Looks okay, but what did the others look like?

Okay, so Sticky Buns Saturday was really not my first kitchen failure. But it was the first #fail that I am admitting to and documenting. Let me start from the beginning...

I am not a baker. If I see "lightly flour work surface", beads of sweat start to form on my brow. So when I came across the Barefoot Contessa's Easy Sticky Buns recipe, I thought this was something I could do (duh, the word "Easy" is in the recipe name). Described by Ina herself as "OMG are they good... my friends go crazy when I make these." How could I go wrong, right?

Easy Sticky Buns by Ina Garten
click here for the recipe

• Place rounded tablespoon of butter and sugar mixture in muffin cups and distribute pecans evenly (so far so good!)

1 1/2 sticks of butter in these cups - arteries are clogging just looking at this!

• Sprinkle sheet of puff pastry with brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins and roll (easy!)

snug like a jelly roll

• Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces (I can do this!) 

these are pretty even on my floured work surface

  

• Place each piece, spiral side up in muffin cups (I think I got this.)

Starting to look like sticky buns!

• Bake for 30 minutes, until sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top (Crap! What happened?!)

Last weekend, I brought the boys to the Boston Children's Museum, my enthusiasm fueled by what was waiting for me at Flour Bakery & Cafe around the corner. Even after 45 tortuous minutes in the ball room followed by another 45 minutes in the construction zone room, I was happy - even with the escalating sounds of screaming kids all around me. Flour is one of my favorite places, possibly in the whole world. I think largely thanks to Joanne Chang's to-die-for sticky buns.

After our visit to the Museum, we headed over to Flour to pick up some sandwiches (and dessert of course) to bring back home for lunch. Given Flour's location, it makes sense to offer a kids' menu. And sure enough, you will find grilled cheese and PB&J. I'm sure these are made with top quality ingredients, but I just can't get myself to order PB&J (especially for $4.50) when I can make that at home in my sleep.

So what do I do? I do what a lot of parents do - withhold information. I don't even bother asking my son what he wanted. I order the curried tuna sandwich with raisins, apples and carrots on artisan bread. He was going to try it and and hopefully like it as much as I do. I figured if he hated it, then I can make my  version of PB&J (TJ's natural peanut butter and raspberry preserves on multi-grain) since we'd already be home.

Sure enough, he loved it. Maybe he was pretending to like it so he could have a sticky bun for dessert. I'm just glad he tried it, ate it, and didn't complain once. We both celebrated with some sticky buns.