Monkey Bread

"Hey Gavin, guess what Mama's making for breakfast Christmas morning?"

"What?"

"Monkey bread!"

..............."Oh.  How many monkeys is she putting in it?"

My boy is too funny.  Anyway, this is our Christmas morning tradition.

Monkey Bread
Recipe from my mother-in-law; method slightly adapted

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 (10oz) containers refrigerated biscuits [NOT Grands!!! Trust me on this one.]
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar

1.  Liberally grease a large bundt pan with cooking spray.  Sprinkle pecans around the bottom and set pan aside.  Combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in a resealable plastic bag.

A cinnamon bomb went off on the sugar

2.  Working in batches, use kitchen shears to cut each biscuit into quarters and toss into the sugar mixture.  Seal the bag and toss to coat the biscuit pieces.  Layer the pieces evenly in the bundt pan. 

No need to be precise, but try to keep it somewhat even.

3.  Whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar.  Drizzle the butter mixture over the "top" of the bread (this will actually become the bottom once it's baked).  At this point, you can either bake it right away or cover it and put it back in the fridge.  Because it takes me about 40 minutes to put it together, I always make it the day before.

I feel positively decadent just looking at this.

4.  If you've refrigerated the assembled bread, pull it out at least 30 minutes before baking.  Preheat oven to 350.  Bake for 40-45 minutes; let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Cover the bundt pan with a platter and carefully flip it over (you may need to give it some encouragement with a knife around the edges).  Voila!

Don't touch yet!!  It HAS to rest 10 minutes before inverting.  Set a timer. Walk away.

Your patience is rewarded.

This is an easy yet impressive breakfast item because it just looks so pretty!  And since it's REALLY SWEET, I like to serve this with some kind of eggs and a fresh fruit salad just to round things out a little more.

Gavin was panting at the table in anticipation.

Uglies

Yeah, you heard me.  I made a dish that is called "Uglies."  Don't look at me like that...I didn't come up with the name!  In fact, I have to say I disagree with this name because I actually thought they were kinda cute, in a rustic, homey sort of way.

Whether you choose to try the actual recipe for this is up to you.  What I find most intriguing though is the concept behind this.  Cooking a protein with seasonings, adding sauce, spooning this mixture into a dough cup, topping with cheese and bake.  That's really what this recipe boils down to.  Hmmm, interesting....  Could this then be something used to tackle the ever-present Leftovers?  Could these be main dish or an appetizer?  Could these be vegetarian?  Could these be carnivore?  Could these be a weekend party food or a fast weeknight I'm-so-tired-I-could-scream-but-my-family-needs-to-eat meal?

Abso-fricking-lutely!!


Uglies 
Recipe from AllRecipes

1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 tsp-ish garlic powder
1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce
8-10 refrigerator biscuits
1/2 cup-ish shredded cheddar

1.  Preheat oven to 400.  Heat a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add beef, onion and garlic powder and cook until meat is no longer pink and onions are translucent.  Drain any excess fat.  Add barbecue sauce and let simmer for 3-5 minutes.

2.  While the beef mixture is cooking, grease a muffin tin and open the biscuit dough tube.  On a floured surface, roll the raw biscuits to about 6" diameter.  Place dough in prepared muffin tin (my dough did not want to stay up the sides so I stretched each piece over the top and the dough sank in to it's little spot as I spooned the filling in).

Biscuit before. Biscuit after.

3.  Spoon filling into each dough-lined muffin cup.  Top with shredded cheddar.

4.  Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and biscuit dough is cooked and golden.

I suppose at this point these aren't that attractive.

Whenever I find recipes like these, where the concept just jumps out at me, I think I must get this crazy gleam in my eye.  I start thinking of all the cool possibilities!!  Is your kid like mine and won't touch barbecue sauce (I know, weird...we're working on him)?  Use a spaghetti sauce instead.  Or Alfredo sauce. Or some completely crazy but TOTALLY delicious sauce your family loves that perhaps your grandmother makes only twice a year.

Or hey, why not go REALLY easy on yourself and use the leftover barbecue (beef, pork, chicken, whatever) from the Memorial Day party.  Then this 30-minute meal pretty much becomes a 20-minute meal.  Bonus!!

Don't do meat?  No problem...saute your favorite selection of tofu and small veggies together with a tangy ginger sauce.

Are you getting yet how you can totally take this recipe and run with it?  The dish as-is is quite good.  But I think I'm going to have even more fun with playing around with the different possibilities.

Man I love cooking.  One recipe, infinite possibilities. :)