled look of them.


Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Al.com

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, softened)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup Nutella
1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prep baking sheets with parchment paper, or nothing, if you are me.

2. In a bowl, whisk together your flour, soda, and salt.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar.  When ingredients are incorporated, add the eggs and vanilla.

4. Slowly add your dry ingredients until they are combined.

5. Add the Nutella and give your mixer a few pulses to incorporate it. Finally add in the chocolate chips.

6. Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop the dough onto your baking sheets and bake for 9-11 minutes.



Enjoy these delectable delights!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Guest Blogger: Going Sugar Free

Hello all, Laura here.  I'm so proud to introduce the test nester's long time friend and neighbor (part of the 3rd street gang), Tessa.  We've asked Tessa to share her experience with going sugar free and she has done so wonderfully below.  Enjoy!  Thanks, Tessa for agreeing to contribute to the test nest.  We're honored to have you here!

By: Tessa

I’ve always admired the Test Nesters. By “always”, I literally mean ever since I can remember my sugar dusted childhood beginning. I was the youngest of the neighborhood gang and therefore probably the most annoying tag-along, but ever since my first successful cartwheel under the instruction of the Test Nesters (then 4Hers), I felt like I belonged. I’m thrilled to contribute to such a sweet blog.

Speaking of sweet, this is what they’ve asked me to blog about. Ya see,… I’ve got history with sugar. It really has become a sticky topic that my life revolves around. The history starts with finding out that there is such a thing as the American Association of Candy Technologists. Yeah, for real…a whole national group of food scientists focusing solely on candy! Sign me up! Ok, so I did sign up, and they must have sensed the sugar surging through my food scientist veins as they graced me with three years of sprinkle coated scholarships.  Oh, and they have plates of candy out for breakfast at conferences—I like these scientists!

Flash forward 5 years to today. I’m studying the crystallization of sucrose in Wisconsin in hopes to become a Master of Sugar Science (that unfortunately won’t be the actual degree title).  I still go to AACT meetings, but I’ve also been experimenting with removing refined sugar completely in my diet. …What?!?!

Back in July I wanted to see if I could go one week without eating refined sugar in any form. In our lab we are surrounded by candy, and in July, the National Confectioners Association holds their two-week industry candy course in our lab. Imagine the very first room that they go into of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory (the one with the chocolate waterfall), now subtract out the oompa loompas, insert undergrad assistants, and you’ve got the picture of our lab during this time.

This was the sugary outcome of one day of the 14 day course.



Avoiding sugar was no small feat! I was determined though, and made it through the first week easy as pie. Feeling pretty proud of myself, I decided to extend the challenge to one month, and to add a restriction of refined flour to the list.  Just when I thought this was going to be impossible, Leslie introduced me to a whole new world of baking with these: http://www.thetestnest.com/2011/06/black-bean-brownies.html  I just reduced the amount of sweetener and switched it for Splenda and I was set to succeed!

I won’t sugarcoat it and say that week two was like week one. Week two was rough! I can attest that sugar is addictive, and I was madly addicted. The second week of the sugar fast was spent taking 4-hour naps in the afternoon (thanks also to the flexible schedule of a grad student), popping Tylenol to kill the headaches, and turning my phone off as to not let the world know how utterly unpleasant I was. Like I said, it was rough…but it was worth it. Once I got over that hump of sugar withdraws, I started to feel better. Better than ever actually. I had discovered a new level of energy, the ability to sleep hard and fast waking up refreshed, and a loss of 12 pounds. **I need to add here that this wasn’t done for weight loss, nor should one expect such a loss in three weeks. I had racked up those pounds over the previous winter by dining on leftover coffee shop pastries after my closing barista shifts. It went on fast so I’m glad it came off fast too.

Before I knew it, the month was up. I celebrated by making a delicious four layer, 30-something pound cake for my mom’s birthday. I did, after all, get my full set of sweet teeth from her. This baby had over 2 pounds of butter in it, and enough sugar to balance that out!




This was the first break of the sugar/flour fast. I made it half way through a piece of thin and crispy taco pizza and two bites into the cake and I was done. I had expected that coming back to the refined side might take time, but I was not expecting such painful initial results…an instant stomach knot and a pounding headache! Don’t be fooled though, this cake was good, so good that I took the effort to ease back into it the next day. Eventually eating sugar again was normal and pain free.

Going back to eating sugar and flour gave further evidence of the benefits that I had experienced of being sugar free. My energy levels started to dwindle and sleeping was not so efficient anymore. I should have stopped here, but I was terrified to go through week 2 again!

I let six months pass and decided to give this deal another try. I figured that doing a ‘sugar cleanse’ every six months would be refreshing, so the New Year’s resolution for 2012 started with another month without sugar. I would have loved to clear my schedule for week two to allow for more napping and less communication with the world in anticipation for my not so pleasant sugar withdraw attitude, but week two happened to hold my first graduate fate determining committee meeting. Oh, and they wanted me to bring snacks…so they got these, which are terrifically delicious and semi addictive made with Splenda and cranberries instead of chocolate chips.

Surprisingly week two was not as painful as it was in July. Actually, nothing was really too painful about it other than preparing for the meeting presentation which ended up going well J It was just a little difficult to explain to a group of professors in the food industry as to why I am not eating sugar, yet spend every day working with sugar in the lab.

It is possible that this past month has been easier due to being more equipped with solutions, and my body may have retained a little bit of training from July yet. Since the month is up, I’ve decided to continue this loosely until April. “Loosely” is due to the jar of peanut butter I had waiting in the pantry that was not going to be thrown out! Also, I’ve decided to keep dark chocolate in the mix for a weekly treat. Other than those, I plan on remaining sugar free.

The benefits of being sugar free clearly outweigh the pains of it; otherwise I wouldn’t keep doing it. If higher energy and better sleep isn’t convincing enough, weight loss is likely to happen depending on current reliance on refined foods, but I’ll also report that in the past month, I’ve not lost any weight at all by cutting out sugar. I’ve also started lifting heavy again though too. My skin is much much clearer and bright, and my digestive tract is well…operating at a higher and more regular capacity. I’ve also noted that since July I have not gotten sick at all, even in the slightest sore throat or runny nose sort of way, and I seem to recover much faster from working out and even scrapes and scratches heal faster. The body just seems to run a lot better overall!

There are a few foods that have become new staples around the kitchen. If you plan on taking the sugar free plunge, I suggest stocking up on: FRUIT (whatever is in season is best, but I also eat frozen blueberries like candy), baby carrots, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, nuts, dried cranberries, chickpeas (to make these), sugar free black bean brownies, sweet potatoes, sugar free gum, and the most delicious raw brownies in the universe…

I have not jumped on the hippie raw bandwagon, but these babies are so-darn-good! I could see myself trying to go raw for a month (or maybe just a week) just for kicks. It might be fun to play around with some raw recipes!

There are a lot of good recipes that I could post, but just do some searching on Pinterest (or follow me there) and you can find more than enough to satisfy your unsweetened sweet tooth. I do still use Truvia in my coffee, tea, and a few recipes. Eventually I hope to not rely on sweet things at all, but that is not looking promising in my career confection direction.

With that, I recommend trying to cut out refined sugar for a while, but not forever. I still stand firmly that moderation is key and that sweets and candy can be enjoyed on occasion as a treat. You can count that I will always have a stash of dark chocolate somewhere within reach, and I will not feel guilty about it…ever.

Monday, February 6, 2012

My Colombia dresses in the flesh!

by Leslie

I know that since I posted my photos from my recent trip to Colombia, a lot of people have been curious about the dresses I had made there.

Let me just tell you, I think my seamtress, Maria is a miracle worker.  All I did was give her two little sketches of some simple silhouettes to go off of and boy, did she go off of them! She used no patterns and no dressmaking dummy.  One has to have a gift to do such a thing in my opinion.  Most of her clients come to her house with a picture from a magazine.  She then recreates the look in the fabric they want.

 It was a fun experience to have a dress made because I never have.  I mean, I have made things for myself and my mom made me tons of things when I was a kid, but this was different.  These dresses were made for me and only me.

Maria and I got along quite well and she definitely understood my style, despite the language barrier.  Jaime was skeptical that I would even like what she had to offer because according to him, "No young people have dresses made."  Well, in my opinion, they should start!  Maria took my measurements and pictures and six days later I had two dresses: one casual and one classy.

Here they are:

This dress was really more of an afterthought than anything.  When Jaime and I went to the store to buy fabric for the other dress, we found this awesome knit in the window.  I couldn't pass it up, so I bought it just for fun.  It turned out that Maria was willing to make a second dress, so I was in luck.  I found a similar dress online at Anthropologie, so that's what I used for my inspiration.  Pretty similar, eh?

This dress was designed to be an "all-arounder."  Something I could wear with anything to anything (anyone recognize what movie that comes from?)!  I found a great heavyweight grey cotton with a little sheen to it at the fabric store.  It fits great.  Please ignore the fact that it is horribly wrinkled.

So, there you have it.  The dresses I can't wait to wear.  I have to give a shout out to my mother-in-law for helping me express my ideas with Maria.  I don't think everything would have come together nearly as well without her.  Also, thanks to my lovely husband for waiting for an hour for the hems and zipper to be put in.  You are a peach!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Monkey Bread

By:  Laura

This last Friday the talk was all about the weather here in Nebraska.  We were in store for a huge snow storm over the weekend, and everyone was preparing for a couple of days all snuggled up at home.   And what is a weekend at home without something a little sweet, right?  That's what I thought, so I decided to start early with a sweet brunch.

Miraculously, Ella slept until 8:30 am this morning.  So, I popped out of bed at 8 to start some delectable monkey bread.  The prep is relatively easy, but a bit time consuming, so be sure you have 15 to 20 minutes to prep this puppy, (or should I say monkey, whatever, lame joke).

Begin by cutting the refrigerated biscuits into fourths.  Roll them in sugar, cinnamon and a little nutmeg.  Then place them into a greased bundt pan. 


Bring 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of corn syrup to a boil. 

Pour it over the biscuits....

Bake it for 28-30 minutes

And, oh baby, look at what you've got!

A sweet treat for a snowy winter morn.


So, even though we got a mere two inches of snow today (other parts of NE got 17 inches!), it still felt good to stay inside, eat sweets and get cozy with my fam.  What are your snow day traditions?  

Monkey Bread
Recipe courtesy of Mom

3 small packs of refrigerated biscuits
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. nutmeg

Cut the biscuits into 1/4 pieces and roll in sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Place in bundt pan.

Topping:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 T. corn syrup

Boil butter, sugar and syrup over medium heat until boiling.  Pour over biscuits and bake at 350 degrees for 28-30 minutes.