Food

Monkey bread is a knotty-looking loaf of bread made from buttery balls of sweet dough glued together with caramel.

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Apple Fritters
Morning Buns
Chocolate Eclair Cake

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
It might have a funny name, but monkey bread is a soft, sweet, sticky, ultra-cinnamony treat (its moniker probably refers to how it's pulled apart and stuffed into eager mouths). To expedite the rising and proofing of the dough, and ensure our bread had plenty of yeasty flavor, we used a good amount of instant yeast. Butter and milk helped keep the dough rich and moist, and a little sugar made the bread sweet enough to eat on its own. A dip in butter and cinnamon sugar gave the monkey bread a thick, caramel-like coating after its stint in the oven. And a drizzle of a simple glaze finished it off.

Monkey Bread

Serves 6 to 8

Make sure to use light brown sugar in the coating mix; dark brown sugar has a stronger molasses flavor that can be overwhelming. After

How do you keep food fresh longer? Air is the enemy of food. In order to keep food fresh as long as possible you want to keep it wrapped tightly in order to keep air out. Depending on the type and where you'll be storing it, an airtight container or wrap will keep food from drying out, getting soggy, developing freezer burn, absorbing odors, or becoming contaminated from raw meat or poultry. Now practically every storage container out there claims to be airtight but I can tell you from years of testing that that's not true. Here's what we've learned.

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A lot depends on whether or not air can go in through the material that the container or wrap's made of, as well as whether or not it has a tight-fitting lid. Even if the air seems sucked or vacuumed out, it can still get back in if the material's porous or the cover's loose. In our tests, glass containers with tight lids are always the best at keeping air out. Tops in our latest test: Snapware Total

Cool off with a refreshing glass of homemade lemonade. Brighten up traditional lemonade by adding fresh strawberries -- and steeped ginger and lemongrass -- for a unique and refreshing sparkling beverage.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (about a dozen-or-so lemons)
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large strawberries
1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger (a little larger than a walnut)
2 lemongrass stalks
2 cups water
2 cups of chilled sparkling water or club soda
4 cups of ice

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Directions:
1.Peel the ginger by lightly scraping the sides sideways with a knife. Chop up the ginger as fine (stronger flavor) or as coarsely (milder) as you like.

2. Trim the dry bases of the lemongrass stalks, and again, slice cross-ways, as fine or coarsely as you like.

3. Place ginger, lemongrass, salt, and sugar into a saucepan with two cups of water.

4. On medium-high heat, warm until nearly boiling,

Your kids will ask for more greens after this smoothie!Nothing will make my daughter run for her room like spinach. She can sense it from a mile away - almost as if she has an anti-spinach super power. Thankfully, she has yet to figure out that her favorite green smoothie is packed with the super nutritious green vegetable. I'm thinking it has a lot to do with the way I serve it. Fresh and sweet, these monster smoothies not only look back at you, they're deliciously healthy!

Related: Blueberries, spinach and 8 other superfoods hiding in your kitchen!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup frozen pineapple
1/2 cup frozen spinach
1 banana, peeled
1 tablespoon honey
Candy eyes
Small pineapple triangles

Helpful Tip: I'm using frozen pineapple and spinach for a colder smoothie but fresh pineapple and spinach can be substituted and will make the smoothie sweeter and greener. If using fresh pineapple and spinach, add a few ice cubes to make the smoothie colder.

Directions:
1.

Jell-O! Is it the firm jiggles or the dissolve in your mouth sweetness that makes finger jello such a hit with people of all ages? My family has been making finger jello since before I could say "boo." Every party, every celebration, every sunday family gathering there it was. Depending on the occasion it was usually cut into squares, but when it's party time my Auntie Rosie usually cut them into fancy shapes and placed the scraps in a big ziplock. The big ziplock was reserved for the scavenger types who would go hunting for more once all the fancy shapes were gone. Yes, that's how I got introduced to finger jello, except my family made it with real fruit juice. Here's the recipe….. Enjoy!

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Ingredients for Real Fruit Juice Finger Jello:
6 cups real fruit juice (the choice is yours, but I use Cran-Strawberry, Pom-Blueberry, pink lemonade, grape, apple, sweetened jamaica tea, or cherry juice)
6 envelopes of Knox unflavored gelatin