Yum

I blame it all on the weather. It has cooled off and we have been craving heartier, home-cooked dinners. I enjoy cooking and I do cook most nights. But in the hot weather I'm quick to agree to Chinese take-out or running out to any of our plethora of restaurants. Yeah, we have a lot of restaurant choices here!

Anyway, I told you earlier this week about having fried pork chops (BTW - we rarely fry anything. I make these pork chops every 6 weeks or so). Last night we were debating between a roasted chicken and chicken and dumplings. Guess what we chose? I know you'll never guess.

This is what we decided on:

And it was good! Yum! It was also worth the clean-up. And let me tell you, there was a lot of clean-up. I have a large gas cooktop and when there is a mess it means removing the grates, knobs, etc and cleaning all the pieces. Anyway, it was worth it! We also had...

Homemade rolls. These are, by far, the best rolls I have ever had. That has nothing to do with the fact that I make these rolls, I simply follow a recipe. They are absolutely, positively the best rolls I have ever had.

*Bonus - they freeze and thaw well. These thawed and reheated rolls are almost just as good as hot from the oven rolls. But best of the night was...

Elephant ears, palmiers, palm leaf pastries...whatever you may call them. Oh my! They were wonderful! I first had these at a bakery in Spain and I have craved them many times since returning to the States 5 1/2 years ago..

I found a recipe in a magazine this week. They are a bit messy to make but oh so simple.

You only need 3 ingredients:

Frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed (I used Pepperidge Farm, 2 sheets per box)

2 cups of sugar

1/8 tsp kosher salt

You'll also need 2 large baking pans, a rolling pin, and parchment paper.

Mix together the sugar and salt. Sprinkle your work surface with 1 cup of the sugar and salt mixture. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the mixture on top of the puff pastry. Use a rolling pin and roll out into a 13 inch square, pressing  the sugar/salt into the pastry as you roll.

At this point fold 2 opposite sides halfway to the center. Then, fold each side again with the 2 sides meeting in the middle. Now fold one side over the other. You should have 6 layers folded up.

Cut dough crosswise into 3/8 inch slices. You'll get about 16 slices. Place these on a baking pan covered with parchment paper. Please use the parchment paper. I didn't have any and, not to get ahead of myself but, the caramelized sugar is near impossible to remove from the baking pan. I had to pour boiling water onto the pan and let it sit for a while in order to scrub it off.

Bake at 400 degrees for 6 minutes or until the pastries have started to brown and caramelize on the bottom. Flip the pastries over (Do it fast! If it cools too much that caramelized sugar hardens and they will stick!)

As the first pan is baking prepare the second puff pastry sheet on the other baking pan. You will not use all the sugar mixture.

These are beautiful and oh so delectable! Enjoy!