calorie-free baking binge

Ready for a mini-tour of my recent baking whirlwind?  You already saw the beginnings of the cinnamon rolls I baked Tuesday night.  Here's what they looked like Wednesday morning.

This is the unbaked version; I let them warm slightly before putting them in the oven.

Then, after about 30 minutes, here's what I flipped out of the dish:

They may not look great plunked on an old cookie sheet, but with limited storage I haven't seen fit to purchase a gigantic platter.  In the future I might; these rolls kind of merit their own special serving dish!  But for now, it's enough to plate them nicely.

My lovely friend Nicole dropped by before work to chat about something we're planning and to partake of this gooey, sugary excuse for breakfast.  We ate some fruit too, so it counts, right?

As for the other baked goods I've created lately, they're more on the savory side.  First up: Cobblestone Pot Pie.  It's basically pot pie without the crust.  I love it because:
1. I don't like to eat crust (unless it's graham cracker).
2. I can't for the life of me make a crust that doesn't stick to the counter or fall apart.
3. I like bread!

For the filling, I combined equal parts butter and flour, about 2 Tbs each.  After the butter completely melted and the flour dissolved into it, I let it cook a few minutes on medium heat to turn a smidge darker.  Then I splashed in some white wine (for flavor--broth would also work) and whisked in cold milk until the sauce was the right consistency.  I turned down the heat and added cubed cooked chicken breast, frozen peas, carrots, and celery.  I also stirred in fresh-ground black pepper, salt, and Italian seasoning.

Over the top, I scattered bread cubes coated in olive oil, salt, and Parmesan cheese.  I left this in the fridge for Hubby to bake when he was ready for dinner, since I wasn't going to be home to put anything on the table.

 Last night we ate something equally hearty, but I'm only going to show you part of it.  (You'll understand.)  Brief backstory: I've had success with my mom's biscuit recipe, which I might call "casual."  As in, it says to add "about 1/4 c. shortening" to "about a cup of flour" along with other ingredients and "enough milk to hold it together."  When I'm focused and winning--man, do those biscuits turn out great.  The other half of the time....

So I turned to the world of strangers for a new recipe, and I settled on this one.  By "settled," I mean I performed a Google search for the word "biscuit" and clicked on the first thing that looked like a recipe.  And for once, laziness rewarded me.

One review calls these biscuits the "biggest...in the history of the world," and I'm not going to argue.  I was impressed.  Because around here we like pull-aparts, I flattened the dough to 1/2 inch instead of the prescribed inch.  Then I stacked two rounds and pinched the edges to create a single unit which, once baked, was easy to pull in two again.  We ate them with sausage gravy.  I have a photo but, quite frankly, it looks disgusting.

I'll refer you here instead.  Don't worry about the URL.  It's not naughty; I promise.  Our dinner looked pretty much like that minus the bacon.  It's just that with my kitchen/dining lighting situation, photos turn out kind of yellow and unappetizing, especially when we're talking gravy.  So just trust me that it was delicious.

For the gravy:
-In a hot skillet: a bit of sausage and its fat--left from something else I cooked sausage for recently.  (It was recently, really, but I can't remember the dish.)
-Fat came up lacking so I added 2 Tbs butter.
-Added 2 Tbs flour, cooked a minute, then slowly added milk while stirring (to prevent lumps).
-Added lots of fresh-ground black pepper, some coarse salt, and a pinch of red pepper flakes.  Done!