Homemade Cinnamon Rolls from Crescent Rolls

Although I love rolls and breads, I have always found Pillsbury Crescent Rolls to be too greasy for my tastes and thus, we never use them as they were intended; as crescent rolls.  However they make the perfect base for our family's favorite cold Veggie Square Pizza, which I've been making since the late  80's when I was just a teenager. 

Here is another reason to keep these little dainties on hand;  homemade cinnamon rolls!  If you've had as many house guests as we have lately (the last three weekends we've had out of state guests), keep this tucked away in your brain as a last minute breakfast idea that will go great with a morning assortment of coffee, fresh fruit and bagels. 

Cinnamon Rolls from Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

1 can Pillsbury crescent rolls
1 cup pecans, finely chopped
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 stick of butter, sliced into 8 tablespoons


Spray a standard sized muffin pan with nonstick spray.  Open and separate the crescent rolls. Press each crescent roll into and around the sides of each muffin cup, making sure to seal the edges together. (8 rolls total.)

 In a small bowl mix together the pecans, brown sugar, sea salt and cinnamon. Spoon the filling evenly into the crescent-lined muffin cups.  Top with 1 tablespoon of butter on top of each cup. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes until the dough is puffed and golden and all of the butter is melted.

Idea for Celebrating Pi Day March 14th! - No, not Pie... Pi!

Pi Day is a holiday commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 (or 3-14 in month-day date format), since 3, 1 and 4 are the first three digits of π in the decimal form.

Many schools and universities celebrate Pi π Day - including my kids high school - to celebrate math, prove that math is fun, and to promote math awareness!  If you've forgotten your high school classes already, π represents the relationship between a circle’s diameter (its width) and its circumference (the distance around the circle).

A physicist at the San Francisco Exploratorim, Larry Shaw created Pi Day in 1988.  The idea grew and spread to campuses around the world and in the United States, on March 12, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution recognizing March 14, 2009, as National Pi Day.

This is a re-post of my sons favorite "Pi" creation.  His class gets to choose their own individual dessert or edible creation to celebrate and while most students are planning to bring in pies, he always thinks outside the box so he wanted a Pi Cake.

Except he decided this the night before it was due.
At 6:pm.
So, we set off to the store to purchase a pre-made cake as we would not have had time to bake and cool one.
Here is my son's creation for his High School celebration of National Pi Day.

My sons creation for National Pi Day

Cutting the cake into the shape of Pi

Frost the edges and then use frosting to start placing the numbers of pi
to the farthest degree that fits on the cake.

Update to the Oreo Bars Recipe! Photos.

Delicious! That's my update.

I posted this recipe a couple days ago but in anticipation of out-of-town guests today with three teenagers in tow,  I made a double batch yesterday afternoon.  So good!  They may look like coal, but they taste incredible.

1 - 16 oz package of Oreo
5 cups large marshmallows (1- large sized bag, about 10 oz.)
4 T butter

Grind Oreo's in a food processor with an S-blade until crumbs.  Melt marshmallows and butter in a large bowl in the microwave about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes until large and puffy in size.  Mix in the Oreo crumbs.  Pour into a buttered 8X8 parchment lined pan.  Let set about 10 minutes, remove from pan still in parchment, set on counter and then cut to size and eat just like you would a Rice Krispy Bar.

Marshmallows and butter in a large bowl, ready for the microwave

Adding the Oreo's to the marshmallow mixture

Homemade Rolls

The smell of freshly baked bread is one of my favorite scents for the kitchen. And to have a slice of still-warm bread or a homemade roll with a schmear of butter? What a comforting, wonderful food! Normally when I make rolls I use one of my basic white bread dough recipes. This one interested me a couple years ago because you add enough flour to make a batter first, then add more flour later to make the dough. Similar every other way but that.

It's a bit chilly and rainy out today... perhaps the perfect day for some homemade rolls.

Homemade Rolls

4 t active dry yeast
1/2 c warm water
2 c milk, scalded and cooled to lukewarm
1/2 c sugar
7 - 8 cups flour
3 T of melted butter
2 eggs
2 t salt

Dissolve yeast in warm water with a teaspoon of the sugar. Add milk, the rest of the sugar and enough flour to make a medium batter. Beat thoroughly. Let stand until light and foamy. Add melted butter, eggs and salt. Beat well.

Add enough flour to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured surface on the counter and let dough rest about 3 minutes.  Knead dough in a Kitchen-Aid style mixer with a dough hook for 4-5 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk. Punch down. Turn out onto a floured surface. Divide into 12-15 equal portions. Let rest 10 minutes. Shape dough into balls or other forms. Place on greased baking sheets. Let rise until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Baste immediately with butter.

Salmon Dip for Crackers

I found myself alone at dinner time tonight as my husband was working and my youngest daughter was at a soccer game.  Although I had a lot of choices for a meal, nothing sounded good.  That is, until I saw tuna.  Understand I'm not a 'tuna sandwich' kind of girl.  Not that I don't care for it, but I don't crave it, don't particularly love it and certainly don't eat it but maybe once a year.  But tonight I suddenly knew I wanted to mix up tuna with a bit of mayonnaise and chopped dill pickles, seasoned with a bit of fresh cracked black pepper and eat it with saltine crackers.  

And so I did.  It was rather ironic then that as soon as I finished I opened up my recipe files online and one of the first ones I spied was from a few years ago, and was for a salmon spread (like a cheese ball, only smoked salmon flavored)  similar to what I had just had, but made with cream cheese instead of mayonnaise.  This cream cheese base helps it to be molded into a nice round half ball on a plate for serving with an assortment of crackers.  If you have hickory smoke flavoring on hand, give this one a try - and if you don't want to roll it in the chopped pecans, you don't have to.  You can leave the nuts out. 

Salmon Dip for Crackers

1 lb can salmon
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 T lemon juice
1 t  grated onion
1 t  prepared horseradish
1/4 t  liquid smoke 

1/2 c finely chopped pecans
3 T snipped/minced fresh parsley

Drain and flake salmon. Remove skin and bones.  Combine salmon w/ cream cheese, lemon juice, onion, horseradish and liquid smoke. Mix well. Chill several hours or overnight. Shape salmon mixture into a ball and roll in nut mixture. Chill again, and serve w/ assorted crackers.