Cooking Camp.....and now I know why I had double ovens installed.

• Something I'm certain you all know and love....FUNKY MONKEY BREAD

So, as it will soon be clearly evident, this "cooking camp" episode actually occurred a couple of weeks ago....I just haven't posted it. But in hopes that it will get us all back on the "cooking camp" train, and as a tribute to my little crippled man laid up in bed, I thought it might bring a smile to his face.

• Without further adieu......I give you Walt, flying solo at cooking camp, prior to his little end of the school year accident. Hence, it could have been cleverly titled, "cooking without crutches".
  

Do you have any idea how long it takes a novice monkey bread maker to perfectly cut a couple cans of biscuits into quarters? Too long for the mama.....so I had to begin helping by using my exact internal "pinch and pull apart" measurements, to get this party started.


Because we all know the real fun comes when you get to roll those pieces in cinnamon and sugar....and then lick your fingers clean. And repeat. About 73 more times.



Then you find your bundt pan and just start throwing them in, layering them up, tossing them about, whatever, you get the idea, just stack them in the pan. And after a few other minor additions (click HERE to go to the recipe blog for all the other info), you're ready to slide her in the oven.



Which is where there was a slight glitch in the plan. You see, while he has cooked in the upper oven before, usually his older, taller, brother is here to handle oven duties. This day, he was solo, and his arms are a wee bit too short to reach over the oven door and into the rack area. So, we were tickled, and I, of course, said I had to take a picture of it.....oven mitt ready and all.


I promptly preheated the lower oven.....and while waiting, explained to him that he actually didn't need the BIG BULKY THICK QUILT LINED oven mitt to hold a room temperature bundt pan. Maybe if he was about to take a role in BackDraft 2, but not to insert a bundt pan into the oven. However, keep it near and you can use it to pull that same bundt pan OUT of the 350 degree oven after a 30 minute layover. Metal is a good conductor of heat.....and 350 degrees will burn your fingerprints right off!



This was a two part victory at cooking camp......

1. some delicious monkey bread was made
2. while it's easy to get an inferior complex when you only get used once a year, due to the remarkable efforts of chef Walt, the lower oven gained a little self-esteem. And may actually become the oven of choice, especially for the infirmed....it is wheelchair accessible.