Super Cinnamon Rolls

These super-fabulous breakfast treats are adapted from Bread Machine Magic, by Linda Rehberg and Lois Conway. This is the way to make them without a bread machine. The buttery-sweet glaze is far superior to the sticky, over-sweet frosting you usually get. I also added a touch of whole-wheat flour for a slightly more nutritious version. Makes 12 rolls.

For dough:
1/3 cup luke-warm milk
1/3 cup luke-warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 egg (room temperature)
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter (room temperature)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar

For glaze:
5 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

For filling:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Put milk and water in mixer. Add yeast and 1 cup of the flour. Stir and let sit for 2o minutes until foamy. Add egg, butter, and salt and mix thoroughly. Attach dough hook, then stir in the rest of the flour and sugar. Mix for 10 - 12 minutes. Put dough in a warmed, oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let sit in warm room for 45 minutes to one hour. The dough should be high and doubled in size when ready.
Meanwhile, pour the melted butter into a 9x13-inch pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the butter and set the pan aside. In a small bowl, mix the filling ingredients and set aside.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 9x18-inch rectangle. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and brush over the dough. Sprinkle the filling ingredients over the dough next. Starting with the long edge, roll up the dough and pinch the seam to seal. With a knife, lightly mark roll in 12 even sections. Slide a long piece of dental floss under the roll and under the first mark. Pull the ends up and across each other on the mark to cut the roll. Place the rolls in the prepared pan, making 4 rows of 3.
Cover the rolls with a towel and let rise in a warm oven 30 minutes. Take out the rolls and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately invert rolls onto a large platter or serving dish. It may take a few seconds for all the glaze to come off the pan. Let rolls cool at least 30 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Think Like a Man

Women think: If someone looks like they need help, you should jump in and help them.
Men think: If someone needs help they will ask for it.

Women think: If he really loves me he will know what I need without me having to ask.
Men think: If she wants my help she will ask for it.

In my classroom I always try to pair up boys and girls together for group work. They communicate better and get more done than same sex teams. I don't know why. It is just something I noticed. As friends, co-workers and classmates, men and women work well together. But when they move in together, get married, etc, something strange happens. Women start expecting their men to act like women. They think: this person is my partner and most intimate friend. I expect him to act like all the close friends I have had in my life (which were women). Although he may be the love of your life, he will never think like a woman.

Women tend to relate to each other by sharing joys and triumphs, likes and dislikes, failures and sorrow. Over the course of the relationship a woman will look for opportunities to offer her help to the other woman. This is the ultimate show of affection for a woman. When her best friend offers to take her out to lunch, sit and talk for an hour, or watch her kids for her, it is her way of saying how well she understands what her friend needs at that moment. Women come to expect this of their friends, so much so that they never have to ask for help.

Let me say that again. Women get used to NEVER having to ask for help from the people they love.

I won't pretend to know how men relate to each other. It seems very complicated, with many unwritten rules and mores. Kind of like cricket. But I understand how a man shows his respect and admiration for his friends. He does this by never offering to help. He believes his friend to be capable of handling the situation on his own. If the situation is drastic his friend may ask for help and he will gladly give it.

Of course, you see where I'm going with this, but let me lay it out for you anyway. The woman, valuing her husband as her beloved best friend, either offers to help him or waits for help to be offered. In the first instance, she is disrespecting her husband by suggesting he cannot handle the situation. He is too dumb, lazy, incompetent, or in some other way incapable of handling the situation so she needs to jump in and save him.

In the second instance, she is stupidly waiting for help that will never be offered. The only way for the woman to get the help she wants is to ask for it directly. She should think like a man! Or at least remember that her husband loves and respects her enough to NOT offer his help. Yep. Strange though it may seem, those are the rules on his planet.