Warning! This is so incredibly bad for you, but tastes so ridiculously good that you aren’t even going to mind not being able to fit into your pants on Monday morning. I’ve made Monkey Bread quite a few times the traditional way — with refrigerated biscuit dough, but last weekend I got a very naughty idea. What if I followed the same basic premise but substituted cinnamon rolls for the biscuits? [Cue evil scientist laughter].

To make this breakfast treat even more fabulous I sprinkled walnuts and cranberries amidst the cinnamon and sugar coated dough before baking. Then I heated the pre-packaged icing and drizzled it over the top of the cooling mountain of bellyache producing sweetness. When paired with a great cup of coffee you have a seriously sinful Sunday morning on your hands. Enjoy! Just make sure you set your alarm a bit earlier on Monday so you can run around the block a few dozen times.

Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread (based on the Grands Monkey Bread Recipe found at Pillsbury.com)

1/2 cup sugar
2  teaspoons cinnamon, divided
2 cans Pillsbury refrigerated Cinnamon Rolls
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
Cinnamon Roll icing

Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 12-cup fluted tube pan.

In large plastic food-storage bag, mix sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Separate dough into 16 rolls; cut each into quarters. Shake in bag to coat. Arrange in pan, adding walnuts and raisins among the biscuit pieces.

Mix brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and butter; pour over cinnamon roll pieces.

Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate. Warm the packaged icing in the microwave briefly (20-30 seconds) and drizzle over the bread. Pull apart to serve. Serve warm.

Note: Can be reheated in the microwave the next day.

Did you eat Miracle Whip when you were a kid? Because I did. A lot. I vividly recall having a conversation with my doctor at one point about what kind of sandwiches I liked to eat. My cute response of Miracle Whip and Cheese on White Bread really didn’t seem to impress him very much. Whatever. If I was eating something other than Kraft Dinner, my mom was happy. I was beyond picky as a child. We’re talking plain pizza, plain cheeseburgers, no ketchup, and definitely not nasty mayonnaise.

I was actually such a strong defender of Miracle Whip that when I was in college I got into a heated argument with someone I didn’t even know while out sailing with my cousin and some of her friends. This person claimed that mayonnaise and Miracle Whip tasted exactly the same. I begged to differ. Loudly. In my defense I was most likely sleep deprived, dehydrated, and probably drinking at the time so let that be a lesson to you all. Don’t mess with Erin and her food when she’s in a bad mood.

Until a few years ago I still used Miracle Whip in chicken salad, much to the horror of many. But slowly I started to come around and now I’m a proper “grown-up” with proper mayonnaise in my fridge. So when Ina Garten ordered me to use “good mayonnaise” in her Contessa Chicken Salad, I managed not to let her down. I know in food blog land we’re always making sweeping claims that this dish or that bread is “the best thing ever.” I think we’re all pretty much immune to adjectives and “foodie speak” at this point, but at any rate I’m going to implore you to try this recipe. Just once. It’s really very very good and I can definitely see how they used to get away with selling it for the ridiculous amount of $20 a pound at the original Barefoot Contessa Store.

Contessa Chicken Salad (Originally published by Ina Garten)

2 split (1 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on (1 1/2 pounds) (Note: I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It’s all good!)
Good olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup pecan halves
1/2 cup walnuts halves
1/2 cup good mayonnaise (Note: I used light mayo)
1/2 cup sour cream (Note: I used light sour cream)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves, divided
1 cup green grapes, cut in 1/2
Lettuce leaves, for serving (Note: I gave in to temptation and bought some really good bakery made white bread. Mmm…white bread.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.Place the chicken breasts, skin side up, on a baking sheet and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside until cool.

When the chicken is cool, remove meat from the bones and discard the skin and bones. Cut the chicken into a 3/4-inch dice.

Meanwhile, place the pecans and walnuts on a separate sheet pan and toast in the oven for 7 to 8 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool.

For the dressing, mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Fold in half the chopped tarragon leaves.

Place the diced chicken in a bowl, add the pecans, walnuts and grapes. Pour the dressing over the chicken and toss well. Sprinkle the remaining chopped tarragon leaves on top, and serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.

When I was a kid I would get so excited if the bunch of bananas my mother brought home from the grocery store had a Chiquita Banana sticker. I’d quickly pluck it off the fruit and pat it proudly onto my shirt. Unfortunately these days my bananas always tend to go bad. Even so, I continue to buy them almost weekly, and inevitably after eating one from the bunch the rest sit on the counter until the skins turn. Then I either make banana bread, throw them out, or stash them in the freezer (well wrapped of course) until I feel the urge for muffins.

Today when I noticed that my once perky yellow bunch had become a little too brown for for my taste I decided it was time to break out of the banana bread and muffin rut and update my overripe repertoire. A hunt for a recipe to use ensued and as per usual the internet didn’t let me down. This recipe yields a moist, fluffy, and sweet cake that goes perfectly with cream cheese frosting, while a dusting of chopped walnuts adds a nice crunch. Even though cake isn’t supposedly a suitable breakfast item I’m certain we’ll be sneaking bites with our morning pot of coffee. This recipe also proves that a “boring old sheet cake” can actually be mighty impressive if given the chance.

Got Bananas?	Mash
Pour & Bake	Eat Bananas Every Day!

Best Ever Banana Cake (Slightly altered (See items in bold below). The original recipe may be found at Recipezaar)
3/4 cup butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 275.°
Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.
In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, spices, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.
Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
Stir in banana mixture.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour (Note: My cake took almost 90 minutes to bake) or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
Beat in 1 tsp vanilla.
Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.
Spread on cooled cake. Sprinkle chopped walnuts over top of the frosting, if desired.

One of the really fabulous things about working for a college in Boston is that I get Snow Days! Obviously I had to take complete advantage of this luxurious and unexpected long weekend so I decided to make some muffins. I was also in desperate need of some cooking redemption as both recipes that I made this weekend turned out terribly, including a cheesecake that didn’t completely set-up and Ina Garten’s Parmesan Chicken that I totally burned. Oops! Apparently I had some bad kitchen karma going on. Thankfully my mixer mojo was back in force today.

So, about this muffin batter. It makes an obscene amount. The thought of 18 muffins seemed a little redundant so I made 12 muffins and then poured the rest of the batter into a loaf pan. Now we have tasty muffins and walnut studded banana bread. All of which will probably end up at CK’s office tomorrow, but for the time being it smells pretty awesome in here. Plus the muffins had crunchy tops and moist centers. You can’t really ask for anything more. Now back to my pajama wearing, Jane Austen watching day.

Combine the Dry Ingredients	Mix the Wet Ingredients
Mash the Bananas	Stir Together
Scoop & Bake	Cool

Banana Muffins (Based on Giada De Laurentiis’s recipe originally published on the Food Network)

Makes 18 Muffins (or do what I did and bake 12 muffins and spoon the rest of the batter into a loaf pan and bake for 40-45 minutes)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed
1 cup walnuts (Note: Totally optional, but I can’t imagine banana anything without some crunchy walnuts).

Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl to blend. Beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the banana. Add the dry ingredients and walnuts, and stir just until blended.

Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake the muffins on the middle rack until the tops are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out with no crumbs attached, about 25 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a rack and cool slightly.