i'd rather be baking

Usually I’m a cereal-and-yogurt kind of girl when it comes to breakfast, but on the weekends, that tends to go out the window. Sometimes it’s me in the kitchen and sometimes it’s Ryan, but at least once each weekend we like to do breakfast right. After all, it is the most important meal of the day.

This beauty started with a lot of stale bread. I started collecting the “bum ends” (as my boss refers to them) of our sandwich bread at work during an exceptionally busy week. We use this really great oatmeal applesauce sandwich bread, but sometimes the end pieces are too thin or misshapen to sell. So I like to take them home. Good bread is good bread, ugly or not.

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I really, really love caramel. I realize that every English teacher I’ve ever had would tell me that one “really” is enough, but they’d be wrong. This is caramel we’re talking about, after all. I’d eat it on anything and everything if not for, you know, saturated fat and stuff.

These are certainly not the most glamorous cookies you’ve ever seen, but they are definitely the tastiest cookies I’ve ever baked. Why? Dulce de leche. It’s an intense, thick and creamy caramel sauce and I’d almost guarantee you can find it in your grocery store (in the Hispanic or international foods aisle).

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I realized this weekend that I’ve developed a habit of baking dessert on Sunday nights. Usually I bake during the day, but there’s something about Sunday night that makes me want a warm, fresh-from-the-oven dessert. I guess it feels like a nice way to close out the weekend. And all summer long, these desserts have mostly featured fruit.

With the gorgeous bounty of fruit available, summer fruit desserts are pretty much a no-brainer and I realize, incredibly basic. But I can’t get away from them. There’s something magical about barely-sweetened fruit that’s delicious on its own but seems to become something altogether more wonderful after baking in the oven for a bit. These desserts are the only times all summer that I feel like heating up the house with the oven is truly worthwhile. They’re just so good.

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As summer trudges onward, I find myself less and less hungry. What can I say? The heat is starting to get to me. Dinner is certainly the most affected and I’m beginning to feel sorry for Ryan because I just don’t feel like cooking. I find myself turning to salads and sandwiches as often as I can because it’s just too hot to cook a big meal.

It was with this mindset that I contemplated baking bread this week. It’s been awhile and I just didn’t feel like buying any, but the idea of a big, coarse loaf wasn’t nearly as appealing as it is with a chill in the air. I thought some light rolls might be a nice alternative and found just what I was looking for (not surprisingly) in Cooking Light.

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I know what you must be thinking: didn’t I just read something about bananas? The back-to-back banana recipes were truly unintentional and yes, I do know how to bake other things, thank you.

It’s okay, though, because the last recipe and this one could not be much different if they tried. This little ditty (which is definitely not vegan, by the way) is brought to you by the lovely Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod. Maria is a fellow Salt Lake City blogger and always posts delicious-looking recipes and even better pictures. This is the first recipe of hers that I’ve tried and it will definitely not be the last.

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