Unrepentant

The culprit:



"What?!!"



"I don't know what you are nattering about."

The crime:





"Oh, that."



"You need a new bag. This one is apparently structurally deficient."

First Vegetable of the Season!

From my garden, that is (we have had vegetables from my in-laws' gardens for a few months now). Check out this eggplant!



It's a Japanese eggplant, so it is supposed to be long and skinny like that. The flesh is firmer (come on, someone jump in with a joke!) and less likely to get seedy. Now, I have to tell you - I planted the eggplant for one reason and one reason only...

Mabo Nasu! (Okay, I have no clue what Mabo means - Asami? But nasu is the Japanese word for eggplant.)



I first found this stuff when I was in Japan and it quickly became one of my favourite foods. And I am lucky enough to have a few good Korean grocery stores nearby that keep a decent selection of Japanese foods as well. You will notice on the box it says minced pork - I go with ground beef instead. I know the picture on the box has peas and carrots as well as the eggplant - but I put garlic and zucchini in with mine. Saute the vegetables in a little oil until soft, add the beef, cook until not pink, add the sauce, and simmer for a while. Start cooking the rice, add some unsalted roasted cashews to the eggplant mix, and serve when the rice is ready.

Then feast.



It is so yummy! The eggplant and zucchini make it go a long way - there are 4 portions in it and I only used half pound of ground beef. Of course, Willow eats all the cashews first and then starts on everything else. If you can find this in your local Asian market, buy it and try it out - it's easy and tasty.

Thursday Book Report: Blood Noir

I wanted to like Blood Noir. I had given her last three books (between this series and the Meredith Gentry series) fair-to-middling reviews and honestly thought Ms. Hamilton was challenging herself with the Anita Blake of old.

Not so.

The first four chapters were basically an argument on who got to have sex with Anita and in what positions. The whole books spanned about five days, two of which were mystical black-outs during which Anita and her partners couldn't remember who did what to whom but they were all pretty sore. And then there was the requisite Richard gets really angry scene because Anita won't have him and him alone.

The thing is, the story wasn't without merit. Jason's father, with whom Jason has a rocky relationship, is dying of cancer and so Jason and Anita travel back to his hometown to see him. They run smack dab into familial obligations, mistaken identities, and some amusing anecdotes of what Jason was like in high school. And then there is the fact that half the town looks just like Jason, a genetic legacy from a religious wingnut relative who apparently did a lot more than preaching to the town. All of these things could have been built into a much stronger storyline - but they aren't and the interesting bits all sort of fizzle out.

Oh well. Add it to the total of books I have read in 2008 (it's #55, by the way). I remember back when Andrew and I were living in Boulder and I first heard about these books. I was still waiting for my social security card to come so I could actually work in this country. I had found out about the series and ordered the first 5 or so books from Amazon and read them in quick succession and then clamoured for more - even buying them in hardcover when they started to come out that way. When this year is over and I can actually start re-reading books again, I think I am going to pull my old, early Anita Blake books off the shelf and enjoy them again and hope for a resurrection.

WiP It Wednesday: The Tragic Edition

People warned me when I took the project on. They said the size was not what it seemed - just make the larger size and trust them.



But I have small feet! It may be the only part of me that is small. Every other sock I have knit for myself has been either a ladies' small or ladies medium - so when I saw that the Jaywalker sock (Ravelry link) came in two sizes, I automatically cast on for the smaller size.

I finished my first sock late Saturday night, and to my utter dismay, it doesn't fit. I couldn't even get the blasted thing over my heel. I know I have wider than normal feet - but I only wear a size 6.5/7. I'm crushed. I loved this skein of Ellen's Half-Pint Farm sock yarn since I bought it at my first MDSW and had planned Jaywalkers for them right from the beginning.

Crapola.

I did cast on for the second one right away - someone with smaller and narrower feet than me is going to get some very pretty socks when I finish the second one.

And I printed off the new pattern with the larger sizes and I will knitting the pattern again with a different yarn. Sigh...

Monday Meme

I'm feeling really lazy and I want to get back to reading Blood Noir, so I pilfered this meme from Monday's a Bitch:

1. What's your main means of transportation?

1998 white Sable station wagon. I really like driving my car.

2. What was your first car?

1990 white Sable station wagon. See a theme here?

3. How old were you when you got your driver's license?

For those of you who don't know me in person, this may surprise you. I was 26 when I first got my driver's license. I went from living in a town (at 16) where I didn't need a driver's license to living in a university town where I didn't need a driver's license to living in Japan where there was no way on earth I could get a driver's license. It was only when we returned to North America and were living in Colorado that I needed to get it because everything was so far away. And yes, I took driver's ed with a bunch of high school kids.

4. How many times did it take you to pass the test?

Once ;) And I had zero demerits! I'm a quick learner - even if I didn't start driving regularly until we moved to Delaware. I think my FIL was a bit disgusted with the fact that Andrew drove me everywhere and he made me drive with him until I was comfortable with it. He later said I was the best student of all the kids he taught to drive (Andrew and his three siblings).

5. Do you name your cars?

I never have, but Willow calls our car 'Rosie.'

That Niggling Thing

You that feeling when you get something in your head and you just can't shake the idea? Last week I was looking at some of Woolgirl's recent posts, I came across this ode to peanut butter cups. About half way down there is a picture of peanut butter cup rice crispy treats - and I was a goner.

I emailed her and asked her if she had a recipe - but she didn't. I emailed her page to my friends and asked how they thought it was made, and the consensus was that it was just two layers of rice crispy treats with peanut butter cups in the middle. Willow and I went to Target, found some discounted Batman peanut butter cups (Andrew said he was unsure why they were discounted when the movie hasn't even come out yet but I am not going to quibble on $1.40 for a bag of peanut butter cups) - and here you go:



Admittedly not nearly as pretty as the ones on Woolgirl's blog, but I am sure just as yummy.



The funny thing is it has been forever since I had made any sort of rice crispy treat - I had forgotten how insidiously sticky the cooling marshmallows can be... so there was a stream of expletives that came out with the making of this treat. I don't know if it is good or bad thing that Willow took it all in stride...

Happy Independence Day!

I'm not bitter - I'm wishing all of my American friends a happy Independence Day! It's not my favourite American holiday (oh, Thanksgiving - be still my heart!), but I love any reason that gives me a paid three day weekend in July.

Here is a mosaic of four things I love about my adopted country:



1. January 30, 2006, 2. The Majestic Space..............., 3. Wall of Yarn, 4. 1793 hdr

1. Barbeque. Holy Cow - who knew it wasn't just Kraft sauce you slathered on a burger just before you eat it?! Cornbread is pretty good, too - I don't think I ever had that before moving to the US.

2. The Smithsonian Museum. And one of these days I will even be able to get to it. Courtesy of my FIL, I have a subscription to the Smithsonian magazine and I drool over it every month. The sheer fact that only something like 5% of the museum's collection is ever on display and it is free to all boggles my mind.

3. Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Yes, I know other such events exist around the country (and in Canada, too) - but I love this one. It has become an event I attend every year with my friends and we have so much fun. (And that is one of Cristi's photos, by chance!)

4. Dewey Beach. We try to get down here a few times a year in the off-season and it is so relaxing and fun. Andrew and I have other reasons for liking it here as well ;)

*************************************************************

My garden is coming along nicely - here are some pics of my veggies.

Early Girl tomatoes. (The tomatoes you can see behind them are yellow pear tomatoes.)



Lemon squash:



Japanese eggplant:



I have already started to compile a list of how I want to improve upon my garden next year. I want to build raised beds, elongate the area I have already dug up, and incorporate hanging baskets for cherry tomatoes. I also want to plant eight ball zucchini and golden beets next year.

**************************************************************

I haven't shown much of my knitting lately - I haven't been doing too much of it due to the heat. I did manage to finish this baby hat I started sometime last year. The yarn is some superwash merino I had dyed with my crockpot and is very soft. The pattern is from a very old Patons pamphlet. The button was leftover from a cardigan I knit for Willow last year.



*************************************************************

Oh - one last thing. Andrew asked me to buy him some beer for the holiday since he was working late last night. Look what I bought:



Subversive, yes. Bitter, no.

Thursday Book Report: Fearless Fourteen

Holy underwhelmed, Batman.

I always look forward to reading the next installment in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum comic mystery stories. I know they are fluff, but they are good for a hysterical giggle in the middle of the night. They are even better as audio books - I will listen to them at work and people come around the corner and look in my cube because they think I am having some sort of fit.

So what happened?

Even before I had a chance to pick up Fearless Fourteen, the fourteenth book in the Stephanie Plum series (not including the novellas), suspicious things were going on. I had seen a story on Smart Bitches Love Trashy Books about negative reviews for this book disappearing from both Amazon and BN. I was still willing to give the book the benefit of the doubt because I had enjoyed other books in the series, as silly as they can be.

And as I mentioned above, I was underwhelmed.

My first disappointment was that this is a Morelli book. I'm not a Morelli girl - give me Ranger any day of the week. The book story starts off well - Ranger drafts Stephanie to be a babysitter/bodyguard for an aging, lurid, drunk of a Dolly Parton-esque has-been performer (with all apologies to Dolly Parton!). I had visions in my head of Brenda (the singer) and Grandma Mazur doing a 'Thelma and Louise' kind of trip. Well, that didn't happen.

There were other interesting story off-shoots - Morelli potentially being the father of a teenager, Lula and Tank being engaged, Grandma Mazur going goth-chick - but the whole thing fell apart about a third into the book. At that point to me it seemed like Evanovich was taking every counter-intuitive step possible with her characters and story. What happened with the Brenda tangent - that could have played out longer and with more laughs (how often do you get to see Ranger be sexually harassed?). Grandma Mazur, normally a pip of a comedienne, was regulated to the sidelines and was talked about in passing rather than being an active character. And Stephanie herself - there were 2 - 3 scenes where all she did was go home to be alone and to feed her pet.

In the end, I was disappointed. I laughed at parts, but it was nothing close to my reaction to previous books. When the book was over it left me wishing it was something more like a 'choose your own adventure' book so the characters could have done themselves and the story justice.

Happy Canada Day, Dammit!

1. Central Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, Vancouver Island, Canada --Base for my Sea Otter Story, 2. Moraine Lake - Banff National Park - Alberta - Canada, 3. O Canada, 4. Sunset over clouds on Mt. Seymour BC Canada, 5. Horseshoe Bay Ferry - Vancouver - BC - Canada - July 2006, 6. Butchart Gardens - near Victoria - BC - Canada - July 2006, 7. Inukshuk Rankin Inlet Nunavut Canada, 8. I "heart" Canada, 9. Totems - Comox Valley, British Columbia - Canada

****************

This is the part I hate about being an ex-pat. No one thinks you are allowed national pride of your own. I'm being over-run by red, white, and blue everywhere I go and not one person who I said, "Happy Canada Day" to today responded in kind.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy 10th Anniversary to Us

Where were we ten years ago today?



1. Where and when did you meet your husband?

In Katsutadai, Japan in March 1996. We were working at the same language school and I arrived there about six months before he did. We met on his first day on the job.

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband?

"Oh, you're tall!" There was a wall between the teacher's work area and the student wait area. I was at my desk and I heard someone milling around in the wait area. Classes wouldn't start for a few hours, so I was a little surprised to hear someone. I came around the corner to see who it was an nearly ran into him. And for reference, Andrew is 6'1" and I am 4'11".

3. Where was your first date?

After a lot of flirting we finally went into Tokyo to see "The Truth About Cats and Dogs."

4. Where was your first kiss?

In my apartment. After yet another long summer night of just talking, I pulled him to me, laid one on him, then promptly ran into the other room.

5. Did you have a long or short engagement/courtship?

Relatively short. We started dating at the end of the summer in 1996, and we were engaged the following May. We had to get married before we left Japan to facilitate the green card process, so we were married in September 1997. We didn't have our wedding until we returned to North America the following June 1998.

6. Where did you get engaged?

In Andrew's apartment. I remember it being a very humid night. He came home from work, dropped down to both knees and asked me to marry him. My response? "Of course." Incidentally, he did not have a ring with him and I ended up picking out my own engagement ring because he would get light-headed at the prices in the jewelry stores. I didn't want a diamond and was very happy to find this emerald.

7. Where did you get married?

Married? At Sakura City Hall in Sakura City, Chiba. Wedded? At Clayburn Chapel in British Columbia.

8. Any disasters during the special day?

The marriage was a done deal by this point, but what was getting on my nerves was that we were to have an outdoor reception and it rained nearly every day leading up to the wedding. I spent so much time glaring at the Weather Channel. But the day turned out beautifully with a bright blue sky. I also managed to spill chocolate milkshake on my on my wedding gown. You can't take me anywhere - not even my own wedding!

9. Most special moment of your wedding day?

In my head it was just a shiny happy day. My Gramma Pogue was still alive, and it wasn't long after this that she got very sick and died. One of my fondest memories of the day is Robbie, my parents' cairn terrier, sneaking scraps from the guests. He also had been sick and didn't live another year.



10. The song from your first dance?

We didn't have a dance.

11. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change?

I wish I would have had my sisters as my bridesmaids as well as my friends.

********************

I had to scan all these photos in because they were all taken way before I ever had a digital camera. I found one picture Andrew had taken of me not long after we first started dating:



Damn, I was cute 11 years ago!

'Cause We Are All About The Science

Ahoy there, me mateys!

Last weekend, Andrew, Willow, and I went into Philadelphia to see the Pirates Exhibit at the Franklin Institute. We had wanted to save on gas and take the SEPTA train into Philly, but the afternoon before the SEPTA police went on strike, and trust me - you don't want to riding SEPTA without the police on board.

Unfortunately, cameras were verboten in the exhibit itself (and I am completely peeved at the people who were flaunting that rule and taking pictures anyway) so the pictures I took outside the museum will have to suffice. I love how they laid the pirate's map on the steps of the Franklin Institute. They did something similar with the King Tut exhibit last year and it has a neat visual effect. If you are on the steps looking down, you can't see the map at all.



Here's a pic of the huge Ben Franklin statue inside. We saw the Ben Franklin re-enactor while in the museum and Willow said he winked at her. I said, "Well, Ben always did have a thing for the ladies..."



A few days later I accompanied Willow and her summer camp to the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. I have to say, Baltimore is one of my favourite places to visit within driving distance of our house. It reminds me so much of Victoria, BC - and I have had so much fun there the last two years going to Stitches East with my girlfriends. Just look at the harbour:



Even before we entered the museum itself there were people out front conducting experiments for the kids... like how to burn things with a magnifying glass:



Yeah... maybe that isn't such a hot idea (Ha ha!)

It was interesting to see these two science museums within such a short time period so I could compare the two. Andrew is a bit hurt at how impressed I was at the Maryland Science Center - it had a lot more hands-on areas for the kids, like this one where Willow is uncovering dinosaur bones:



And a close-up of the T-Rex skeleton:



I especially liked the kinetics lab at the Maryland Science Center - and let's face it - Baltimore has beaten Philly's location hands down. Less than five minutes away from the Maryland Science Center you have a submarine to explore, the Baltimore Aquarium, and an 18th century ship to board. I'm a winner either way - we purchased a family membership at the Franklin Institute, and due to a lovely reciprocal relationship to other science museums, it gets us into the Maryland Science Center free as well!

And a trip to any science museum wouldn't be complete without a child's introduction to the most scientific candy of all, Pop Rocks:



Her verdict? Tasty, but unnerving.

Thursday Book Report: The Host

It was the eye that did me in.

Prior to reading The Host, I had never read anything by Stephenie Meyer before - which is odd in itself because it seems her young adult books are right up my alley. I get regular emails from a few different online booksellers telling me of upcoming books I might like based on my prior purchases - and this was one of the books suggested. And as I said - I was intrigued by the eye.

The Host tells the story of our world and people - both of which have become inhabited by aliens who call themselves 'souls.' It doesn't mean much - according to Wanderer, the narrator, they choose different names for themselves on each world they are on. The souls didn't come to Earth to subjugate us or enslave us - but merely to experience us. They have inhabited nine different planets so far, and have experienced such lives as underwater trees, bears, flowers, and something on a nasty Fire Planet that no one wants to go back to. The story starts off with this 'invasion' being a done deal; most humans have been implanted with a silvery being as its symbiont - and the only way you would know they have been implanted is by a small scar on the neck and a mirrored cast to their eyes.

There has been very little resistance. Those 'wild humans' who have managed to evade the Seekers (the souls' version of police) have it difficult because as the pacific nature of the souls and their superior medical knowledge spread, they did away with currency and our modern medicine. The souls started off small - people were converted during dinner parties. One survivor remarks that the unimplanted people didn't start noticing that something was going on until the news stopped leading with 'bleeding' stories. When a person is inhabited, their personality, will, conscience - what have you - is suppressed and the soul dwells peacefully in the person's life.

In theory, anyway.

Wanderer has been implanted into Melanie, a young woman whose body was rehabilitated after trying to commit suicide while on the run from Seekers. Melanie has a strong will - she managed to elude the souls for a few years and it is only when she breaks into an city to rescue another unimplanted person that she is discovered. The Seekers are eager to learn what Melanie knows - they think she will be able to lead them to pockets of human resistance. Wanderer has been warned that turbulent people make difficult transitions - but Wanderer herself is a bit of a celebrity - she has lived nine lives all on different planets and doesn't feel she will have a problem with Melanie. But Melanie manages to exert her own personality and will despite Wanderer's experience and soon Melanie and Wanderer find themselves on the run from the Seekers.

I'm going to leave the story description there - but I want to say I *loved* the book. I started reading last Saturday morning and read it all the way through until 1:51am Sunday morning (all 619 pages of it)! It was touching to see what Wanderer and Melanie learned of one another, and to have hope for what kind of world this could be. And as pacifistic as the souls' entry into our world was, it was made even more terrifying that it was not a violent, bloody clash of armies. By the time we realized what was going on, it was simply too late.

Take Five Tuesday

I'm a lazy blogger today - I found this at Take5 Tuesday:

5 of your favorite cookies (or cookie recipes):
- Nanaimo Bars
- Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (not with raisins!)
- Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips
- Sugar Cookies
- Lemon Bars

5 things you’re afraid of:
- Snakes
- Spiders
- Slugs
- Being alone at night
- Flying over deep water

5 things you would like to learn:
- To knit socks toe-up
- To speak Japanese better (I am so out of practice)
- To cook a great stir-fry
- To drive on the freeway without getting anxious
- How to do more creative things on my blog

5 things you wanted to accomplish at the beginning of the year, but you haven’t yet done (if you have 5):
- Knit a sweater for Willow
- Read 100 books for the year (I'm trucking along)
- Lose weight (trucking along with that, too)
- Get the fan installed in the bathroom and re-paint it
- Get rid of some bushes on our property (I hate boxwood!)

5 of your favorite things to do during the summer:
- Read books in the lovely air-conditioning
- Gardening
- Taking day trips
- Watching summer storms
- Barbeque (yes, I'm spelling it like a Canadian!)

Hair Yesterday, Gone Today

I just couldn't take it anymore. See this picture of me and Bezzie? She looks cute. Me, not so much with that lion's mane. I have been growing my hair out for a long time - since Willow was less than a year old... but honestly, I don't enjoy it. It looks great when it is wet and I have just put gel on it... but then it grows in volume throughout the day.



So... now? It looks like this:



Here's a better view (my arms are short and I could only get the camera so far away from our heads in that last shot). Now do you see how curly my hair is? Any doubt where Willow gets hers from?



Willow asked me to take this picture of her and her bear. I snuck the bonsai in.



Here is a better picture of the bonsai. We gave this to my FIL for Christmas two years ago and I think maybe this is the first year it has bloomed.



And while we are discussing azaleas, here is a nifty striped on from the garden. I'm really not sure what causes the random stripe (because not all blooms have it), but it looks cool:

Mosaic of Me

Stolen from Stuck on Socks:




1. Hemeji-jo - UNESCO World Heritage, 2. "what do you mean you don't eat meat? oh, that's ok, i'll make you lamb", 3. ~~ At Dusk ~~, 4. A big bloody Samoan storm that turned gay!, 5. Paul Rudd is Dreamy, 6. Mojito Power, 7. Great Point Lighthouse - Nantucket, MA, 8. strawberry rhubarb crisp, 9. Doctor and Child, 10. bookshelf, 11. Busy Bee at Lunch, 12. Jochibi!

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

A Pretty Flower to Tide You Over

Still too hot to do much of anything. I am not a summer person. Hell, it isn't even summer yet and I feel constantly wilted. And right now I am feeling extremely cheated that we didn't even get a good snowstorm this winter. My yard and garden are getting over-run and it is too muggy for me to go weeding. Bitch, bitch, bitch.

Yup, that's about it right now.

Sunday Night Wrap Up

(Yawn)

It's late on a Sunday night, but my Dad is hassling me about not updating my blog. My apologies - it has been a busy week between Willow finishing Kindergarten, the suffocating heat, work events, and everything else. And I didn't even get my book report up last week and trust me, I had a good one. I will catch up - I just need a few more hours in the day.

On Thursday afternoon I travelled to Philadelphia on a work-sponsored event to see the Phillies play the Cincinnati Reds. We won! I'm excited about this because the games I end up seeing tend to be at the other end of the spectrum. This was the first time I have ever sat on the third base line, and I can't say I care for it.



I like looking up at the score board and it was nearly impossible from the angle I was sitting at. I had to crank my head to the left, and even then the stupid yellow fair/foul pole blocked the strike count:



Apparently it was the shortest Phillies game on record - a little less than two hours. We got to see some cool plays - like the Reds' left fielder who dropped Jimmy Rollins' pop fly - that was only about 20 feet in front of us. After so many years of softball, I could hear in my head what my coach would have said if that had been me - "TWO HANDS!"

I've also been doing some gardening - we have started to pick strawberries - those we get to before the slugs, in any case. People have been telling me to put down a tray of beer to drown the slugs, but I don't have a container small and shallow enough (remember, my strawberries are in planters).



Here are a few I picked for Willow this morning. Excuse my dirty window sill - I need to get out there with some Lysol. And yes, dirt and all - my MIL tells me you don't wash them if you want them to ripen some more off the plant.



We have also had swimming lessons - and Willow has passed from Advanced Eel to Ray in the swim program. This will be her last session in the preschool swim classes - once she turns six she moves up into the Youth group and that worries me a bit because she is small and the Youth class can have kids from 6 - 13. She ran into this problem before when she moved up to a more advanced class - the kids were so much bigger than her that they were swimming circles around her.



She loves being in the water, however - and I keep telling her that practice makes perfect. She is too much like me at times, though - she wants it to be perfect now.

Finished Object Wednesday

Woo-hoo! Turtlegirl socks!



Last summer Cristi sent me two skeins of Knitpicks socks yarn after I admired it in her Ravelry socks (multiple shades of green - what's not to like?!?!) - and so I christen these 'Turtlegirl Socks' - and I can't wait to wear them in the fall once it becomes sock weather once again. As lovely as these are, I can't imagine wearing socks right now - it is supposed to be in the high 90s this coming weekend. I think we are going to break down and turn on the airconditioner - we have held off this far. Bezzie is snickering at me, I know. I can take the cold but I just wilt in the heat.

Yesterday was Willow's last day of Kindergarten. This year... I don't know what to say - how did it get to be June? She has a few days of fun with her friends and then summer camp starts up on Monday. The Kindgarten classes had their big musical extravaganza on Monday, and I took this picture as the kids wove in and out of the audience doing this Rooster song:



I love how she just looks so happy - she is going to miss school. And yes, her hair does that all by itself.

Sunday Breakfast Buns

Don't these look lovely?



Here's a close-up for you:

My Mom used to make these Breakfast Buns when I was a child and I loved them - I can't even fathom how many I ate over the years. When I was a teenager I learned to make them on my own and then no one's waistline was safe! You can find the recipe at the Five Roses website. It wouldn't let me hone in on the exact recipe - so click on the recipes link at the top of the page and do a search for 'quick breads' then 'breakfast rolls.' I made two changes to the recipe - I left out the first three ingredients because I like my rolls plain, and instead of a normal muffin tin where they would grow tall, I put them in my large muffin tin so they would spread out a bit more. I think I like these better than even cinnamon rolls - the baking powder dough and sugar/cinnamon mix is so much more appealing to me. They warm up nicely, too - put a little butter on top and pop them in the microwave for 20 - 30 seconds. And the best part? These tasty morsels are ready in less than 30 minutes.

Enjoy!