Mike's Monkey Bread

The first time my friend John told me about his fabulous boyfriend Mike, it was in a picture text message.  The image: Monkey Bread.  The subject: Mike's badass cooking skills.

The text had me hooked--I knew, just KNEW that Mike had to be fabulous (who else makes Monkey Bread that delicious?), and I've been bugging him for this recipe ever since.  I bugged him so much that he was pretty much obligated to make it the first time we met.  There were no leftovers.

The thing I love best about Mike's monkey bread is the incredible presentation it makes versus the short amount of time required to make it.  Just take canned biscuits, chopped pecans, some cinnamon, melted butter, and brown sugar in a bundt pan, bake and VOILA: the most decadent dessert you've ever had.  This monkey bread is not for those on diets.  It's for those who just ran ten miles and deserve a clearly delicious treat.

Mike's Monkey Bread
Mike got this recipe from the Pillsbury website (the original can be found here), but really, he's been eating it since he was a little kid.  The recipe below has some variations from the original as Mike has doubled the cinnamon for an earthier, spicier kick, added pecans instead of walnuts, and called for raw instead of processed white sugar.  I highly suggest following these substitutions!


Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup raw sugar
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon
* 2 cans (16.3 oz each) Pillsbury Grands! Homestyle Biscuits
* 1 cup chopped pecans, or walnuts
* 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
* 3/4 cup butter, melted

1.) Preheat oven to 350F.  Lightly grease 12-cup fluted tube pan/bundt pan.

2.) Mix sugar and cinnamon.

3.) Open 2 cans of biscuits.

4.) Cut biscuits into 4 pieces each.

5.) Place cut up biscuits in sugar/cinnamon mixture and flip until fully coated.

6.) Toss coated biscuits into well-greased bundt pan making sure to add pecans among the biscuits.

7.) Pack 1 cup of brown sugar.

8.) Add brown sugar to 3/4 cup melted butter and stir to combine.

9.) Drizzle/pour melted butter/sugar mixture over bundt of biscuits.

10.) Bake for 30-35 minutes in 350F oven or until golden brown and no longer doughy in the center.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan.  Turn upside down onto a serving plate and enjoy! Makes...well...a lot: 8-10 servings.

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Cranberry Sauce

During the holidays, it's really tempting to just buy the cranberry sauce in a can and call it a day. Honestly, I agree because I get it--canned cranberry sauce is delicious! It's so sweet, the perfect gelatin consistency, and the manufacturer's are super considerate by creating the places to cut the sauce with the shape of their can. I'm joking, but I really do appreciate canned cranberry sauce for all of its middle-class glory.

However, what producers of canned cranberry sauce don't tell you is that it's incredibly easy to make your own sauce and even TASTIER than the original canned delight. All you have to do is buy a 12 ounce bag of cranberries, add some sugar and water, and boil it all together until bam, cranberry sauce! Don't believe me? Check out the recipe below.

Cranberry Sauce
The below recipe comes from the back of an Ocean Spray 12 ounce cranberry bag, but you can find other online recipes that are similar instantly.  One that I would suggest is the Cranberry Sauce recipe available at Simply Recipes.  It's very similar to the one below, only minus the spices.  YUM!

Ingredients:
* 12 ounces of cranberries
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup water
* cinnamon sticks (optional)
* 1 tablespoon orange peel (optional)
* 1 tablespoon nutmeg/allspice/cloves, or any combination of the three (optional)

1.) Add sugar and water to a large sauce pan and bring to a boil.  While heating up, whisk the ingredients together until the sugar has full dissolved.

2.) Wash and add cranberries to the water/sugar mixture.  Bring water back to a boil and reduce heat to medium for the next 10-15 minutes (or, until all of the cranberries have sufficiently "popped" open).

3.) Now, your cranberry sauce will begin to look like a thicker-jelly-based sauce.  At this point, you can add any number of ingredients because your recipe is almost complete.  I like the addition of basic fall seasonings such as cinnamon (sticks), nutmeg, allspice, orange peel, and/or cloves.  However, these ingredients are not necessary for a tasty sauce--you can leave the sauce by itself and it will certainly taste delicious.  Enjoy!