For the last 3 weeks my life has been consumed by a reality show I found on Netflix entitled Jockeys. It is a show well obviously about horse jockeys and although it was only filmed for 2 seasons I found it to be all consuming. Sure I have always been a fan of betting on the ponies...my addiction starting as a teenager when my uncle took me to the horse races every year at the Humboldt County Fair at the Ferndale Fairgrounds...yeah can't even begin to try and describe it. Ok let me try...it is a small dirt track in a rural small town and the grandstands are all outdoors, wooden and bleacher style with peeling dark green paint. Every year when the fair happens the horses come to town and people gather from all over the county to wager on the horses....wearing their cowboy hats, Wranglers and with chew in their mouths.  I remember he would let me pick my horses which were always done based on the color of the horse, the color of the jockeys attire or the name of the horse. I remember winning $50 once and just thinking I had died and gone to heaven. Sure this was before I was of legal gambling age but they were fun summer, childhood memories.

As I got older and I discovered the Vegas sports books where you can sit for hours, bet on multiple tracks and multiple horses oh and drink cocktails my addiction grew. When I moved to So Cal I discovered the joy of Santa Anita...ahh a table with a view overlooking the tracks, cocktails, good food and ponies pretty much made me a believer. And of course there was my trip to Atlantic City where I met my horse betting mentor. My husband had left me in the sports book while he went to find a restroom and I started talking to the 65 year old tall Italian man sitting next to me...he had the great East Coast accent, he had papers spread out in front of him for miles analyzing every aspect of the sport and he had that sense of calm which meant he was winning some serious money. And of course he owned his own cigar store...it was either that or be a member of the mob, right? So I did the cutsie thing and struck up a conversation...we became close friends and spent the next 3 hours "betting on the ponies," together. He taught me how to "exacta box," how to understand the odds and how to have a good time with the ponies. I also learned that on the West Coast we call it betting on horses and on the East Coast they call it "playing the ponies." Anyway to this day I bet on the ponies a couple times a year...nothing crazy...but its fun and entertaining...sometimes ya win and sometimes ya lose.

Anyway now that I watched all 2 seasons sure I got my life back but now I need a new hobby...because seriously what am I supposed to do once I have cooked for the night. So tonight I decided to make Cranberry Bread. It sounded like an easy recipe and the thought of cinnamon, sugar and cranberries sounded like a great combination. As a kid I loved cinnamon toast and that is kind of what the recipe reminded me of...however of course since I had a health conscious Mom I actually had cinnamon and honey...equally as good but slightly different. So you take dried cranberries and mix them with orange peel. I have to admit that I am horrible about using the orange after I zest the peel...it seems like those oranges always end up getting dried out and being thrown away. Then add sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. The recipe calls for refrigerated dinner rolls which I couldn't find...I found refrigerated pizza dough, breadsticks, cinnamon rolls and crescent rolls but not dinner rolls. So I settled for round crescent rolls which I figured would be close enough until I tried to cut them and since they are rolled up they tended to kind of fall apart...however after they baked they seemed to be ok. So you take the rolls and cut them in quarters then throw them in a bowl with melted butter and the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Create a layer of rolls on the bottom of the loaf pan and then put a layer of the cranberries and repeat. Bake the loaf and the pieces of rolls meld into a load. While the loaf is warm put the glaze on it which just consists of powdered sugar and milk and there you have it....cinnamon cranberry loaf. This recipe came from Pampered Chef and I do have to say sometimes they have really easy and tasty recipes that look like you spent a lot more time than you actually did.


Cranberry Cobblestone Bread

1/3 cup dried cherries
2 tsp orange zest
1/3 cup sugar
4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 pkg (11oz each) refrigerated dinner rolls
4 T butter or margarine melted

For glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tsp milk

Preheat oven to 375. For bread, combine cranberries and orange zest in a small bowl; mix lightly. In a separate bowl combine sugar and cinnamon. Unroll dinner rolls and separate into 16 rolls. Cut each roll into quarters. Place half of the dough pieces and half of the butter in a bowl and toss gently. Sprinkle with half of the sugar mixture and toss to coat evenly. Place dough pieces in loaf pan to cover bottom of pan. Sprinkle with half of the cranberry mixture and repeat layers. Bake 40-45 min or until golden brown. Cool in pan 15 min. Loosen bread from edges and remove to cooling rack. For glaze, combine powdered sugar and milk in small bowl. Drizzle over warm bread.


As a side note today is the first day I got my sense of taste and smell back...and yes the cinnamon and sugar bread smelled really good baking. Oh and by the way I had a volunteer, unpaid, unbiased and healthy taste tester try the chile and I was told the chile is unbearably hot and in order to eat it he had to drink a quart of milk...and he said that now he is bloated...but he thinks that is from so much milk...oops so maybe you may want to stay away from the chile recipe with the 3/4 cup of chile powder...just saying....unless you are having dinner with someone you don't really like.

And since last time I made a request on my blog I got my wok I thought I would try again. I want this!!!