Outdone By a Vegan! Sorry Ree.

After cooking up a fierce and fattening storm for JJ's birthday, I was on a roll, and decided to keep on trucking this week. In our house I usually switch between feast and famine mode. I think that this has to do with the fact that the stuff I love to cook is really, really bad for you. I use lots of butter, cream, and cheese. Unfortunately. So usually I try to make all other stuff I make super healthy, but this was still technically a birthday week...so I picked four new recipes to work into our weekly plan.

First up, I decided to make Ree Drummond's Cinnamon Rolls. I have had great success with a few of her recipes (Migas, Olive Cheese Bread, and her favorite sandwich, which is now one of my favorites as well), but I've noticed that Ree's desserts aren't necessarily my cup of tea. The one exception are the semi-delicious Apple Dumplings. I've made a lot of these for youth people we have around. It's a really fast and relatively cheap dessert to make. I've found that kids love these things, especially after I tell them the dessert has had Mountain Dew poured over the whole thing before being baked. "Oooooh yeeeeahhh...I can TOTALLY taste it!" (You really can't.) While the Apple Dumplings recipe is still slightly too sweet for me I know that other people like their desserts that way, so it's worth keeping in my Tastebook for now.

Putting my reservations aside, I carried on and attempted to make her cinnamon rolls, because Ree PROMISED they were the best out there. I followed the directions and everything looked as it should have. The recipe was easy enough and made about five glass pie plates of rolls. I was feeling nearly triumphant and offered to let JJ take three of the pans to a meeting he was off to, but first we had to taste test.

"....Hmm...."

"What?"

"These are way too sweet. Far too maple-y." the Maple Bar King said with a frown.

"Did you follow the directions?"

"Um...yeah!" I took a bite. Yes, they were sickeningly sweet and I was really disappointed. There was something about the dough that wasn't quite right, either. Perhaps I'm just a snob, but they tasted almost like they were straight from a Pilsbury Can. Some people love the taste of that stuff, but I knew they were bad when JJ refused to even take them to his meeting.

I pouted for a minute while surveying the huge mess that had been made in our kitchen. Then I packed up all of the rolls into freezer bags and shoved them into the cold zone. JJ has snacked on a few of them and they tasted a bit better than the initial tasting, but eventually we wound up tossing out about a dozen. What's the point of eating stuff like that when they aren't good for you and don't even taste that awesome? Sorry, Cinnamon Rolls, but I won't add to my own roll of stomach fat unless you happen to be deeelicious!

I Facebooked about my Cinnamon Roll disappointment and my college friend, Samantha, led me to her Cinnamon / Chocolate Rolls Recipe. I have read Samantha's blog for several years and I've always found her recipes to be gorgeous and inspiring, but it wasn't until lately that I've actually had things like Earth Balance in my fridge and ground flax seeds in my freezer. Motivated to get that nasty fake maple taste out of my mind, I got started.

Once again, this recipe was extremely easy. I was a little nervous while baking completely vegan, but the pictures of her rolls just looked so tempting. I was really excited to find out how her mixture of ground flax seeds and hot water held up as an egg replacer. After turning out the dough, I could tell that these were going to be delicious. The dough had such a great feeling to it: slightly firm, easy to roll out, not too sticky whatsoever, just completely gorgeous-looking. I divided the dough in half and made both the cinnamon rolls and also the chocolate rolls, putting 4-5 of both types in four glass pie plates. I had big plans to share and wanted to make sure that the recipients had a taste of each kind.

This recipe is a definite keeper. I made her vegan frosting and that stuff was also quite tasty. I couldn't believe I was eating something 100% vegan! I look forward to making these again, but

after having nearly 150 of these types of rolls roll through my kitchen in a tiny five-day window, I need to back off. At least until Valentine's Day. I applaud you, Samantha! You've made me happily believe in vegan baking!

Completely cooled deliciousness.

Oopsie. Where did they all go?

I was so happy with this recipe that I immediately made her Pita Bread, which was really fun to make with the boys. I think my dough was a little too wet (oops, I started off with 1 1/2 c of water instead of adding it gradually) because my pitas did not puff up as they should, although they were still incredibly delicious.

This is so much fun, mom! (After I took this picture, I scrubbed my oven, yikes!)

We wound up making individual pizzas out of them. I topped each with a colorful roasted red pepper/sun-dried tomato puree and a bit of mozzarella. Even my picky youngest child devoured this and begged for more. Success times two!

The other recipe I tried this week was actually one of Ree's savory items. I had a huge Costco container of cream to use up, so I decided to go with her Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes. Again, I just so happened to have everything on hand (even chives!) and it worked perfectly. While I'm scared of eating cream in savory recipes, just because I'm scared that my heart will explode, we all really enjoyed this recipe. Especially the five-year-old. I love that most of the items are pantry or freezer items - just perfect for when you need to whip up something good in a hurry for unexpected guests!

So that was it for last week. I can't wait to see what this week brings!