Heavenly cinnabon cinnamon rolls

Ah yes. French yeast.. French fresh yeast.

The block-y kind.
I got confused and thought the yeast was bad, because I: stored it in the freezer, instead of the fridge, and expected there to be foam when the yeast was placed in warm milk, like what happens at home with active dry yeast:

Once someone assured me that fresh yeast does not react that way, you just have to trust that it will make the dough rise when the time comes, I set out to make my long-desired cinnamon rolls on a fateful Saturday morning...

Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls (clone from Treasury of Top Secret Recipes)

ROLLS

1 ¼ ounce package active dry yeast (1 T)                               1 t. salt

1 c warm milk                                                                     2 eggs

½ c sugar                                                                              4 c flour 

                                                                                                                 1/3 c melted margarine

FILLING

1 c packed brown sugar                                                 1/3 c softened margarine

2 ½ T cinnamon

ICING   

½ margarine or butter, softened                                               ¼ c  cream cheese

1 ½ c powdered sugar                                                    ½ t vanilla

1/8 t salt

1.       For the rolls, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl.

2.       Mix together the sugar, margarine, salt, and eggs. Add flour and mix well.

3.       Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour. Put in a bowl,  cover, and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

4.       Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough flat until it is approximately 21 inches long and 16 inches wide. It should be about ¼ inch thick.

5.       Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

6.       For the filling, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Spread the softened margarine evenly over the surface of the dough, and then sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar evenly over the surface.

7.       Working carefully from the top (a 21 inch side), roll the dough down to the bottom edge.

8.       Cut the rolled dough into 1 ¾ inch slices and place 6 at a time, evenly spaced, in a lightly greased baking pan. Let the rolls rise again until double in size (about 30 minutes). Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until light brown on top

9.       While the rolls bake, combine the icing ingredients. Beat well with an electric mixer until fluffy.

10.   When the rolls come out of the oven, coat each generously with icing.

11.   Makes 12 rolls.

Recipe typed out courtesy of my MOMMA. :) from the book

To be purchased here

That's all for now! :)

More things I have tried

 Recipe from here.
 Instead of using the shortening he recommends, I used margarine. This... gave it a kind of delicious but kind of a reminder that there is margarine in it.. Good and bad, depending on how your conscience works. 

 I made overnight coffee, good for cold coffee!

Yummy, all ready for my passport picture!

 
  Babysat and made bubble snakes!

 
Made chocolate chip cookies, of course.

I made honey-oat bread à la Subway.. 

I made honey-oat bread à la Subway.. 

The Subway-inspired feast.. Yesssssssss.

( And I helped prepare this chicken (here it is unbaked!)

I also made a cheesecake (out of a box.......) which was really good! And I made brigadeiros, that I totally overcooked into chocolate caramels, oops. But after the second day, they had moistened up, and the texture was PERFECT. They were delicious!

Freedom tastes good.

I AM FREEEEEEEE FROM HIGH SCHOOL!

And so far on my vacation, I have made tuna burgers/patties, hashbrowns, a (miniature) two-layer chocolate cake, a pizza from scratch, and yeah. It's been satisfying to finally have time for what I enjoy.

So.. This.. cake. Well, my mom convinced me that, since the box (okay, I made the cake out of a box, but the frosting was all me!) said that you could either pour the batter into a 9x13, it would work for an 8" circular layer cake. Lies! So, I ended up with a layer cake with one cake's batter. Hah.
So those weird non-pepperoni things were an experiment. I tried putting zucchini (I cooked it first) on my pizza. Not a horrible mistake, they just didn't add anything to the pizza. Next time, no zucchini on my pizza! Stop trying to avoid making a salad, and just do it, silly!