Easy! - French Toast Cinnamon Rolls

Elijah has been wanting cinnamon rolls all week. You know, the ones in the can. Well, I haven't been to the store and I certainly don't have time with three munchkins on a Saturday morning to be making fresh. So I was looking around my kitchen to see what I had. No puff pastry. No crescent rolls. Hmm. Well, I have hot dog buns . . . and thus, they were born.


French Toast Cinnamon Rolls
Makes 6


6 Hot Dog Buns
Butter


Custard Ingredients
1 Egg
1/4 cup Milk
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Allspice
3 Tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 6 compartments of a muffin pan with butter.

Beat the egg in a bowl. Add in rest of custard ingredients and beat with a fork or whisk for one minute. Tear a hot dog bun in half along its hinge. Put the bottom half in custard crust side down. Flip and put inside in custard. (Note: You'll want to let the crust side sit in the custard a little longer than the inside.) Place the other half of bun in custard in the same manner. Roll the bottom half around itself. Roll the top half around the bottom half roll and place your roll into your muffin pan.
Repeat with the rest of the buns. Sprinkle on some cinnamon before baking.

Bake for 15 minutes or until outside its crusty and golden. Remove and let sit for a few minutes.

I served my French Toast Cinnamon Rolls with cream cheese icing. Here's the recipe.

Erica's Quick Cream Cheese Icing

4 oz Cream Cheese
1/4 cup Butter
about 3 cups Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
Pinch of Salt

If you can bring your cream cheese and butter to room temperature, in advance, that is preferred. If not, cut both into chunks, then microwave about 20-30 seconds to soften. The butter may melt some and that's okay. Microwave until you can mix them together. Once mixed, add powdered sugar to desired thickness. Add vanilla and salt and mix thoroughly.

Enjoy!

Barbecue Pulled Pork

Ok, so it's been a while . . . sorry.

This is the teaser photo! :D

I must start off by saying this is not a time-tested recipe. It was my first run, actually, and it turned out well. If/when I try it again, I will comment on how it goes.

I love barbecue - pork, chicken - whatever (almost). So I decided to try my hand at some barbecue pulled pork. It turned out quite well, indeed, and, actually, now that I'm drooling just thinking about it, we might just have it again tomorrow. :D

I like to cook with pork tenderloin. I've found that it's generally fail-proof, cheap and delish! I usually buy mine from Meijer ( Just FYI, there are two in the bag! :D) or Sam's Club if I have room in my freezer. For this recipe, I used one tenderloin and it probably would have been enough for four adult sandwiches or three adults and two kids. Also, another thing to note, I only had two cups each of chicken stock and cola, so I used another two cups of water, just to get 6 cups of liquid. You could split the 6 cups any way or want. One other thing to plan with this entree is your supporting dishes. I suggest coleslaw and plain kettle chips. I'll post my recipe for coleslaw later this week. (Really, I will!)

Barbecue Pulled Pork

1 Pork Tenderloin, cut into large chunks
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper
Olive Oil
2 cups Cola
2 cups Chicken Stock
2 cups Water
1 bottle Kraft Honey Barbecue sauce (And you thought I was making my own sauce! Ha!)

Cut and season the tenderloin and brown with olive oil in the bottom of a heavy pot. Once brown on all sides, add the liquids (not the barbecue sauce) and bring to a boil. Cover and cook for half an hour, keeping the liquids at a medium-low boil. Uncover, test your meat for tenderness and cook another 15 to 30 minutes uncovered. Add barbecue sauce and let look until desired sauce thickness is reached or about 15 minutes.

I served mine on pan toasted buns. (I learned that from my mommy!) Ooh! Bread and butter pickles would be great with this.

Enjoy!

This is the meat in the pot with all the liquids.