sunday morning cinnamon rolls

when i was cleaning up the kitchen last night (at 11:30), i was seriously questioning my sanity for even suggesting to gracie that we make cinnamon rolls. it was 8:30... p.m... when i got that bright idea. you know that i love to bake just about as much as anyone, but starting cinnamon rolls at 8:30-ish at night... yes, even i will admit it wasn't so smart.

i got out all the ingredients, started a couple of different stations... one for the mixer, one for the what needed to be microwaved, and then the yeast. here's where we ran into a problem. what i knew was the yeast wasn't "doin' it's thang"... and what i didn't know was that it was expired. all 5 packages. lovely. just what i need at 9:15 pm when we are already up to our elbows in flour. we went through 3 packages of yeast before finding one that "sort of" worked. oh, by the way, gracie kept stopping to run to the living room to watch the cop show that was on.

so anyway, we finally got the dough made and then i took a little nap while it was rising the first time. after rolling out the dough, adding the filling, and then cutting the cinnamon rolls, gracie wanted to play in the left-over dough. it was 11:00. so, what did i do? got her the cookie cutters. she had so much fun. after rolling and cutting, and cutting and rolling her little ball of dough, she decided she wanted to make some cinnamon rolls out of what she'd been playing with. so we did. they were cute "mini-cini's".

when i got up this morning, i was so hoping hers had risen. i wasn't sure hers would do anything with all that she'd messed with the dough. and honestly, i was hoping and praying mine had too. they did. all of them. so we baked, then we tasted. the verdict... they were yummy. really yummy. then i decided that the 3 hours last night had so been worth it... mostly for the special time with gracie.

(this was the 2nd pan. the little one in the corner was the last of gracie's mini-cini. sorry, i forgot to take a picture before we attacked them!)