Homemade American goodness

From time to time, I’m going to give examples of the principles that I believe are part and parcel of the America we are struggling to conserve. One of these is self-sufficiency. And what is more important to this principle than cooking for yourself?

Pre-prepared and packaged foods are mostly what you see when you go to a grocery store. Inveigling us with colorful labels and promises of ease of preparation, minimal time and effort, and “tastes like homemade” quality, they implore us from both sides of the aisle to “please, please, take me home!”

In truth, most are not easy to make, take longer than promised to prepare, and taste like something Napoleon’s soldiers dug up out of some poor farmer’s back yard — where a dog buried it. To add insult to injury, they often end up costing more than just going to a good restaurant to have the same thing.

For today’s example, we offer the humble cinnamon roll. Although the cinnamon roll originated in the Scandinavian countries, these delicious snacks have been universally loved here in America since colonial times. But the ones bought in a grocery store taste like wet cardboard, and though the ones purchased in a gourmet shop taste pretty decent they can cost as much as a good bottle of wine. You can skip both of these problems by simply making them yourself!

Here is a video of a fellow who makes some magic combining a very few simple (and cheap) ingredients, a hot oven, and less touch-time than you might spend finding something to watch on Netflix. I can attest that these are well worth the little bit of effort it takes to make them yourself.

With a little bit of searching, you can easily find scores of YouTube videos on making your own cinnamon rolls (and other pastries). This is just one example, clearly explained.

Have fun in your kitchen, instead of treating it as just a place to keep your cereals and leftover Chinese food!