Cinnamon Rolls @ @ @

So because I needed to make up for my deficiency of General Conference cinnamon rolls and they needed a dessert for a Friday night dinner, I did end up making cinnamon rolls. It ended up proving to be quite the challenge... The ingredients here are different! So shopping for the stuff was difficult in and of itself. It was funny trying to explain yeast! "It makes the dough get big." Haha :) And something that made me smile! The store had this little section of American food! Some of it I didn't recognize. But I did get some Milano Mint cookies which remind me of my mother to no end!

I had never cooked in this kitchen so I was quite unfamiliar with everything. I had no measuring cups so I had to eyeball everything. Luckily, I cooked enough so I was familiar with relatively how to measure it all. I hand kneaded the dough. I was scared that the dough wouldn't rising so I was crossing my fingers the whole time... 1 hour late and with bated breath I pull back the kitchen towel to discover this!

Big sigh of relief!

 This one had a different weirder flour so it did rise as much as the other one but it was no big deal!

 I was thoroughly proud of this one! I actually did it!

 No rolling pin so I just kinda had to smoosh it out with my hands! This one was good but because I had lost track of time I had to hurry with the other one and so that one got a bigger crust. Whatevs...

 So... I rolled them up, cut them with floss, and let them rise again. I had to hurry because I had to go watch Carter for a bit. Dave and the kids were going to some Halloween show and Carter was too young.  We played tag, which included freeze and slow-mo, outside until it got dark then we went in and watched a movie called Cats and Dogs. Kinda weird! The show they all went to was terrible though. Just some old ladies reading stories on a stage. I think me and Carter had more fun than they did!

While I was babysitting, Pascaline cooked them for me and this was the result...

The hole in the pan to the right is my tast test!

 Not too shabby right?? The frosting was tricky. Cream cheese doesn't exist in France. The land of a million cheeses and they don't have cream cheese? Weird... So I had to use this...

Typically this is used for the layers of Tiramisu but I made it work. Just added some sugar, vanilla, and butter and it was good to go. Definetely different, but it was sweet, white, and frosting-ish so what the hey?

They had their next door neighbors over for dinner and we had a nice dinner. One of the daughters asked me some questions in French like "How long have you been here?" and "How long are you going to stay?". I understood completely and I was able to respond. I was quite proud of myself and I got a "Good Job" from Dave. It's not amazing but hey, it's progress!

The key word in making cinnamon roll was of course- improvising! I've made better but these weren't bad considering the inconvenient circumstances. These don't exist in France so they didn't know the differnce. Actually eating them... Moment of truth...Fhew...They actually all loved them! :-) And they were a big hit!