A Couple of Links

I haven't been making too many new things lately, but here are a couple of recipes I have tried lately that were a hit. The guacamole bruschetta was SO delicious as an appetizer, and Jen tried the cream biscuits and liked them, so I had to try them too (we had biscuits and gravy with them.)

Guacamole Bruschetta, from Blog Chef

Cream Biscuits, by Smitten Kitchen

Pumpkin Bread

My friend, Melissa, brought me a loaf of this stuff. It's so good. I loved it because it's moist and so delicious. I had to get the recipe and finally made it today. The kids are devouring it quickly.

The good thing is that it made 8 small loaves.

1 (29 oz) can pumpkin (I used two small 15 oz. cans)

1 Cup Oil

4 cups sugar

Mix first three ingredients then add the dry ingredients:

5 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 to 1 cup dates-chopped small (you can buy them already chopped)

3/4 to 1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans, of course)

Bake at 325 for 40-45 minutes, or til done.

GRANDPA'S FAVORITE

Bread and Milk

Grandma's Homemade Bread

Milk

Slice of cheese ( on the side)

Fresh Green Chile (on the side)

Dessert - Grandma's Homemade Ice Cream

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Mall Pretzels!!!

Today Erin and Sadie were at my house for an "overnighter" and we decided that we wanted to make something together. So, mostly since I've been craving them like crazy, we decided to try a recipe for those wonderfully soft, chewy, flavorful big pretzels that you can buy for about $5.00 at any mall. Fortunately, these didn't cost anywhere near that much. They were absolutely wonderful! They tasted EXACTLY like the ones at the mall, and, if I may be so bold, almost better!!! ;) The outside was brown and crispy, but the inside was soft and chewy. Definitely a keeper!!!

There were a couple of different things we would have done differently with the recipe, had I actually been smart enough to listen to my mom's opinion. This recipe calls for too much flour. When we had finished mixing it up, we had a mound of dough that was thick, stiff, and frankly impossible to work with. So, we ended up adding a little bit of water to it, and it was fine after that.

Another problem was that the pretzels stuck horribly to the parchment paper, surprisingly. I would recommend just spraying the cookie sheet with Pam. Also, we didn't have Bread Flour, so we used regular flour but added 3/4 of a tablespoon of Gluten to it, and it worked fine. We sprinkled the pretzels with salt on some and cinnamon sugar on others.

INGREDIENTS
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast(about 2.25 tsp.)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt



DIRECTIONS
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast, brown sugar and salt in 1 1/2 cups warm water. Stir in flour, and knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover, and let rise for one hour.
Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in an 8 inch square pan.
After dough has risen, cut into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 3 foot rope, pencil thin or thinner. Twist into a pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets, and let rise 15 to 20 minutes.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with coarse salt, garlic salt or cinnamon sugar.

One with lotsa cinnamon sugar!!!!

Cannon's piece sign...

Hearts

Bruschetta

Cam put this recipe in our family cookbook (Yummy Little Bread Things, p.6) and I had never bothered trying it until this week. Now I'm hooked! I made it the other day using a loaf of French Bread, then I made it and put it on a Chicken Alfredo pizza tonight. Give it a try!

Bruschetta

Loaf of French Bread, or baguette
3 roma tomatoes, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 C. diced red onion
2/3 C. grated white cheese (mozarella & parmesan)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
garlic salt and garlic pepper

Slice bread into 1/2 inch slices and place on a cookie sheet. Mix everything else together and spoon onto bread slices. Toast until cheese bubbles and bread browns lightly.

Mike's Mission Tortillas

Poor Mike, he only has sisters!

(Sorry-the pictures are not in order!)

Michael is home! And with him came a love for authentic tortillas. He had me buy some White Corn Masa (MA SE CA as it says on the bag) and he cooked up some delicious tortillas. He said he ate these with almost every meal. They are really good. We had them first just plain as after-swimming-snacks. Then later made some more for tacos.

I used leftover roast that I had made and these tacos were yummy. I used a recipe from My Kitchen Cafe for the roast and I have to say it's my new favorite.

Tortillas:

Pour some masa into a bowl, add some salt (don't have an amount-just a pinch or two). Stir in some water. Make it not too sticky, but enough water to hold together. Put a ball of dough onto a tortilla press in between two layers of plastic (Mike cut a ziploc bag up). Press dough, pick up plastic with dough on it and turn the dough onto your hand and then to the hot griddle. Cook both sides on high heat. Mike says they are better not too brown.

Make tacos, egg burritos, bean burritos, or whatever you want.

Black Angus Garlic Cheese Bread

Jen made this homemade Italian bread and turned it into this - Black Angus Garlic Cheese Bread that she had seen on Your Home Based Mom.

She said it was delicious -- (actually she said it was an evil combination ☺).

Homemade Bread

I made homemade bread for the first time last week. I thought it turned out really good. My only complaint would be it goes moldy too fast!

Bread recipe:

5-6 cups of bread flour or wheat flour (I did half and half)

2 1/2 cups of warm water

1/8 cup of oil

1/3 cup of honey

1/2 Tbsp dough enhancer

1/2 Tbsp salt

1 Tbsp SAF yeast

In your kitchen aid mixer, put water, oil, honey, dough enhancer, salt and half of the flour. Mix on low speed. Put in yeast and rest of flour (so that the dough is cleaning the sides of the bowl, it will be sticky). Let it knead on low speed for 5 minutes. Cover and let it rise for 15 minutes. Divide in half and shape into loaves on a cutting board that is greased with oil. Put into two well greased bread pans. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Brush with butter while still hot.

Red Lobster Biscuits

We love these! They are super quick and super easy... always a bonus!

2 cups bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1 cup (at least) of shredded cheese
1/4 cup butter
1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Mix bisquick, milk and cheese together until soft dough forms. Beat for 60 seconds.
Drop by spoonfuls onto non-greased cooke sheet
Bake at 450 for 9-10 minutes.

Brush melted butter & garlic over hot biscuits!

Flat Bread

Jennifer got this recipe from this site. She has made it and I have now, too. It is yummy. Her family commented to her that it tasted like something from a restaurant. My family loved it as well, in fact, I had to make it again the next night. Jennifer brushed hers with olive oil and some herbs. She also used it as pizza crust and said that was terrific as well. The first night I made it, I put oil, garlic salt and mozarella on it. The second night, I made 2 pan, one with oil, garlic salt and cheddar cheese. The other with butter, cinnamon and sugar. Yum, yum, yum.

The good thing is that it makes enough for four pans, and you can make as many as you want and refrigerate the rest of the dough for later and use it within two weeks.

Makes 4 1lb loaves. This recipe is easily doubled or halved
2 3/4 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tbl granulated yeast

1 1/2 tbl salt1 tbl sugar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used 4 cups whole wheat flour)

1. Mix the yeast, salt, sugar and olive oil with the water in a 5-qt bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container
2. Mix in the flour without kneading, using a large wooden spoon.
3. Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature for about 2 hours. You can use the dough at this point, or refrigerate and use over next 12 days. If you refrigerate at least overnight, you’ll develop better flavor in the dough. If you only want to make 1 flatbread, just pinch off a grapefruit sized piece of dough to use…keep the remaining covered loosely in the refrigerator. You can freeze the dough as well…but I haven’t tried it, because honestly, it’s so good that the dough never goes unbaked for more than 4 days. (This comment is from the original recipe, I haven't tried freezing it, either).

To bake, roll out onto counter with lots of flour and put on a pre-heated pan (I used my stone and also a regular cookie sheet) Pre-heat oven and stone to 500 degrees. Brush with olive oil, or butter, and sprinkle with your choice of herbs, pizza toppings, cheese, or whatever you want. Bake at 500 degrees for 5-10 minutes. Watch carefully so it won't burn at such a high temperature. Go to the original site to see the Pear and Gorgonzola Flatbread with Baby Arugula and Shaved Parmesan that she made. I'm not that brave yet.

Biscuits

I think these biscuits were the best biscuits I've ever had! And I didn't make them. Camilee's husband, Jason, made biscuits and gravy for us when we were visiting them a while back. I had them e-mail me the recipe:

Buttermilk Biscuits

1/2 C. cold butter
2 1/4 C. Self-rising soft-wheat flour (we used regular white flour plus added 3 1/2 tsp. baking powder, and 1 1/4 tsp. salt)
1 1/4 C. cold buttermilk (we used 1 1/4 c. milk plus 1 1/4 tbsp. vinegar mixed--let stand for 5 minutes before using)
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Cut butter into dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly and resembles small peas. Add buttermilk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 3 or 4 times, gradually adding flour as needed. Press or pat dough into a 3/4 inch rectangle (about 9x5 inches). Sprinkle top of dough with additional flour. Fold dough over onto itself into 3 sections, starting with 1 short end (fold dough rectangle as if folding a paper into thirds to put into an envelope). Repeat this process 2 more times beginning with pressing the dough into a rectangle. Press dough into a 1/2 inch thickness and cut out biscuits. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven, brush with 2 Tbsp. melted butter.

Italian Bread

I got this recipe from Camilee, who got it from her friend Sarah. This was a hit. My whole family loved it. They kept snitching into it before the rest of our dinner was ready. And then asked it we could have it tomorrow, too. I served it with meatballs and sauce. Camilee made it with Chicken Parmesan.

This makes 3 loaves. You can double it, though. 3 was plenty for 2 meals for my family, plus some.

3 C. warm water

1 tsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. yeast

1 tsp. salt

7 C. flour or a little more

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Add 4 cups flour and mix a little. Let rest for 15 minutes. Beat in salt and remaining flour, knead just til soft, turn out on to your counter and knead by hand a little, but not too much. The dough should be soft, but not sticky. Return to an oiled bowl and let rise til double. Punch down and divide into three balls. Form each ball into a short stubby loaf and place on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed and sprinkled with cornmeal. Place 2 loaves sideways on each cookie sheet. Let rise until double. Mist with water and bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes, until it is light golden brown. Mist with water twice more during baking. Brush with egg whites about 5-10 minutes before it is done.

I formed to loaves like Jen taught me to do for bread making, with a little oil on the counter. It sure makes it easy.

I sliced the bread, buttered it, sprinkled garlic salt and mozzarella cheese and put it under the broiler for a few minutes. You can eat it plain, too though. We all did before it was done.

Note: Cam made this with 5 cups whole wheat flour and 2 C. white flour. It didn't rise as well and was a little flatter. The wheat must be too heavy for this recipe.

Jalapeno Cornbread

This cornbread is so yummy! It's my mom's recipe, and I love it. It was so good when I made it, I didn't want to combine it with my beans, which is what I usually do. I wanted it all by itself so I could enjoy how delicious it is. I cut the veins and seeds out of the jalapeno's because I don't like them hot, but you can leave them in if you do like it hot.




2 eggs
1 1/8 C. cornmeal
1/3 C. salad oil
3 Tbsp.sugar
3 Tbsp. minced yellow onion
1 tsp. salt
1/3 C. minced green bell pepper
2/3 C. flour
1 ½ Tbsp. minced jalepeno peppers
2 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ Tbsp. diced pimientos
1 tsp. baking soda
2/3 C. whole kernel corn (fresh or frozen)
1 C. buttermilk

Heat oven to 350º. Grease an 8” x 4” loaf pan or 8” x 8” square pan. Combine cornmeal, sugar, salt, flour, baking powder and baking soda. In a separate bowl, mix buttermilk, eggs, and oil with an electric mixer. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the cornmeal mixture and stir well.
Stir in the onion, green pepper, jalepenos, pimientos and corn. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake 40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. If using a square pan, check bread for doneness after 30 minutes. Serve hot. Makes 12 servings

Rolls

This is my roll recipe that I use. I got it from a friend in MA. Everyone has their own roll recipe, but I love mine!

Rolls (I almost always double it)

1 c. milk (warmed in microwave)

2 T sugar

1/2 T yeast

2 T margarine or butter

2 to 3 cups flour

3/4 tsp. salt

Combine milk, sugar, margarine, and yeast in mixer and let stand until yeast starts to become activated. Add flour and sald and knead until just slightly sticky. Let rise until double in size. Roll out into circle. Spread butter on circle and cut into 12 triangles. Roll into crescent rolls and let rise again. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Aunt Carole's Easy Breadsticks (and yummy, too)

We love these breadsticks. They are a favorite. This time I made them with whole wheat flour, but they are delicious either way. Thanks for the great recipe, Aunt Carole!

Easy Breadsticks

1 Tbsp. yeast
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 ½ C. warm water
1 tsp. salt
3 1/2 cups flour
1 cube butter

Sprinkle yeast and sugar into water. Let dissolve. Add salt and flour and mix into dough. Let rise once. Roll out on floured surface. Cut in strips and twist. Melt 1 cube butter on a cookie sheet. Coat breadsticks in butter and lay on pan. Sprinkle with garlic, parmesan, and sesame seeds. Let rise again. Bake at 400˚ until golden brown.

I sprinkled also with parsley flakes, and I skipped the first rise. I am usually in too big of a hurry to wait.

Pumpkin Bread

3 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups solid pack pumpkin
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups white sugar
2/3 cup water
4 eggs


1. Grease and flour three 7 x 3 inch pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Measure flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices into a large bowl. Stir to blend. Add pumpkin, water, oil, eggs, and nuts. Beat until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for approximately 1 hour.

Sesame Chicken Nuggets

This was a new recipe I tried from a book on healthy eating. They are easy to make and were really good. Here is a picture of one of my kid's plate.

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast cut up
3/4 c. bread crumbs
1 Tbsp. sesame seeds



Marinade:
1 egg white
1/4 c. soy sauce
2 tsp garlic, chopped
2 tsp. ginger, chopped (I used ginger powder)
1 Tbsp. sugar



Marinate chicken for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix bread crumbs and sesame seeds. Remove chicken from marinade and dip chicken pieces into bread crumb mixture. Spray a cookie sheet with Pam and place chicken nuggets on it. Bake for 20 minutes or until nuggets are brown and cooked through.



By Camilee

Peasant Bread

Jen sent me this in an email, so I decided to post it for her:

We had some company for dinner tonight and I tried this bread, which is
just as easy as the blitz bread, and it was super yummy. Everyone gobbled
it up. I made it with white flour, due to the company. But next time
I will try wheat. I also served Cam's lemon cheesecake, although I cut
down the lemon juice in it a little. It was very good!

http://realmomkitchen.blogspot.com/search?q=peasant+bread

Pecan Honey Butter

This recipe is in the Payne cookbook (on pg. 1, and its Amy's, not mine), but in case you haven't tried it, I thought I would tell you how good it is! I hadn't made it in a while until tonight. Its so yummy on warm bread fresh from the oven (I made the Blitz Bread again - without the herbs again.)

Pecan Honey Butter

1/2 C. well-chilled unsalted butter, cut in 4 pieces
1/4 C. honey
1/3 C. pecans, toasted

Toast pecans in oven on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees (get them nice and toasted, but not burned.) Blend everything in the blender until smooth. Serve at room temperature on rolls, toast, or any bread.

Chimichitos-no picture (sorry)

So first I have to report on things I've made. I tried Amanda's BBQ Beef Short Ribs last night. They were absolutely wonderful. I cheated and made them in the crockpot (can you do that? well I did!) I also made Blitz bread to go with them. It was yummy dipped in the BBQ sauce. I added the herbs and used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour. And just for you, Marsha, I poked it with my ring finger first, then my pinky. Didn't ruin it. We loved it.

Also, I tried Marsha's chicken taco's on Sunday. They were a hit. Everyone liked them. We had leftover chicken meat and this brings me to this post! I used the chicken for my chimichitos. Here is how you make them:

Roll into a tortilla:
Meat (can use shredded beef, beef chunks, cooked chicken, or any meat)
optional refried beans
green chili
onion
shredded cheese

Place all burros onto a cookie sheet and brush lightly with oil and sprinkle with garlic salt. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 or 30 minutes (I don't really time them, I just watch them til done). Bake until crispy.

Serve fancy style with enchilada sauce, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole, salsa, etc. etc. etc. My kids call this Casa Manana food, for any that know that Safford restaurant. You can even serve spanish rice and refried beans on the side. Aunt Jeanie's spanish rice recipe is yummy (it has bacon in it).

Or serve plain with just sour cream and salsa. We do this, too, for a fast dinner. It's a yummy way, too.

These are one of my favorite. Anyway, sorry this post is so random and long.