Dining on a Dime: Mini Cinnamon Rolls

We've had a pretty rough week at our house: two bouts of a vicious stomach bug that sent me to urgent care and left us both tired and headache-y the rest of the week. So, between missing work and the unexpected medical bills I acquired, I'm feeling a little sorry for myself this weekend and was in desperate need of a pick-me-up. I came up with a great one. Who doesn't love mini cinnamon rolls? AND, its even better because they are super quick, easy and more importantly, cheap.

 

On a side note, check out our new table in the background there! It's an awesome rustic, farmhouse table, built entirely by Deven from reclaimed pallet wood. It's beautiful!!!

Anyway, back to the cinnamon rolls. You will need:

• One roll of crescent roll dough
• Butter or margarine, softened
• Cinnamon sugar
• Simple glaze (see below)

First, preheat your oven to 375°F. Next, unroll your crescent dough. Separate the dough into four rectangles consisting of two triangles of dough and press the seams together. I smooshed the dough out a little flatter as well. Next, spread a little of the butter or margarine over the entire rectangle of dough and then sprinkle generously with the cinnamon sugar. Don't know how to make cinnamon sugar? You're in luck, because its super easy (and nice to have around the house to go on your toast). Simply mix together sugar with a sprinkle of cinnamon to taste.

Next, roll up the dough from one of the short ends and slice. 

Place the slices on a cookie sheet and bake 9 to 10 minutes, or until golden. Remove from oven and drizzle with glaze.

Now, I know not everyone knows how to make a glaze, but you should. It is one of the quickest and easiest ways to fancy up your baking just a little, and its very versatile. For this recipe I took a few heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar and added a few drops of vanilla extract. Then, I mixed in mall quantities of milk until I had the consistency I was looking for. The great thing with glaze is, you can use just the milk and sugar, or water. Or booze and sugar. I've make some really yummy amaretto glaze for an amaretto cake before. The only limit is really your imagination.

Another Pinterest Test... And an Apology

Ok, so I think I should probably start with the apology. I know, I've been MIA for some time now. For those of you who might not know, I work in retail and during the holiday season that can be a pretty brutal experience. There was one week I work 52 hours. That was 52 hours of pissed off holiday shoppers, not fun. Aside from that, my stress and anxiety problems were not doing well, so I decided a hiatus was the best thing to do.

The good news is, my anxiety is in a much better place now and I finally feel like I can really get back to blogging, so thank you everyone for your patience and support.

ANYWAY, on to the Pinterest test. This one is short and sweet. We have this leather chair at our house that Deven just HAD to have when we moved into our house. Unfortunately for the chair, Freckles loves it.

I couldn't tell you for sure what the website was anymore, but I've seen several different places that recommend olive oil to help hide scratches on leather. It's as simple as it sounds: take your olive oil and rub a little on your scratched leather. Rub and rub and rub, then wipe clean. Here is what I started with:

 And here is what I ended up with: 

That's right. Shiny leather! Or, more importantly, nothing. Didn't work. Needless to say, I'm a little disappointed. Does anyone have an better suggestions for me?