Love, bribes and other important things.

Because it's Valentine's Day I am starting with a picture of pretty flowers courtesy of Rustin.  I would show the chocolates he sent but they are gone...

Here's what I spent the morning doing.  It made my family happy.

There are a few things I learned from my years (7+) working as a nurse and I've used a lot of those skills in my life as a mother--bandaging wounds, dosing tylenol and deciding whether injuries were ER worthy or not.  

But I learned another skill that is just as important.  What would that be you might ask?  The power of a good bribe.

It's true.  I don't know what it is about nurses and health care providers in general but there is nothing like a little food to butter them up.  If you ever find yourself or your loved one in the hospital and you want to be sure to receive good care I have a tip.  Find out whether the nurses work eight or twelve hour shift rotations and put together a basket of goodies for each shift. {Candy, lotions, popcorn--anything good.}  Night nurses will be especially impressed because usually only the day shift workers get the goodies.
I have seen the magic work many a time.

So to apply this to my life--I try to send food/treats in to Rustin's office from time to time.  Not only to make Rustin's life easier but because I really do appreciate them.
They often spend more time with him than I do and they can make things easy or miserable.

So for Valentine's Day I sent in a pan of cinnamon rolls.  I have worked many years to get these rolls just right but this time I used a little different recipe.  I used the recipe from The Pioneer Woman.  I made the dough at night and I rolled out the rolls, placed them on the pans, covered them with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out but they were awesome! I'm so glad to know that I can make the rolls ahead and still have them ready and hot in the morning.

I spread the rolls on the big pan out to where they were just barely not touching each other.  Perfect.  I smashed the rolls together in the little pan and the rolls were doughy in the middle.  I just put them back in the oven but next time I will spread them out a little bit.  

I have to say--I like my frosting recipe better than The Pioneer Woman's.  It is perfect.  Not too sweet.  Buttery.  It can make a mediocre roll heavenly.  Here we go:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbs (about) milk

melt these together in a sauce pan until everything comes to a boil.

remove from heat.

add 1 tsp vanilla 

about 2 cups powdered sugar.

Wisk until it's smooth and a little thinner than cake frosting.  Frost the rolls when they are warm so it can seep into all the nooks and crannies.

Perfect!