NOTE: Updated with new photos and slight edit on the recipe on 5/2/2011

I am not apologizing for this. I thought I would come on here and tell you how I rarely use prepared anything. And then I would discuss how I love starting our meals from fresh, whole ingredients and seeing then mix and meld together to form new and exciting dishes. Then I would talk about how I love the act of creating.

I thought I would tell you that I am so, so sorry to pass along a recipe that falls under the semi-homemade realm. Well, guess what? I am not sorry. Not one stinkin’ bit.

Honestly, there are some preparations that just take more time and patience than I have to give right now. Two kids, a growing freelance business, school, dogs, life … cooking still gets a lot of my attention, but not all of it. I love to feed my family good food. But sometimes you have to make small concessions — like using prepared dough — to make something work.

There was a time when waking early to make dough for cinnamon rolls seemed like a good idea. It still does, in a lot of ways, but it’s something that just doesn’t fit into the schedule anymore. At least, not very frequently.

Does that mean we can’t have fresh cinnamon rolls? Uh, no. Definitely not. In this one case, I am not too proud to use a ready-to-go dough for this one

The original photo for this post.

Easy Cinnamon Rolls
serves 4

1 tube Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Unroll the Crescent dough onto a large cutting board. Brush the side of the dough facing up with butter.

In a small bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle evenly over the dough. Now, roll dough back up in the same direction it came out of the package.

Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into 1 inch rounds. Please on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from oven and transfer to plates.

Drizzle each with glaze and serve.

Mmmm!

Easy Vanilla Bean Glaze

1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tbsp milk
1/2 vanilla bean

Add the confectioners sugar and milk to a bowl. Scrape in the vanilla bean seeds. (Do not add the pod — it can be discarded or used to flavor sugar. Just place in a sugar bowl with sugar for a week and voila! You have vanilla sugar.) Stir until fully combined.

Done.