Chocolate Peanut Butter Nutello Breakfast Crescent Rolls and a RANT

HEY... A chance to be a part of OUR KRAZY KICTCHEN's Monday Munchies... Wasn't sure if I was even going to post these, but They seem to fit in, and I wanted a chance to do a little gentle wistful rant (what's the sense in having a blog if I can't rant)...

But first, OUR KRAZY KICTCHEN's Monday Munchies...

I am going to assume you all know and follow OUR KRAZY KITCHEN... A wonderful group effort where six terrific individual bloggers join forces to create something new. Click the OKK button above and take a look at their site. They also provide a Mr. linky opportunity to link your recipes to their site. Mr. Linky confuses me 9easily done), but I think i have it figured out, so I am submitting this post to OUR KRAZY KITCHEN's MONDAY MUNCHIES...

Credit where credit is due... This recipe is completely stolen from a wonderful blogger, DANIELLE at COOKING FOR MY PEACE OF MIND. I love Danielle's site. I have stolen recipes from her before, and I am sure I will again... go take a peak.

A few days back, she posted this incredibly easy recipe using my favorite candy bar and that delicious Hazelnut/chocolate concoction, NUTELLA. I changed the dusting topping just a bit, but this certainly makes a great little MUNCHIE...

Here's what I did...

Assemble your ingredients...

1 can of cheap roll out crescent rolls (8 rolls in a can)
8 miniature Reese's Cups (cut in half to make 16 half miniatures)
8 tablespoons of Nutella
and enough Powdered Sugar to dust... I changed this to CAJUN POWER SWEET TREAT, a vanilla enhanced cinnamon sugar treat that I brought home from New Orleans!

Roll out the rolls, put the two half pieces of Reese's Miniatures, spread on the Nutello...

Bake at 350 degrees for about 14 minutes... keep an eye on them so that they get that wonderful toasty color. Sprinkle on the topping of your choice. Serve warm with a glass of milk.

Chocolate Peanut-Butter Nutello
Breakfast
Crescent Rolls...

Thanks to DANIELLE at COOKING FOR MY PEACE OF MIND, I peed my pants just a bit when I bit into these, they are just as good as they look and sound!

And now, as promised... Ta-Ta-TATAAA... My rant...

But first the set up. As I have said before, I am older than dirt. I have two grown children. Both of them live half a continent away from me and god's country (Kansas). I made many choices in my life that got me to where I am now. I love my life, but occasionally, in the dark places of my soul that I do not like to visit, I ponder my choices.

I see some wonderfully complicated recipes on you all's sites. There are amazing recipes that any magazine could and should publish. I also read about your families.

And now the rant (although I think I am preaching 90% to the choir)... Oh yeah, it will help if you read the following with an old man accent in your mind... think Ed Asner...

Kids today, don't get me started... But if you did get me started, I would say they are fat, lazy, stupid and have the attention span of a hummingbird. I would also say that much of their fat, lazy, stupid, short attention span is our fault as parents. NOTE: I am talking about your kids, not mine... Neither of mine are fat.

If I could go back and make a few more choices 20 years ago, I would spend more than a day with my kids as four year old's, being their sous chef while they make this recipe.

By teaching children how to follow recipes, we give them a sense of accomplishment. Don't get me started on that ridiculous concept of "participation trophies" for standing around a few afternoons on a soccer field. What builds better sense of self worth, individually seeing a recipe through from beginning to feeding your family, or soccer (which isn't even a real sport, but I digress)?

Learning to follow a recipe at an early age teaches...

• Practical math. Calculating the area of a parallelogram is overrated. Learning to cut a recipe in half, or doubling a recipe is something you will use often.
• Practical chemistry. Making a baking soda lava volcano is overrated! Learning to dissolve spices into water to create soup is something you will use often.
  
• Patience. In this age where you can get a double cheeseburger for a dollar without getting out of the car, or when you can buy finished meals at the deli section of most grocery stores (or worse, the frozen food section), working a bit to assemble ingredients, mix and dissolve, wait for it to cook; and then serve is a skill that a generation is losing. They want it now.
• Self Worth. Stand on a soccer field with twenty other 4 year olds vrs. feeding your entire family Chocolate Peanut Butter Breakfast Crescent Rolls - What do you think builds a sense of SELF worth (the idea that soccer for 4 year old's teaches a sense of community is communism, but don't get me started on the red plague)?
• How to follow instructions. Do A, followed by B, C and D; in that order will make something new. If you do B first, and then A, C and D; it does not create the same new thing. The 4 year old that learns that is the future surgeon that I want transplanting my liver.

I could probably go on and on, but I suspect I am getting to the point where no one is listening anymore. But I do have one final reason for cooking with your pre-schooler...

When you are old as dirt, and you go to those dark places of your soul... Would you rather remember going on a business trip, and extending the trip a few extra days because you have never been to Cooperstown (home of the Baseball Hall of Fame), or remember making Chocolate Peanut Butter Breakfast Crescent Rolls? In the very very black places of your soul, what do you think your former 4 year old children remember?

Every once in a while, put away those complicated recipes, work your way into your pre-schoolers ridiculously scheduled life and spend 30 minutes (start to finish, this recipe takes less than 30 minutes). When you are older than dirt, those thirty minutes will brighten those dark spots in your soul more than seeing Mickey Mantle's Golden glove trophies. Post those images, recipes and memories. that's why we have blogs, not to get into magazines.

All done, amusing how that dark spot in my soul comes out at the oddest times!

The inspiration for this rant came from my sad pathetic life, and a couple of recent posts from
NAT HEARTS BAKING IN NYC (who used to be Girls are made of...) and from THE LITTLE TEOCHEW. If you disagree with any of this, blame the dark spots of my soul and the glowing bright spots of their souls.

And now, if you are too old to have a 4 year old handy to cook with, I am sure this song is going through a few of your heads...