The Butler Buns

If i closed my eyes i can imagine being at my parents house, my dad is in the kitchen protecting ( i say protecting because otherwise we would come in and start picking at it) breakfast, my mom is upstairs putting last minute touches on the days events and my sisters and i (and our husband now) are slowly waking up and making our way to the kitchen. On special morning like thanksgiving and christmas there is no need to call us down for breakfast, the sweet aroma of the traditional butler buns are wafting in the air and enticing us to come down and start the day. "Well good morning chicky, happy (insert holiday here)" are the first sounds we here from my dad as we make our way to the coffee pot. By this time my dad has already unloaded the buns and is using his fingers to pick at the pan and offering us the scrapings of what was the buns. This tradition has been long standing in our family and is something that makes our holiday complete (that and moms croissants).
Well, this year will be the first year i won't see my parents on thanksgiving, so in honor of family tradition i decided to try and make them myself.
i did everything they said: Place them in the pan, NOT TO CLOSE!

Let them rise over night (hahah, maybe a little too close)

Put them in the oven on a pan

Cook for 30 min or until they "thump" (the technical term) and sound hallow

Let them rest...

and as Emril says : "BAM" they are ready.

Ok, so they are actually not supposed to have lumps of on the top... the topping is supposed to be gooey all over, however, they were still delicious.
Typically the tops don't have enough flavor (and by that i mean they are just bread and in my mind, why waste your time on "just bread") so we will eat the bottom and discard the tops. But this time i decided to add a little butter and the brown sugar and butterscotch mixture to the top so that maybe i wouldn't waste so much (because we all know i eat so much)
This was only my first time making them... next time i will be even more generous with the dry ingredients!!
I will admit without my dad protecting the rolls i burned my tongue and fingers by trying to eat them too quickly. In true family traditions i totally ate more then i needed, if S doesn't get home soon there won't be any left for him to have!
They were good... but dad you make them better!!

NOVEMBER?!?!

Already... i swear it was just yesterday that someone reminded me to start posting about November... and now we are well in to the month and i have done no posting.
It isn't because i haven't been cooking/baking, i just get sidetracked.
Recently i have succeeded in getting my hubby in the kitchen with me. He is actually a really great cook, very adventurous and willing to risk it all... where as me; very traditional and by the book, so we work very well together in the kitchen.
Everyday is a mystery, normally around 2 or 3 we will start talking about what sounds good for dinner. We throw around a couple different ideas, search the web and ultimately end up on something like soup or pasta.
Yesterday around 2pm i ask the daily question; "what do you feel like for dinner?"... "Soup, bread and good wine" came flying back over a text message...
Typically S doesn't care, so when he actually says what he wants i dive right in. Knowing that Clam Chowder is one of his favorites i got to work.
I searched multiple different sites before stumbling on this clam chowder recipe that was also going to help me find a "good" wine (in our house you have to specify "wine" or "good wine"... they are very different. "Wine" is normally cheap and picked out of the proverbial "bargain bin", "good wine" is normally a little more thought out and step up from the cheapest).
I personally don't like clam chowder... there is something about shell fish i don't care for.. Normally i just pick around the clams to find the potato's (i do LOVE potato's), however, this recipe didn't call for potato's, so i boiled some up in a separate pot and added them in the end.
The chowder was also not thick enough for me, so i added a little water/corn starch mixture to thicken it up a bit.
The flavor was subtle, so i will probably add more clam juice next time and more veggies... but all around it was a "good dipping" soup as S put it.

As for the rest of this month, well it kind of goes without saying... Thanksgiving is coming up next week... so that means; turkey, stuffing, cranberries & pumpkin pie!