Tuesdays With Dorie: Pecan Sticky Buns May 22, 2012

I am not really a slacker.

I SWEAR!!!

I actually made this on time last week and enjoyed it for dessert last Tuesday. But then, of course, life interferes with everything. The weekend before we were in D.C. visiting my brothers-in-law and their significant others. We brought the munchkin with us because they really haven’t seen her since probably Christmas and she has changed A LOT since then.

My crazy little girl is cruising around the house, crawling on all fours, military crawling, climbing up the stairs, and getting into everything. Especially the dog’s water bowl, she loves to splash in that. She still laughs at me when I tell her no and she likes to laugh when I hurt myself. I guess I am pretty hilarious. She has finally cut two teeth, but I have been told by my mom that I didn’t get my teeth until I was almost one so it looks like my M&M takes after me since she is now 11 1/2 months.

Emma provided plenty of entertainment for her Uncles and Aunts and actually behaved very well. When we got back from D.C. I jumped into gardening mode because it was going to rain soon and I needed to get the rest of the vegetables in the garden. For that I was rewarded with a tick bite, which confuses me because the only way that thing could have gotten on me is from the trees. So I blame the squirrels in a yard but then our house does back up to a forest aka very wooded area.

Of course, I freaked out when I found it and could barely reach it to get it off me. Mike couldn’t hear me screaming because he was dealing with the baby. So I made him make sure I got all the tick out and the proceeded to play the time honored game of Is That a Freckle or a Tick.

Jump to a week later, we are in Philly for a wedding and it is our first weekend away without Emma. I am getting dressed and notice that the area around my tick bite is red.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!!!!

I ask Mike to look at it and then I call my mom in Germany (work trip) and then my dad in Texas. Both tell me the same thing, “Go to the Doctor on Monday.” I make my appointment, the doctor takes one look at my back and say to me, “You have Lyme Disease.”

Well that is just freaking great.

I ask about the duration of the illness and he tells me that we caught it at the first stage so with antibiotics it will go away.

THANK GOD!

So with that said and done here is a lovely picture of my Pecan Sticky Buns.

They turned out a little darker than I anticipated but then I remembered that I used dark brown sugar 🙂 Mike said they tasted like his Mom’s Monkey Bread, which it really did. All of the steps for the recipe didn’t bother me because the end product was fantastic. Who wouldn’t love a sticky bun made out of brioche dough. I ended up freezing half of the brioche dough because there was no way we could have eaten 14 buns in this house.

This weeks recipe was hosted by Lynn of Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat and Nicole of Cookies on Friday. The recipe for the Pecan Sticky Buns can be found on page 190 in Baking with Julia.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Hungarian Shortbread May 1, 2012

This weeks Tuesdays With Dorie is being hosted by Lynette of 1smallkitchen and Cher of The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler… They were lottery picked to dabble in the world of Hungarian Shortbread which is located on page 327 in Baking With Julia.

In the recipe you can make your own rhubarb filling, or if you can’t find rhubarb or are being lazy and want a quick shortbread you can use any jam/preserves you have on hand. I wanted to use raspberry preserves but Mike uses that for his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I figured it wouldn’t be very nice of me to use all of his raspberry preserves. So I opted for apricot preserves, which is just as lovely as raspberry.

I loved the out of the ordinary way that this recipe is put together.

Who would have thought to freezer the dough and then use a box grater to grate the dough into the pan?

I would have NEVER thought to do this and it makes it so much easier than trying to spread a sticky dough. Which if I was given the option I probably would have just spread the dough, but I love the idea of grating the dough and it worked out prefectly.

The dough came together very easily and I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. I love shortbread especially with a freshly brewed cup of Irish Black Tea. Very yummy and the perfect compliment to the buttery shortbread and the sweetness of the preserves and confectioners’ sugar topping.