NO, don’t feel like you have to eat your feelings, and also if you’re really upset, you should just go buy something and have instant gratification that doesn’t need to thaw overnight in the fridge, but this thing is completely bananas and really soothing.
I heard a very gendered thing once that suggested that when men are asked to describe their favourite comfort foods they choose things that require effort (lasagnas, pot pies, meatloaf, etc.), and women are more likely to say things they will not have to cook themselves (ice cream), because when you’re a woman and you’re feeling down, ain’t no one making you a lasagna. Unless you do have someone to make you a lasagna, which is wonderful.
Gender norms hurt us all, abortions for some, lasagnas and caramel-y pull-apart rolls for everyone.
Then, too, there was Nora Ephron’s brilliant thing about mashed potatoes in Heartburn:
Nothing like mashed potatoes when you’re feeling blue. Nothing like getting into bed with a bowl of hot mashed potatoes already loaded with butter, and methodically adding a thin cold slice of butter to every forkful. The problem with mashed potatoes, though, is that they require almost as much hard work as crisp potatoes, and when you’re feeling blue the last thing you feel like is hard work. Of course, you can always get someone to make the mashed potatoes for you, but let’s face it: the reason you’re blue is that there isn’t anyone to make them for you. As a result, most people do not have nearly enough mashed potatoes in their lives, and when they do, it’s almost always at the wrong time.
Let’s not get sidetracked. You want to know how to make these ridiculous pull-apart rolls. My friend Aurora brought them over one night when she was watching Game of Thrones with me, and I was still standing in the kitchen licking my finger and pressing it into the (empty) pan hoping I’d somehow missed a pecan at two in the morning. THIS IS NOT HAUTE CUISINE, guys, this is just great:
2 loaves homemade or frozen bread dough (or frozen rolls, in which case you don’t really have to cut them into chunks after)
1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 lg. pkg. Jello butterscotch
(cook and serve kind, not instant)
2 tbs. milk
Cinnamon to taste
Nuts (optional, but not really: walnuts or pecans)
Leave loaves in refrigerator overnight to thaw. Grease a 9×13 inch pan and cut loaves with scissors into chunks. Put in pan. Melt butter. Add brown sugar, Jello pudding, and milk. Add cinnamon. Pour mixture over loaves. Let rise to top of pan, sprinkle chopped nuts on top. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
