Post by Alison Hein.

My father-in-law, Neil, grew up in Philadelphia, and has fond memories of devouring sweet Sticky Buns from the Pennsylvania Dutch market at Reading Terminal. Neil can’t get Sticky Buns where he lives in Florida, so when we visit, I often pick some up at our local bakery before we travel. He says they are very good, but not quite up to Philly standards. So when we all assembled for the holidays recently and I pulled Neil’s name in the family holiday gift exchange, I thought, what better gift than homemade sticky buns?

Sticky Buns originated in Germany, where they are called Schnecken, or snails, for the coiled yeast dough. A thick sweet glaze is poured into a pan, and the coils are laid on top to rise before baking. The buns are flipped when done, and the honeyed glaze becomes the sweet, sticky topping.

If you’re used to working with bread dough this will be a snap. If not, give it a try anyway. Be prepared to spend a few hours in your kitchen, and let your dough rise in a warm quiet spot. It may seem like too much trouble, until your home fills with the aromas of freshly baked bread, toasted almonds and cinnamon, and your mouth waters in anticipation of a sweet, sticky, sinful breakfast in bed.

Ingredients
½ cup warm water
1 packet yeast
1 cup milk
¼ cup oil
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 ½ cups flour

Filling
4 tablespoons butter, melted (reserve 1 tablespoon for brushing tops of buns)
¼ cup cinnamon
½ cup raisins

Glaze
1 stick butter
1 ½ cups brown sugar
¼ cup honey
½ cup sliced almonds

Preparation
Pour water into food processor. Water should be lukewarm, or slightly warmer than body temperature. Sprinkle yeast evenly on top. Set aside until yeast begins to activate, about 10 minutes.

Pour milk into heavy saucepan. Place on stove and cook over medium heat, without stirring, until milk is scalded (when little ripples begin to appear on top). Remove from heat. Add oil, sugar and salt and let cool slightly.

Lightly beat egg with milk mixture and pour into food processor. Add one cup of flour. Gently pulse on dough setting until mixed in. Add more flour, about one cup at a time, until thoroughly mixed. Gently pulse until dough is compressed and begins to pull away from the side of the bowl and form a sticky ball. Be careful not to overmix or dough will become tough.

Add about ½ teaspoon oil to a large bowl. Place dough in bowl. Turn and flip so oiled side faces up. Cover with light tea towel and set in warm, non-drafty place to rise for about one hour, until doubled in size.

Lightly grease 13×9-inch baking dish and set aside. To make glaze, combine butter, brown sugar and honey in small heavy saucepan and cook over medium heat until well blended and slightly thickened. Pour into bottom of baking dish. Sprinkle sliced almonds evenly over glaze mixture.

Punch down dough. Turn onto floured board and roll out to form a 12×18-inch rectangle. Brush dough with 3 tablespoons of melted butter. Sprinkle cinnamon and spread raisins evenly across dough. Roll dough into a coiled cylinder, and pinch along seam to seal. Slice cylinder into ½ inch slices. Place slices sideways, coiled centers facing up, into casserole dish. Brush with remaining tablespoon of melted butter, cover with light tea towel, and set aside to rise until doubled in size again and buns have expanded to touch each other and fill the pan, about one hour.

Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes until slightly puffed up and golden brown. Let cool 10 minutes in pan. Loosen edges of buns from side of pan with knife, and gently invert onto large platter or cutting board. Cut into 12 to 16 equal pieces.

Makes 12 – 16 sticky buns.

Tags: Breakfast, Charles P. Rogers, Children, family, Recipes, Sticky Buns

Post by Kyle St. Romain.

Call me prehistoric, but my ideal sleeping environment embodies all the good qualities of a cave. If I had to choose, I’d even sleep on a cold rock floor over a bed in a warm, bright room. Fortunately, in the 21^st century I can have my cake and eat it too: a cave-like bedroom with a comfortable bed.

Let’s start with the thermostat: I like my bedroom colder than most. When it gets cold outside, I often leave the window cracked to make my bedroom as cold as possible. Drifting to sleep tucked away under a warm, overfilled, goose down comforter with a chilly breeze across my face is the best. While a cold bedroom helps me sleep, it doesn’t help me wake up in the morning. I’ll just call work and tell them I have a cold… bedroom. I’m sure they’ll understand.

During the summer, my carbon footprint swells. The air conditioner runs overtime trying to maintain an acceptable temperature. However, even the coldest bedroom does little good if it’s too bright. We need to close the drapes.

One of the best ways to combat unwanted light in the bedroom is by using blackout curtains. Blackout curtains are like any other type of curtain, except they come with a thick backing that keeps light out. Denim and velvet are two popular materials used due to their thickness. However, blackout curtains come in a variety of colors, patterns and materials to appease even the most discerning designer’s pallet. You can further enhance the look of your blackout curtains using decorative knots to tie the panels back.

Apart from looking good and keeping your bedroom dark, blackout curtains can also lower your energy bills. On bright summer days, your air conditioner runs more effectively with curtains stopping sunlight from warming your bedroom. During the winter, blackout curtains add anther layer of insulation over your windows, reducing some of the chill that comes off the glass. With blackout curtains, you’ll be able to better control your sleep environment. Better sleep and lower energy bills is a true win-win situation.

So if you’re not sleeping as soundly as you’d like, or want to freshen up your bedroom décor, try replacing your existing window treatments with blackout curtains. You don’t have to limit them to the bedroom either; they can be used just as well throughout the whole house.

Tags: bed, bedroom, Charles P. Rogers, curtains, Design, furniture

Post by Mark T. Locker.

Press Here by Herve Tullet

Who knew that a book whose only illustrations are dots could be so entertaining? That’s all you will find in Herve Tullet’s Press Here. BUT there are blue dots, yellow, red and green! What makes this book great is the interactivity of the book. On the first page the reader is told to press the yellow dot, which, when the page is turned, has multiplied. On each page you shake, blow and clap to make the dots spread, grow and rearrange. My three-year-old loves it. Mind you, there is no plot whatsoever, but really, what kind of story are you going to tell about colored dots?

Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers

Oliver Jeffers has treated us to another story about the little boy who made best friends with a penguin. In this follow-up, penguin is determined to learn to fly. When he sees an opportunity to be a human—er—penguin cannonball, he gets so excited that he forgets to tell the boy where his is going. The fat little penguin is adorable and watching the two play backgammon together is charming. I must say that this story doesn’t have quite the same sweetness as its predecessor Lost and Found but it’s still a great story about friendship.

Tags: bedtime stories, Charles P. Rogers, Children's book reviews, Herve Tullet, Oliver Jeffers

Post by Mark T. Locker.

Okay, so this may not be available for watching in bed quite yet, unless there is some kind of Bedroom Theater in your neighborhood, like the Living Room Theaters but with comfy daybeds instead of sofas. And this would be a great movie to watch just before falling asleep as it is full of beautiful, magical imagery and is the kind of movie you walk out of feeling good about the world.

Hugo is Martin Scorsese’s lovingly created adaptation of the Caldecott-winning novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Don’t forget, I was waxing poetic about this book before it was a major motion picture! I was skeptical of anyone’s ability to turn such an incredible story mixed with an homage to early filmmaker Georges Méliès into a good movie. I was horribly, happily wrong.

Hugo is a boy who lives in the walls of a Paris train station, quietly keeping the clocks running since his uncle disappeared. His only possession is a highly complex automaton, a wind-up figure seated at a desk, pen in hand. When he is caught stealing parts from the toy vendor at the train station, he becomes entangled in a ever-mounting number of mysteries involving the toy vendor, his daughter, and his enigmatic automaton.

Tags: bed, bedroom, Charles P. Rogers, Hugo, Movies, Reviews

Post by Craig Jenkins.

We at Charles P. Rogers are dedicated to creating and maintaining beds that go on to be the gorgeous focal points of our customer’s living areas. We love it when we get feedback from our customers about how much they love their CPR beds, and nothing pleases us more than actually getting to see the ways in which our customers have decorated their rooms around our beds. We actually have a whole section of our website dedicated to pictures we’ve received from our customers. When you get the chance, you ought to check out our website’s customer image gallery to get a better idea of what we’re talking about.

Poking around the net this week we discovered the website of a customer of ours who did a blog post showing off her Charles P. Rogers furnished bedroom. The blog is called Cedar Hill Ranch, and it’s run by Anita from Texas, a homeowner who is dedicated to imbuing her house with a classic Southern vibe with a French twist. She recently posted a gallery of photos of what she has called the Red Bedroom (we’ll give you one guess as to the origin of the name!), and if you take a close look, you’ll see one of our Charleston iron and brass beds chewing the scenery next to the armoire. Thanks to Anita at Cedar Hill Ranch for showing off her lovely bedroom and allowing Charles P. Rogers to be a part of it. Take care, and happy holidays.

Tags: bed, bedroom, Charles P. Rogers, Design, furniture