i'd rather be baking

It’s no secret that I like a good shortcut now and then. I’m at the bakery piping buttercream by seven each morning, so I’ve taken to brewing coffee the night before and pouring it over ice on my way out. Lately my straightener doesn’t see the light of day for more than three seconds until Friday each week. I lay out my clothes each night like a second grader. These are my twenty-more-minutes-of-sleep shortcuts, and I take them unapologetically.

I grew up eating those Pillsbury-popped-from-a-can cinnamon rolls every Sunday morning, and gosh, they taste good. My cinnamon roll sensibilities have improved a little but I think I have those childhood Sunday mornings to thank for my recent cinnamon hankering. I wanted to make cinnamon rolls from scratch, but didn’t want to wait around for three or four hours of rise time before church. That’s why I got really excited when I read this recipe.

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Ryan has a thing for blueberry muffins. You may recall the muffin extravaganza of 2009, which included quite possibly the world’s most perfect blueberry muffins. I wanted to make some for him, and I really should have stuck with the recipe I already knew and loved. But you know me, I can’t leave well enough alone.

My Google Reader is pretty much equally divided between ridiculous food and super healthy blogs, which is a pretty accurate representation of, well, me. The moral of the story is that we can’t all eat butter laden, crumb-topped morsels of deliciousness every morning. We have skinny jeans to wear and races to run. You understand.

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After the said lovely family visit, I got up at the crack of dawn to decorate a zillion cupcakes at the bakery, and then passed out in a glorious nap. It was much needed. And then I woke up hungry for this granola from Peas and Thank You. I mean, really: it was the first thought on my mind when I woke up.

However, I didn’t have cherries or almonds. But I did have cranberries and pistachios, which just happens to be the best and prettiest granola I’ve made yet. And I like to make do. That’s just how my momma raised me.

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I really, really love lemons. A lot.

I love their cheery yellow hues, their bright, clean fragrance, and most of all their beautiful flavor. I often cook with them because it seems like a little dash of lemon can improve pretty much anything. But give me a dish (or better yet, something sweet) that casts lemons in a starring role, and I’m in heaven.

Unfortunately Ryan does not share my lemon obsession, and really doesn’t even like lemons much. My family’s visit this week gave me the perfect excuse to make these lemon rolls, much to his disappointment. They love lemons almost as much as I do.

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My sister and I have a Starbucks habit. I was going to call it a tradition, but habit is definitely more accurate. You might even call it a bad one. We really like it there. It’s fair to say you’ll rarely find us together without a sugary-sweet coffee drink or two.

And on the (admittedly fairly frequent) occasions in which we can justify it, we buy a hunk of their delicious banana chocolate coffee cake. Sometimes two. In fact, said cake has been known to serve as birthday breakfast. She’s even been known to flirt with unsuspecting baristas over it. And hey, it worked one time.

When I made this version last week, I called Ryan almost immediately to tell him that I was bringing it to his office. I was legitimately afraid I’d eat the entire thing. And that weekend when we stopped in at a Starbucks for a midday perk, I again bought a slice just to confirm what I’d instantly suspected: this is so much better.

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