of cinnamon rolls, idols, and facebook converts

Last night I went to an American Idol/very-important-football-match party at Sal and Kai's place. I knew that I wanted to contribute some type of edible sustenance to the get-together (it was going to be a long night), and finally decided to try my hand at cinnamon rolls. Two months ago, I attended a little cinnamon roll tutorial taught by the cinnamon roll goddess herself, Mari H. But even with Mari's expert advice and recipe in hand, I still felt my usual yeast-induced nervousness (will the yeast work? will the dough rise?) .

Despite of my worries, the whole process (though quite time-consuming and a little messy) went very smoothly.

Here's a picture of the dough rolled out with all the appropriate tools and ingredients. Rolling pin, flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, dental floss. The dental floss is a little tip from Mari -- you use it to cut off each individual roll. I wanted to take more pictures of each individual step in the cinnamon roll process, but found the dough a little messier than expected (my mom took the picture above because my hands were covered in flour). I was also afraid of shocking readers (especially those who actually consumed the rolls) with the inside knowledge of how much butter and sugar went into them... trust me, it's better to be ignorant on this...

Before baking.
After baking.

Jon and a hungry Sal.

Cinnamon roll with gooey frosting...

While waiting for the 11:30 showing of American Idol, those of us with Facebook checked our accounts.

And those of us without Facebook were persuaded to sign up for accounts.

I left before the champion's league game started (so didn't see Liverpool's defeat -- sorry Kai and Mike!). But with a successful cinnamon roll experiment, American Idol, and a couple new Facebook friends, it was a very good evening.