Beach House Cooking and Crock Pot Cinnamon Nuggets

Vacation!

We haven't have a family vacation since before we got married. Its been forever. Needless to say, we had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time.

Me and my husband love the beach. I wish we could move to a beach town (Savannah anyone?) and just live. If both our jobs didn't depend on cities, and if we could convince our families to relocate with us, I think we would move in a heartbeat. As it is, we will have to enjoy our liitle beach trips when we can get them.

One of the great things about family beach trips is the house. Everyone under one roof, for a whole week, eating together, laughing, screaming (kids and parents at kids), wispering in your room when you need to have a private conversation, etc... Its great.

Learning to live with people you grew up with, plus their spouces and kids, is such a weird experience. One of the places this weirdness is really prominate is the kitchen. Cooking in a beach house kitchen is a weird exerience to begin with. You are totally unformillar with the layout (took me three days to find a spatcula); there are is weird assortment of utencils and equipment; you have to bring your whole spice rack just incase you might have a craving for something that requires marjrom.

Crock pot cooking is the very best at the beach. Fix it, leave it, come home to a totally done meal. I love doing that at home, and its even better at the beach. After a long day in the sun and sand the last thing I want to do is cook a full dinner.  

When I think of crock pot cooking I don't ever think of breakfast. However there are really great breakfast options that can be made in the crock pot. Oatmeal can be put in overnight and is really great in the morning, and there are egg cassirols that are (reportably) yummy too.

When it comes to breakfast I love a pastry and a good cup of coffee. This year I wanted to make a round of cinnamon rolls, however I didn't want to do the work. So, I did a bit of recipe research and came up with these Crock Pot Cinnamon Nuggets. Cinnamony goodness, gooey, sugery, unhealthy, vacation food.

The only issue I found with this recipe is that it takes longer to cook than I would have liked for breakfast. I woke up early to put everything together in the crock pot and then we still had to wait three hours to eat. It turned out to be more of a brunch food item, but no complants here! Plus the house smelled amaaazing while it cooked.

Cinnamon Nuggets

• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cans refridgerated homestyle buiscuits (this recipe would work with one can of buiscuits too)
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pecan or walnut pieces (optional)
• raisins (optional)

In a large zipper bag shake up the sugar and cinnamon to mix well. Cut the buiscuits into quarters with scissors. Dump the buiscuits pieces into the zipper bag and shake to coat. This is the perfect thing for helpful little hands, have a shaking dance party! Dump the contence of the zipper bag into a large crock pot. Mix in the nut pieces and raisons.

Melt the butter in a sauce pot on the stove, add the brown sugar and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour this mixture over the nuggets in the crock pot. Place a paper towel (to catch the condensation) on top of the crockpot and then put to lid on. Cook for two to four hours on low.

Glaze

• 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk (may need more to reach desired consistancy)

Stir together ingredents until combined. Drizzle glaze over nuggets when they are done cooking. 

Notes:
I think these could be cooked in a glass cake pand in the oven (350 for about 30mins?). I also think using cream cheese icing would be great too. It seemed like the nuggets on the edges of the crock pot cooked much more quickly while the nuggets in the center were still gooey, not sure how to fix this.