Monkey Bread Muffins

All three of my kids are very different eaters.

Ethan, true to his 90-year-old-man nature, only likes plain, bland food. He does like cinnamon a lot, which is racy for him, and he has a wicked sweet tooth...again, for plain types of candy/chocolate/cookies/cakes.

Laney is easiest to please, but her tastes change like the wind...which is why I worry about our life together during her teenage years. If her tastes in everything else change as quickly as her food tastes, we are in trouble...and one of us may not make it out alive.

Sam, finally, is a pretty good eater, but he doesn't love to eat, so I often wonder how he survives. He rarely eats a full meal, and he really prefers to eat whatever I am eating.

For example, we had a picnic in Falls Park yesterday before going to The Children's Museum. Everybody picked their sandwich. Ethan, who doesn't like sandwiches, will only eat a Nutella sandwich, which is really more like dessert on bread, but whatever. He also eats broccoli (no stems, only the heads), so I figure it all works out. Laney loves my homemade peanut butter, so that was what she chose. Easy enough. Sam chose bread and cheese.

NOT a cheese sandwich, for the record.

"Look, Mommy, it's like this. I want bread separate. And cheese separate. And then another bread separate."

It's a good thing he is cute and his "grown up" voice (that he uses from time to time when I don't understand his bizarre instructions) makes me laugh because otherwise, he would stay in trouble a lot more than he does.

So. I bagged up two pieces of bread and a piece of cheese still in the wrapper, just like he ordered.

Once we sat down to eat, he was more interested in my salad than his sandwich. That is how Sam rolls...even if we have the exact same thing on our plates. For those of you that know me well, you know I have a cardinal I-don't-share-food rule, so this baby bird method of eating is sometimes painful.

Anyway, sometimes, I happen upon things that all three of them love. Monkey bread is one of those things. I don't make it often because it is full of sugar and other yumminess that isn't great for a body in large doses, but when I do, it's like Christmas at the breakfast table.

A while back, I pinned a recipe for monkey bread muffins. Because I hate to make the same things over and over, I usually check my Pinterest boards for menu ideas...which probably would help my husband understand why menu-planning and grocery list making takes me an entire morning and several cups of coffee.

When I read the recipe, it involved sweetened condensed milk, which is decidedly un-monkey-bread-like but is one of my secret weaknesses, so I thought I would give them a try this week sometime for breakfast.

Things I learned:
1) My muffin pans are not the same size. I had to adjust the amount of dough because 3 pieces was too much per cup in one of my pans.
2) 1/2 of a pat of butter does not mean 1/2 of the pat marked on the butter wrapper. I figured this out about halfway through when I realized I needed to put butter on top, too, but had already breezed through the butter called for in the recipe. One of the pats marked on the butter wrapper should make
about three (1 teaspoon) pats.
3) You will need either 2 small cans of sweetened condensed milk (which will give you leftovers) or a larger-than-normal can. I used about a can and a half for the glaze on 23 muffins.
4) This recipe doesn't make 24 muffins, which I knew up front because the recipe serving size said so, and I can read. For all of my genius, though, I still put butter and cinnamon, and sugar in the 24th cup. I need to pay attention; I salvaged the giant butter pat (cut before I realized #2) and most of the cinnamon and sugar, but if I hadn't, I would have had one sticky mess in there.

Monkey Bread Muffins
From: Blogger Amy @ Our Everyday Dinners: http://www.oureverydaydinners.com/2011/08/monkey-bread-muffins.html
Makes 22-23 muffins

2 cans Grands-style biscuits
1 1/2 sticks of butter
Cinnamon
Sugar
1 1/2 cans sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Put about 1/2 of a pat of butter in each muffin cup. This is about 1/2 of a teaspoon (not tablespoon). You don't need to grease the muffin cups because of the butter you put in the cup and on top of the muffin before you bake it.

Sprinkle about a teaspoon of sugar into each cup. Then sprinkle a little cinnamon in. The recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon per cup, but I didn't bother to measure. I just shook some in.

Cut biscuits into quarters. Place 3 biscuit quarters into each muffin cup. I laid the pieces down flat...kind of made a layer of dough on top of the sugar/cinnamon/ butter mixture...which kept them from overflowing.

On top of each muffin, put about 1/2 of a pat of butter, and then sprinkle 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar and another shake or so of cinnamon.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until muffins are golden brown and butter is bubbling. Take muffins out of the oven; immediately, spoon about a tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk over the top of each. Sweetened condensed milk is one of my favorite things, so I was very generous with my glazing...but this is what makes them so yummy.

*This is also not the time to check out the calorie or fat content on the milk can.

Let them cool as much as possible before serving. My batch came out of the muffin pans pretty easy, but don't skip the whole clean-up-immediately step. That glaze is like cement when it dries!!



Let me say that my kids all ate multiples, Keith loved them, and a visitor (who shall remain nameless) traded some homemade salsa and strawberry jam for 2 muffins for the road. Happy eating!!

My Favorite Things: Kids & Summer Edition: Part 1 (Bargains!)

Well, hello there. :-)

It has been a while. I'm not making any promises, but I'm contemplating the blog again.

A couple of housekeeping items:

Please forgive the appearance. My previous blog template apparently stopped working, so the blog is undergoing a minor facelift. Unfortunately, I can't get the HTML to work on the iPad, an my laptop is being uncooperative, so until I can get to technical support, this is what I will have to deal with for now.

Also, I changed the blog address. The jennings4 name came about before Jennings #5 came along. I debated whether or not to change the address, but my inner OCD voice won. If you followed the blog back in the day when I actually wrote stuff, you might want to update your bookmark. If not, you can just disregard this. :-)

Anyway, it's summer, which means I am home with the kids...which means we need stuff to do...because that "I'm bo-red!!!" declaration makes me want to pack all three kids in one small box and ship them to Siberia.

No offense to Siberians. I'm sure it's lovely there, but it is also far away from here. :-)

I had to do some research for stuff to do in the Anderson area, and although it is mid-summer, I thought some of you might be looking for things to do here and there, so here we go:

1) The local library. You probably expect that from an English teacher, but seriously... it's quiet  and cool and peaceful... well, except when my kids are there. :-) We love story time at the public library. I haven't been to the main branch yet this summer, but we have had a blast at the local branch events. You will have to check to see what activities your branch offers (and what times), but our branch usually has a story and a craft or exhibit (like live bunnies!).

AND who doesn't love the bookmobile?!? It is my plan to drive the bookmobile when I retire. In a world where everything is digital and fast-paced, the bookmobile is a fun step back in time. My kids think it is awesome - a library on wheels! It also makes stops all over Anderson County. You can visit http://www.andersonlibrary.org to find the schedule under the "Mobile Library" tab. 

2) Our local Bruster's ice cream shop has .99 kids' sundaes on Tuesdays AND double punch days, which means my ice cream is free almost every time. (You can get a punch card that the ice cream girl will hole-punch for every purchase. After so many purchases, you get a free ice cream. Double  punch day means you get two hole-punches for every purchase.) It's my treat to myself for not shipping the kids  to Siberia.

We make this a weekly Tuesday activity - storytime and ice cream sundaes. 

3) The waterparks in Greenville, as well as The Children's Museum and the Greenville Zoo, have all been running specials. I bought a couple of playcation packages through the Greenville Drive that included 4 tickets to a Drive game, 4 passes to a waterpark, 4 passes to the Children's Museum, and 4 passes to the Greenville Zoo... for $35. What?! That's 4 days of entertainment for less than what the dollar movies end up costing us!

They are running another playcation special tomorrow night but are sold out of the presale  packages. They will  have a limited number available when the box office opens at 5 pm. Check the  Drive's or the museum's Facebook page or http://www.greenvilledrive.com for more information. 

4) I've also been finding great stuff on Kidding Around Greenville, SC's Facebook page. This morning, there was a post about the Greenville Shakespeare Company's current production, The Comedy of Errors. Tickets are only $6, and they sell cupcakes at intermission! My kids love a play, and the post this morning said her 4 year old loved it, so I'm going to attempt to give my kids a dose of culture. You'll probably want to check back for a good Sam story related to this cultural experience. 

5) Never underestimate the power of a QT. We don't do this often (because my kids don't really need any extra help in the energy department), but you can't beat QT's prices for  slushies and plain vanilla cones (both are under a dollar)... and what kid doesn't love a monster row of slushie machines from which to choose?! 

Growing up, it was a treat in the summer to go to McAdam's Grocery for a glass bottle coke and candy bar. (I didnt grow up in Mayberry, even though it sounds like it.) I remember sitting on the front porch with my mom and brother during the hottest part of the day when it was too stifling to breathe, much less do something active. I have such great memories of laughing and talking and just spending time together. 

These days, we are fortunate to live near a fabulous shady park (Barrett's Place), so on days when I  have things to do around the house, a couple of hours with slushies and a trip to the park in the late afternoon (so they can run all that sugar off!) provides a cheap, easy way to make summer memories.

These are my Top 5 favorite summer bargains. We do a lot of the regular summer stuff like  swimming and visiting the Farmer's Market and hiking and going to the movies (thank you to Hollywood for putting out an assortment of great kid flicks this year!), but I'm always on the lookout for something new and fun and relatively cheap so we can enjoy an activity almost every day.

Another day, I will post about our other summer entertainment experiments that don't involve going anywhere. For now, please share your ideas for fun things to do in the area. Summer isn't over yet!