Saturday, October 29, 2011

No Yeast Bread / Pizza Dough

Yup no yeast bread. I know when you think of bread you think yeast, but don’t worry this one is really good. We used it as pizza dough, it was about the size of a regular cookie sheet. 

Preheat oven to 400F
4 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp baking soda
1½ cups water
2 tsp vinegar (cider or white)

Combine all dry ingredients together.
Combine all wet ingredients together
Add wet ingredients to dry and mix
Turn dough onto floured surface and need, about two to three minutes, add more flour if needed

If making bread shape into a round (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches high). Bake 40 minutes. Remove and while hot glaze with 1 tbsp melted or softened butter.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Tis the season to roast pumpkin seeds!

I love freshly out of the oven roasted pumpkin seeds lightly salted, crunchy little snack that is high in fiber so its good to eat them by the handfuls haha.

Step 1:
Gut your pumpkin, go ahead get messy. Place the seeds separated from the “guts” in a large bowl.

Step 2:
Soak / wash the seeds (no soap please) and try to get the cling on guts off

Step 3:
Rinse the seeds and let them dry out. Most sites say at least 30mins but I let them dry for longer.

Step 4:
Place them in a bowl with some melted butter (or oil) to lightly coat, sprinkle with salt or whatever seasonings you’d like

Step 5:
Place in oven as it preheats to 275F.

Step 6:
Check your pumpkin seeds every 5-ish minutes. I cook large batches (seeds from 3 pumpkins so I check every 15mins). Stir occasionally and do a taste test to see if they are cooked enough for you liking.

Step 7:
Once roasted, they will change colour, remove them from the oven and sample some. Eat warm or cold, either way its all good :0)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Bierocks!!

Bierocks! What could be better than a roll with a meaty, oniony, cabbagey filling? Nothing. Best part is you can freeze it and gobble them down for a quick on the go lunch or for those days you just don’t feel like cooking. If you have German or Russian roots and haven’t tried this shame on you :P
On the serious side this meal is pretty dang cheap, most expensive ingredient is the ground beef, but if you time it right you can hit a sale. A little time consuming but well worth it in the end when you have a freezer full off good homemade food for your family.

DOUGH

Ingredients:
1pkg active dry yeast (or 2 ¼ tsp)
1 cup lukewarm water (around 110F)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp margarine
3 cups flour (you can use whole wheat too)

Method:
In a large bowl dissolve yeast in water with a dash of the sugar, for about 3-5 mins
Stir in sugar, salt, margarine, and enough flour until dough comes together in a ball
Knead dough until smooth and elastic (about 6mins)
Cover dough for 30mins
Punch down dough
Cover for 10mins

FILLING

Ingredients:
1lb ground beef
2 cups finely shredded cabbage
½ cup finely diced onion
Black pepper
Salt


Method:
Brown beef, drain
Add cabbage, onion and seasonings
Cook on low till vegetables are tender

THE FUN PART!

Roll out dough on lightly floured counter, cut into 6 pieces
Place about ½ cup filling in center
Pull outside edges of dough to center and pinch closed
Turn seam side down on baking sheet (greased, or lined)
Bake for 15-18mins in 400F oven

WHAT WE DID!

-Filling: We used about 3½ lbs meat, 1 onion on steroids, and one medium head of cabbage
Shredded cabbage in food processor and put it in the crock pot with around 4-ish cups of water, turned it on low and cooked over night (added some black pepper and a pinch of garlic for good measure)
Diced onion with food processor, like I said it was on ‘roids and would have destroyed my eyeballs
Cooked up the meat w/ onion and lots of black pepper and I used celery salt (because I could)
Let meat mixture cool and put in the fridge over night

-Bread: We used the food processor to make it, yup that’s right gotta love having a food processor. How did I survive without one… Anyways we did the yeast, water and dash of sugar in a measuring cup. Margarine, salt, sugar in food processor, added yeast, added flour and hit the dough button (gift from God!). Covered, punched, covered and put in fridge over night. We made 2 batches

-Morning: turn off cabbage, let cool down, add meat mixture to cabbage + let them get to know each other, stir very well. Dough out of the fridge, oven preheating. We aren’t fans of rolling out dough so we just grabbed 6 chunks out of a batch, hand flattened, filled and baked for 16mins. Let the house smell good and taste one once it cools down.

- With using one head of cabbage we made 4 batches of dough and have 2 medium containers of meat + cabbage mixture in the fridge. Needless to say we will be making more dough tomorrow, maybe another 2 or 3 batches.. Ooh yah!


Works best to bake, cool completely and freeze in airtight container.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Quick Yeasty Rolls

These are delicious, super easy to make and better than a lot of rolls purchased at stores.

3 TBSP margarine or butter
3 TBSP sugar
1 C hot water
1 PKG or 2 1/4 TSP active dry yeast
1 egg, beaten
1 TSP salt
2 1/4 C flour

Grease 8 - 12 muffin cups (I always make 12 they will be the size of a cupcake, give or take)
In a large bowl mix margarine (or butter), sugar and hot water
Allow to cool to around 100-110F and mix in yeast till dissolved
Mix in beaten egg, salt and flour (I usually add some spices or cheese during this step)
Divide dough into muffin cups and let rise till they are double the size (about a half hour or less)
Preheat oven to 425F
Bake for about 10mins

Crab Casserole

I love imitation crab, why? Its easy to find and so much cheaper (for my location) than fresh crab. If you west / east coasters want to use fresh crab have at it. Savor a bite of it for me!

Seriously this is good, every time I make it I end up eating way too much of it. Yes its that good!!

8oz pasta, cooked (I use spiral but use what you like, be creative)
2 cans cream of mushroom (or celery) soup (homemade works wonders)
1 1/2 cups milk
5 tbsp butter
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1 lb imitation crab meat

Whisk together soup, milk and butter
Add green pepper, pasta, crab, parmesan, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
Place in 9x13 casserole dish, lightly greased if you'd like
Top with remanding cheddar cheese
Bake at 350 for 20mins

Fee free to play around with this recipe, it is rather good. Add more veggies like celery, coloured peppers, broccoli, onions, saute them to bring out a new range of flavours. Use your family favourite seasonings.

This can be frozen! Instead of baking put it in the freezer for up to one month.
Reheating: Defrost in fridge up to 24 hours, remove 30 minutes before baking. Cover and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes, or until heated through.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cimmamon Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese Icing

This cake is amazing, think of pumpkin pie in cake form. Very moist, a great way to end any Autumn meal. Benny (3yrs) and Addie (1yr) say it makes a great breakfast and this is the only way they willingly have eaten pumpkin.

CAKE:

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened
2-1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin, homemade pumpkin puree works great too
2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup buttermilk  (to make buttermilk add 1tbsp white vinegar or 1tbsp lemon juice to your measuring cup and fill with milk to the 1cup line. let sit for 5mins and like magic you have buttermilk)
*You can add more or less of the spices depending on your preferences, I tend to always add more than the recipe calls for

Method:
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin. Combine the flour, pie spice, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and ginger; add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.
FOR CUPCAKES (makes 24)
Fill paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
FOR 9x13 CAKE
Grease and flour pan (whatever method you like), pour batter and place in oven. Bake at 350° for 45-60 minutes. Yes a big gap of time because depending on your oven times will vary. It took my cake 55 minutes to bake.

FROSTING:

Ingredients:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons pumpkin spice
*I also put in 2 teaspoons nutmeg for good measure

Method:
For frosting, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, pumpkin spice and cinnamon; beat until smooth. Frost cupcakes or cake. Refrigerate leftovers.