Mmm Mmm Monkey Cake

It's Christmas Eve day, so what am I doing?  Making monkey cake of course!  It's our traditional Christmas morning breakfast.  It meets all my requirements for a special family breakfast:  it's yummy, it's sweet, everybody likes it, and it's easy.  I've been reading a book about healthy eating and I think we should do that.  But not today.  I got this recipe from my dear mother-in-law, and here's how you do it:

In a saucepan, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup of butter.  This makes the lovely, ooey, gooey syrup that goes over the whole thing.  Just put in on low and stir it now and then while you're working on the monkey part of the cake.  (I don't know what it has to do with monkeys and it doesn't look or taste like a cake to me, but that's what it is what it is.)

Oh, you might want to turn your oven on to 350 now.  My oven takes a long time to heat up, so I give it plenty of time.  You can be creative with this next part.  I used to put the cinnamon sugar mixture in a plastic bag or plastic container with a lid.  Now I just mix 2/3 cup of sugar with a teaspoon of cinnamon in a regular old bowl.  You'll need this in a minute.  Just let it sit there.  And stir that pan on the stove!

Then open one of your four cans of Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits.  Yes, you can use the generic ones if you want.  I trust Pillsbury, so that's what I'm going with for Christmas.  Don't you love the "pop" when they open?  It used to scare me, but now I can remain quite calm.

Then cut up the biscuits into quarters.  When the kids were little I would have them help with various parts of this operation and it seemed to take a long time.  It's actually a pretty quick process!

Then drop a bunch of the cut up biscuits in your bowl of cinnamon sugar and toss them around a little.  I like to use a slotted spoon sort of thing and just scoop them out when they're coated.  

Deposit those delightful morsels into a pan of some sort.  Bundt pans were a necessity in every kitchen in the 70s and 80s, but I always had stickage problems with mine, so I got rid of it.  A bundt monkey cake looks lovely, but now I use two regular loaf pans instead.

Stir your syrup on the stove!  Then keep cutting and coating 'til all four tubes of biscuits are done.  Now you're ready for the syrup.  It should be all melted and simmered together by now.  The butter tends to float on top of the melted sugar and that's okay.  Just pour it over your biscuits.

My word, that looks good, doesn't it?

Pop 'em in the oven and set your timer for 25 minutes.  Now do your dishes.  Don't let them pile up. You may hate doing it now, but you'll hate it more later.  

Since the dishwashing didn't take very long, you might as well balance your checkbook... and get something ready to dump your monkey cake on when you take it out of the oven.  You must dump it out upside down IMMEDIATELY before the syrup starts to stiffen up.  If I'm serving it right away, I plop it out onto a plate, but since this will be waiting for tomorrow, and I'll want to warm it up in the oven then, I'm going to put mine on a sheet of foil ontop of a cooling rack.  Is ontop really not a word?  It should be.  Upon is one word, so why not ontop?

It might take longer than 25 minutes to get done.  It should be plenty brown on top.  When you think it's done, just turn out your monkey cake and make sure you scrape out any delicious syrup which may still be clinging to the pan-- the more that ends up on your cake, the better!

I should warn you that if you try to eat some too soon, you may very well burn your fingers and your tongue.  I know what I'm talking about.

The whole recipe appears below at the bottom of this blog.

Merry Christmas everyone.  Of course it's not about the sweets or the gifts or even family-- it's about our wonderful, wonderful Savior, Jesus.  Don't forget to sing happy birthday to Him tomorrow!

MONKEY CAKE

4 cans buttermilk biscuits

2/3 c. sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

Syrup:

½ c. sugar

½ c. brown sugar

¾ c. butter

Combine 2/3 c. sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon in bowl or plastic bag.  Either cut each biscuit into quarters OR leave whole and shake or roll biscuits in sugar mixture.  If left whole, line up in loaf pans in 2 rows of 10 biscuits each per pan.  If cut up, put half in each loaf pan or all in one bundt pan.

In saucepan, combine ½ c. sugar, ½ c. brown sugar and butter.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Pour over biscuits.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  Turn out onto a plate immediately.  Serve warm.

I Am Always Right

I am always right.  I know the best way to organize a kitchen cupboard.  I know whether you need to wear a coat outside.  I know that in stores with high and low racks, they should put the large sizes way up there on the high rack (for all the tall people who wear those sizes) and put the smalls and mediums on the bottom rack where I can actually reach the hangers!  I know that people should stay in front of or behind their shopping carts and NOT beside them thus blocking the grocery aisle.

Alas, the world does not cooperate.  Stores continue to put the small sizes on very high racks.  Clumps of people clog the grocery store aisles.  “Kids” refuse to wear coats (they may be 20-something, but they’re still kids.) 

I’ve known for quite some time that my life would be easier if I would accept the fact that the world does not revolve around me or my wishes.  So today I’m going to try to cut people some slack.  I’m going to allow people to disagree with me.  I’m even going to be patient with all those indecisive people jamming the store aisles.  Maybe I should start out by asking God what He wants instead of telling Him what I want.  Wouldn’t my family be surprised to hear those little-used words come out of my mouth—“Well, have it your way, then”?

This doesn't have anything to do with anything.  It's just funny and cute. Am I right?  

I was inspired to write this blog by today's (December 21) entry in the "God Calling" devotional.

Children, take every moment as of My Planning and ordering. Remember your Master is the Lord of the day's little happenings. In all the small things yield to My gentle pressure on your arm. Stay or go, as that pressure, Love's pressure, indicates....

And when things do not fall out according to your plan, then smile at Me indulgently, a smile of Love, and say, as you would to a human loved one, "Have Your way then" -- knowing that My loving response will be to make that way as easy for your feet as it can be.

Website for the God Calling devotional online

The Weak and Lowly

It's Christmas time!  I can tell because there are lots of sparkly lights everywhere, the Wal-Mart parking lot is packed all the time, and my credit card balance is... up  (don't worry, we pay it off in full every month-- and we will this month too).  But that kind of gift-and-glitz holiday is not the Christmas we Christians really need.  That's just the Christmas we get caught up in-- the one causing me to bake dozens of sand tarts and peanut blossoms.

The Christmas we truly need to celebrate is the one where God became a man and walked among us.  He became somehow fully human even while He was fully God.  Emmanuel-- God with us.  A supernatural, supremely powerful, completely authoritative creator, and a radiant redeemer, all wrapped up in a tiny little package of a fragile vulnerable baby boy-- Jesus.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;

 he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: 

You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.  

Luke 2:11-12

God, in a helpless baby's body.  Incredible!  Why would He do such a thing?  I think one reason He would do this is so He can identify with the lowest and least of the people He created and loves.  God couldn't have chosen to become much lower than becoming a helpless baby born into scandal and abject poverty, forced to use an animal's feed trough for his first bed.

And things didn't get a lot better for him as an adult.

He was despised and rejected by mankind,

    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.  

Isaiah 53:3

You see, Jesus was very familiar with pain and grief and suffering.  When we hurt and grieve and suffer, He hurts and grieves and suffers with us.  

Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,

 which stood against us and condemned us; 

he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.  

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, 

he made a public spectacle of them, 

triumphing over them by the cross.  

Colossians 2:14-15

2,000ish years ago,  it looked like Jesus had lost and Satan had won.  Jesus died a horrible death, being excruciatingly crucified on a Roman cross.   Then everything was turned upside down.  Satan's evil plan was thwarted.  Jesus didn't stay dead.  Not only did He rise from the dead, He's bringing every believing person with Him!  Did you ever notice how much God enjoys irony?  The story of Jesus gaining the greatest triumph the world has ever known after being brutally and  publicly executed is the ultimate plot twist.

God is still using irony today.  

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; 

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—

and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are.

  I Corinthians 1:27-28

I truly believe that one day Jesus is also going to redeem every degrading, impoverishing, humiliating, grievous, painful evil that happens on this earth.  He loves us and will never let our suffering or the suffering of those we care about to go unanswered.  He was born as a baby.  He lived, loved, rejoiced, laughed, suffered, wept and died like everybody else.  The difference is that He was not just human, He is God.  His motive is always love and His power is for redemption.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; 

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."  

John 10:10-11

Places the thief has come to steal and kill and destroy:  your own hometown; Newtown, Connecticut; Hakahana, Namibia...  But don't ever forget about the power and love and victory of the Good Shepherd.

Hakahana

Jesus knows what it's like to be one of the foolish, weak and lowly ones.   Take note of who and what He chooses...

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; 

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—

and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are.

  I Corinthians 1:27-28