Roll 'n Rice

Made a pork roast on Monday and turned into pulled pork last night.  I love, love,love pulled pork. To up it a bit I made some homemade buns.  They we light, fluffy but sturdy enough for the pulled pork or any sandwich you might want to make for yourself.  I have sour dough starter and I am always looking for new ways to use it.  This time  I just side stepped the sourdough and made straight up buns.  This recipe is from King Arthur Flour and was developed by "Moomie"  (Ellen).  I sure wish I had her ability to develop yeast breads.  This recipe is very simple.  If you have never made rolls try this recipe.  I followed the recipe except before I baked it, I added some Kimmelwick topping that I brought home from Buffalo.  It is just large crystal salt and caraway seed.  For the recipe go to King Arthur Flour and type in Beautiful Burger Buns.  And beautiful they were.





I put the dough for the initial rise in a prewarmed oven.  It was a bit warmer that it should have been and the rise was approximately 40 minutes.  I then shaped the rolls, put them in the oven with the light bulb on and in about a half hour they were puffy.(see above).  I then brushed with melted butter, and sprinkled with the topping. Baked for about i6 minutes and removed.  It made eight good size buns. 

 

 

TAH DAH the final result. Everyone thought that they were delicious and wish that there were more

for lunch the next day.  My daughter and her boyfriend did get to take the last two rolls filled with

BBQ pulled pork for their lunch. 

I had an excess of milk, so to use some of it up I made rice pudding.  I used the recipe that has become standard because it is quick and easy.  It comes from a cookbook I bought for my first daughter when she went away to college.  She hardly used it and gave it back. The book is Where's Mom Now That I Need Her? Surviving Away From Home  by Kathryn J., Betty Rae, and Kent P. Frandsen.  Not only does it have simple and doable recipes for the first time cook, it gives valuable advise for shopping for food, how to do laundry, health information  guide to decide if a hospital or a doctor visit is necessary.  If not, there is first aid information to help one deal with the problem.  The book also helps with car and bike maintenance.  A great book to share.

One Pan Rice (adapted)

1/2 cup regular rice
1 cup water
4 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Pour rice slowly into boiling water.  Cover and cook seven minutes.  (Keep an eye on it so it doesn't dry up and stick to the pan)  If it does stick and is not burnt, add the milk and butter then with a flat bottom utensil stir and get the rice floating. After stirring, bring to a boil, cover, turn to low and cook for an hour.  Half way through, lift the cover and give a quick stir.  Meanwhile, beat the eggs, add sugar and vanilla.  Pour mixture into rice, stirring slowly until rice thickens and bubbles.  Serve hot or cold.  You can add dried fruit, raisins, dried cherries with the egg mixture.  Serve it with cinnamon sugar or whipped cream.  I added sultanas but never again.  My daughter picked them out.  Dried cherries or dried cranberries is the addition of choice.

You can add some orange flavor and zest for a twist.  Be creative.

Te find some more quick and easy recipes or to get a copy for someone in need click here:

 

 

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies

This morning we were watching a program that brought up Bruce Jenner's name.  I contended that he was a past Olympian swimmer and my husband said no he was not.  I bet him cookies,  He won, I was thinking of Mark Spitts.  So Peanut butter cookies were his choice. Cookies are his favorite food group.

Of all the things I make, cookies are my least favorite thing to make unless they are bar cookies.  They seem to take more effort and time than it is worth.  When I am begged for peanut butter cookies, I generally do 1 jar peanut butter, 2 eggs, 2 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup flour. Mix it altogether, ball them, flatten and bake them. 

For my birthday, Steve gave me a box of cookie recipes called great cookies by Carol Walter.  It has fifty of her favorite recipes.  There are various kinds: bars, drops, around the world, big boys, rolled and glaze recipes.  In the big boy recipes there is a recipe called White Chocolate Whalers.  One of the main ingredients is crispy rice cereal.  A good one to use, to use up that uneaten box of cereal that is sitting on the shelf. ( nothing like crispy bars)  They all sound yummy but the bars are what I am leaning toward next or the White Chocolate Whalers are sticking in my mind since there is some crispy rice cereal sitting on the shelf.

I must say that these peanut butter cookies are really tasty.  The honey add just a wonderful touch.  The cookies were soft but not crumbly and best of all they were easy to make.  In the traditional form of peanut cookies, the instruction say to make a ball and then flatten them with a fork. I use a small cookie scoop to form them (no icky hands).  I like to use a glass with a pretty bottom or the meat pounder.  I chose the meat pounder for this batch.  I also dipped the pounder in sugar instead of flour to give the cookies an extra layer of flavor and texture.

The cookies went really well with a cup of tea this cold February Sunday.

Notice the bubbles on the tea.  When I was a little girl, my grandmother would pour us tea and then have us hurry and gather the bubbles in a teaspoon before they touched the side of the teacup, then sip the bubbles off the spoon. If you did, you would have good luck or something nice would happen to you.  The something nice was that I was spending time with her.

Her is the adapted recipe.

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cup pastry flour (or AP)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 jar peanut butter
1/2 stick room temperature butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
3 tablespoons honey

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts ( crushed in a sandwich bag)

Whisk the first 4 ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

In a mixer bowl, mix the next three ingredients until well blended.

Add sugars and mix for 1 minute.  Then add the egg and vanilla and beat until mix is light and fluffy.  Fold in crushed peanuts. Chill for an hour.  Put scoops of dough on cookie sheet lined with a silicon sheet, flatten and bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes or until the cookies just turn brownish on the edge.

Cool on sheet for about a minute and finish cooling on the rack.  Mine made 60 cookies but the recipe said made 40 cookies.  So expect to have the amount somewhere in the middle.

If you like this recipe and would like to get the cookie box  .click here: You won't be sorry.

Chocolate Chip Dessert Ball

I am visiting my brother in Florida while everyone in my family is shivering in the cold at home.
We are going to a  Super Bowl party (can someone tell me who is playing??) so I offered to be a good sister and make a treat to take to the party.  I have made this several times before and was turned on to it, when I worked, by a colleague.

It taste like a ball of cheesecake .  You can serve it with vanilla wafers, chocolate wafers , graham cracker sticks or wheat thins for a different taste.    For a different approach you can make several different cheese balls and make them small (small cookie scoop).  That way there are no double dippers and less mess. Since I am making one, It will be just a normal size ball.  I promise that you will not bring any home. 

I do not have cookbooks available so I went to Allrecipes.com and found this one.  It is very similar to the one I have at home,  You can add other things to the basic ball to give it a change of flavor.  Instead of vanilla, almond would be nice, add chopped strawberries and coat with sliced almonds.

Here is the recipe:

1 package of regular cream cheese,softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans

For directions go to allrecipes.com and type in  Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball.  Make sure to take a look at the reviews.

Oranged Iced Banana Bars

Having friends over to dinner so I had to do a dessert without having to make the five mile trek to Kroger's.  I still had oranges left, from the box of oranges my brother sent me and some bananas that were perfect for baking but not eating ala natural.  I was paging through  Judith M Fertig"s book, All American Dessert , and found the two produced sitting hand and hand on page 82.  So here is another recipe adapted from her book.  Make a standard banana cake, (hers or yours) . when done baking, turn off the oven, take the banana cake out, cover with mini marshmallows, put back in the oven for ten minutes, take out let cool.  Mix zest and juice from one orange, a cup of confectioner's sugar(sifted) and  two tablespoons of melted butter.  Whip it with a whisk or use a mixer to make a smooth glaze and to incorporate the sugar .  Pour over the cooled cake.  Enjoy!!

Just took a small piece from the corner. MMM ...M tastes tropical!  The marshmallows are still gooey and the other flavors are distinct but still blend well together.  If you like the marshmallow topping, I am sure it will go well with any cake you would make with a complementary glaze.

For some reason the turkey tenderloins are still not done and the guest are making the cake an appetizer.  Guess it is a hit!  Simple but good.

Coffee Glazed Spice Bars

Chili outside, Chili in the slow cooker.  Dessert is fresh out of  the oven and cornbread is waiting to be made. 

When I was a kid, my mom would buy a spice loaf cake with white frosting from the A&P store. It was my brother's favorite store bought cake.  Coincidentally, spice cake is one of my hubby's, too. So I found a recipe titled, Coffee glazed Bars. The recipe called for raisins, but having a family not found of raisins I used Sultanas.  It is like using dried plums instead of prunes.

The book that I used was Judith M. Fertig's, All American Desserts  It is full of wonderful down to earth recipes.  Recipes that you wonder how did they use make that. ( My grandmother use to make George Washington Pudding from the sour cherry tree that grew in our backyard.  Wish I had that one.)  The recipes are all accompanied by a blurb about the recipe.  She covers a wide selection:
preserves and desserts, cookies, cakes, puddings, custard, flans, ice cream, candy syrups,and beverages.  Definitely a book to add to your collection. Go here to get the book. You won't be disappointed!!

Here is my adapted recipe for Coffee Glazed Bars. 375 degrees for 20 minutes


Bars:
1 cup sultanas                                                       1 teaspoon cinnamon
a cup water                                                           1 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup canola oil                                                 1 teaspoon ground cloves                                         
1 beaten egg                                                          1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

Coffee glaze:
!/4 cup warm water
1 1/4 teaspoon espresso powder
2 cups powder sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven 375.  Spray a 9x13 pan.
Put sultanas in a pan with water.  Bring to a boil, remove, let sit until luke warm.  Put into s medium sized mixing bowl.  Add egg, incorporate and add beaten egg. Sift the rest of the ingredients except almond in a separate bowl.  Add almonds to dry ingredients then stir into sultana mixture.  Pour into prepared pan and bake until toothpick comes out clean (about twenty minutes)

Make glaze.  Dissolve espresso powder in water, add almond extract and sift powder sugar into mixture. Beat with an electric beater. 

 

Sorry but the cake was attacked before I could get a picture.  It is very good.  Not like the A&P cake in texture but its taste is reminiscent of that by gone cake.  I will look for another but I am happy with this recipe.  I am going to put the spices in a sandwich bag and when I go to Florida to visit my brother, I can make it for him.  I hope security at the airport does not mistake it for drugs!!

Bread today and bread tomorow

Today was bread day.  I have sourdough starter that needs attention to stay alive and healthy.  One of my cultures got shoved to the back of the refrigerator so it needed extra love and revitalization.
So for two days it has kept me company on the counter and to reward it for good behavior, I used it to make some bread.  I had an open bag of King Arthur Flour and some inexpensive flour.  So I decided to test if the cheap flour could perform as well as the more expensive flour.  The results were not as big as I thought they would be.  The KA flour loaves were bigger and the taste tester like the flavor better.  The other flour loaves were a bit smaller and were tasty but not as good as the KA loaves.

Remember you can always make dessert out of bread!!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Have to say the Roasted Butternut Squash Soup wassoooooooooooo goooooood!  I had blue Hubbard squash soup a very long time ago when we went to Frankenmuth, MI .  I then grew blue Hubbard squash so I too may make that soup.  However, the squash grew but the soup never materialized.   Definitely will make this again.  We ate it for lunch and we ate it again for dinner. I looked at several recipes and decided to make the recipe that was in the Cook's Illustrated 2010 Winter edition of Soups and Stews.  It really is a great issue and is on Amazon get it here.

Sorry this was not up last night but there was a problem with my blog site but we are up and running.  There is now no soup left to eat.  Steve ate it for lunch and then asked me to make more.  Sorry this was bread day.




The main difference between this and most squash soup is that it the squash (3lbs.approximately) and an onion are cut up into large cubes, tossed with vegetable oil and roasted at 400 degree oven until golden.  Add a 1/2 can of chicken broth ,stir the vegetables, and cook another 5 minute.  Put the other half of  the can of broth in the blender and puree the vegetables.  Do this in two batches (you will need three cans of chicken broth, total) So open another can of chicken broth and finish pureeing the vegetables.  Put the broth and the vegetables in a medium pot.  Add a splash of apple cider vinegar and maple syrup, and 1/2 cup of fat free half and half, and a pinch of nutmeg.
Stir and enjoy.  Do not add half and half until just about to serve.  The dribbles in the soup was an attempt to embellish it.

Remember to eat dessert not desert.!