The best sticky buns in the world!

I made this recipe on Mother's Day and they were a hit. They were so good I cannot make them for a while because I'm the one who ate most of them! I found the recipe in Ina's Garten's Cookbook Back to Basics.

Easy Sticky Buns (makes 12) 12 tablespoons (1 & 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup pecans, chopped in very large pieces

1 package (17.3 ounces/ 2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted

FOR THE FILLING:

2 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a 12-cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the 12 tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of the mixture in each of the 12 muffin cups. Distribute the pecans evenly among the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture.

Lightly flour a wooden board or stone surface. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry with the folds going left to right. Brush the whole sheet with half of the melted butter. Leaving a 1-inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle each sheet with 1/3 cup of the brown sugar, 1½ teaspoons of the cinnamon, and ½ cup of the raisins. Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam side down. Trim the ends of the roll about ½ inch and discard. Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces, each about 1½ inches wide. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 6 of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry to make 12 sticky buns.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top and firm to the touch. Allow to cool for 5 minutes only, invert the buns onto the parchment paper (ease the filling and pecans out onto the buns with a spoon) and cool completely.

Enjoy!

Lisa

Kitchen Envy

The kitchen is the heart of the home and I love my home, but I don't really love my kitchen. It's dark wood, no hardware with tan colored marbley looking counter tops. It's nice but it's not my style. I love a large white kitchen with nickel hardware and black counter tops. The kitchen definitely needs to have an island and mine does so maybe with some paint and new hardware I can be a couple steps closer to loving the heart of my home. We'll see.

Lisa ;)

Happy Memorial Day!

These are a few of my favorite things

This is really the best brownie mix you will ever try. It's expensive but sooo worth it! Every summer I always have to buy a couple pairs of J. Crew flip flops. It just wouldn't be summer without them. They are so comfortable and hold up really well.

A girl has got to keep her lips kissable soft. I love this stuff. You can find it at Sephora and Anthropologie.

And for those weekend getaways you need a bag. An oilcloth bag from Flee to be specific. I have a couple of them and love them. I need more (yes, I said need)

Honeysuckle & Jasmine Cologne from Jo Malone. This is actually on my wish list, it smells so good!
These are just a few things that put a smile on my face. These, and three day weekends !!!!

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Lisa ;)

More Scrapping

Here are a couple more pages I did this weekend. I'm at a stand still now until the pictures that I ordered from Snapfish arrive. I also have some more scrapbook supplies coming! Some of this called Early Bird by Cosmo Cricket.

And I also got some of these new items from Jenni's line.

I plan on making one of these created by Michelle. Don't you just love it!

It will be perfect for Memorial Day and Fourth of July.I order a lot of my supplies from Two Peas in a Bucket and of course Jenni Bowlin's site. Speaking of Jenni, I am so signing up for this class at Big Pictures Scrapbooking! It's 12 weeks with Jenni, it doesn't get any better than that!

New house, new decor

Four months ago, my husband and I moved from a fixer upper in Florida, to a house that is almost perfect in Texas. Let the fun begin! Instead of installing flooring and grouting showers, I get to spend all my time thinking of ways to superficially beautify my home. Lucky me! We have a den that I'm trying to make into a nice cozy place to watch TV and movies. I found this picture holder at Sadie Olives Boutique and love it. It allows me to change the pics easily. It's always so hard trying to figure out which ones to display so this makes it easier. If your interested in having your own family sign, I got mine here on Etsy. I also found these beauties at PB a couple of weeks ago. I love how they look! I've got the whole seaside theme going on in my home. I'm probably the only house in Texas that does. I'll say the stars are a shout out to the state I'm living in now. I got the oars at the same place and think they finish off my picture wall nicely. I still need to work on some window treatments. I actually think I might make them. I have some fabric in mind, just have to go out and get it. Sewing is my least favorite crafty activity. I still need a bookcase to go under the picture holder, another side table and an ottoman/coffee table. Right now I have a leather ottoman working as the coffee table, but it doesn't really go. I suppose it wouldn't be any fun if everything was perfect right away (so I keep telling myself).

Jenni love!

I've been busy scrapbooking. I finally have lots of pics to scrap between my brother's wedding, a trip to Florida and Mother's Day. I've done a couple of pages using Jenni Bowlin's Farmer's Wife, which I LOVE (I adore Jenni, which I'm sure you can tell since this blog is mostly about her ;-). I just received her new line, Front Porch and am really excited to start playing with it. Her site is great for ideas and she has a lot of changes in the works that I'm anxious to see. I signed up for an online scrapbook class here with Doris Sander. I just discovered her. She is one of Jennie's designers and I'm loving her style too. I think a lot of my pages are starting to look the same so I need to learn some new techniques ;) Wish me luck!