Easy Clean Up with a Messy Dish

Over the weekend, we went to a church group gathering where we needed to bring food! What's a church group gathering without food! Anyway, it was requested by those in charge of the event that each family bring either a main dish and dessert or salad and dessert or combination of things. With the help of my family I decided that I was going to bring my BLT Pasta Salad and BBQ smokies.

The pasta salad is a good travelling dish however, the BBQ smokies can be a bit on the challenging side to get from my house to a gathering without them making a mess. Usually if I am going to bring the BBQ smokies to a gathering I will bring all the ingredients and then make them once I get to where I am going. However, with this gathering being a picnic type event, I knew it was going to be a little difficult to make once I got to the event. So instead of making something else that would travel easier, I went ahead and made the BBQ smokies.

I made them up in a pan on the stove to get them cooked and heated through and very hot. I needed them to stay hot until we ate an hour later. I poured them into one of Pyrex glass 9x13 dishes, covered with foil and then the plastic lid and stuck them into my insulated tote.

Before I stuck the dish into my insulated tote, I came up with this brillant idea...


put a section of newpaper in the tote first before I put the dish into it.




Then set the dish on the newspaper in the tote! This worked wonders in not only keeping the dish warmer but it also catches any spills that might occur, which for this dish is almost a guarantee!

After I got home from the picnic, I was able to throw away the soiled newspaper and I didn't have to clean up barbeque sauce out of my insulated carrier! Having the newspaper in the tote made coming home and cleaning up a lot easier.

This post is linked at:

• Kitchen Tips at Tammy's Recipes!

Baking Day Accomplishments!

I did not get everything done on my list today. However, I did get much of it done and there are at least two more days this week that temperatures are going to be around the 70° mark so I should have plenty of time to finish the list and maybe even add a few more things to the list!

Here is more of what I got done today...
A box of brownies from the pantry!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins! Thanks to Crystal-MoneySavingMom for sharing the recipe! These are soooo yummy!! My kids are inhaling them and even making comments like "I am going to have one before they are all gone!". I did change the recipe some in that instead of 1 1/2 cups oil I only did 1 cup oil. I also used 1 1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice instead 1 tsp cinnamon.

After making my mini loaves of bread today, I kept the bread machine humming with another batch of dough to make these yummy honey oatmeal rolls! I use my honey oatmeal bread recipe and the dough setting on my bread machine and then when the cycle is done just make as many dough balls as I can! Today there was a total of 17 rolls out of 2lb loaf recipe.

I wanted to take the time to show you the way I freeze my homemade mini loaf bread. Once the bread is cool, I wrap the whole bread loaf in just foil and then I stick two mini loaves in a gallon size ziploc bag and suck the air with a straw and label the bag. This way I can stick in the freezer and not worry about freezer burn on the bread. Also this way allows me to take the bread out of the freezer and the plastic bag and right to my oven to warm up to go with a meal. Or to thaw without the bread getting mushy from water with it being frozen. I also like doing the bread this way because it is easy to take out just one loaf to use as well.

So this is the end of the baking day! Even though my initial list did not get completed I feel like I accomplished a lot of baking along with watching my five children and making sure that they were fed throughout the day.

This post is linked at:

• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!
  
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace!
  
• I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfully Domestic!

Grilled Pizza Rolls and Wavy Carrots

Despite last week's events, I did try to make the best of things in the kitchen and find ways to still cook things without having an oven.

One of the things that I did was use our gas grill more. Our grill normally gets used to cook just the usual hamburgers, chicken, hotdogs and the occasional pork chops. However, this past week I cooked Totino's pizza rolls on it!! I have read about others grilling whole pizzas so I thought doing the pizza rolls would be no different.

I preheated the grill for a couple of minutes. I put the pizza rolls on a cookie sheet and placed it on the grill to cook. I should have turned the heat down to low when I put the pizza rolls on the grill however, I waited to turned the heat down to low after turning them once. As you can see from some of the pizza rolls, I left the grill on high for a bit too long, but the pizza rolls were not burnt just a bit extra crispy.

They took a little bit longer to cook than what they do in the oven but the results were met with two thumbs up from each of the family members.

The other thing I did this week was use a kitchen tool that has been sitting in the back of the utensil drawer collecting dust!

I use my Pampered Chef crinkle cutter and made some carrot sticks for a snack. My daughter came into the kitchen while I was cutting them up and asked what I was making. I told her "carrot sticks". She looked at me and said those are not carrot sticks they are "wavy carrots"!

I love finding fresh ways to do things to save on heating up my kitchen and re-energizing a veggie into a fun snack.

This post is linked at:

• Fearless Fridays at Home Ec 101!

Out of the Pantry Brownies

One of the box mixes that I just can not seem to get rid of in my house is brownie mixes! However, during my spring cleaning event,  I have decided to work at getting rid of them! I decided to make up some brownies but did not want them to be just "plain ol' brownies".   So I used a couple of my odd n' end items to spruce them!

I took one of the five boxes of brownies that I had in my pantry along with the dozen mini Heath bars and a dab of carmel ice cream topping out of my fridge to make up the brownies. 
First, I unwrapped all the mini Heath bars and put them back into the small Ziploc bag.  Then I took my rolling pin and let out some frustration on the Heath bars to crush them! 

After I crushed the bars, I made up my brownie mix as instructed on the box.  If you don't want to use all the oil that the box calls for you can do 1/2 applesauce and 1/2 oil.  I didn't have any applesauce so I just used the oil actually I didn't quite have the 2/3 cups like the box says but didn't add any extra water or anything and the brownies came out fine. 

Once the brownie mix is stirred well and ready to pour in the pan...Pour about 1/2 of the brownie batter in your slightly greased baking pan.  Then take your crushed Heath bars(or you can use any kind of candy, like leftover Easter candy!) and spread over the top of the batter.  Then drizzle carmel ice cream topping over the Heath bars. Then pour the other 1/2 of the brownie batter over the top of the Heath bars and carmel topping. 
Now your brownies are ready to cook!!  Cook according to the box instructions---350° for 28-30 minutes. 
Once they are cooled...cut and enjoy!  One thing I noticed in doing the brownies this way when I cut into them is that ALL the Heath bars and the carmel soaked into the brownie batter as it cooked!!  I was hoping that the Heath bars would do like what mini chocolate chips do being stirred into the batter. My thinking is that I did not use enough of the Heath bars or that I crushed them too finely or something???  

Despite having all the Heath bars and carmel topping "melt" into the batter, the brownies tasted wonderful!!  They came out nice and thick and rich!!  They made great brownie sundaes for the family!!

This post is linked at: 

• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace!
  
• Kitchen tip Tuesday, over at Tammy's Recipes! 
• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
  
• I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfully Domestic!

New Kitchen "Servant"

A couple of weeks ago, I found that I had many reward points on my credit card, so I decided to redeem some of those points and get myself a new kitchen "servant".

It is a 6.5 quart roaster!  I am loving it!  I have been using lately for meals rather than using my oven or my crockpot.  

I did my roast, carrots and potatoes in it earlier in the week.  The roast was done just right, the potatoes were just starting to split to show that they were done, the carrots were not mushy either!!  

When I did this meal in my crockpot, I would do it different each time trying to get rid of my dried out roast and really mushy carrots.  I think it has to do with the fact that my crockpot was running hot or something!  Cause I put the food in the roast at 300° for the day and it was cooked in about 6 hours just right! 

I am looking forward to working this "servant" more in the days to come.  I just have to remember to put more liquid into it than what I did my crockpot because the roaster boils/steams as it cooks so liquid disappears faster than in a crockpot. 

Chex Muddy Buddies

Last week on my very productive day, I made up some Muddy Buddies Mix for taking to the marriage retreat that hubby and I went to over the weekend.  

I used this recipe as my guide and I doubled it because I was making it for a large group and I wanted to use the whole box of Corn Chex. Did you know that there is just under 16 cups of Chex in the whole box!?!

I measured out the box of Corn Chex so that I knew how much I needed of the other ingredients. I didn't have any regular chocolate chips but I did have a 10 oz. bag of peanut butter/milk chocolate swirl chips so I used those instead. 

In my pan on the stove, I melted the bag of swirl chips, 1 cup creamy peanut butter, 1 stick of margarine until they were blended and smooth.  I poured the chocolate/peanut butter mixture over the cereal that was waiting in my big mixing bowl. 

I gently stirred(so I did not crush the cereal) the warm mixture throughout the cereal until the mixture was evenly coated on the cereal. 


Once the cereal was evenly coated with the chocolate/peanut butter mixture, I poured it carefully into the waiting grocery paper bag that I had put 3 cups of powdered sugar in the bottom.   Then I rolled the bag shut and shook the bag so that the powdered sugar would coat the cereal well.  After about a minute I opened the bag to see how well the powdered sugar had coated the cereal. I saw that the powdered sugar was soaked into the cereal.  So I added about another 1/2 cup of powdered sugar to the bag and shook it for another minute.   Here is the end result....

Tasty Muddy Buddies Mix!!!

You are probably wondering why I choose to use a grocery brown paper bag/sack to coat the cereal with the powdered sugar?!?  Well it is a trick that I learned from my mother!  Putting the cereal in the bag allows you to put all the cereal while it is warm into the powdered sugar to coat the cereal. It also makes the process go a bit quicker and you don't end up wasting a ziploc bag or two with the coating process. It also allows for less mess!  

I made this mix in less than 10 minutes!

So here is the recipe:

18 cups Corn Chex

10 oz bag swirl chips(used peanut butter/milk chocolate)

1 stick margarine or butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided

Melt chips, margarine, and peanut butter until smooth. Add to the cereal.  Stir and evenly coat the cereal with the mixture.  Put 3 cups powdered sugar into a brown paper bag. Pour cereal into a brown paper bag with the powdered sugar. Roll top of bag down, shake the bag until the cereal is coated with the powdered sugar. Pour in the other 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, if necessary and shake the bag. 

This post is linked at: 

• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace!
  
• Kitchen tip Tuesday, over at The Finer Things in Life(Amy is guest hosting this week!)! 
• Tasty Tuesday at Forever, Wherever
  
• I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfully Domestic!

Thursday Thirteen--Vegetables

This past Monday, my hubby and I had an InBody Assessment done. Hubby's work has afflilation with the local YMCA so one of the trainers came into hubby's work to do the assessment in one of the conference rooms. The assessment was just a simple taking of shoes and socks off and hanging on to the device and waiting for the results. The results being our weight, skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass, water content, BMI, percentage of fat to muscle, and muscle strength. Basically we found out how much weight/fat we need to lose in order to be in good health. We also found out how many calories we burn just resting to help us know how many calories we need to consume in order to lose the extra weight.

And what does this have do with anything??? Well I thought for my Thursday Thirteen list, I would list the vegetables that I enjoy eating. Hopefully listing them will help to inspire me to eat them on a more regular basis, EVEN if my family despises them! (My family is full of picky eaters!)

So without further ado....My list of vegetables that I enjoy consuming(in no particular order!)...

1. Broccoli
   
   
2. Spinach(cooked & fresh)
   
   
3. Lettuce
   
   
4. Carrots
   
   
5. Cucumbers(despite the fact they give me heartburn!)
   
   
6. Squash(zucchini, summer, and butternut are my favorites!)
   
   
7. Asparagus
   
   
8. Green Beans
   
   
9. Corn(especially fresh off the cob!)
   
   
10. Green Peas
    
    
11. Okra(not the most healthy as I like it fried in bacon grease!)
    
    
12. Tomatoes(I know they are actually a fruit--but I see them as a veggie!)
    
    
13. Potatoes
    

While I will eat the listed vegetables there are others(like brussel sprouts & rhubarb) that I will not eat! And just in case if you are wondering...I have tried my "dislike veggies" before several different ways and just didn't acquire a liking to them.

For more lists, head over to Thursday Thirteen over Happy to Be at Home.

Easy Banana Cookies

Do you have a few ripe bananas sitting on your counter that are too ripe and turning mushy sitting on your counter??  Have you ever wanted something other than just muffins or bread from those bananas?  How about making cookies!?!?

Cookies are kid friendly!  Cookies are great for on the go breakfasts or snacks!

Easy Banana Cookie Recipe

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter (softened)
2 eggs
2 bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add butter and mix well. Add lightly beaten eggs, mashed banana and vanilla. Mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 375° for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Notes: These cookies are easy to do and also easy to alter by using whole wheat flour or oatmeal for the some of the flour. Also a nice addition is walnuts or chocolate chips or both! 

This post is linked at: 

• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace!
  
• Kitchen tip Tuesday, over at Tammy's Recipes! 
• Tasty Tuesday at Forever, Wherever
  
• I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfully Domestic!

Oatmeal Muffins

OATMEAL MUFFINS 

This is a quadruple batch, should make about 40 muffins, depending on size. I got this recipe from a friend a while ago.  I love making these muffins up because I can have a variety of muffins in very little time. Paula asked me if these freeze well...the answer is yes they do!!  I allow them to cool completely and then stick them in a ziploc gallon size freezer bag and stash away in the freezer. Something else that I have done is take the time to individually wrap the muffins and then stick in the ziploc freezer bag so it is just an easy pull for sticking in a "on-the-go lunch". 

3 C whole wheat flour
2 1/3 flour
3 C oats (quick or whole)
8 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
3 C milk (I sub water often)
1 C oil
1 1/3 white or brown sugar

Add-in options:

Chopped apple
Chocolate chips
Raisins
Dried fruit
Chunk of cream cheese in each
Dollop of jelly in the middle

Bake at 400 for 20 min or until golden.

For other tempting tummy recipes and more; head over to Blessed with Grace!

For other kitchen tips, head over to Tammy's Recipes! This post is also linked at Blissfully Domestic

Kitchen Tip Tuesday--Two Bowls Better Than One

My tip today is probably a no brainer for those who do a lot of once a month cooking(OMAC) or who do up big batches of certain foods but this little tidbit I am about to share really helped me this morning while doing up a hot breakfast for my crew.

The tip is when making up a huge batch of pancake or waffle batter remember that TWO bowls are better than ONE!   

Now you are probably wondering how I came to this revelation.....

I am working at getting out of a rut for the breakfast routine.  I am trying to up my average of hot breakfasts from 3 days weekly to 5 days during the week, hence working towards ridding my family of the cold cereal and toast morning routine.   

Anyway, I planned to do pancakes and bacon for breakfast so I made up TWO triple batches of my pancake batter. Well this Mom of five does not have a gigantic mixing bowl to make up the batter in ONE bowl!  So I got out TWO of my mixing bowls and set to work putting the ingredients into each bowl making the batches up simultaneously.  Once I completed making up the batter, I was able to put a lid on the bowl that I wasn't going to use first and put it in the fridge so I wasn't losing counter space and nothing got dropped into the batter! 

Another reason to put it into TWO bowls rather than just one is if I did not have time this morning to make up the both sets of batter I have the ability to come back to it later and finish making them for putting in the freezer.   

One downside to multiple bowls is that it creates more dishes to wash but in the end if it is going to save my sanity...well I'll use two bowls.

The end result of my madness of TWO triple batches of pancakes is one hot breakfast for seven and two gallon size freezer ziploc bags for two more hot breakfast by thawing and reheating.

For more kitchen tips, head over to Tammy's Recipes.

Carrots as Natural Sweetener

What is one of the most healthiest foods? Carrots!! They are rich in Vitamin A. Carrots are one of my kids' favorite foods. They love to take them out of the fridge and snack on them hence my love for going to Aldi's and getting a 1# bag of the baby carrots for 69 cents!

Yesterday I was in the kitchen most of the day fixing a spaghetti dinner for my family and my hubby's work team. I got thinking about those little orange veggies as used them.

Did you know that you can use carrots as sweetener instead of adding sugar to your foods? Since my kids love them it is easy for me to add them to different dishes. Although I have a few that would rather eat them raw than cooked! Also, I have not gotten them to drink them in smoothies or juice yet!

I love to add shredded carrots to my tomato based dishes. I could just chop the carrots up but I have several who don't like seeing chunks of veggies, especially in their spaghetti sauce. To add the extra vitamins along with sweetening the dish, I shred the veggies that I am going to put in my tomato based dishes. Yesterday, in my big 6 quart crockpot that I filled about 3/4 full with spaghetti sauce I added about a 1/2 dozen baby carrots(that is all I had in the house) to my sauce. I find when I shred the carrots as the dish simmers the carrots pretty much disappears.

Also adding the carrots to the tomato based sauces it helps to neutralize the acid from the tomatoes. I have found that when I add carrots to the sauce I do not have near the problem of heartburn or feeling ill than when I forget to add the carrots.

So my tip for the day....add carrots to tomato based dishes for your sweetener and added vitamins!

For more kitchen tips, ideas or recipes; head over to Tammy's Recipes OR head over to Blessed with Grace!

A Lowfat Quandry with Jello Cake

Hubby asked if I would make a jello cake for him to take to work tomorrow to go along with their Soup/Chili & Salad Potluck Lunch.  So this afternoon I decided to make it for him while I had the oven on for dinner. 

Anyway, the last few times I have made my jello cake it has seemed really oily and since my hubby has problems with high cholesterol I decided that I would try putting natural applesauce in the cake instead of veggie oil.  I have read of others using natural applesauce for an oil substitute in recipes so I thought why not!   

The recipe calls for 3/4 cup oil and that is how much natural applesauce I put in the cake. This is the only change I made to my tried & true recipe!  Once the cake was done, I turned it out the plate and this is the mess I ended up with!!     Basically part of the "crust" of the cake stayed in the pan while the rest of the cake was on the plate. The picture below shows my attempt at putting it back together. 

What could I have done differently??  Should I have added more applesauce to the mixture?  Did I make it too dry by using ALL applesauce for the oil?  I waited about 5 minutes before turning it out on the plate.   Is it not wise to use ALL applesauce for an oil substitute?  If not using applesauce for an oil substitute what else can I use to make things lower fat for hubby without taking away all of his sweets?

I decided to re-do the cake after the mess!  I had the ingredients on hand for another cake! So I did a "take two"  on the cake. This time I took my 3/4 cup measuring cup and filled it a little under 1/2 full with applesauce and the rest of the measuring cup was filled with veggie oil.   

Here is the end result!  The cake came out of the pan without one problem(well there is a little tear in it at the top of the pic but I think that is due to not a very well greased pan).  This one looks alot better!  It looks more like what the normal ones(as in following the recipe exactly) look like when I have done them in the past.  The second one, I will cut up for hubby to take with him to work!  I'll get the results of its taste and all when he comes home! 

If you are interested in the recipe...

Jello Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
1 3oz. pkg. DRY jello (I usually use a red, or orange or yellow)
3/4 cup water
4 eggs
3/4 cup canola oil

Beat first 4 ingredients together about 4 minutes. Add oil and beat one more minute. Grease lightly a bundt pan.Bake at 350° about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Notes: I make the color of the cake to match either a holiday or season. Like for Valentine's Day, I make a red one. For Fall, I make an orange one. You can even drizzle a powdered sugar and water or orange juice glaze on the cake but personally I think that it makes the cake too sweet and it also makes to difficult to slice and freeze. However, having a slice with a scoop of ice cream makes a very nice treat!

For more kitchen tips, ideas or recipes; head over to Tammy's Recipes OR head over to Blessed with Grace!

Also check out the weekly round-up of great posts over at Blissfully Domestic!

Homemade Pizza Crust & Breadsticks Success

I haven't made homemade pizza dough and breadsticks in a while because my hubby has complained to me about the salty taste of the pizza.  So last night, I decided to put my no rise yeast dough recipe to the test!  I have used the recipe for rolls before but hadn't even thought about using the no rise yeast dough recipe for pizza crust. 

So I made up the dough and made breadsticks first.  Here is the steps I did for the breadsticks...

1. Once the dough was mixed up, I divided it into 3 parts.(later I would realize that I could have divided it more!)
2. I took one part of the dough and rolled out the dough into a rectangle shape.
   
3. I took my pizza cutter and sliced the dough into stripes.
4. I melted 3 TBSP. margarine once melted I added 2-3 tsp. garlic powder and stirred the two together making a garlic butter sauce. 
5. I took my slicone brush and brushed the garlic butter sauce on the stripes of dough. 
6. I sprinkled grated parmesan cheese liberally over the dough. 
7. I put the dough into the oven at 400° for 10-15 minutes. and the end result.....

After doing the bread sticks, I took the other two parts of the dough and rolled them out for a large and medium size pizza. I used my large Pampered Chef pizza stone and my regular size Pampered Chef pizza stone.   With using my stones I decided not to grease them.   I cooked the dough on the stones for about 10 minutes BEFORE adding the toppings. This will help eliminate soggy crusts! When I took the crusts out after cooking them that is when I realized that I probably could have made three pizza crusts from the two crusts that I had done. 

At any rate, the pizza turned out delicious!! The picture above shows you what was left of my two pizzas! The crust was definitely still a thick crust rather than thin crust but it wasn't too doughy and still got rave reviews from the family!  Hubby also commented  that the pizza tasted a lot less salty than my previous attempts at homemade pizza! 

So I think I have finally found a new pizza dough for my family! Now to find a pizza sauce that doesn't taste salty but still has flavor! 

For more kitchen tips, ideas or recipes; head over to Tammy's Recipes OR head over to Blessed with Grace

Also check out the weekly round-up of great posts over at Blissfully Domestic!

Mini Bread Fun

I got this idea from Tammy showing us her mini loaves!  I have small pans to do quick breads in and so over the holidays I made several loaves of bread--mini style or kid size! The main reason why I did them is because I thought they would be good size for giving away with my goodie plates.


Well like most of my recipes, my family thinks that they need to try them out!  So I made a few for us to have as a side with our dinner meals.  The mini loaves do not last long around here!


And then of course, my daughter loves grilled cheese and she asked if I would use some of "her name size" sandwiches.  I told her sure why not!  And not only did she enjoy them but everyone enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich on homemade bread with a bowl of homemade chicken rice soup!

I used this recipe and just used the dough cycle...

Honey Oatmeal Bread (breadmachine)

11 1/2 ounces(1 1/4 cup + 3tbsp.) water (80°F) 
3 tablespoons honey
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1 cup oats, (quick or old fashioned)
2 tablespoons dry milk
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast(can be used in the breadmachine) 
OR
2 teaspoons bread machine/fast rise yeast
Place in bread machine in order starting with water and ending with yeast.Basic Bread Setting, unless using fast rise yeast then you can do Basic Rapid Bread Setting. Makes 2lb loaf
***If you want rolls instead of a loaf of bread, place the bread machine on dough setting. After the cycle is done, take the dough out of the machine and make into 12-24 balls(depending on what size rolls you would like) place into a greased pan. Or for mini loaves divide evenly into 4 balls and roll out into a log and place in a greased loaf pan. Let rise til double in size(45 minutes-1 hour). Bake in oven at 350° for 15-20 minutes or til golden brown.

For more kitchen tips head over to Tammy's Recipes or for more tempt my tummy tuesdays head over to Blessed with Grace.  I also joined in on the over at Blissfully Domestic!

No Rise Yeast Dough

I got this recipe from a friend about a year ago and let me tell you that it can make life so much easier in the bread department of your kitchen!! Make it up and have a big batch of it sitting in the fridge to use with meals as the week progresses! OR make up the big batch, cook 'em and have the different rolls or breads to put in the freezer for the week. And the best part is you do not have to wait for them to rise!


NO RISE YEAST DOUGH RECIPE

Mix and let sit for about 15 minutes.
1 Tbs. yeast
1/2 C warm water
1 Tbs. sugar

Then add the following:

1/2 C. oil
2 C. *sour milk, buttermilk, or yogurt
1/2 C. sugar (or less)
1/2 tsp. soda
5 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
5 C. plain flour (maybe need a little more I use about 6 cups)

*1 cup sour milk= 1 cup of plain milk with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice* THIS NEEDS TO SIT AT LEAST 10 MINUTES TO CLABBER.

GLAZE RECIPE FOLLOWS AT END!!


Mix and knead well. Place in a oiled bowl. This dough will keep in the fridge for a least a while if a tight lid is in place. Just take out the amount needed to be used at the time. This dough can be used immediately. There is no waiting for it to rise.

This dough can be used for the following: dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, apple rolls, hot dog buns, hamburger buns, dough nut holes, pigs in blankets. Just use your imagination for different recipe uses.

Donut holes:
just pinch off a small amount and roll into a ball then fry in hot oil. after frying glaze them and let them drip on a cookie cooling rack. Place a paper towel or wax type paper and you can use the dripped icing over again.

Donuts:
Roll out dough then cut with cutter then carefully drop the donuts into hot oil to fry them until they are floating and golden in color. Drain on paper towels then glaze or dust them with powdered sugar or however you would like.

Cinnamon rolls:
roll out into a rectangle; spread melted butter/margarine and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on it. Then roll up from the small end and cut. Cutting the dough with string, thread, or dental floss will give you a clean cut. These can be baked with sides touching or as separate rolls. Bake in about 375-400 degree oven.

Apple Rolls:
Make dough as you would for cinnamon rolls but instead of spreading butter and cinnamon you will spread an apple filling on the dough. Apple filling recipe follows after glaze recipe.
Bake these rolls like you would cinnamon rolls.

Bread sticks:
roll small amounts in long strips about the size of your finger and 8" long. Put these on a cookie sheet. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds and bake at 400.

Pizza dough:
with greased hands, flatten dough to fit greased pizza pans but bake the crust about 5 minutes to keep the crust from getting soggy. Place your favorite toppings on the crust and finish baking!

Hot dog and hamburger buns: just shape them and bake them on cookie sheets

ICING FOR CINNAMON ROLLS AND DONUT HOLES:
1/2 cup conf. sugar,
*1 Tbs. corn starch*
1/4 tsp. vanilla and
1 Tbs. boiling water

**the cornstarch is optional**** THIS MAKES A SMALL AMOUT OF GLAZE BUT IF YOU PLACE THE RACK OVER A SHEET OF WAX OR FREEZER PAPER YOU CAN SCRAPE THE EXCESS OFF AND REUSE IT.

APPLE FILLING:
Cover peeled and cut up apples with sugar and allow this to rest over night to create its own juice. Simmer this until thick and apples are tender. You can also add cinnamon to this mixture. Never boil the apple mixture as it will burn easily. I always start the cooking process on the simmer setting/fire.

For more kitchen tips, ideas or recipes; head over to Tammy's Recipes OR head over to Blessed with Grace!

Easy Peanut Butter Fudge

Over the last few days, I have been snowed in so I have had plenty of time to get my holiday baking done. I have several things in my freezer now to make up some goodie trays for the neighbors plus still have goodies available for us for the holidays. Today though was one of those days were my get up and go got up and left before I even got started on my day! So I was looking through my recipes, I found this one fudge recipe that makes ALOT but seemed easy to complete!

I got this fudge recipe from my friend, Leni!! I must say that this fudge is soooo easy!! It only has 3 ingredients, all of which I keep in my pantry!

So by now you are probably wondering what are the 3 ingredients and just how easy is this fudge!

Easy Peanut Butter Fudge

1 bag(12oz) milk chocolate chips

1 jar(18oz) crunchy peanut butter

1 can condensed milk

Put chocolate chips and peanut butter in a double boiler pan. Heat til the chocolate chips are melted(took about 5-7 minutes). Remove from heat and add the milk. Stir til smooth. Pour into a wax papered lined pan. I used a 15 x10 jelly roll pan. It isn't very thick but they make bite size pieces for kids! If you want thicker fudge use a 9x13 pan. Let cool and then cut into pieces. I stuck mine in the freezer to cool because I had the oven on and I knew that it would take a long time to firm up. Once it is cool you can cut it and put it in the fridge or freezer til you want it.

See I told you easy! Definitely something easy to do for last minute gift giving or needing something to take to that holiday party!

For other kitchen tips, head over to Tammy's Recipes!!

For other tempting tummy recipes and more; head over to Blessed with Grace!

Holiday Appetizers

I don't do much in the way of appetizers for holidays, however, there are few appetizers that make an appearance during the holidays.

First one is the good ol' fresh veggie tray!  I don't purchase the ones that are already made up waiting for you in the produce section of the grocery store. I go to Aldi or Save A Lot and get a variety of fresh veggies and cut them up onto a tray. Then for dip, since I get TWO huge bottles of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing from Sam's on a regular basis, I pour some of the dressing into a bowl to go along with the veggies.

Second one is a fruit tray.  Whenever I do up a fruit tray it seems that my picky eater kids will find it quite amusing to see how much fruit they can eat off the tray!  Now don't think I am complaining but why do kids do that??  Why will they not eat the fruit at any other time other than if I make a pretty tray of various fruits!?!

Third one is bbq smokies. I love stocking up on these little smokies when they are on sale around the holidays!  They make for a quick(or oh crap I totally forgot about the party!) appetizer!

I put two packages of the lil' smokies in my crockpot along with a bottle of Baby Ray's Honey BBQ sauce(there isn't a better tasting sauce!) and let them simmer for 4-5 hours on low or 2-3 hours on high.   I have also done this with the rope type sausage....cut up into "coins" and dump them in with the BBQ sauce in the crockpot!

All three of these are easy and quick to do and you don't have to stress over whether they will get eaten or not!

For other kitchen tips, head over to Tammy's Recipes

For other tempting tummy recipes and more; head over to Blessed with Grace! Today they are also doing a giveaway because it is their birthday!!

Also for other holiday appetizers, head over to A Simple Walk where she is hosting today's bloggy progressive dinner.

Kitchen Tips Tuesday

After Tammy's two posts about child size bread loaves, I decided to try my hand at it! The results...
My family loves them! For my family it takes TWO mini loaves to feed them some as a side to a dinner meal.

I cheat just a little bit in the bread making process in that I use my breadmachine to do all the "hard work". I put all my ingredients into the breadmachine for a 2lb loaf and put it on the "dough setting" and in 1 hour 20 minutes my bread dough is ready to make into loaves to let rise for another hour before baking. The dough is enough to make 4 mini loaves.

I have been working at building up my freezer stock of these mini loaves because I think I am going to be using them for gift giving in my holiday gift baskets and neighbor goodie trays this holiday season.


For other kitchen tips, head over to Tammy's Recipes!