Happy New Year!

Let’s talk about everything I made in the last two weeks of 2024 instead of my lofty goals for 2025.

I made these Rosemary Potato Rolls from King Arthur twice. The first time was to go with my Christmas Eve lasagna. The inspiration was the recipe on the back of the potato flour bag. And wow, wow, wow, they were so good. Hence making them twice. I made them again for Friendsmas. The pro move there was to slice them open (still warm, of course), put a piece of brie and prosciutto inside, and add a drizzle of hot honey. And MAN! You are in business. The business of deliciousness.

Let me briefly tell you about this lasagna, even though this post is cutely named “Rolling with it”. I got this lasagna recipe from a magazine. It uses no ricotta, which is great, because I invited my cousin over, and she does not like ricotta at all. Instead, it uses cottage cheese! Now, of course, me being me, I had to tweak it a bit. The original recipe just called for regular cottage cheese, but that wouldn’t fly, so I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and fresh dried basil. And instead of my cottage cheese going in cold, I warmed it up a bit in the microwave so it got a little frothy and melty.

And speaking of melty, those pools on top? Slices of mozzarella! Not only were they on top of the lasagna, but also in the middle! Don’t worry; there was enough of everything leftover. I made a tiny lasagna to put up in the freezer.

Now traditionally, I make a french toast casserole for Christmas Day, but there was a slight change of plans this year so I was unable to do that. Never fear, dear readers. I made up for it because after Christmas I made King Arthur’s recipe bake of the week features for Dec: Chocolate Babka Buns. OMG.

Please look at this chocolate perfection. It was a bit of a process, but it was so worth it. We ate them for 3 days straight.

I was smart and made the dough the day before, and then the day of, I rolled it out, filled it, shaped it, cut it, and waited forever before I could eat it. Making the dough ahead of time did help though. I will say it was maybe a tad tight while I was kneading it in the mixer and probably could’ve done with a pinch more milk. But overall they ended up rolling out just fine.

I mean, you can’t even tell there were any issues! Look at those swirls!! Take that bakery cinnamon rolls!! I am a true wunderkind at rolling. And do you want to know what makes them so shiny? It’s a delicious sugary glaze that’s been infused with orange zest. DROOL. You have the hint of orange with the chocolate, plus the filling. OMG. Maybe I should make them again this weekend…

So here is where I should probably maybe potentially set myself some goals for the new year, but as we are aware, I am not too good at doing that. So instead, I’m just going to hope for the best, and I will see you when I see you. I will say that I am feeling pretty confident with the writing and the baking, and I may or may not have added a few more arts and crafts and hobbies to my repertoire that I could blog about. I am brimming with creation.

2025 is for the arts people!!!
XOXO, gossip girl