Orange Sweet Rolls

We don't eat a lot of bread around here but these are perfect for a special occasion. If you enjoy the cinnamon rolls in the tube at the grocery store, you will like these even better. And even if you don't like them, you might like these, they weren't doughy or artificial tasting like their processed counterparts, they had just the right amount of sweetness. What is really great is that I found that this dough is easy to work with, I've tried other recipes and have found the dough difficult to roll out or the end result was tough and chewy. I used orange but I think they would be great with lemon as well. Next year, I plan on trying this when Meyer lemons are in season. You can find the recipe here, on Lauren's Latest.

St. Patrick's Day Breakfast

 For St. Patrick's day breakfast, I decided to make McCann's Irish Oatmeal in my crockpot overnight. Many bloggers have said that the best way to keep the oatmeal from burning at the edges is to put an oven safe bowl inside the crockpot on foil or canning rings and fill about half way with water. I have also read that there is some issue with cracking when the two pots are not separated, hence the foil or rings. So here is the setup...

 This cooked about 9 hours, and this is what it looked like in the morning. You can't see it here, but mine is sitting on about 4 large canning rings. And yes, that is a souffle dish.

Ingredients:
1 cup steel cut oats
4 cups water
2 small apples, peeled an diced
1/4 c pecans, chopped
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2  c. maple syrup or brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg, you can use more but I'm not wild about nutmeg
pinch of salt

Just follow the set-up for the crockpot that I described, or not, if you are feeling rebellious. It's your crockpot, so do what ye like. Mix everything together in an oven proof bowl and put it in the crockpot on low for at least 8 hours. You could add raisins or more apples, even more sweetener if you like. 'Twill be ready in the morning.