Christmas Breakfast Inspiration

If someone were to ask me what are some things I could live without, the Internet would be mighty high up that list. From finding a video online to entertain my kid for a few minutes to looking something up on Google, I'd be lying horribly if I said I didn't rely on the Internet much.

One thing I use it for A LOT is cooking. I am always looking at recipes (or drooling over food porn). My latest success was making homemade cinnamon buns for Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve, my husband brought up something I totally forgot about: Christmas breakfast. (Granted, if you read my previous post, it will make things a little clearer as to why my brain wasn't working properly.) Growing up, my family didn't really have any Christmas Day traditions since we celebrated the night before, so I often rely on my husband to clue me in as to what family traditions he would like to continue. One of these is having freshly baked cinnamon buns for breakfast on Christmas morning.

I quickly looked online for recipes, and sure enough, there were some good choices on my favorite recipe site allrecipes.com. I settled on a recipe called Cinnamon Rolls II because A) it looked easy enough and B) I already had all the necessary ingredients. Now, the original recipe was designed for a bread machine, which I don't own. What I love about allrecipes is that the commenters and reviewers are actually helpful; in this case, a couple of reviewers gave some tips on how to make the rolls without a bread machine. I also had to ask, on Facebook, a question about prepping the dough the night before and baking it the next day. (See? I DO rely on the Internet a lot!)

Here they were, on Christmas morning, fresh out of the oven:

Finally, here they are coated with a basic sugar frosting:

These were so easy and yummy that I'm already planning on when I can make them again. (Specifically, with cream cheese frosting!) So THANK YOU, Internet, for helping my family continue this decadent Christmas tradition!

Cooking: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (with chocolate chips)

I didn't do any cooking today since we have plenty of leftovers in the fridge, but I felt an itch to bake something tonight. I got busy in the kitchen right after I put my son down early for bed (since he didn't nap today).

Late night baking.

This must be one of the easiest cookie recipes I've ever tried. In fact, it was so easy that I was worried it would come out tasting like cardboard. Thankfully, they came out quite yummy!

I have this giant bag of Coach's Oats in my pantry, so I wanted to see what it would be like in cookies. Since they're closer in texture to steel-cut oats than rolled oats, I think they gave the cookies a lighter crunch. The smaller pieces of oats, rather than flat blades of rolled oats, seem to mix in more uniformly with the batter, so you get an even, "oaty" texture all around. Does that even make sense? I guess I sometimes find that when using rolled oats, I get small chunks of oats mashed together in a cookie, while other parts of the cookie seem oat-free.

This might have to be my new go-to recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies. I'm already thinking of different ways to make them. Adding coconut flakes, using dried cranberries instead of raisins, peanut butter chips instead of chocolate, etc. Thank you, Jamie Oliver, for a super easy and yummy recipe!