Ina Garten’s Roasted Broccoli

I had high hopes for this. HIGH. Because I needed a solution for my picky 7 year old that will only eat broccoli if it’s covered in fake orange cheese, or when he’s threatened.  This stuff? He said “holy cow! I like this broccoli!” WIN.

Her recipe would make an enormous ton.  I used what I had (3 heads, stems? stalks? whatever), and cut them into florets. I forgot to use the garlic in the recipe, which is a bummer because I LOVE garlic, but it was still great. I ran out of olive oil so used maybe half of what she suggested, and it was just fine.  Also used lemon juice out of a bottle, so no lemon zest.

• 4 to 5 pounds broccoli
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• Good olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees .

Cut the broccoli florets from the stalks, leaving an inch or two of stalk attached to the florets, discarding the rest of the stalks. Put the florets on a baking sheet that lets the broccoli be on a single layer and sprinkle and toss with olive oil. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until crisp-tender and the tips of some of the florets are browned.

Remove from the oven and immediately toss with lemon juice (and lemon zest and more olive oil, if you’re doing that) , pine nuts,  Parmesan, and basil. Serve hot.

Cheddar Corn Chowder

• My pictures turned out el nasto, so you get the cheesy one from the Taste of Home website instead.  Also: this formatting is making me crazy tonight.  Bottom line: we LOVED this. It tastes rich and flavorful and is so delicious.
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cup diced sweet red pepper, divided
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 large potatoes, diced
• 1 can (11 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained or 1-1/2 cups frozen corn
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I used cayenne)
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups milk
• 1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced

Saute onion and 1/2 cup red pepper in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended; add broth and bring to boil. Cook and stir 1 minute, until thick.

Add potatoes, corn, mustard, paprika, salt, pepper (or cayenne) and pepper.  Return to boil, reduce heat. Simmer 15-20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

Add milk and remaining red pepper. Cook and stir until soup boils. Remove from heat, add cheese and stir until melted.

Yields 8 servings (2 quarts)

1 cup = 272 calories, 12 g fat, 31 carb, 3 g fiber, 10 g protein

Bubble Up Enchiladas

I saw this on pinterest this afternoon, and what good timing – we were running so long with house projects today. This came together super quick, and we had everything already.  In fact, make your own biscuits or rolls and this is 100% food storage friendly.

image via

This is also lower calorie, so yeah for that.  The original recipe used ground turkey, but we used one can of chicken since we’ve been buying it for food storage and I am looking for ways to disguise it. :)

1 – 12.5 oz can chicken
1 – 10 oz can enchilada sauce
1 – 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 can buttermilk biscuits
1 1/4 cups cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine meat, enchilada sauce, tomato sauce. Cut each biscuit into 8 pieces and stir in. Add 3/4 c cheese and stir in.
Bake for 25 minutes. Add the rest of the cheese to the top and bake 10 more minutes.

Adapted from the original I saw on pinterest, at chef-n-training.

Bread 101: the tools

These are the tools I use to make bread.  I didn’t photograph the Kitchenaid, but I don’t use that for normal sandwich bread.

#1: Breadmaker: mine is a Breadman, and it’s probably 4+ years old.  When I first started making bread I did the entire process in the breadmaker. Since we don’t like the hard crust and the hole in the bottom of each loaf, I’ve switched to a new method.  I throw all the ingredients in the breadmaker, let it do it’s thing on the dough cycle for about an hour, then plop the dough into my own bread pan and let it rise a bit more while the oven preheats.  As soon as the oven is heated I put the bread pan in the oven.

#2: Vitamix: We use this several times a day around our house – smoothies, soups, salsa and for grinding wheat.  To use a VitaMix as a wheat grinder you do need to buy the additional dry canister.  You might choose to make only white bread or have  a different type of wheat grinder.  This is what I use.  You could buy whole wheat flour, too.  But I don’t like store bought whole wheat flour at all.

#3: Bread keeper: This one is just from Target, I believe, and it’s lasted us about 3 years so far.

#4 Bread pan: A normal bread pan is about 5×8 or 5×9 inches.  Those loaves didn’t fit in my bread keeper!  So I bought a special pan that is about 12×4.5 inches.  I love it.  I found a similar bread pan here.

#5  Wheat gluten: If you’re making bread with whole wheat, you will need wheat gluten.  This will help your bread rise.   I use 1 Tablespoon per cup of whole wheat flour.

#6 Dough Enhancer: when I started making bread I noticed that when I cut into it, I would often lose a lot to crumbing, and even the slices I cut felt not quite right.  Dough enhancer to the rescue.  1Tablespoon per loaf does the trick and makes the bread smooth and so it doesn’t crumb.

#7 Electric knife: We got this for our wedding and used it just several times a year for Big Meat, usually at holidays.  When I started making homemade bread I hated how the slices were uneven – thin on top, fat on the bottom – you know what I’m talking about, right?  I started looking into heavy duty slicers like you see in the grocery stores for meats, cheeses and breads.  Then I had a lightbulb moment and tried the electric knife.  Perfect slices every time.  Yeah!  I also love that the bread doesn’t get squished down when it’s being cut like I tend to do to loaves when using a serrated bread knife.

Not pictured:

Bread flour: Bread flour has more protein and gluten than all purpose flour.  It rises better than all purpose and also gives bread a better chew, if that makes sense.  Depending on the bread, you might not even be able to tell what flour was used, but generally all purpose flour can make breads more tough. I have a five gallon bucket of bread flour in the pantry (next to my 5 gallon bucket of all purpose flour!).  You might want to use all bread flour and not grind any whole wheat, or you might want to start out with half and half.  Whatever is fine and the recipe doesn’t change depending on the type of flour you use.

Yeast: I already posted on that here.

KitchenAid: or other good quality stand mixer.  This will make bread mixing and kneading a lot easier, especially if you don’t have a bread maker. Some recipes I don’t use the bread maker for at all (french bread, foccacia, etc.) – I only use the stand mixer for mixing and kneading those.

Any questions? Anything else you’re wondering about that you want me to post on?

Bread 101: yeast

I’m teaching my good friend, Shanelle, about bread making, and if you’re interested in learning, maybe you’ll be able to pick something up, as well. There will probably be a bunch of posts in the next little bit with more details about yeast breads. Really, if there is one thing I could teach everyone, it would be NOT to be scared of yeast breads! They’re fun to make, and when you do it at home, you can make them yummier, healthier, and for way less money than you can buy at the store.

To make yeast bread you need yeast. When Shanelle was here I showed her my big thing of yeast and she said “you don’t buy the little packets?” NO. WAY. And here is why:

See the little packets?  $3.05 per ounce. Those are for people who might be trying out yeast bread baking, or only making one recipe in a blue moon.  If you bake more than several times a year, steer clear of the little packets.

The small jars are your next option.  A much better price at $1.85 per ounce.  But that small jar wouldn’t last me very long at all.  Check out the brick of yeast: 23 cents per ounce.  A HUGE difference from the packets – $2.82 cheaper per OUNCE.

The great thing about yeast is that if you put it in a cool dry place, it will keep for a very long time – I’ve read that it will keep for more than 5 years, but I’ve never had it around that long to test.  When I buy a large brick of yeast, I’ll put about 1/3 of it in a zip loc in my fridge, and keep the rest in a zip loc in the freezer.  When my fridge zip loc runs out, I’ll just pour more in.  Main point here: don’t think that by buying the brick of yeast you’ll end up losing money by throwing it away one day because it’s old.  Keep it in the fridge or freezer, and make bread even just once in awhile, and you’ll be good to go.

Here’s a big thing about bread machines and yeast (I usually make our sandwich bread in a bread machine, but bake it in the oven): you do NOT need to buy bread machine yeast.  But you DO need to use the yeast at room temperature for it to work properly, if you buy the rapid rise yeast.  In fact, when you’re using a bread machine, all your ingredients should be at least at room temp to work well.

Here’s the thing I just barely learned about yeasts.  I have been using rapid rise forever.  Many recipes tell you to proof the yeast as the first step in your recipe. Proofing yeast means adding it to warm water, often with a bit of sugar or salt.  When I use rapid rise, this is unnecessary.  A couple weeks ago I was running low on yeast and bought new…I wasn’t paying attention to the bag and came home with active dry yeast.  I could tell as soon as I opened the package that it looked different – see the small balls as opposed to the rapid rise that looks like tiny seeds or grains of sand?  Well I used the ADY (active dry yeast) the same was as I had been using rapid rise and it didn’t work AT ALL!  Lesson learned.  Active Dry Yeast MUST be proofed – added to a small bit of warm water (no sugar or salt necessary) to kind of melt before it is added to a recipe.

That’s about all I can think of for a starter guide to yeasts.  If you’ve got any questions, let me know in the comments!

Root Beer Float Popsicles

Sorry, no picture. But HELLO SUMMER! And YUM.

Recipe from SmileMonsters.

1 can (or 1 1/2 cups) root beer
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk*

Mix, pour, freeze, lick.

*I made my own for this recipe using 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup dry milk, 1 t butter and 1/4 cup HOT water blended very well. This isn’t the recipe to make REAL sweetened condensed milk, but it works perfect for this recipe.

s’mores cookie bars

Our Memorial Day was really cold and mostly wet. Since we didn’t get to do any of the fun traditional kick-off-summer activities, we made these s’mores cookie bars. They were fabulous, and I’m a fair weather fan of actual s’mores!

 

Picture and recipe from Lovin’ from the Oven.

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
3. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

very best pizza dough

I finally found a pizza dough that isn’t just fine, it’s REALLY GREAT.  The only trick is making the dough the night before.  Sure, you can make it and roll it out and bake it right away.  But it will taste like the “ok, that was fine” pizza crust instead of “wow” pizza crust.  If you make the dough in the morning, let it sit out on your counter in a really big bowl all day (punch it down every few hours when you walk by).  If you make it the night before, stick it in the fridge overnight, and get it out in the morning.

2 1/2 t yeast
1 1/4 c + 1T warm water
3 3/4 c bread flour (can use All Purpose)
5 t sugar
2 1/2 t salt
5 t extra virgin olive oil

I mix all the ingredients in my bread mixer*, then stick the dough in a bowl to either place in the fridge or on the counter. This is enough to make 2 large pizzas, so when we make it I put half in the freezer for the next week (we have family pizza and movie night every Friday). If you do that, put the frozen dough in the fridge the night before you want it, and on the countertop in the morning. Enjoy!

*When using a bread maker, all ingredients should be room temperature (except water or milk which can be warmed). Liquids go on the bottom, flour and then yeast on the top, everything else in the middle.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I’m trying to figure out why these haven’t taken off like wildfire on the internet.  Don’t bother to count the calories.  They are SO good.  Perfect for a special occasion breakfast, or a really lazy morning.

Pictures and original recipe from recipegirl.com.  The only change we made was to double the pancake batter amount . You’ll still have lots of cinnamon mixture left over.  Make sure you read the tips at the bottom before you get started.  These are really easy and fun!

PANCAKES:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Prepare pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg, just until batter is moistened (a few small lumps are fine).

2. In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. You don’t want this to remain super-liquidy. It’s best if it becomes a consistency similar to toothpaste.

3. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl- heat butter and cream cheese until melted. Whisk together until smooth; whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla extract; set aside.

4. Heat large skillet over medium-low heat. Spray with nonstick spray. Scoop about 3/4 cup batter onto the skillet. Snip the corner of your baggie of filling and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

5. When ready to serve, spoon warmed glaze onto the top of each pancake.

Tips:

*Keep the heat low or your pancakes might cook up too quickly. Don’t flip them until you see those bubbles starting to pop on top. Flip them with a wide spatula so you can grasp the whole thing without batter and filling dripping all over the place!
*It’s best if you pour the batter onto your skillet, wait a minute or so and then swirl the cinnamon onto the batter. That’ll give it a chance to set a little before you add the swirl.
*If your baggie of filling begins to get too thick, just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up again. On that same note, it shouldn’t be too runny. The consistency of soft toothpaste is perfect. If it’s melty and runny, it will tend to run all over your pancakes. Once you micro it, let it sit on the counter at room temp for a while until it thickens slightly.

Loaded Baked Potato Casserole

This recipe is what we renamed Our Best Bite’s Easy Potato and Bacon Breakfast Casserole.  We made it for Mother’s Day breakfast but all agreed it is not a breakfast casserole – it’s more like a funeral potato type recipe, and would be a different, easy alternative for twice baked potatoes or loaded baked potatoes.  In other words, it was good, and we’ll totally make it again – but as a dinner side dish, not as a breakfast.  If you (at least) doubled the number of eggs, then it would be more main-dish-breakfast-y.

photo from ourbestbites.com

4 c. Southern/country-style hash browns (cubes), completely thawed (if they’re not thawed, they won’t cook correctly)

1 12-oz. package bacon
1 1/2 c. pepper jack cheese
1 1/2 c. cheddar cheese
1 bunch green onions, chopped
3 eggs
1 c. milk*
about 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
about 10 turns freshly ground black pepper

*For high altitudes, reduce milk to 2/3 cup and sauté the potatoes in rendered bacon grease until partially cooked before baking.

Begin cooking bacon.  While the bacon is cooking, place the potatoes in a 9×13″ baking dish. Mix the cheeses together and sprinkle it over the potatoes. When the bacon is done cooking, drain it on a paper towel and reserve 2 tablespoons of the drippings. Cook the onions in the drippings for 2-3 minutes or until they’re tender and fragrant. Spread the onions over the cheese mixture and then sprinkle everything with the crumbled bacon.  Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper and, whisking constantly, pour the egg mixture evenly over the potato mixture.  Cover and refrigerate overnight or for 7-8 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350.  Bake, uncovered, for 40-45 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly but not brown. Allow to stand for 15 minutes before cutting. Serve with fresh fruit.

Paula Deen’s Red Potato Salad Recipe

Super Yum and fun for different.

• 12 cups cubed red potatoes
• 1 cup chopped green bell pepper (about 1 medium)
• 1/2 cup minced red onion
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a large bowl, combine potatoes, bell pepper and onion.

In a small bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour over potato mixture, tossing gently to coat. Cover and refrigerate.

PW’s Sour Cream Noodle Bake

AKA Lazy Lasagne

AKA non-Italian Lasagne

Not my photo. Obviously. Because 1) its good food photography, and 2) her dishes are prettier than mine.

Everyone really liked this a lot – it’s going into permanent rotation. It made a lot (a full 9×13 pan) so we’ll have leftovers for later this week.  I also loved that it was easy to throw together.  I shouldn’t say this is Pioneer Woman’s, in case you don’t love it, because I altered it a tad. Her original is here.

1 lb ground beef

8 oz uncooked wide egg noodles

2 – 8 oz cans tomato sauce

1/2 t salt

pepper

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/4 cups cottage cheese

1/2 cup sliced green onions

1+ cup grated sharp cheddar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown ground chuck in a large skillet. Drain fat, then add tomato sauce. 1/2 teaspoon salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Stir, then simmer while you prepare the other ingredients.

Cook egg noodles until al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream and cottage cheese. Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Add to noodles and stir. Add green onions and stir.

To assemble, add half of the noodles to a baking dish. Top with half the meat mixture, then sprinkle on half the grated cheddar. Repeat with noodles, meat, then a final layer of cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until all cheese is melted.

Julie Jackson’s 1 hour cinnamon rolls

In the cinnamon roll Olympics, I give these silver, and only because I’ve been converted to Tracy M’s sinful cinnamon rolls.  These are really very good and who can beat a 1 hour cinnamon roll, really now?  Julie has made these for several get togethers I’ve been to, sometimes as cinnamon rolls, sometimes as strawberry cream cheese rolls.  They’re all super good.  She uses lecithin (and says it’s insanely sticky if you have the liquid version, so don’t really measure it, just throw in several ‘blobs’) – but I’ve never bought lecithin.  I use regular old vegetable oil. Last note: Bosch lovers can double the recipe.

5 1/4 flour (bread flour, if possible)

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 heaping Tbsp instant yeast

2 T oil (or 1 1/2 T lecithin)

2 cups hot water

I throw all the ingredients in my mixer and you’re supposed to mix for about 5 minutes (use the dough hook). Dough will be very sticky.

From Julie J (including her finishing touches): I spray Pam on the counter to roll it out (put some on your hands too, to get it out of the bowl).  Roll it out in a rectangle and spread about 1/3 cup softened butter on the dough.  Put brown sugar everywhere and then sprinkle cinnamon everywhere (I don’t measure those).  Roll it up and cut it apart with dental floss.  Let rise 25 minutes.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. (Julie P’s note: I might’ve cut mine bigger…both times they took closer to 23-25 minutes.)  This recipe  makes a jelly roll sized pan (about 16-18 generous sized rolls).

Frosting

1/4 cup softened butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp water

2 cups powdered sugar

Cream Cheese filling

4 oz softened cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

I just put in a spoonful of jam, but I usually make a braid out of the dough and put the cream cheese filling in the middle with pie filling and frosting on top.  Super yum!  I love this bread recipe because it only has to raise once and so I can make bread in about an hour.  I use the dough for pizza, rolls, bread everything

strawberries and cream baked french toast

When I was making this, I realized it sounds almost exactly like another french toast recipe we love – baked peach french toast.  This is another winner. Yum.  I got the recipe here and modified it a bit.

1 loaf french bread, cut into 1 inch slices.
about 6 oz cream cheese, softened

Spread cream cheese between two slices of bread, place sandwiched slices in a glass pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Pierce the bread all over with a small, sharp knive (I used a fondue stabber).

Mix together:
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Pour over bread and let sit for five minutes, then turn bread “sandwiches” over and let sit 5 more minutes to soak up the egg mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Whipped Topping:
1 pt whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar

Top with slicked strawberries and whipped cream.

green cilantro rice

I looked up a few recipes and took the ingredients from 3 to get what we had last night.  By the time I was done blending everything to stir into the rice, I tasted it and was a bit worried; but once it was stirred into the rice it was really good.  This isn’t an exact recipe, and you really can’t ruin it.  It was SO good.  My 2 year old, who eats dinner about once a week, devoured hers, and everyone went back for seconds.

I cooked just over 1 cup of dry rice in chicken broth with a bit of salt and about half of a (small) finely chopped onion thrown into the dry rice and broth mix.

While that was doing its thing I blended over a cup of cilantro, about 2 t of minced garlic, 2 green onions (green and white) chopped, a bit of lemon juice (2 teaspoons-ish), and some olive oil – maybe 2 T.  I had to add a small bit of water just to make everything blend together really well.

When the rice is done, stir the green mixture into the rice and serve hot.  Delish.

Next time I think I’ll add a seeded, chopped jalapeno to the green mixture.