Too much time spent on the internet these days. Browsing recipes, food blogs, and pinterest has become an escape from the rest of the internet where terrible things are filling my feeds. These days it’s a series of shocks whenever I open the New York Times website – stay on for more than five minutes and the site is guaranteed to be updated with another story about an executive order from the president that is going to make life worse for a lot of people.

I was on the phone with my mom the other day, and she reminded me that we cannot stay in a state of shock all the time. Our brains just can’t do that sort of thing. In between all the crazy, there is everyday life, and that’s ok. So I’ll keep blogging about food during those moments.

This post is about some cheddar oregano twist buns that I made last weekend. My oregano plant on the balcony has gone wild and produced obscene amounts of oregano, and I’ve been trying to come up with new ways to use it in our meals. Oregano is intense, both in color and in taste. And it tastes kinda like pizza when it’s cooked. So a type of pizza bun seemed like a good idea to spend a bouquet of oregano on.

As this was a somewhat spontaneously decided upon baking experiment, I had to use some bread dough that I already had. Of course, I’m well versed in using everyday bread dough for a variety of things, but I still wonder if you could make these more shapely with another type of dough. You’ll see what I mean in a moment.

So I shaped my dough, and then rolled it, making a thin, wide rectangle

And then I got to work on the filling, spreading the dough with oregano yoghurt sauce, fresh oregano leaves, and crumbled cheddar cheese.

The next step was to roll the dough into a roulade, slice it down the middle lengthwise, and then cut each half in multiple same-size pieces. After that, I twisted the pieces together in pairs to make buns. This bit was tricky, the twists ended up messier than I had envisioned, so at this time I realized that a sturdier dough might have served me well.

But the buns rose well and baked well, and when they came out of the oven they were crisp, golden and a bit sticky, and they smelled just like I thought they would.

Despite their somewhat rough exterior, these twist buns were tasty. They were also handy enough to make a good school or work lunch, and in fact, Paulus declared that he would bring twist buns to work instead of going out with his colleagues the next day. He didn’t have much of a change to do so though. I discovered that the left-over dressing made an excellent dipping sauce, and this may have lead me to consuming a few more twists than was strictly necessary.

On the bright side, this use for oregano is a keeper, and next time I’ll just double the recipe to make more twist buns.