Food | Glamour Connection Blog

I’m a “working mom” and also what I call a “traditional mom”. I cook dinner, volunteer in my kids classes, and have lots of cuddle reading times!

I cook dinner almost every night because I enjoy that my family can get together and talk about the day. And also, not starve. They like to eat regularly… they are weird that way.
Notice I didn’t say “I like to cook”. I can cook. I’m a great cook. I assume that I would even enjoy doing so if it weren’t an everyday thing!

With Pinterest these days you think you are crafty until you see what others make! Then you feel like you are failing the mommy craftiness.

Also, I live in Utah. The Capitol of Mommy Craftiness. FACT!
My daughter wanted a snake party and as we discussed her dislike of cake (Hmmm?) and her love of cinnamon rolls. A crafty mommy moment came to me!

So get ready this is my first non-makeup Pinterest-ready post!

I feel pretty awesome about these and took some pictures so you can follow along at home!

STEP 1:

Rhodes rolls– because making my own dough would be way over the top and over achiever-ish and who am I trying to impress?

Answer: Everyone

STEP 2:

Put two rolls together like this!

STEP 3:

Flatten your dough with your handy-dandy pampered chef rolls thingy that you bought to make your own pizza dough. Because you do that. Your that domestic.

STEP 4:

Cut in half. I used my chef knife so it would be a single cut.

STEP 5:

Mix brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon. If you want an exact amount go search Martha Stewart’s website.

STEP 6:

Smear with butter because that REALLY does make everything better.

STEP 7:

Sprinkle with sugar happiness and start rolling!

Now THAT’S a legit cinnamon roll!

STEP 8:

I poked little holes because I thought it would make a cool picture. These are for the eyes!!

STEP 9:

Cranraisen eyes! Red and very spooky.

STEP 10:

Pan of cinnamon snake rolls! I snipped the top of the snake dough with scissors to give it scales. This is where I asked myself if my daughter would notice that she had the most amazing crafty mother or not.

STEP 11:

A Cauldron of STEAMING SNAKES!!!! Ahhhhhh!!!!!!
Oh, not Halloween? Umm.. Okay, so I baked them at 350 for 18 minutes. Because that made me feel like I was my own woman (Rhodes rolls had to many words kinda like this blog post and I saw the numbers 15 and 20).

STEP 12:

Cream cheese frosting required. Because cream cheese is an ingredient of happiness.

A sight that would cause Indiana Jones to squirm a tray of slithering snakes!! Just so you know they don’t actually move…

Just so you know 21 children noticed the creativeness and ate them giddily!

ENJOY!

Sincerely,

Leta Greene AKA: Creator of the Snake Cinnamon Roll (if someone else has done so I don’t want to hear about it I’m enjoying my creative genius moment).

I made blackberry jam.

If you have never made jam you are really impressed with me right now. If you have you think I am dork for sharing. I thought it was hard. I had never done it. I had seen other over achiever perfect women hand me jam in beautiful containers. I was grateful; I licked the spoon savoring each taste because this was only going to happen when some amazing person (not a hint, unless you are going to do something about it) gave me homemade jam or I bought it at the Farmer’s Market.

It all started because my favorite person, Mr. Greene said, “I picked all the blackberries, you could make jam”. Mr. Greene thinks I am super woman, I blame me really, I am kinda awesome and I hate to disappoint him after all this time. After 15 years of marriage I have managed to keep him fooled and one of my tactics for helping him think I am amazing is telling him “Lover (that’s what I call him face to face) I’m a great wife.” Or “Lover, you really have it very good!”

One of our favorite movies is “The Edge”. Anthony Hopkins, the wilds of Alaska, a man eating bear… all very big hard things, like making blackberry jam. In the point of, ‘do we give up or fight’ Anthony Hopkins character says, “What one man (or woman) can do another man can do!” Its one of our family mantras … we Greene’s are tough, we can do this. Bears by the way like blackberries.

So… blackberry jam. I grew the blackberries. And now they are multiplying beyond what my children and the neighbor children can eat. So I did my homework … Pinterest. And whoa.. it had very few steps. “The Cake” recipe I make to look like an overachiever and was harder! I could do this! I bought the pectin, the sugar (which I have decided to forget how much sugar is involved) I made the jam. I did! No wise matronly figure was there to guide me, just Pinterest and the Pectin box. It was ‘lickably’ delicious and my friends Pam and Kent got a container of my first Blackberry jam. She is a total Martha. She makes awesome meals that are also decorated– like, well, Pinterest. And she has not called and said my jam was bad. Silence is consent. Mr. Greene is still fooled into thinking I’m amazing. What one woman can do– I can do!! Really it wasn’t as complicated or as hard as I thought it was.. a lot of things in life are that way. And often it just takes someone we trust and love to say… you can do this. I could and I did. And I was totally impressed with me. I am making my second batch soon. Unless the children, neighbor kids or bears eat all my blackberries.

You can. You could. You should do something that impresses you.

And please don’t eat my blackberries, come have a piece of multigrain toast with blackberry.jam.

Glamour Connection Blog

Spend enough time on yourself in the morning to forget about yourself the rest of the day.™

Category Archives: Food

Snake Cinnamon Rolls!

Blackberry Jam