Day 17: Cinnamon Rolls were Invented for Long Trips

Okay so maybe that’s not true, maybe they were just invented because they are dang good, but in any case, we often had them on campouts or on long car rides, especially if we were going to leave really early in the morning. My mom makes these incredible cinnamon rolls with a real bready dough, then tops them warm from the oven with scads of frosting. Fat city, but the tastiest things you ever ate.

Mom taught me a lot about cooking, actually. When I was a kid she used to make bread fairly often, and she makes terrific pancakes–but way better than the pancackes themselves is the peach topping she makes with chopped canned peaches simmered on the stove top with spices and thickened into a syrupy sauce. We ladle them over the pancakes and then top with ice cream or whipped topping–the best breakfast ever. Most of my neices and nephews still prefer boring old maple syrup, but when we get together for breakfast at Mom’s the ‘kids’ from my generation all want pancakes with peaches.

Oh, I guess I got off topic, which was cooking. Because my parent run a store that doesn’t close until 6 p.m. and my mom cooks dinner every night she generally stuck with simple dishes. No, frozen pizza was not a regular dish, and we almsot never ate out, but you’d be amazed how quickly she can whip together a pan of lasagna, or a chicken, broccoli and rice casserole (another dish we always totally loved–I don’t make it nearly often enough).

The meals were simple, but tastey, and they were very budget freindly. Which is another amazing thing–she makes these things from scratch–prepackaged spagetti sauce was never seen in our house. It’s amazing what you can throw together with a few basic ingredients. Hmm, guess I need to pull together some recipes to share.