Harper's Big Haircut!

Harper has been mentioning cutting her hair this past week, and every time I cringed because I LOVE her hair. I love blow drying it, braiding it, curling it, just playing with it. It's gorgeous and it's LONG. But today I remembered that our dear friends the Brickers have donated hair in the past to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program, so I mentioned that to her and next thing I know I have 10 inches of her chopped off hair in my hand! Now Riley wants to grow hers out to do the same and I'm so proud of them. You can learn more about the program here: http://pantene.com/en-us/experience-main-section2/beautiful-lengths
And of course I forgot to take a before photo!!

Riley took all of these photos except the last ones. Not bad for an *almost* 9 year old!
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: 35mm
Settings: ISO:800 Shutter: 200 F stop: 2.0

Traditional Monkey Bread

I've been meaning to share this recipe for a long time. I'm glad to say the time has come. I know that sounds dramatic. It's meant to be. This stuff is that good. I wish I could remember where I found the original recipe, I mean I know it was on Pinterest somewhere, but I can't remember which exact one because I wrote down the ingredients in my cook book so I wouldn't have to open a website every time I make this monkey bread..which is too often by the way. My husband and kids LOVE it and we can finish off the whole thing in one setting pretty much...yes, it's that yummy. Here are the ingredients:

For the Dough:

3-4 Cups of Flour
4 Tbsp. butter - half of it melted, half of it softened
1 Cup warm milk (I heat mine up in the microwave for 30 seconds and call it good)
1/3 cup warm water
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp salt

For the Brown Sugar Coating:
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 stick of butter melted

For the Icing:
1 cup of powdered sugar
2 Tbsp Milk

Step #1. Butter your bundt! I used to use the wrapper from the butter, but I've had better luck spraying a TON of butter spray over every inch of the bundt.

#2. Put your warm water, warm milk, sugar and yeast in a mixing bowl (I use my kitchen aid, you could also use a bread machine to make your dough or you could do this all by hand but that will be more difficult!If you don't have a kitchen aid with bread hook attachment, ask for one for Christmas! It's amazing for making bread!) and let the yeast bloom and get a little puffy. I think I use too hot of water this time so my yeast didn't get as puffy as it normally does, but it all still turned out ok! 

#3. Add the half melted, half softened butter.

#4. Turn on your dough hook on setting #2 speed and slowly add the flour. Then the salt.

#5. Let the dough knead for 6-8 minutes. You want it to be pulling away from the sides after a few minutes and a nice ball of dough. If there's too much flour in the bowl then you can add 1 tsp of warm water at a time..but don't overdo it! If it's too sticky then add a little bit of flour at a time until it has a good rubbery looking consistency.

#6. This next part I learned from another blog and I love using it to speed up the rising process. I turn my oven to 350 and once it hits 350 turn it off completely.  Spray a bowl with some butter or oil, then cover your dough and let it rise in the warm oven for about 20 minutes. Like I said, this time I think I damaged my yeast by using too hot of water, but it turned out fine still! 

#7. After your dough has rised (you can wait til it's doubled in size or an hour or so if you don't use the hot oven method), get it out and knead it a few times, then roll it out a half an inch thick and cut into pieces. I use a pizza slicer. I made mine too thin this time so I doubled up most of these squares. You want about 70 pieces of dough. 

#8. Roll them into balls and get your melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar bowls out so you can assembly line them into the greased bundt! 

Soak them in the butter and roll them around in the cinnamon brown sugar so they're completely coated.

#9. Cover the bundt with greased plastic wrap and let rise again in a warm place til they're all puffy. About 30 min-an hour. Preheat oven to 350. Once the dough has risen again bake for 27-30 minutes. After it comes out of the oven let it cool for 5 minutes before you flip it over! Do that very quickly and onto a plate or stand. After another 10 minutes cover with the glaze and you are good to go! 

ENJOY! Homemade dough is sooo much tastier than biscuits and it's really not that difficult! The more you work with yeast the easier it gets. Let me know if you try this and how it works out for you! Your family will be happy with you ;)