UnRecipe: Family Time with the Prime

A while back, we played host to Mr. Wasabi's visiting brother, sister-in-law, and little girl, the Adorable Miss A. They stayed with us for a weekend for a cousin's wedding in Snohomish, which was on a perfect summer weekend. Whenever one has guests, I think everyone knows that need for preparedness, so the Prime got busy and made several things in anticipation for the visit.

Magical Animal sandwiches for dinner - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Getting several meals prepared in advance for an unknown schedule, for several people, can be a bit of a challenge. I didn't want to make anything fussy or fancy, just easy-going comfort foods that were crowd pleasers and were mindful of dietary needs. Mr. Wasabi's brother has some food allergies, so I had to be mindful of certain ingredients, peanuts being one of them. Usually when I'm trying to plan a menu for a busy weekend, these parameters come to mind: quickness to prepare and keeps well in the fridge or an airtight container. Maybe it's my crazy Wasabi-planner mind, but I had a list of things I was going to make ahead of time, and they included the following: barbecue pork shoulder sandwiches with cole slaw, fixings for green salads, blueberry scones for breakfast, fresh fruit, plenty of pre-roasted coffee, iced tea, and coffee ice cream. Several meals were pre-cooked, ready for assembly or ready to eat, right out of the crisper drawer or a plastic container. Crazy planner? Yes, I am. Blame my being the only child of an engineer.

Spotty blueberry scones for breakfast - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Of course, best-laid plans are often laid to waste, as I think we only dug into the scones, fruit and plenty of coffee, but I'd much rather adhere to the Boy Scout motto of being prepared than scrambling to throw something together from an empty refrigerator and pantry. The wedding weekend proved to be busy with family activities, which was just fine by me, as this meant more leftovers for the following week. I feel like an overabundance of food is a win/win by the Prime's standards, plus it meant barbecue pork sandwiches for several nights. And what's wrong with that?

Peachy jam pot scones from Mr. Wasabi's family - Photo by Wasabi Prime

A nice finish to the very sweet family visit was a gift of peach scone mix and peach preserves from Mr. Wasabi's brother's family. Much thanks to the deliciously thoughtful host gift. I made them the following week, inspired by the jam pots from the Grand Central Baking Book that I received from a thoughtful aunt. I made the scone mix according to the bag, but instead of cutting them into the typical scone shape, I made little round pots and filled them with the preserves before baking. It was a nice way to pre-jam one's scones and made them an easy bring-along later in the week when I met up with some friends for a morning movie. Hooray for a fun family weekend, plenty of leftovers, jam pot scones, and Friday morning movies!

OMG a Recipe: the Fast, the Furious and the Frozen

When the Prime has a food-related bee in her bonnet, she goes Wasabi-Wild. I had made ice cream before, but a somewhat faulty ice cream churner paddle had prevented me from making more homemade delights. Finding out the paddle's defective crack wasn't enough to keep us from making frozen dessert goodness was the green light for my Fast and Furious Ice Cream Madness.

Peanut buttery vegan goodness with critter-friendly ice cream! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I know making ice cream isn't difficult. It's downright easy, it just requires a bit of time and patience in between steps. But once you get into the groove and get used to the time needed to make frozen delights, it easily becomes an obsession towabds trying new flavorc and combinations every week. It started out with beer ice cream for me. I was developing a beer-flavored ice cream recipe, and I had a basic frozen custard recipe, which consists of: 3 cups half and half or cream, 1 cup of sugar and three eggs. That's pretty much it. Vanilla extract is optional, depending on the flavoring, and the sky's the limit for adding new ingredients to modify it. You have to heat up the custard to about 170 degrees to make sure the eggs are cooked but not scrambled, and you strain the mixture to get rid of any eggy bits, but once you add whatever extra flavoring or fruit of your choice and let it cool, it goes straight into the ice cream maker and then into a container to finish off in the freezer.

Coffee you can eat with a spoon - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I started out with a reduction of a Scotch Ale for the beer ice cream, then made a coffee-flavored ice cream with leftover coffee. I moved into frozen yogurt territory, mixing frozen berries with yogurt and milk -- that actually froze up so hard, the paddle couldn't turn, so it took some elbow grease to scrape it out. An excess of buttermilk and fresh blueberries led me to try a blueberry/buttermilk combination which ended up being like a berry cheesecake ice cream (yes, please!), and I even dared to tread into the vegan domain of soy ice cream for some visiting friends who are lactose intolerant. I was happy to say that the soy milk set up just fine, no weird separations or especially large ice crystals. I made a peanut butter soy ice cream, using the peanut butter as the fat content that the eggs would have normally supplied for the custard. For the base vegan custard, I went with the basic recipe from Post Punk Kitchen. The resulting dessert ended up being a favorite, as scoops of the peanut butter ice cream, drizzled with a bit of chocolate sauce and plain peanuts, with a dash of salt to kick up the savory, was a home-run dessert hit.

Like a berry cheesecake, but frozen - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I'm enjoying how flexible the base recipe is, whether it's dairy or vegan-ized. I'm already thinking of new flavor combinations to try with different ingredients like lavender, ginger, honey, mint, and maybe... just maybe... I'll creep into the realm of savory ice creams. Blame it on Iron Chef, but like I said, when this Wasabi has a bee in her bonnet -- look out!

Weapons of Brain Freeze destruction! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Wasabi for One

The Prime was on her own for a few days when Mr. Wasabi was off on a business trip in the faraway lands of Germany for a video game conference. Yes, they really do have those, and you can see a photo of Mr. Wasabi, aka, Brock, the third photo down on IndieGameSoup's post on Gamescom, looking very tired but smiling anyways.  As for myself and Miss Indy, the fuzzy pup, were happily remaining on the homefront. Because it's just me, myself and I, it's Dinner for One, which means quickie meals that don't require a lot of fuss or dirty dishes.

Farmers market goodies fit for roasting - Photo by Wasabi Prime

One of the easy dinner-for-one meals I do is roasted vegetable burritos. I know, it sounds bacheloriffic, something that would likely fit a college student, and maybe it is, but it's a meal where I can roast up all the vegetables ahead of time and dole it out, one meal at a time. It works for breakfast, lunch or dinner and you only need a plate to microwave it, all wrapped up in a whole wheat tortilla. I know that sounds uninspired but when I'm cooking for just myself, I don't really "treat" myself since I know any mess I make, I have to clean up myself, so the only treat is not having to do much in the way of dirty dishes.

On the plus side, the roasted vegetable burrito is a nice way to take advantage of fresh veggies from the market. Pattypan squash, aka UFO squash, as I like to call them, are both adorable, colorful and delicious. They roast up nicely and don't require much prep -- just cut off the stem, slice into chunks and roast with some salt, pepper and oil. I had some pretty thin-skinned eggplant as well, so it made for a pleasant mix of vegetables, along with some black beans and shredded cheese.

Dinner for one is surprisingly fun - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Stay tuned for more Wasabi-for-One meals, as I did several easy solo meals. A house to myself is weirdly quiet, but it's kind of nice having the space to myself for a few days. I watched girlie things like Ses and the City without shame, stayed up way too late reading in bed without a mumble to turn off the light and more than a few pasta carbonara dinners. Consider it a stay-at-home vacation to indulge in my Secret Single Behavior.

UnRecipe: The Salad Days of Summer

Weather can affect everything, even what you feel like eating and cooking. Or not cooking when it comes to the case of the odd summer days of sweaty heat. I'll go through periodic salad binges, usually when it's too hot to turn on the stove and when it's too busy to think about what the heck to make for dinner. A produce shopping spree resulted in bags of fresh greens, a multitude of vegetables, and a few different options for salads, leading to the satisfying result that yes, a salad can indeed be a meal.

Fancy chop-chop salad, Wasabi style - Photo by Wasabi Prime

One of my favorite salads to order is a chopped salad. I know it seems like a weird thing to call "a favorite." It's literally random bits of cold cuts, veggies, maybe some garbanzo beans, and romaine lettuce, Slap-Chopped into oblivion and served up at the price of an entree. I'm fairly sure restaurants would just call that "leftovers," but hey, it's tasty. I think I mostly like it because it's a mix of favorite flavors and textures - salty, fatty, creamy, with a nice crunch. It's also pretty easy to prepare at home, as all you basically need is a giant crisper full of random veggies and some lunchmeat. For this at-home version, I put an extra ooh-la-lah on it by roasing some roma tomatoes and stuffing with herbed goat cheese. I had some extra pesto made from our surplus of garden herbs -- always a nice plus -- and just mixed it with some goat cheese. Stuffed in halved/seeded roma tomatoes, they roasted nicely and made the chopped salad a bit more hefty.

Because this is an UnRecipe post, for the Wasabi Chopped Salad special, the ingredients that got chopped up included: romaine lettuce, cucumbers, salami, ham, Asiago cheese, red peppers, tomatoes, pepperocini, kalamata olives (sometimes), and a hefty sprinkle of garbanzo beans. For something this flavorful, I just drizzle the bottom of a metal bowl with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, some salt and pepper, and whisk it before tossing all the ingredients in to fully toss and coat. The roasted goat cheese-stuffed tomataoes are of course optional, but it's a nice way to dress up a salad to make it more of a full meal.

A cobb-ish salad for dinner - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Another meal-sized salad that uses most of the same ingredients is a cobb salad. I have my own Wasabi-style that may or may not include avocado, depending on whether or not I have it handy. I think the only thing that really makes my at-home salad somewhat cobb-ish is the boiled egg and some crumbled blue cheese. For this UnRecipe cobb salad, it tends to include chopped romaine, English cucumber (I hate seeding/peeling), ham, turkey, Provolone, chopped tomatoes, boiled egg, blue cheese and crumbles of bacon. For this salad, I tend to use my kitchen shortcuts, which is to say I boil the eggs ahead of time, usually four or five at a time, and instead of cooking the bacon in a skillet, I lay a couple of slices between paper towels and microwave them till crisp -- usually about four minutes in our microwave. The quickie dressing I use is a honey mustard vinaigrette, which has a squeeze of honey, salt and pepper, a dollop of dijon mustard, a splash of vinegar, and whisked with some olive oil to emulsify the whole bit. I do this in a large metal bowl first, trying to coat the sides before all the chopped ingredients go in, so it helps distribute the dressing better.

Overall, salads for dinner are a nice way to have a big meal without feeling stupid full afterwards. My eyes are often bigger than my stomach, but at least with a giant pile of chopped veggies and some protein, it works out nicely for dinner, my doctor is happy I get my roughage, and I have the indulgence of having a bit of bacon or cured meats for dinner. I know it sounds like a lot of ingredients to have on-hand and chop for a single salad, but to save on time, you can slice up things like the meat or cheese ahead of time and keep in a container. Chopped cucumber and bell peppers can be pre-chopped and stay fresh for maybe a couple of days. For the most part, it's a relatively quick preparation for an all-in-one meal, and it's a relief to not have to turn on the stove on a hot summer day.

Salads make for happy meals - Photo by Wasabi Prime

FoodTrek: Sun-Tannin at Pour on the Plaza

I think the weather gods were making up for last year's Pour on the Plaza wine event, where the skies were cloudy and threatened rain, by moving the sun just a smidge closer to Earth's orbit, creating perfectly sparkling blue skies and casting the Heat of Gibraltar on the crowds of Bellevue's annual outdoor wine soiree. But hey, we Pacific Northwesterners are used to gilding dark clouds with precious-metal linings -- it was hot, we pushed our sunblocked-slathered skin to the limit, but we praised the good weather and it just gave everyone an excuse to try more white wines versus our typical leanings towards reds. Take that, record-breaking heatwave! Now, hold on while I go sit in a bath of icewater.

Pour on the Plaza: The Sequel - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I ain't gonna lie, it was damn hot. I feel the need to raise a virtual glass to the fine people at Neutrogena for making their Helioplex super-sunblock, SPF Hojillion, for letting my limbs escape un-scorched from hours' spent in the direct sunlight, sans re-application, despite all my mother's mindful warnings. It was one less thing to worry about as I wandered about with my co-pilot, Ms. StyleJustBe who joined me on this mystical magical wine tour. Hosted again by the Masters of the Steak Universe, El Gaucho, they took advantage of the incredibly pristine grassy lawn that's outside their Bellevue restaurant location and set up long rows of tents that housed over twenty different local winemakers, offering up samples of their signature vintages.

We got there when it first opened - the early bird gets the vino! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

An event like Pour on the Plaza is especially nice because several of the wines offered are ones that are often only available at restaurants. And since so many wineries are located across the state, along with their tasting rooms, it's a rare opportunity to sample them and discover new favorites. I enjoyed a mix of wines made from both sides of the state, including creations by Dunham Cellars in Walla Walla, Fidelitas from Benton City, Darby Winery from Woodinville, Woodhouse Family Cellars in Woodinville, Sparkman Cellars in Woodinville, Efeste in Woodinville, and Corliss Estates from Walla Walla. There were of course several more wineries, which you can see the full list on El Gaucho's event page here, but those were just some of the wineries I particularly liked and had been meaning to sample outside of my usual favorites.

I'll drink to that... and that... and that! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Hey, Wasabi, this is a food blog! Don't get all wine-o on us! What was the food like? To help balance the many samplings of buttery chardonnays and sweetly floral rosés, the event provides a hearty sampling of appetizers. El Gaucho of course had platters of meaty offerings, including skewers of steak with an herbed chimichurri style sauce, seasoned prawns, roasted pepper salad bites and mushroom tartlets. Waterfront Seafood Grill had taro chips with cool bites of tuna tartare. Wild Ginger had these lovely and addictive fried shrimp dumplings that were cooked in a giant wok, served with a sweet and sour sauce. Palomino went Italiano-style to go with the red wines, offering spicy meatballs as well as elegant little carrot and hummus bites. Neiman Marcus' Mariposa took care of dessert with their rich bread pudding, creamy mini key lime pies, and their signature chocolate chip cookies (with recipe, of course). Wine bar Grand Cru offered up a signature wine cocktail of bubbly fresh peach Bellinis, which were very popular in the summer heat.

That's a real spicy meat-a-ball! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I forgot to take a photo, but kudos to the genius decision of using recycle-friendly appetizer plates that had a little circular cut-out that's meant to insert one's wine glass. They basically looked like these wineglass holder plates. It was a great and thoughtful idea that deserves noting and a head's up to anyone planning a big wine-themed event.

Overall, the different food pairings were a lovely and diverse mix that went well with the different wines. There was something for everyone to snack on in between sips and I especially liked the addition of more restaurants to go with the return of last year's great choices. Kudos to the musical talents of Brian Nova for performing for a second year and giving the crowd cool sounds to beat the heat.

Sweet and savory bites to cushion the many glasses of vino - Photos by Wasabi Prime

This year's event supported the charity Room to Read, so proceeds from the event went towards the cause of education for children in developing countries. It always feels extra good to know you're raising a glass for a good cause. Another nice thing about the event, was the chance to run into so many fellow foodie-fans. It was great to see the gang of 425 Magazine there, Bellevue Local Table, the busy folks of Bellevue Wine Storage, and the chef and blog talents of Eric Rivera as well as his lovely wife, Mindy, who I was glad to finally meet in person! I'm sorry if I missed seeing any other foodie folks there; it was a busy afternoon and I think we were all hopping from one shady spot to another!

Musical guest, Brian Nova, and hot Harleys for a hot day - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Much Wasabi Thanks to El Gaucho of Bellevue for making Pour on the Plaza happen for a second year in a row, all the amazing winemakers, the delicious restaurants and of course the crowds who braved the heat for a good cause. *Cheers*

Mixed Plate: Teatime With Wasabi

One of the benefits of having a garden full of fragrant herbs is you'll most likely wind up with excess, which can certainly be used in a pesto sauce, but I wanted to try something different: oven-drying aromatics and making custom mixes of herbal teas!

Call me Ms. T, where the T stands for... well, Tea - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Admittedly, this has been a longterm project that I've been working with since early spring -- our lemon balm and mint perked up and really went crazy, so I was snipping leaves from those first. I do regular walks on the trail that runs through Duvall, which has tons of greenery growing wild, including wild roses. My green-thumbed friend, Ms. SSG had talked about using rose hips before, so I started plucking the very heavily scented flowers, along with the buds. After much nitpicky labor, the flowers and buds were cleaned, separated and washed. Everything was put on sheets of parchment paper and dried at the lowest setting on the oven, just around 170 degrees Fahrenheit.

The bright and fresh "before" pics of mint, lemon balm and rose hips - Photos by Wasabi Prime

For small leafy things, it takes maybe three to four hours of low, slow oven drying. The parchment paper is key, as the leaves will definitely want to stick to everything as they dry and my Silpats always feel forever oily and I didn't want that getting into the leaves. Overall, the rose hips were surprisingly strong in terms of flavor; I thought the small handful of dried petals wouldn't yield much, but it definitely added a surprise punch of sweet fragrance. The mint and lemon balm seemed to mellow considerably through the drying process, so for the ratios of flavor, I'd say go heavy with the mint and lemon balm, but light with rose hips. This first batch of home DIY tea was just mint, lemon balm and rose hips, making a pretty mild herbal tea.

OK, get all those t-bag jokes out of your system, I know you want to - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The second attempt had different ingredients -- ginger and citrus rind, along with the same usual minty/lemon balm suspects, although this round yielded rosebuds along with the petals. The warmer temperature was producing smaller flowers and more buds, which I unceremoniously pulled off as many plants as I could. At the risk of getting lots of weird sidelong glances by joggers passing by, I probably plucked a few cups' worth of rosebuds. I had extra ginger and saved the rind from a couple of lemons and an orange, so I loaded up the oven with everything for another drying session. The ginger and citrus rind took longer to fully dry, nearly double the time of the leafy herbs.

Rosy buds and a good use for extra ginger and citrus rind - Photos by Wasabi Prime

This time I put all the ingredients in separate plastic bags, so that I can custom-mix each brew. As the summer gets more into swing, I'm thinking more along the lines of iced teas or even fragrant cocktails and unique seltzers. I'd still brew the mixture of aromatics like a tea, but then chill, flavor with simple syrup or honey and carbonate, or just introduce the herbal elixir to my dear friend vodka. I'm also hoping to stockpile the dried aromatics for beer brewing, as Mr. Wasabi has been feeling the itch to brew again, and many recipes call for citrus rind. The nice thing about drying your own aromatics is once you get that liquid out properly and store it somewhere dry, they'll last quite a while and can have multiple uses.

I'm hoping to get lavender from our garden to have a nice stockpile of it for teas or baking. I'm already dreaming of a rose hip and mint shortbread, or a lemony lavender tea cookie! Stay tuned to see what other experiments come out of Wasabi Kitchen Stadium!

Kampai to ghetto-fabulous herbal teas! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

FoodTrek: Wasabi's Journey to the Ninth Island

According to most geographical references, Hawaii is an archipelago of eight main islands, along with a few smaller surrounding islands. But the books don't realize there is an Ninth Island. Geographers and volcanologists' ears are perking up, wondering, "What's this?! Is there an underwater volcano creating an instant island as we speak?" Perhaps some mad scientist of James Bondian proportion, creating some nefarious hideout in the Pacific? Or perhaps we're still on Lost withdrawal and suspecting the Dharma Group is somehow involved. Not so much. The Ninth Island is, in fact, on the Mainland. And it's called Las Vegas.

Greetings from Bat Country - Photo by Wasabi Prime

OK, Wasabi, WTF? I pinky-swears, it's totally effin' true. I cross my heart and hope to die of eating too much Spam Musubi, Las Vegas is like a second home to many folks from Hawaii, where some folks (usually retired) will fly off to Nevada as often as once a month. You figure, when we of the Mainland-borne wish to escape our humdrum lives, we imagine the sandy beaches of Waikiki -- but what about the people in Hawaii? Don't they deserve a far off destination vacation that offers them a garden of earthly delights? And midnight oxtail soup?

Bright lights, big city... and buffets - Photos by Wasabi Prime

It's an odd combination of things that makes Las Vegas the unofficial "Ninth Island" of Hawaii, but the straight dope is, there is no Aloha spirit for gambling in the 50th state -- it's all illegal. There's not even a state lottery. But this doesn't change the fact that Hawaii people love to roll the bones. I don't know if it's the concentration of Asians and our obsession with luck and the money-lined Hand of Fate, but that's just how they roll in Hawaii, preferably with dice in-hand. Las Vegas has always been a playground for grown-ups, and it took the business-savvy thinking of fellows like the late Sam Boyd, who owned several downtown Vegas casinos, to make the connection between the love of gambling and enticing the vacationing Hawaii folks to his casinos by offering Island comfort foods and vacation packages customized for Hawaii travelers. For the most part, the Hawaii visitors tend to stay downtown and avoid the glitzier, more expensive Strip, plus the Boyd-owned casinos get people hooked into their comp systems and one tends to stay where one has freebies. Hawaii folks mean business -- they come to gamble, and more to the point, they come to win.

Hawaii or Vegas? Only the Fried Twinkies can say... - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Segway to the Wasabi mama and papa-san. They were in Sin City for my dad's college reunion; he went to an engineering school back in the swingin' sixties that attracted a lot of young men from Hawaii looking to conquer the world, armed with only a pocket protector and a slide rule. Funny thing is, the school was in California, not Hawaii, but since it was an unofficial reunion of mostly local guys from The Big Island, having it at the California Hotel is close enough... right? I decided to crash the reunion, since it offered up the opportunity to visit my good friend and partner in crime, the Angry Peanut, my best friend from college days who is now a Nevada resident. We spent one night visiting with the alumni of the Northop Institute of Technology and scamming on their buffet, which consisted of local favorites like kalua pork, macaroni salad, teriyaki beef, and plenty of rice. Plus one of the lovely wives of my dad's classmates brought homemade manju, which is a flaky pastry with a sweet bean filling. I know I'm supposed to be a food blogger/photographer, but this was also my vacation, so I didn't take as many food photos as I probably should have, mostly because I was too busy om-nomming it.

It really did feel like a mini vacation in Hawaii, as I could indulge in my favorite Island grindz, like saimin, Portuguese sausage with eggs for breakfast, Lappert's ice cream and a bottle of shoyu on every table. It was a reminder of how Vegas is a city of facsimile, with an uncanny ability to mimic so many places and regions of the world. I don't get drawn into the fake Venice or the fake Paris, but I do find an odd comfort when I stay at the more low-key downtown area of Las Vegas, hearing all the local Pidgin and eating familiar comfort foods that are cooked the way locals like it.

Welcome to the Hotel California, class of 2010 - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I'm not much of a gambler, so when I wasn't visiting with my parents, getting free drinks as they played video poker, I was hopping bingo parlors with Peanut or seeing movies to escape the insane summer heat. We spent minimal time on the Strip, visiting the summer garden display at the Bellagio, and seeing the light show on Fremont Street while avoiding getting pickpocketed, but the main purpose of the trip was to reconnect, with both friends and family, even if it was at a place where I'd giggle every time I saw "Loose Slots."

Much thanks to the Wasabi Parents who let us mooch off their comps, and clearly had The Force with them over the weekend as they both won jackpots. Much Wasabi Thanks to the reunion group for letting me crash their party. And many thanks to Angry Peanut, for showing her Wasabi Pal a rockin' good time in Bat Country.

UnRecipe: Carb-o-tronic

I don't have a wheat intolerance, but I'm fairly sure I gave my system the shock of its life a while back when I went on a baking spree. This was actually a while back when the weather was a lot cooler and it actually felt good to keep the oven going, to keep the house feeling cozy. The result were baked goods that include Buttermilk Orange Marmalade Scones and Buttermilk Cinnamon Buns. *Burp* So delicious.

Sconed Love - Photo by Wasabi Prime

The scones had a good, legitimate reason for coming to be on this planet. It was a friend's birthday and I thought it would be nice to give something homemade. It's also the gracious gift-giving solution when one is broke-as-a-joke, but can at least offer useful skills like making baked treats. I included a little jar of butter whipped with the marmalade, to make it that much more citrusy and to guarantee that scurvy will never affect this Birthday Girl. For the scones, I used this Dried Cherry Buttermilk Scones recipe from Gourmet, by way of Epicurious -- minus the dried cherries, and with a few spoonfuls of the orange marmalade. Admittedly, I was the bad baker and just eyeballed the marmalade addition, and then threw in an extra tablespoon of flour or two, to offset the additional liquid. Terrible, terrible, I know. But they came out fine, as I did several taste-tests before giving away the tin of buttery scone goodness to my friend.

You can never buy just the amount of buttermilk you need. You always wind up with extra. There's some Cardinal rule that this will happen, no matter what -- deal with it. So what do you do? Make buttermilk cinnamon rolls, of course. Duh, right?! Aside from one baking shenanigan enabling yet another carby misadventure, it's worth the calories as the house smells amazing when you bake cinnamon rolls. I'm sure using the tee-hee-cannibalistic Pillsbury Doughboy's cylinder of premade dough will make your house smell just as cinnamony-good, but the proof is in the resulting baked treat as you get a more flavorful dough and that made-from-scratch warm fuzzy feeling after doing all the work yourself. I pulled this recipe from my old web-pal AllRecipes.com, using this basic Buttermilk Cinnamon Roll Recipe.

Eat this, Pillsbury Doughboy! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Sure, these Wasabi-made rolls didn't have the bakery-perfect roundish-squarish shape of a proper cinnamon bun. But damn it all if they didn't taste rootin'-tootin' good. I had an excess of marmalade butter, so used that in place of plain butter for the filling, so it made for a more citrusy-flavored center. For the glaze, I used the last bit of buttermilk, making it more tart, like a sweetened goat cheese. That may sound a little gross, but it was quite nice, like a cinnamon, citrus, doughy cheesecake. Overall it was a cinnamon roll that was more flavorful without that overwhelming sugar-sweetness, as most store-bought pastries tend to be. I look forward to cooler temperatures returning later in the year, so that I can revisit this recipe and indulge once again!