My mama's cinnamon rolls

So my parents came up in August to stay a night and take my three youngest nephews to the Twin Cities. My folks arrived at about 6, we were at mine and hubby's favorite pizza place by about 6:30 and at around 8:30, when you would think that all of us should be in a carb coma, I decided to enlist my mom's help to make the cinnamon rolls I remember her making when I was a kid.

Don't get me wrong, you're not going to learn any family secrets in this particular post. In fact, this post goes back to the philosophy I started this blog with ... simple recipes for lazy people. But it goes to show that favorite memories don't have to involve extravagant vacations, money spent on really choice ingredients, etc. For me, all I need is some frozen bread dough, a soft stick of butter and some peanut butter and I have a little piece of paradise.

Oh - and since this is my mom's recipe, there are no measurements ... you just gotta wing it.
Mama's Cinnamon Rolls
by Mama Sharon

2 loaves frozen bread dough, thawed and processed according to instructions.
1 stick of butter
cinnamon
sugar
Peanut Butter Frosting
1/4 c. confectioner's sugar
1/2 c. smooth peanut butter (use chunky and I will hunt you down)
milk ... eyeball it - you're gonna want about 2 T to start with

Preheat your oven to 375-ish.

Once you get to the point where you've raised the dough, kneaded it, etc., grab a rolling pin and some flour. It's time to roll your dough out into something that resembles a rectangle. (And yes, I made my mom do this because I SUCK at using my rolling pin.) Got a large rectangular shape? Good. Now grab your soften stick of butter. Mama Sharon used salted butter, I use unsalted - I guess it really doesn't matter. Spread butter all over your rectangle of dough - not too much, not too little. You're looking for even coverage and something to bind the cinnamon and sugar to the dough. So then you can be like my mom and sprinkle the dough with sugar THEN cinnamon, or you could be a wee bit anal retentive like me and mix your cinnamon and sugar together (2 parts sugar to 1 part cinnamon - what you don't use in the rolls can be turned into cinnamon toast ...). Sprinkle sugar/cinnamon all over and then using the LONG side of the dough, roll the dough into a cylindrical shape. And now you will cut said cylinder into little ... rolls. And if you have a three year old like me in the house, you will give into her demands and give her the little end piece of raw bread dough in sincere hopes that she will be quiet. Put the rolls into a warm place and let them do one more rise - Mom and I were impatient on Friday night, so we didn't let them raise as much as they could have. Depending on the temperature, a half hour should do?

Bake until golden brown. While the little rolls of love are baking, grab a bowl and start mixing up the piece de resistance of this dish - the peanut butter frosting. Again, this is one of those things that you eyeball and taste until the consistency is right. While the rolls are still warm, go ahead and frost 'em.

Like I said - it's not the most glamorous dish that you're ever going to make for company, but it reminds me of my childhood and some of those happiest baking times when my mom was getting ready for the church's Fall Festival. We had a huge floor vent for our home's furnace and she'd line up her baking pans and bread pans on the vent for baking day.

I don't care how good of a cook I become - nothing tastes better than my mom's home cooking.