Ben and Justin discuss ‘Alien: Isolation,’ with author Andy Kelly later joining in on the conversation. Then Steve Ahlman and Matt James pop by to give their impressions of ‘Silent Hill 2’ and ‘Metaphor: ReFantazio.’
Ben and Justin Charity tiptoe through the halls of Sevastopol to discuss the 10-year anniversary of Alien: Isolation and their experiences with the cult classic. Then they bring on Andy Kelly, author of Perfect Organism: An Alien: Isolation Companion, to discuss the game’s legacy, horror credentials, innovative AI system, and impact on Alien, as well as what they hope to see from the newly announced ‘Isolation’ sequel (15:49). After that, Ben and Charity talk about Netflix and Amazon’s big bets on a Tomb Raider revival, the history of the franchise, and Ben’s impressions of the new Netflix series Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (56:58). Finally, Steve Ahlman and Matt James pop in to give their impressions of Silent Hill 2 and Metaphor: ReFantazio (84:32).
Host: Ben Lindbergh Guests: Justin Charity, Andy Kelly, Steve Ahlman, and Matt James Producers: Devon Renaldo and Eduardo Ocampo Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal
Every Easter our family makes these sweet empty tomb rolls (aka resurrection rolls) where the marshmallow melts down to a caramel sauce inside the roll. This is one of our all-time favorite Easter recipes!
We usually start our Easter with these sweet rolls for breakfast. They can also be eaten as an appetizer, side dish or dessert. They go great with a honey baked ham and potato casserole. No matter when you eat them, they will make a great addition to your Easter celebration.
What are Resurrection Rolls?
These rolls can be called empty tomb rolls or resurrection rolls, heck you can even call them disappearing marshmallow rolls if you prefer. Either way, they are a soft, homemade roll that has a cinnamon sugar, butter-dipped marshmallow inside. The dough is formed around the marshmallow and dipped in more butter and cinnamon sugar then baked. As the dough bakes, the marshmallow melts into a sweet caramel-like sauce inside the dough. When you open the resurrection rolls the marshmallow is gone but the dough is sweet and sticky.
The empty tomb rolls are meant to symbolize the burial and resurrection of Christ. It is a tender object lesson to teach kiddos what we celebrate on Easter. The marshmallow represents Jesus’ body and the roll dough represents the tomb.
If you aren’t religious it doesn’t really matter because you still get to eat a yummy roll! They are easy and so tasty!
Our Story of Faith While Preparing for Another Baby
Heads up, I’m about to get personal so feel free to keep scrolling if you just want the recipe.
We had a special little conversation while making these resurrection rolls. You see, I’ve been incredibly ill with Hyperemesis Gravidarum with all three of my pregnancies. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve endured in my 30 some odd years of life, but it’s obviously been incredibly rewarding too.
Our oldest daughter witnessed so much this last pregnancy that she was able to grasp what was happening a little more than before. She asked me yesterday why I had been willing to be pregnant a third time knowing that it would be so horrible and I jumped at the opportunity to tell her.
Someone was Missing
Have you ever felt this stirring inside of you and you know you are meant to do something? Or had that odd feeling that someone is missing? It may be that you felt this great pull and desire to start your own business, be a teacher, have children, or anything else you can dream up, and all you can say is that you just knew you were meant to do it? We — I especially — have had both feelings each time we’ve had a baby. Every. Single. Time.
It took us five years to put on our brave pants and try for another baby. We had felt strongly that there was another who was meant to be in our family, but we thought it would probably be through adoption or foster care. We continuously prayed and sought medical advice in the meantime but just never felt the time was right, which to be honest, after a few years had created quite the hole in our hearts as we yearned to have a third but were afraid of the dangers it carried with it.
At one point, we knew it was time. We just felt it and there is literally no other way to explain it. It would take great sacrifice so this was not a selfish desire, instead it was a humbling experience to have the opportunity to consider another baby.
The Faith to Sustain Us
To say that we were nervous, scared, and everything else you could think of about getting pregnant and going through Hyperemesis again is an understatement. One night we decided that no matter what, we didn’t want to ever look back with regret that we didn’t listen to what we were feeling so we knelt in prayer and asked that we be given the faith needed to move forward, leave our adoption papers as is, and proceed with a pregnancy of our own if it was the right choice. It took all the faith that I had to say those words out loud.
As the words rushed out of my mouth I felt a great desire to just sit and listen and as we did just that our hearts were filled with the most amazing peace I’ve ever felt. Cade and I both looked at each other and just cried. One of those cries that says everything your lips cannot utter. Faith welled up in us both and I know this all sounds like some big amazing story but I knew without a shadow of doubt that we were meant to have one more, that I would be cared for and survive as would the baby and that our faith would in fact sustain us.
Prince of Peace
That’s what I told her, that we had faith in the answer we’d been given. We prepared with a wonderful doctor and nurses for everything we could so that my body was ready to be so sick. We went every week while I was pregnant, which was an enormous sacrifice for someone who couldn’t make it more than a few hours without throwing up. And in the end, we had a healthy little boy who I wish you all could know. He’s a gift and he is our missing puzzle piece. You can read our whole store here.
The Prince of Peaceis a new Easter initiative that we’ve felt so inspired about so thank you for letting us share our experience of using faith in our lives. I don’t know why I needed to share this, and I hope you all know that we completely respect differences of opinions and beliefs, but this is in fact our story and as Easter approaches and the new Prince of Peace initiative takes place I had to tell my story of how faith was given, and my faith increased all because of Him. If you feel up for it, we would love to hear your stories as well.
Now, let’s get back to those resurrection rolls.
Resurrection Rolls Ingredients
To make this easy resurrection roll recipe, all you’ll need is:
Rhodes Rolls: you could also use crescent dough or make your own dough
Marshmallows: you’ll want the large size
Granulated Sugar: adds sweetness
Cinnamon: adds flavor and warmth
Melted Butter: used to coat the marshmallows and rolls helping to make the caramel and help the cinnamon sugar to stick to the outside
The measurements for each ingredient can be found at the end of the post in the recipe card.
How to Make Resurrection Rolls
Start out with your favorite homemade roll dough, crescent rolls, Rhodes frozen rolls, whatever you like. Yes, I shortcut these all the time. In fact, I like to get the dough in balls into the fridge the day before so they can defrost if frozen.
Press each dough ball into a flat circle. Then, dip your marshmallow in melted butter and then into the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place it in the middle of the dough circle and seal it up around the marshmallow and roll it in more butter and cinnamon sugar and place it in a greased baking dish, baking sheet or muffin tin. Bake until golden brown.
Let the empty tomb rolls rest for 15 minutes and then bake at 350ºF. When you open the rolls the marshmallow will have melted down into a caramel like sauce that you can barely see.
You can now talk to the kiddos about the resurrection and how Christ’s body wasn’t there, but that just like how the rolls have become sweet so is His death sweet because all of us can live again because He is Risen. In fact, I like to just barely under bake them so a little marshmallow is remaining and talk about the white burial clothing that remained in the tomb. Plus, extra marshmallow is AWESOME!
Watch How these Resurrection Rolls are Made
How to Explain Resurrection Rolls
These empty tomb rolls (or resurrection rolls) are meant to made along with the Easter story in the Bible. Specifically, Christ’s body being wrapped in the white clothing, the butter represents the oils they anointed him with as well as the cinnamon sugar for the spices and herbs, then he is placed in the tomb, and finally resurrected on the third day.
“He is not here: for he is risen…” (Matthew 28:6). When you tell the story, make sure you get to the part where he is not found in the tomb and open up your rolls at the same time. Kids and adults love it!
Can I Prep Resurrections Roll in Advance?
Yes, you can prep the rolls the night before, pop them into the refrigerator, and then bake them off the next day. Just be sure to let them come to room temperature before baking them (set them on the counter for 30ish minutes, then bake).
Tips for Making Empty Tomb Rolls
If making the dough from scratch, you’ll want to section it off into golf ball-sized pieces to make the resurrection rolls. That’s roughly how large the Rhodes rolls are, so I’m thinking that should work when making empty tomb rolls from scratch!
Also make sure to use large marshmallows. Mini marshmallows won’t work and the giant sized marshmallows will puff up too much (even if you cut them down to a normal size).
Have everything out and ready to go before you start assembling them, especially if you have little ones are helping you. Oh, and prepare for a mess…rolling the marshmallows and rolls in melted butter and cinnamon sugar is so fun for the kiddos but it ends up everywhere! All part of the fun (deep breathing for me)!
Make sure you seal the dough around the marshmallow well. You don’t want the gooey marshmallow to leak out too much.
I prefer to bake these in a muffin tin. If the marshmallow does leak out a little bit, the muffin tin helps contain it and it actually makes the bottom of the roll so gooey and delicious!
Note that these resurrection rolls are best fresh from the oven, but leftovers are tasty too! They tend to deflate a little as they cool.
This makes a great Easter gift for neighbors and friends. Give a bag of marshmallows, some Rhodes rolls, a container of cinnamon sugar, and a stick of butter with a little explanation of the meaning of the resurrection rolls.
This Easter recipe has been become an annual tradition for us and one that my children love. It’s so sweet (pun intended!) to see my little guy’s eyes light up when that marshmallow is gone and the tomb is empty! I love having those teaching moments in the kitchen and these resurrection rolls are both delicious and celebratory! The tomb was empty!
More of our FAVORITE EASTER RECIPES:
Servings: 12
Prep Time: 10 minutesmins
Cook Time: 15 minutesmins
Resting Time: 15 minutesmins
Total Time: 40 minutesmins
Description
Every Easter our family makes these sweet empty tomb rolls (aka resurrection rolls) where the marshmallow melts down to a caramel sauce inside the roll. This is one of our all-time favorite Easter recipes!
Prevent your screen from going dark
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish or a muffin tin.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar, 1 Tablespoon Ground Cinnamon
Press the dough out into a circle. Roll a marshmallow in the butter and then the cinnamon sugar and place on the dough.
12 Rhodes Rolls, 12 Marshmallows, 1/4 Cup Melted Butter
Pinch the circle closed around the marshmallow and roll the dough in the butter and cinnamon sugar.
Place in the baking dish.
Repeat until you’ve used all the dough.
Let rest 15 minutes and then bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
It’s been more than a decade since Crystal Dynamics, the developer best known for the Tomb Raider series, first introduced players to its reimagined take on Lara Croft. 2013’s Tomb Raider painted Lara as someone capable of adapting and overcoming nearly any situation while maintaining a level of emotional depth and self-awareness, a quality the game’s sequels would go on to further explore.
The original was an excellent game that I’ve completed on no fewer than three occasions, and while her most recent outing, 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider, has its merits, I still stand by 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider as the most engaging and interesting version of Lara Croft for how it emphasizes her vulnerability. The result is a story that combines all the hallmarks of what you’d expect from a great Tomb Raider game: suspenseful supernatural elements and a thrilling and romantic notion of archaeology, all tied together with an intriguing and surprisingly emotional story.
Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix
Following the events of the first game, Lara is still traumatized by her trial by fire on the island of Yamatai and her father’s recent disappearance. Her quest to find her father and restore her family’s legacy leads her to the frigid peaks of Siberia and into the path of Trinity, a “Knights Templar meets military contractor” organization with a pseudo-religious goal of world domination. Unfortunately, this places Lara alone in the unique position to foil their plot, by saddling her with a truth that no one else will believe.
Lara fully understands the gravity of the situation, but never lets this inflate her ego. Instead, she’s more preoccupied with the specter of death that inevitably follows her attempts to do the right thing. Lara can never fully atone for how her choices led to the deaths of so many close to her in the past, regardless how well equipped or tough she is. This theme is so pervasive, it even echoes in Rise’s gameplay by presenting us with a Lara who needs to be more resourceful and cunning to overcome her environment.
Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix
Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn’t quite elevate Lara to the level of apex predator we get in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but she’s clearly far more capable than she was in her first adventure. The result is a character in the midst of becoming the Lara Croft known to players around the world, a more confident and prepared protagonist who can still be humbled. This version of Lara shines when she’s on the back foot, and Rise of the Tomb Raider does everything it can to keep her off balance with a more capable foe and a relentlessly adversarial environment.
I’ll admit that on its standard difficulty, Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn’t present much of a challenge. Because of that, I consider Survivor Mode, the hardest difficulty, to be the definitive Tomb Raider experience. While you won’t succumb to starvation or dehydration, at this difficulty, the player’s health doesn’t regenerate, checkpoints are disabled, and foes are far more deadly. As if that wasn’t enough, by default, the game also will not highlight interactable items in the environment. While you can turn on the “Survival Instincts” at any time during your playthrough, dialing down the difficulty isn’t an option, which further reinforces that there’s no going back once the journey starts.
Image: Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix
This dialed-up difficulty has the benefit of making the game more immersive and forcing you to carefully consider and prepare for every encounter. A handful of bad guys normally wouldn’t be an issue, but when just a couple of bullets can put Lara in the ground, things get a little more tense. For an added challenge, I like to rely almost exclusively on stealth kills and Lara’s trusty bow during combat, resorting to firearms only when absolutely necessary.
Rise of the Tomb Raider still keeps some of the Metroidvania elements of its predecessor to guide you along its critical path, while the world feels more open and encourages exploration of its various regions. This is further reinforced by a more robust crafting system, which forces you to scrounge and hunt for many of the materials you need to upgrade your gear. The tomb puzzles hidden throughout the world aren’t quite as challenging as those found in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but still do a great job at shaking things up between scavenging and combat encounters.
2013’s Tomb Raider did a fantastic job of establishing Lara as a character, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes for a fitting capstone to the latest trilogy. But for me, Rise of the Tomb Raider was the peak of Crystal Dynamic’s trilogy. Beyond its challenging gameplay, Rise offers a robust and complex narrative that shows us that the personality archetype of badass archeologist doesn’t have to constantly revolve around snappy one-liners.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is available on Xbox Game Pass.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25206485/ss_2b612bfa62d920b061e900e1f7a975a2de6729ec.1920x1080.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25206488/ss_4ef0868ecfc6b19bc1af18b88cabe33fe8147cf7.1920x1080.jpg)