Lunch at work

Every month we have a staff meeting at work and to help make it more fun, several winters ago a (recently retired) manager started "Stone Soup" days. Using the premise for the old fairly tale of the same name, she would select a soup and list all the necessary ingredients on the kitchen bulletin board. Each of us would sign up to bring in one or more ingredients and on the morning of our staff meeting we made wonderful soup. But as the months grew warmer, soup lost it's appeal. We didn't want to stop this new tradition so we moved to other meals like salads one month, pies (savory and sweet) the next, followed by an informal "Tea lunch" complete with scones.

Last month, instead of bringing in ingredients, I opted to make dessert. And in the process may have inadvertently started another staff meeting lunch tradition. I made a devil's food cake with a caramel filling and chocolate ganache icing. It was apparently a hit because I asked about making dessert again this month and got a resounding "YES" from everyone. But what to make? I flip-flopped from chocolate bread pudding to truffles back to the bread pudding. Then I saw Scott's Cinnabuns. They looked yummy and easy plus just as I finished reading the recipe, a cinnamon role commercial came on TV. Was that a sign? Was someone subliminally saying, "Make the cinnabuns.........make the cinnabuns." I decided that would be the dessert for February.

Our soup this month was Chicken Enchilada with a side salad and corn muffins. Delish! And as with anytime we cook in the staff kitchen, the Library smells wonderful! Customers come in, sniff the air and their whole demeanor softens. Many times they'll ask about what smells so good and several have even asked how they can get a sweet job like ours where we can eat so well. I admit, it is great to see everyone on staff working together and having fun. As for the recipe, I forgot to get the recipe but will try to this week and add it to the post.
The Cinnabuns were so freakin' easy to make! Jim and I had just gotten back from TN the day before the staff meeting so I had to get to work on the cinnabuns as soon as we got home. I put together the dough and let it rise while we ate dinner. By the time we were done, the dough was ready to roll out, schmear, roll and cut. I place the rolls in a large baking dish and put them in the fridge over night. The next morning I carried them to work and let them rise on the kitchen counter until it was time to bake them. I got 18 little buggers out of the batch. I didn't ice them rather I made the icing and put it in a bowl so the staff could ice their own with as much or as little as they wanted. Sorry the picture of the iced ones is a bit fuzzy but trust me they were so good and there were none left over. These two pictured below went home to Jim.