Recipes from Ollie J -- Monkey Bread

As with many of the recipes in Grandma's box, I don't know if this is a cultural, regional, or religious phenomenon. I don't even think this is the original recipe. I'm pretty sure Grandma Ollie J got it when visiting her sisters in Utah, as I don't ever remember seeing when we visited her down south. The appearance of Oleo in the ingredients seems to verify this timing. (Why ruin ooey, gooey Monkey bread with Oleo?!).

The short cut of the refrigerated pop-can biscuits surely makes this easier to create, but now days there are even easier methods. Out West, you can go the freezer case and purchase pre-made, ready-to-cook Monkey bread. The last time I tried the frozen rolls which are cousins to the Monkey bread I was bitterly disappointed. It's possible I might have been influenced by the glaze that burned my tongue and the slight chemical aftertaste of the frozen version. This one is so.much.better.

Monkey Bread

4 cans biscuits (10 in each) (used 3 cans of 8 Pillsbury Dinner Rolls)
1/2 cup pecans, ground fine (didn't chop finely enough)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar

Cut each biscuit into four pieces. (Kitchen shears work well.)
Roll each piece in the mixture of sugar, cinnamon, and ground nuts.
Place in a large buttered tub pan. (used my bundt pan)

Pour the following mixture over the biscuits:
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3/4 cup butter or oleo* melted

Bake at 350 degree for 40-45 minutes.
Let stand five (5) minutes before turning out on a cake plate.
Do not slice. Simply pull off a lump from the whole piece (hence the name Monkey bread).

I don't have a tub (or a tube) pan, so I sprayed down my bundt pan instead. Since I had fewer biscuits, it was perfect. Rather than use more fresh sugar and cinnamon for the topping, I used the leftovers from coating the biscuit pieces. I simply added the melted butter to that coating and then mixed it well. I dumped that liquid glaze over the whole pan and baked away.

After baking and letting stand for five minutes, I turned it out onto a well wax-papered cookie sheet. Only one little nugget had stuck to the inside of the pan, and I used a spatula to scrap off the rest of the warm glaze onto the cake.

Have you ever bitten into something and suddenly had a sensory memory that was super intense? I almost cried when I ate this. I haven't had this combination of flavors in such a long time.

The cake is best warm, but perfectly good a few days later as the sugars start to crystallize into the dough. The sugared pecans that have fallen off the cake are good by themselves as well.

This one is getting made again. Make sure you have friends to help you eat it. You feel just a little piggy realizing that you've eating two thirds of it by yourself. Or is that just me?

a-ha = AWESOME! Part 2

And now ... for some "high and low" quality video ...courtesy of me, on YouTube

and the grand finale of course was ...

Quote of the Day

Plants cry their gratitude for the sun in green joy.

~Astrid Alauda

a-ha = AWESOME! Part 1

I'm still basking and processing the experience from last week. But for now .... here are a few pictures, strangely, in reverse and random order. My poor little Nikon was having a very hard time zooming in the dark, not being stablized, and not using the flash. Here are some of the better in-focus shots.




I was SO focused on getting to the concert, that I totally paid no attention to the flirty Dublin boys behind us, the lost tourists (no, this isn't the line for Lion King), the tourists taking photos of the mounted police officers and street vendors, WHY they were taking photos, or the fact that had we had tickets to the concert a weekend earlier we would have been evacuated because of annoying insurrectionists -- as we could have been standing inches away from bad parkers and incendiary devices!

That's life in NYC in this day and age, and you can't let it keep you from going about your business and fulfulling your dreams.

Coming soon: More pictures, more adventures (The Shushing Librarian came with us, need I say more?!), and even better yet, VIDEO!

Recipes from Grandmary -- Pecan Pie Muffins

I'm posting this one in honor of Mother's Day. Happy Happy Mother's Day -- you wacky Mom, you!

Grandmary (aka my mother) managed to wrestle this “secret recipe” out of a North Carolina baker due to her extensive family connections. She had the treats while visiting a cousin, and somehow, through hook and crook, the cousin managed to pry it away from the original baker. Apparently that baker usually never gave out the recipe, as she was known far and wide across NC for the treats. After devouring these, you’ll know why it’s renowned.

Grandmary usually uses the stash of the family farmed pecans, but since those are like gold these days, I used pecans I bought at the Union Square Market. My first patch of tarts wouldn’t come out of the tins intact (I ate the messups, calling them "baker’s tax"), so I had to call home for tips. Apparently, the cooling step is very important, so I added it in to this version of the recipe.

Pecan Pie Muffins (really, they’re tiny tarts)

Combine:
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans, obviously!)
½ cup plain flour (all-purpose is fine)

Add:
2/3 cup butter (regular, salted)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Spray little muffin pan liberally.
Do not overfill tins. Batter will run over the side. Place a pan on a rack underneath your baking tin to prevent having to clean up bottom of oven. Scrubbing your oven the next day is no fun at all.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Let cool for about 10-15 minutes. Important to let them cool down and set so you can get them out of the muffin tin. You may have to coax them out with a knife.

If you are reusing the same pan for rest of batter, clean out tins with paper towel and respray liberally.

Depending on the size of your little muffin pan, you can get 24-48.

Like little tiny decadent bite-sized pecan pies. Good warm!

I forgot to take photos. I'll have to retro-post them the next time I make this recipe. Because, I WILL be making this recipe again and again.

Letter from Ollie J - May 7, 1982

A word about "temple missions" for our few non-Mormon readers:

Grandma Ollie was on a Temple Mission, where she served as an ordinance worker.

According to this: "Elderly LDS single women who are able, both physically and financially, are encouraged to go on full-time missions. Senior missionaries, also called Elders and Sisters like their younger counterparts, pay their own expenses, though they may receive assistance from family. They have more choice in the location and type of their mission, particularly if they have unique skills such as medical expertise or knowledge of foreign languages. Many serve humanitarian missions in which they are sent to specific regions and help with agriculture, food procurement, medical missions, or clean water initiatives. Senior missionaries represent a small percentage of the total full-time missionary force of the Mormon Church."

If you want more information about those Wacky Mormons, there are plenty of sites on-line, or you request more information here. You can have even have a pair of visitors come to your house and give you more information.



7 May 1982

[Temple Mission
Kensington, MD]

Dear [Granddaughter],

Your letter was so sweet and appreciated so much.

You are welcome for the Easter presants[sic]. I had a nice Easter Day. Went to Washington, D.C. to see the Cherry blossoms. Cold had hurt them so they weren’t as pretty as Could have been.

The flowers over at the temple are so pretty now.

It is warm here now too even hot in the sun.

I love my work at the temple.

Oh those flowers you all sent were delivered here yesterday and are so pretty on the table.

Thanks lots. All are so kind and Generous.

Take care of yourself and be a good girl and help the boys too. Sure you help mama and Daddy too.

The Lord loves helpers.

Lots of Love to you one and all.

Grandma

Washington, D.C. Temple

© Doug Havens and found here

My Inner Child is a 14-year-old Fan Girl!

If the blog has been relatively quiet in recent days it's due to a few factors.

1. Nothing new or pertinent to say.
2. Work deadlines. It's getting to be the busiest times of the year at the Big J, plus I'm trying to work ahead so I can go on many road/river trips this summer. I've counted up the weeks I'll be on the road, and it's almost half the summer!
and
3. I've been trying to stay off the internets so I don't watch count-down clocks!

Remember how I've blogged about one of my favorite bands, a-ha ... and how they are breaking up? What I may not have made clear is that I.Have.Never.Seen.Them.Live.OR.In.Concert.

My relationship with a-ha has been a virtual, long-distance, pre-recorded love affair ... one that started as a crush when I was a teenager. Their first tour of the U.S. (in the early 1980s) did manage to come to a major city near me, but in a fit of youthful hubris (or delusion), my friend Jenn and I didn't get tickets. Silly, silly children we were.

I have learned from that mistake.

Let me advise you.

~Get tickets -- any tickets you can -- when the group or artist you like appears at a venue close to you (or not close to you if you can afford it). Darn the cost. You only live once (according to my religious philosophy!)
~Don't be overly fussy if your seats aren't on the level you want.
~Get a seat in the hall. ANY seat. Darn the distortion. SERIOUSLY.
~You cannot count on the artist continuing to be popular enough to tour the USA/near you/in an affordable venue/or AT ALL!

I learned these lessons the hard way. While internationally popular, a-ha didn't tour the States for many, many years. Their last show was in NYC in 2005 and was sold-out too fast for me. So, that's over 20+ yearsof unrequited love ...

That is

UNTIL TONIGHT!

Tonight, my lovely nieces and nephews, your Auntie Nettie and her adventure buddy Christine are letting their inner 14-year-old fan girls out to play. We will be on the floor of a NYC concert theater, indulging in displays of shrieking and giggling that are almost too painfully embarrassing to contemplate. We will be restrained enough, however, NOT to wear bedazzled "I Heart a-ha" or "Morton, will you marry me?" t-shirts, or to throw our underwear or ourselves at the band ... but I can't vouch for much else.

We've waited too long for this concert. TOOOOOOOOOO LONG.

That's the dreamy Morten of my teenaged years, courtesy of their web-site. See the biceps, the cheekbones, the hair ... (sigh and swoon!) As a bonus, the guy can really sing. And his fellow bandmates, Mags and Paul aren't lightweights musically either!

Reports from the show, though, will have to wait until next week. Grown-up life, with scarey doctors visits, will intrude tomorrow morning, plus I'll need a few days to digest the experience. Hopefully I'll get to take pictures to share with you later.

Is it time to go yet?
How ever will I get any work done today?

Christine, what can I say? I have no words for what this belated birthday present really means to me! Really. You are AWESOME!