My Dream

I'm Melissa and I'm not just a girl or a baker - I'm a day dreamer, and a day dream believer!
I have many dreams - to have a large family, to be a good mom, to get my drivers' license :) and drive around in a 1970's VW bus that's been converted to be electric - an electric bus, and to write a book... a cook book.

Let's start at the beginning... where it all started... I started cooking and baking as a young child - or rather teenager. I wasn't very good. One time I made angel food cake and it called for 1 teaspoon of soda. So I opened up a can of 7up thinking that would work and poured out one little teaspoon. For some reason that cake just did not turn out for me. But I did not give up. I may have taken a break for a few years - concentrated on other dreams - went to college, graduated, found me a nice man to marry :)

After being married for a while, I started baking again. I cooked again - a lot... almost every night. And I have improved a lot. How did it happen? Allrecipes.com was a big help... and reading cook books!

I love cook books especially cook books with lots of pictures. Color photos are the way to go. I've tried many recipes that did not have a pretty color photo but I'm much more likely to try a recipe with a photo if it looks yummy.

I want to write a cook book. The cook book that most inspires me is Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. That little book has won my heart. I don't even make mine vegan - I usually use cow's milk and whatever kind of margarine or butter I have on hand. But the things that make that cook book unique and that stand out to me is that it's small, it has lots of pictures - very yummy pictures and it's just a book about cupcakes.

Well, several years ago I made my first cinnamon rolls. They turned out wonderfully. I made them a lot. And then finally I got my first bread machine so that I don't have to do all the work anymore. So then I was making lots more dough for cinnamon rolls without doing all the work. Then, I got more creative and started using different ingredients. One day I came across a recipe for Pumpkin cinnamon rolls. That sounds good. So I made some - my way... and then I thought if I can make pumpkin cinnamon rolls - how about zucchini cinnamon rolls - just exchange one squash for another. Those turned out yummy, too.

And after like 8 months - I was on a baking hiatus -dieting and then... pregnancy - will change your mood for baking a lot... and now I'm back on again baby and I'm baking and I'm happy again :) And it occured to me that I can write a cook book, too. So, that's what I'm doing... although - now I actually prefer to make my dough by hand and not with the bread machine :)

I'm in my 30's (whoa) and I have three beautiful little girls. And I use to think, I need a big family - like at least 8 kids so that I can bake all the time and not worry about eating all these sweet treats myself. So there is my challenge - I love to bake but like most people it seems I carry too much weight. Not to worry though - I have lots of taste testers lined up and ready to help me with this dream of mine to write a book. Sweet Rolls that Rock is one of my dreams. I hope to make this a reality. I will post yummy pretty pictures and recipes of some pretty strange sounding sweet rolls and we'll just go from there :)

Also check out the reviews and recommendations page for reviews and recommendations - because a lot of other gifted bakers are baking awesome sweet rolls that rock and when I stumbled upon those, I want to share them here - it's a good link back system for me as well ;)

For reals, though, my dream is to grow old and healthy (eating treats occasionally) and to be an awesome grandmother - and then whatever I choose to do - when I'm not a full-time Mama - whether that is owning an art gallery, or writing a cook book, or owning a small cafe near the beach, or some place warm in sunny and beautiful like near Zion's national park - the point is - it's not to live in the Netherlands - but to be back in the U.S. and with family and eating good food and having a good time - that's my dream.