Being raised in the South, people assume that I ate certain foods all the time. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes, not so much. Like when people assume that I grew up eating tons of grits, they would be right. If they assume that I ate a lot of fried food, biscuits and cornbread, that, too, would be correct. Lots of vegetables. . . again, they’d be right. In other words, we ate cheap.

But when people assume that I had eaten Monkey Bread my whole life, that would be a mistake. It might very well be a Southern dish, but not in my house. Nope. I’d never even heard of Monkey Bread until I moved here to Virginia 20 years ago. I had no idea what the world it was. So I had to hunt down a recipe. It was then that I realized why I’d never had this delicious treat when I was little. It was because it called for canned biscuits. We didn’t eat no stinkin’ “canned” biscuits. Not when we had flour and shortening in the house to make homemade biscuits for so much cheaper.

Well, these days, I can afford some canned biscuits so. . .Mother’s Day Brunch included Cinnamon Monkey Bread on the menu . . . another big hit with my boys! Here’s what you need:

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CINNAMON MONKEY BREAD

2 cans Cinnamon Rolls
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon, divided
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Open cans of cinnamon rolls. Cut each roll into quarters.
Mix sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a ziplock baggie. Put in quartered cinnamon rolls and shake to coat evenly. Drop evenly in lightly greased bundt pan.
Sprinkle with chopped nuts.
Mix brown sugar, melted butter and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and pour over the rolls.
Bake for 28 – 32 minutes.

Cool for 5 minutes, then invert onto serving plate. Spread the cinnamon icing (that came in the cans of cinnamon rolls) over the Monkey Bread. Serve warm.

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It ain’t the prettiest thing I’ve ever made, but dang it was good! There’s something to be said for canned biscuits/cinnamon rolls.

And with another Monkey in the house, it got to be pretty funny. The rest of the day, Chris kept yelling at my kitty, “Monkey! Your bread was so GOOD!” Poor Monkey didn’t know what the hell was going on.

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I think she’s trying to flip him off.