Oven-Baked S'mores by the Fireside

Last month we had some incredible wildfires which burned very close to our place.  We spent a number of days and nights on round-the-clock vigils watching the burn line come closer.  Having prepared for times such as this, we had the fire hoses and shovels ready to do battle.  And we joked that if the flames came close enough, we would roast marshmallows to make s'mores.  As it turned out, the fire crews were able to contain the line just below our kitchen window view.  

We made s'mores anyway...the bake-in-the-oven version.

This hill later burned.

We're enjoying s'mores and watching the fire-line below.

We started out with this package of gi-normous marshmallows

We cut the oversize marshmallows in thirds with scissors, laid them out on the graham crackers and briefly broiled them.

We used chocolate chips and placed this sheet in the oven to warm while the marshmallows were broiling.

When they're nice and melty, just slap them together and dive in!

Goody Goody Gumdrops

So, with Halloween around the corner, I thought I'd share my best tip of what we do with the abundance of candy!  We sort it immediately after the initial thrill of Trick-Or-Treating and put the gumdrops and a selection of other small treats aside for making our annual Christmas Gingerbread House.

The big zipper-bag of candy gets hidden in the pantry until the week before Christmas.  Then all we have to add is a few candy-canes to complete our creation.  We like to have the gingerbread house as dessert after our traditional Christmas Eve prime rib dinner.  I plan to post our recipe and directions for the cookie house in early December.  Until then,  Happy Pumpkin Carving and Trick-or-Treating!

TOASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS
Scoop out the seeds from your pumpkin and remove the bigger chunks of pulp.  Rinse in a colander.  Melt a tablespoon or two of butter in a non-stick skillet. Add the seeds and saute for a few minutes, adding a generous sprinkle of Lawry's Seasoned Salt.  Spray or grease a rimmed baking pan. Spread seeds out in a single layer and sprinkle with a little more of the salt.  Bake at 350 degrees until lightly toasted, about 30 minutes.  Loosen from pan with a spatula and allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. In our house, we just leave them on the warm pan in the oven and they disappear within a day.  Depending on their tenderness, they may be eaten whole or cracked like sunflower seeds to eat just the kernel.

Being a Blessing with Dragon Eggs

Dragon Eggs
Our teenagers enjoy fantasy fiction literature...think "Chronicles of  Narnia" and "Lord of the Rings"... Somewhere along the line, our imaginative kids decided to name a favorite family one-pan dinner "Dragon Eggs."  It's really a "Shepherd's Pie" with the mashed potato topping done in scoops instead of spread out.  For good measure, the potato "eggs" are topped with a little shredded cheese.  Somehow this makes them a little more appealing to the two in our family who do not care as much for mashed potatoes.   Gotta love a good disguise!

Being a Blessing
Whether you're inclined to call it Shepherd's Pie or Dragon Eggs, I have found this to be a nice recipe to prepare and deliver to someone in need of the blessing of a family meal.  New baby arrival ...  loss of a loved one ...
14 years ago we had our own tragedy when our 4th baby Andrew died at birth due to hypoplastic left heart syndrome.  As we toughed out those first few weeks, we received many offers of  "Let us know what we can do to help."  And being strong and sturdy types, we just never could come out of the blur enough to articulate to our well-meaning friends what kind of help we actually needed.  "We're OK.  We're managing," was all we could say when, in reality, we desperately needed any support we could get.

I learned through this experience:

If you want to bless someone with your time or resources, 

make a concrete offer of whatever you'd like to do and include an option.  

For example:

"I'd like to take your kids to the park so you can get some rest.  

Would Tuesday or Thursday afternoon work best for you?" 

"When is your next doctor visit? I'd be happy to watch your kids during that time.  My place or yours?"  

"I have a dinner meal I'd like to bring over for your family.  It serves 6-8 people and can be frozen if you don't need it right away.  Would you be most able to use it this week or next?

*********

To bless someone in need:
Make a generous portion of this entree in a disposable aluminum half-pan.  Then write the contents, number of servings, date and reheating instructions on the aluminum lid with a Sharpie pen.  If you add a bagged green salad kit, dinner rolls and a dessert, you'll have a nice offering for a meal ministry.

Shepherd's Pie (Or "Dragon Eggs"  for the adventurous ones)
2 pound lean ground beef, browned and with excess fat drained away
1 quart of brown gravy, prepared from a mix
1 tablespoon dry Taco Seasoning mix for added flavor
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables or assorted fresh vegetables, sauteed or steamed.
1 package of instant mashed potatoes, prepared
about 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese or triple cheese blend

After browning and draining the beef, add gravy mix per package directions, taco seasoning and cook until thickened. Add vegetables and cook briefly until crisp-tender.  Transfer to disposable pan if desired or leave in skillet if serving to family.  Top with 1/4 cup scoops of mashed potatoes (use ice cream/portion scoop)  and sprinkle with shredded cheese.  Cover briefly until cheese melts.  Serve (or deliver) immediately.  If cooling for reheating later, chill to 40 degrees within 4 hours.  If refrigerated:  Reheat at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  If frozen:  Reheat at 325 degrees for one hour or until internal temperature is 180 degrees or greater.

This recipe is quite versatile as a family one-dish meal and adapts to what's on hand.  Here I used some dehydrated spinach mixed into the beef. Now, I know this isn't the most appealing photo, but it sure does taste good!

Vincent's Peanut Butter Treats

Vincent was a tough toddler who remained in the mode of "terrible twos" until he was at least seven years old.  By then, he acquired enough language skills to fully communicate, and we also figured out that he did everything in life much better when he had plenty of snacks.   He learned to help himself to good "grow food" whenever he felt his "gas tank running low".  We have probably gone through tons of Costco's Trail Mix during his adolescence.  Now he's nearly an adult and doing marvelously.  He's a great helper and a hard worker.  After 3 summer jobs, he even saved up enough to buy his own Jeep Cherokee!

This is the first recipe Vincent learned to make and it's still a favorite.  He demonstrated the recipe at a 4-H Presentation Day at age 12 and won a ribbon.  This high-protein snack is great for keeping an active kid's energy level up.

Peanut Butter Treats
1 cup peanut butter (your choice, creamy or crunchy)
1 cup dry milk powder
1/2 cup honey (OK to use honey which has crystallized)

Mix ingredients with a spoon in a mixing bowl until well-blended.  Scoop or roll into balls, or pat into 8" square pan (and chill before cutting into squares).  When making this treat to share with friends, we use a small portion scoop to make the balls and serve them in small cupcake papers for an easy grab-and-go.

Those of us "of a certain age" may remember these as the "City Schools Peanut Butter Squares" which were served every week in our elementary school cafeteria.  I enjoyed them then, and still do.  

Mountain Pale Ale

Many have asked about our home-brew experience, so I decided to blog a short photo-essay on the process.  I make about two batches a year, for our friends & family gatherings.  As far as food crafts go, home-brewing is "easy" once you have all the basic tools and plenty of confidence in how to accomplish each step in your own kitchen.  You'll need to know a lot about sanitation, too, in order to achieve consistent results.   I suggest you consult our friends at THE BEVERAGE PEOPLE up in Santa Rosa, for some great kits and resources to get you started..  They also sell stuff for wine and cheese making as well.

Husband Michael and his brother, Tom, introduced me to home-brewing about 22 years ago with the Christmas gift of a brew-your-own-beer-in-a-plastic-bag-kit.  Easy enough, but produced mixed results since the bag didn't really hold in all the carbonation you want for a nice ale.  Several years of tasting, testing and learning the ropes with a local brew-club has enabled me to turn out a predictable and very tasty pale ale.

MOUNTAIN PALE ALE

Make a "Mini-Mash" with a pound of roasted malted barley grain (Caramel Malt) steeped in 1.5 quarts of hot water.  Strain to yield the sweet liquid which will be boiled up into "wort". 
The spent grain can be fed to the chickens.

Boil 2 gallons water with dry malt extract powder and the liquid strained from the mini-mash

.

Hop Pellets of the Cascade variety are added during the 60-minute boil for bittering flavor

More hops are added for flavor and aroma during the last 5 minutes of the boil

The cooled "wort" is poured into a fermenting pail and  clean cold water is added to bring volume to 5 gallons.  When the wort is about 90'F, brewing yeast is added, the lid affixed with an airlock, and fermentation begins. Within a week or so, the finished beer is siphoned off ("racked') and either bottled or kegged.  If bottled, it must be bottle conditioned for several weeks to develop the carbonation.  If kegged, the carbonation can be applied and the beer is ready to enjoy as soon as it gets cold enough!

INGREDIENTS for Our
MOUNTAIN PALE ALE


5 # Briess Light Dry Malt Extract
1# Crystal Malt (40L) in 1.5 qt. water for mini-mash
1 oz. Cascade Hops (5 IBU) for 60-min. boil
1 oz. Cascade Hops for Finishing
(Other hop varieties may be used to a calculated target of 20 IBU)
1 pkt. Nottingham Brewing Yeast, rehydrated into a starter

Makes 5 gallons


Happy Octoberfest!

Hummingbirds at the Watering Hole

Late summer means that our resident flock of hummingbirds are constantly hungry and persistently feeding at our window feeder.  We have so many of these tiny birds around, that we are making hummingbird nectar twice a day.  They will completely consume the two quarts of sugar water before nightfall.  It's really a sight to see! 

What's more, if you stand quietly next to the feeder and put your hands gently around the perches, the little creatures will alight on your fingers as they greedily slurp up the nectar.  Good idea to be wearing glasses with this trick...they get so close you might just get poked in the eye or ear!

It's amazing to watch these birds dance as they jostle for position on the perches.  Some will chase others away while allowing their favorite friends access to the same spigot.  Even more amazing is to realize the surrounding trees are filled with other birds waiting their turn to feast at our hummingbird feeder.

The hummingbirds generally stay with us all summer and fly south after the first freeze.  Here you see a hardy critter who, in spite of the icicles, is unwilling to say goodbye to the best watering hole for miles around.

Our Recipe for Hummingbird Juice

Put 2 cups of sugar in a quart canning jar.  Add 2 cups of boiling water and stir until completely dissolved.  Add enough ice cold water to fill the quart jar, and it will be at a ready-to-serve temperature.   Makes 4 cups nectar.

Our 4th of July Cookie

Kayleigh's Cookie

It’s getting to be a tradition around here.  This colorful pizza-sized dessert was first baked for our friend’s 5^th of July birthday and served at her cabin in the mountains.  So fun and festive was the giant red-white-and-blue cookie, Kayleigh has baked it every year since 2008 to celebrate America's Independence Day.  In the heat of summer and in our non-air-conditioned home, we appreciate the fact that bakes quickly enough as to not heat up the kitchen too much.  The extra heat is a good excuse to whip up several batches of frosty blended lemonade…another summer celebration treat which we enjoy as long as someone has recently brought up a fresh 20-pound sack of ice for the water cooler.

Our Berries

This year we used a combination of our own homegrown berries and some store-bought ones since it is early in our berry harvest season.  The base is a simple spritz-cookie-dough which is spread out in a pizza pan, baked then topped with sweetened cream cheese and fresh berries.

A Patriotic Work of Art!

Kayleigh’s "4^th of July" Cookie

Cookie dough:

1 cup soft butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

½ tsp. almond extract

½ tsp. vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour

Topping:

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

¼ cup sugar

½ tsp. almond extract

Assorted fresh berries such as:

1 cup blueberries

1 cup raspberries

1 cup strawberries

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy in an electric mixer.  Beat in the egg and flavorings.  Gradually add flour and mix until dough is smooth.

Press out dough on 12” pizza pan (lined with foil if pizza pan is perforated)

Bake at 325’ for approx 25 minutes until very light golden brown on edges.  Cool cookie completely before topping. (Cookie can be baked the night before.)

Mix the cream cheese, sugar and extract in the electric mixer until topping is smooth.  Spread topping evenly over the cookie, then decorate with an assortment of fresh fruit.  Enjoy this cookie the same day and refrigerate any leftovers.

Here a Chick, There a Chick

Here a chick

There a chick

Everywhere a chick – chick!

Thirty of them just arrived by U.S. mail.   The postal clerk called us for the pickup.  When we arrived at the counter, onlookers at the post office gathered ‘round while we opened the carton to inspect our order.   

Wow, the baby chicks are NOISY!

Yep, our order of baby chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery came in just fine.  We’ll keep them in a brooder pen under a heat-lamp at 95 degrees, gradually lowering the temperature as they grow up and feather out.  

 

In a few weeks the little pullets will be thriving in an outdoor pen and getting into a pecking order with the older birds.  The young females won’t be laying any eggs until they are at least 6 months old, but after that they can lay up to one egg per hen per day.  Since our older flock of chickens (5-years-and-older) are tapering off in egg production, it’s time to refresh the flock!

We enjoy having a nice supply of these beauties for baking and we always like to find good egg recipes.

One family favorite recipe is an oven pancake called a “Dutch Baby”.  We started out making this breakfast specialty with 4 eggs in a small baking dish when it was just the two of us.  25 years later, our recipe has gradually expanded to a dozen eggs baked in a turkey-sized roasting pan! 

It’s an easy recipe too.  The egg, milk and flour batter mixes up quickly in a blender. It is poured with perfect timing into a sizzling hot buttered pan, and I can go get showered and dressed while it bakes to enormous golden brown and puffy perfection.  Basically it’s a gigantic popover and we love eating it dusted with freshly-ground nutmeg and drizzled with real maple syrup.

 

DUTCH BABY (serves 5-6)

8 eggs (preferably at room temperature)

2 cups milk

2 cups flour

2 or 3 Tbsp. butter

about 1/3 cup maple syrup

ground nutmeg to taste

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees with an empty Pyrex glass or metal 9x13 baking dish or 10x12 half pan placed on the top rack.  (Note:  Do not use ceramic, due to the risk of cracking the pan with thermal shock when the batter is poured in.)  In an electric blender,  beat the eggs and milk together.  Add flour and whirl only a minute or two, just until batter is smooth.  (You can use an electric mixer or a bowl and hand whisk, but the blender works best!)

When oven and pan are fully preheated, put on a pair of oven mitts and have your batter ready and close at hand.  Carefully add butter to hot pan and as soon as the butter is melted but not browned, quickly swirl the pan to distribute the butter, then pour in the batter.  Bake about 35 minutes until the “Baby” is puffed up in the middle, golden brown and crawling out of the pan.  

Remove from the oven onto hot-pads or a tabletop trivet.  Drizzle the maple syrup on top and sprinkle with nutmeg.  Cut into squares and serve immediately.

The Right Side of the Menu

We celebrated our 27^th wedding anniversary last month with a lovely dinner out, reminiscing about many other anniversaries over these last years.  It is a benchmark of progress in building our life together to reflect about how those celebratory dinners have changed over the years.  When we were first married during college, the $20 anniversary dinners were bought with weeks of frugality and budgeted savings.  In later years, the dinners turned into a relatively affordable splurge.  One of our favorite dining traditions for a number of years was to go to certain restaurant and order the featured seasonal “Copper River Salmon” with an appetizer of shrimp, and no-holds-barred all the way through the key lime pie dessert and an anniversary toast.  

We remember a quote we heard back in our early years, from some newly-famous rock star (1980’s early MTV-era) who said “The best part about finally being successful is when you can go out to a restaurant to eat and not even have to look at the right side of the menu.”  The sentiment rang true for us and we have counted our blessings every year we’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy an anniversary dining extravaganza.

Our favorite seafood restaurant closed shortly before we moved away from that coastal area.  Nevertheless, we found a fabulous way to prepare salmon at home and now enjoy it as a special treat.  This wonderful recipe for “Citrus Salmon” is a modified version of a recipe provided by my brother’s family in Seattle.  Baked or grilled, this recipe yields a delicious lemon-garlic-caper sauce which is spectacular spooned over steamed asparagus and new potatoes --  a wonderful celebration dinner menu. 

Citrus Salmon 
(Oven-Poached or Grilled)

2-3 pound fresh salmon fillet

In a small saucepan, combine the following ingredients, bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes:

Juice of 1 large lemon

Zest of ½ lemon peel

3 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil

3 garlic cloves, pressed

1 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp. dried dill

1 Tbsp. prepared Dijon mustard

2 Tbsp. pickled capers

1 green onion, finely chopped

Place 2 large sheets of aluminum foil, doubled up, on a large rimmed baking sheet. Place the salmon filet skin side down on the foil and fold edges of foil upward.  Pour sauce over the fish and double-fold the foil edges together to seal the top and ends well.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes (depends on the thickness of the fish…look for foil to puff up and hear a good bubbling sound.)   You can also grill the fish for 10-15 minutes with the barbecue covered (leaving the foil open a little bit and without using the baking sheet.)

Salmon before baking

Salmon after baking

 Enjoy!

Pig Powder

Many years ago we graduated from a small-town college and moved to a city where we discovered a demand for our “hometown specialty” of barbecue done over red oak wood and served with special-recipe beans and grill-toasted sourdough garlic bread.  Alongside our professional careers, we started up a seasonal business doing “Santa Maria Style” on-location barbecues for company picnics and other large group events.  After catering many events over many long summers, baby #1 arrived and effectively put an end to our ability to work “twenty-hour-weekends”.

Our catering business had a cute logo with the design of a pig, which spawned quite a collection of pig paraphernalia.  Thus, our special barbecue spice rub became known as “Pig Powder”.  Today, we still make a big batch every few months and use it to season almost everything from eggs & potatoes to soups & vegetables.   The very best use of it, however, is on custom-raised meat barbecued over oak wood on an open grill...beef just doesn’t get any better!

Try our PIG POWDER on your upcoming Father's Day hamburgers or tri-tip!

Pig Powder

2/3 cup “Lawry’s” seasoned salt

½ cup garlic salt

¼ cup black pepper (regular grind)
¼ cup garlic powder (granulated)

Combine ingredients with a whisk and store in a tightly-covered shaker container.  Makes about 2 cups.

πr2 -- “Pie-are-square”

πr²                   “Pie-are-square”

A late freeze this spring means we won’t have any peaches to harvest from our orchard at the end of this summer.  All the little blooming buds look like they were burnt off with a blow-torch.  Every year it seems to happen that the early spring warmth coaxes some blossoms out in March and a subsequent freeze seals their fate.  Each year it is a different variety of fruit that gets wiped out, depending on the timing of who's flowering when the frost hits.  Some years, no cherries … other years, no apples.  This year we'll get no apricots, no plums, nor peaches for fresh fruit pies   ...  boo-hoo!

Luckily we have a few gallon-sized plastic bags of various fruit tucked away in a freezer. Some lovely cut peaches from last year just got turned into a nice pie!

Pie R Squared

The way we do it:    Each gallon zipper bag actually holds about 8 cups of fruit.  Thaw a bag overnight in the fridge until soft enough to break apart, but still icy.  Gently mix in a cup of sugar, a quarter cup of tapioca flour, and a teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg (if appropriate for the fruit being used.)

 

Make this rectangular double-crust pie in a rimmed baking sheet “bun pan” which is 13” x 18” and fill with about 2 quarts of pie filling (home-canned filling works great…more on that in a future blog-post!)  Cut the pie into 6-by-4 portions to make 24 servings.

Pie for a Crowd 

5 cups all purpose flour

1 cup cold butter, cut into chunks

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

4 egg yolks

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

½ cup cold water

¼ cup cream

approx. ½ cup raw “turbinado” large-crystal sugar
and 2 quarts pie filling (more or less)

Cut butter into the flour in a large bowl.  Mix in the salt and baking powder and mix with pastry blender until coarse crumbs are formed.  In a separate small bowl, mix the egg yolks, lemon juice and water.  Stir the liquid into the flour mixture using a large fork.  Add enough additional water one tablespoon at a time until the flour just forms a rough ball.  For a tender crust, do not knead or over-mix dough. Cover dough ball and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  

Divide dough into approximate halves.  Take the slightly larger half and roll out to a rectangle of about 15”x20” (2” larger than your pan dimensions).  Place dough into rimmed baking sheet pan, stretching and patching to fit if necessary, being sure dough goes up sides to top edge.  Fill with fruit filling.  Roll out second crust and place on top.  Pinch edges of crust together as much as possible.  Brush top with cream  and generously sprinkle with raw sugar.  Cut slits for vents in the top crust.

Bake at 425’ for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 350’ and bake an additional hour or so, until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly.  Cool and cut into pie-are-squares for serving.

Appendectomy Anyone??

Well, we've had quite a week here and are very glad that Chris decided to visit the emergency room when he did.  Turns out his severe stomach ache, which was less than 12 hours in the making, was actually an emerging case of appendicitis caught in ample time for the doctor to remove the offending infection rather than have it rupture the way it did for his brother, Vincent, back in 2008.  Blessing upon blessing, Chris is doing really well now and feeling great enough to bake us up a batch of his very own "Christopher Cookies."

This favorite family cookie recipe was adopted by Chris in March, 2003, when he took over regular baking duties and assumed all the accolades for this fabulous coconut oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.  The recipe originates from my family heritage, but Chris has customized it with the addition of white chocolate chips.  Delicious, rich... and please use only real butter for that truly decadent toffee flavor!

CHRISTOPHER's COOKIES

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large mixer bowl, beat butter, sugars and vanilla until creamy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  In a separate small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat until smooth.  Stir in oats, chips and coconut.  Drop by rounded tablespoon (or use level small portion scoop) onto ungreased baking sheets.  (Do not crowd them;  no more than 13 per sheet.)  Bake in preheated 350' oven for 14-15 minutes or until just lightly golden brown. (You want to slightly under-bake them so they will remain chewy.)  Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes;  remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes 4-1/2 dozen. (About enough for one day in our family...thank you, Chris!)

Don't do mornings?

I am savoring this season, before it gets too hot to do much baking.  We have had an unusually cold and wet springtime season so far.  Even Memorial Day will be quite chilly…just the perfect opportunity bake a batch of our favorite make-ahead breakfast treats.

Night owls like me don't do mornings really well, so I like to make up a breakfast egg casserole and these Sticky Cinnamon Pecan Rolls the night before so they can be popped into the oven without much morning effort.  Dad brews the coffee and plays simultaneous games of backgammon and mancala with the early risers in our crew, and I can happily produce a festive weekend brunch while the first cup of "Guatemalan Antigua" coffee gets into my system.

 

These breakfast rolls have been a family favorite for years, ever since we had the good fortune of acquiring the recipe at an annual 4-H Bake Sale event at our County Fair.  We’ve made these deliciously-gooey caramel-glazed sticky buns frequently for potluck treats since they can be prepared the night before, baked fresh in the morning, and travel very well in our 9x13 glass pan tucked inside it's insulated zippered carrier.  These rolls have their own fan club and teen-leader “Miss Lisa” is completely thrilled when our kids bake them for the CBS Fellowship Brunch. 

 

Sticky Cinnamon Pecan Rolls                                                   

                                                             Makes 12 to15 rolls in a 9”X13” pan

1-1/3 cups warm water

2 Tbsp. yeast (2 packets)

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. salt

about 5 cups bread flour, divided

cinnamon sugar:  2 tsp. cinnamon  mixed with 1/2 cup sugar

caramel glaze:  1/2 cup (1 stick )  butter

1/2 cup whipping cream

1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 chopped pecans (or more to taste)

                                                                                                                                               

1)   Sprinkle yeast over warm water in mixing bowl and allow to soften for a few minutes.

2)    Add sugar, oil, salt and 3 cups of flour, beating well.

3)    Switch to dough-hook on mixer (or by hand) gradually beating in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

4)    Knead dough until smooth & springy, about  8 minutes.

5)    Put dough ball into an oiled bowl and turn to oil top of dough.  Set in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

6)    Stir cinnamon and sugar together.

7)    Prepare caramel glaze by melting butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring in brown sugar & cream.

8)    Pour glaze into 9 x 13 baking pan and sprinkle with nuts.

9)    When dough has doubled, roll out on a lightly oiled board to a large rectangle, about 12 x 18”.

10)  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar & roll up from long edge.

11)  Slice with large serrated knife into twelve or more 1” to 1-1/2” slices and arrange rolls in the glaze in the pan.  

 

12)  Allow rolls to rise until doubled, about 30 – 60 minutes, OR cover pan with greased foil and refrigerate overnight.  After being refrigerated, it is best to allow pan of rolls to return to room temperature and rise about 30 minutes before baking.  However, this can be accelerated if you’re on a tight schedule. 

13)  Preheat oven to 350’ and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until  golden brown and rolls in center no longer look “doughy”.   

Remove pan from oven and invert onto a heatproof serving tray, if desired.  The caramel glaze will be fluid, so they may be served directly from the baking dish.   

If transporting, loosely cover with aluminum foil and do not seal or the rolls will steam themselves soggy.  These rolls are best served warm.  Enjoy the treat and be prepared for rave reviews!

 

 

 

Stirring up the Dirt

Gotta love the Springtime.  As soon as those muddy dirt clods dislodge from the boot treads, the dried crumbles explode into clouds of dust all over the house.  Even with a specially constructed “mud room” entrance, it’s still a constant battle against the dirt around here.  Add 7 people (translate that into at least 10 loads of laundry per week and the lint that such laundry produces, since the facilities are inside the house) plus one house cat (think shedding fur and hairballs) then spread the duff and fluff all over 1300+ square feet of hard floor (no carpet would survive this torture) and you have one very-hard-to-keep-clean house.  Seriously, I have dust bunnies that reproduce faster than the real thing.  Daily housekeeping “might” work if one didn’t have an obstacle course of dolls, legos, art supplies and books to contend with.  I do, and so I’ve given up the daily battle and fight a weekly one instead, with a mammoth “all hands on deck” mopping frenzy which works, barely!

Chris found this sign for me at the county fair one year...so true!

Speaking of dirt, one favorite recipe we’ve been making for years is called "DIRTY RICE".  This one-dish meal is easy to flex with what’s on hand and reasonably tasty without any vegetables at all, or substitute dehydrated ones for convenience.  We prefer a mild sausage, and have made this with just about every commercially-available variety and some pretty spectacular homemade versions as well.  If you buy sausage in casings, just remove the casings before frying up the meat.  Vincent is hoping to hunt a wild pig this year, so we’ll try that too.   Vincent adopted this recipe for his own, since it’s easy and satisfying… and he can go stir up some dirt while dinner is quietly cooking away on the stove.

Vincent’s "Dirty Rice"

1 to 1-1/2 lbs. country-style bulk sausage

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

1-1/2 cups long grain white rice, uncooked

3 tsp. any flavor soup base granules or 3 bouillon cubes

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 to 1/2 tsp (total measure) assorted herbs, optional, to taste

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables, optional

3 cups warm water

Use a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid.  Fry the sausage, uncovered, over high heat, chopping meat with spatula, until about half cooked.  Add onion & celery and continue frying, while mixing and chopping sausage into crumbles, until sausage is cooked through and beginning to brown.   (Any excess oil may be drained or blotted out with a paper towel at this point.)  Add rice and continue to stir-fry over high heat until rice just begins to brown.   Reduce heat, then stir in soup base, garlic and herbs.  Carefully add 3 cups water, bring to boil, cover and reduce heat to very low.  Cook for 25 minutes without lifting cover.  Turn off heat and allow dish to sit for a few minutes.  Fluff, taste and correct seasoning with salt and pepper before serving.  Serves about 6.

 

On the Merry-Go-Round in a Jiffy

I loved to cook as a child and was interested in learning to make all kinds of foods, especially recipes with tactile appeal.  I remember the pretzels made for my fourth grade class didn't go over very well with my friends.  But that failure aside,  Mom was patient enough to let me help often and even cleaned up the messes I left behind.  

 Mom's Garden & the Merry-Go-Round

I also learned a great deal about cooking "by osmosis";  growing up in a large family that completely enjoyed eating good foods of considerable variety.  Being the youngest meant there were older siblings having cooking experiences of their own.  Sometimes they didn't want me hanging around their adventures and I do remember being sent outside to "Just go play on the merry-go-round!"

This is the very first recipe I remember learning to make on my own.   My daughter Carolina had her first lesson last week and she will tell you these delicious cookie bars can be made "in a jiffy" and they disappear just as fast!

JIFFIES

2 wrapped bundles of graham crackers
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup shredded coconut, optional 
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

Break crackers into small pieces in a mixing bowl, then add rest of the ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.  Turn into a greased baking dish (9"x13" or smaller) and spread into a layer, pressing down slightly with moistened hands.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Cut into squares and loosen from pan while still warm.

The Art in Gracious Living

My mother’s first aspiration was to be an artist and she started out attending a high school for fine arts.  But in the harsh reality of the early World War II era, Mom’s plans dramatically changed when her own mother died.  At only 15 years old, she needed a practical means to support herself and so she transferred to a trade school to become a hairdresser instead.  The art which Mom loved became a sideline expression through the twists and turns of a full life.  She and Dad raised a pile of kids in those post-war years and built a marvelous legacy of love into each of us.   

Mom's art was woven into the tapestry of daily living.  It was exquisitely rendered in delicate white ink illustrations encircling photos on the black pages of the family scrapbook album.  It filled a modest little portfolio of sketches and it still graces the walls of the family home in a few oil paint and pencil works.  It was evidenced in her gardening and flower arranging and cake decorating.  It was expressed in the precision she ran a busy household and in the fullness of her church and community involvement.  It still flows into her special ministry of correspondence through handmade cards and expressive letters written to her extensive circle of loved ones.  And her art was evident in the way she cooked for her appreciative family.

Every Easter we would get out special cookie cutters and make a batch of cut-out sugar cookies.  These would be iced with a smooth white glaze which dried to make a canvas for lovely edible art.  We used tiny paintbrushes and food color to detail the most intricate designs on the cookie shapes.  Mom's Easter crosses were decorated with wreaths of roses, while the stars and egg-shapes had stunning rainbow-hued details.  The bunnies had sweet “Peter Rabbit” clothes and the some of the loveliest lace aprons I can still remember.

 

Easter Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2-1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar 

Cream the butter, then add sugar and beat well.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Mix dry ingredients separately and then add to wet.  Dough will be very soft.  Chill for at least an hour before rolling out ¼” thick and cutting into shapes.  Dust rolling pin and cutters lightly with flour to keep from sticking.  Bake shapes on ungreased baking sheets at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes until set, but not yet golden.  Cool completely before icing.  We prefer leaving the cookies “stuck” to the cookie sheets, as they are easier to brush with icing glaze this way and lift off easily when dry.

 

Icing Glaze

1-1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. meringue powder

3 Tbsp. water

Beat ingredients together until smooth and brush or spread onto each cookie.  Allow to dry completely before decorating with food coloring using new, clean paintbrushes.

 Easter Blessings...  Celebrating the resurrection of Christ,              ~ Liz

John 16:33 - Jesus said:
"I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace.  

In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  
I have overcome the world."