cinnamonster

Last weekend I went home for fall break, and after taking the LSAT on Saturday, I finally had some time to relax. Of course, I decided to bake something, since that is what I usually do to relieve stress. My new favorite website, in case you have not heard of it, is The Pioneer Woman. I mostly like it for the recipes, though she also has a blog, pictures, and other tips about life in general. Elizabeth introduced me to the site awhile ago, via stumbleupon I think, and I only recently rediscovered it.

After browsing through the recipes, I decided to make cinnamon rolls. I have another cinnamon roll recipe that I feel I have perfected, since they are one of my dad's favorite foods. That recipe involves frozen dough, hazelnuts, and mascarpone cheese. However, this new recipe required making homemade dough, which is actually pretty easy, it just takes awhile because the dough has to rise. 

Part of the way into making the dough, I realized that maybe I had read the recipe wrong. The version that I printed out said it made "8 servings," but after adding 8 cups of flour to the mixture, I decided to re-check the website. The blog version of the recipe revealed that 8 servings actually meant 8 PANS! At that point I couldn't turn back, so I made a lot of cinnamon rolls. Some were eaten, some were given away, some are in the freezer at home, and I only brought one pan back with me to school, which has yet to be eaten.

 Fresh out of the oven

And with the icing. Instead of using the normal mixture of powdered sugar and milk, this recipe called for maple syrup and coffee. The coffee cut the sweetness a little bit, and the maple made it taste a little different (and delicious!)

So if you want to try some, there is a pan in my freezer waiting to be eaten!

hoppy birthday

On Saturday night, a group of us went to South Street Brewery to celebrate Emily's 22nd birthday! We all wanted to try a new place to eat, and none of us had been there before. It is right next to the parking lot where the City Market is held every weekend, on the outside of the Downtown Mall. The restaurant itself is really cool, because it is in a restored warehouse. The warm building was also a very welcome respite from the cold fall night.  The beer menu seemed to have a varied selection, and their special featured beers are brewed at the restaurant! Unfortunately, I do not really like beer, so I only had sips of what others ordered. Additionally, they were $4 a pint, which seems like a pretty good deal.

Joe ordered this "Hefeweizen," whose description sounded like it would be similar to Blue Moon. It definitely looks sort of like it, but this beer had "hints" of banana and clover (it was a pretty strong flavor.) Since I don't like artificial banana flavor, this was not my cup of tea.

Most of us ordered burgers, which were tasty but really nothing special. However Jon got salmon with this really good pesto on top. It had a really strong bite to it, almost like horseradish, but we could not figure out what made it different.

Problem solved! I just checked the menu online, and the concoction on top is cilantro and jalapeno-lime pesto. I need to figure out how to make that...