So, Miss Rose passed her confirmation this week, which meant not only is she well on track for her PhD, but that she could finally make her long-awaited return to kitchen TPB, and what better way to celebrate than with a plethora of hot buns? Yep, things were going to get hot and sticky in the kitchen, but first, lunch...

One thing we're not so good at here at TPB is lunch. Not so much the making of, but rather, when we're baking, we tend to get a little preoccupied with our endeavours and so will often forget to eat for ourselves. This time, though, I came prepared, and with a little something for which Miss Rose had a hankering. Enter the meatball slider...

What constitutes a meatball slider is a miniature roast garlic-embellished roll which is graced with a tender meatball that has been stewed in a luscious tomato sauce; and is thus served as the ultimate tiny burger snack...

Cute yes, but also incredibly tasty, and while I should warn that the sauce is one of those flesh-seeking, kitchen-redecorating, lava-like bringers of extreme pain, they're otherwise quite delightful. And since we were also due for some serious pork over-indulgence the following evening, I figured some salads were also in order...

As for those buns... well... We started with the gift of divine spice from an especially lovely gentleman, and from there, things only got better. There was many a bun joke, oodles of sexual innuendo, and a great deal of inappropriate behaviour by a certain someone, so obviously, life was returning to normal...

The buns were exquisitely dense and beautifully weighted, tasted divine, gave a heavenly aroma, and while I personally would happily opt for simply hot buns as the piping endeavours for the cross made me exactly that, traditions do seem rather hard to break. All up we managed 54 pairs of hot buns, and as we packaged our 104 little bundles of joy away, I couldn't help but think, it was so nice to be back...