Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls

Hey Folks!

I'm still here--just not photographing that same corn chowder I've now made about 100 times.  =)  

I had a brainstorm the other day I wanted to share in case anyone else wakes up at 7:30 am and wants to make a quick delicious breakfast in half an hour so his/her spouse can enjoy it before leaving for work!  Got that?

And it worked!  My brainstorm.  Fast cinnamon rolls made with biscuit dough instead of a lengthy-process yeasted dough. 

They were really delicious.  All I did was add a little sugar to a regular biscuit recipe, then rolled the dough out, spread a little oil on, sprinkled cinnamon and sugar, cut and baked.  In my toaster oven!  I love my toaster oven!  I'd say the whole process took about 20 minutes start to finish.

Then methinks to mineself: "hmmmm. . . this would be yummy as a savory roll too with scrambled eggs and cheese or ham and cheese!"  That's when I noticed this getting shared all over facebook.  Crazy, right?  

Well, I made my own biscuit dough from scratch, so there!  =)

Enjoy the not-so-original-brainstorm idea anyway!

Chocolate Snow Cream

I remember eating snow cream as a kid. We used a big mixing bowl to gather clean (hopefully) snow that Mom would add pudding mix to. For some reason, I especially remember pistachio snow cream, though it seems likely that we had other flavors too. 

So far this year, we haven't gotten enough snow for me to feel we could gather enough of it that seemed clean. Having free-range chickens means that most parts of the yard are suspect if you accidentally scrape snow too close to the grass. But I thought a recent five-inch snowfall was thick enough to finally make snow cream for my kids. 

I don't usually have pudding mix on hand, but I had recently made chocolate pudding and figured the same ingredients could be stirred into snow. Cocoa powder, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and a little salt have produced a delicious snow cream that the kids and I have devoured until our tongues are tingly cold. YUM! 

I'll write out my "recipe" below though I didn't really measure anything at the time. These are guesses at amounts, but I'm sure a little variation won't make too much of a difference in the final product. There are other recipes floating around out there on the interwebs too, if you want to compare.   Anyone else tried other variations?  I thought it would be easy to do vanilla by just leaving out the cocoa powder and upping the vanilla.  Or add maple flavoring.  Coconut milk could be yummy too.  Or crushed fruit.  We need more snow so I can try some of these out!  

But for now, it's chocolate.

Chocolate Snow Cream 
 Yield: 4 generous servings

2 quarts clean snow (fluffy snow is good!)
2 TBSP cocoa powder
2 TBSP powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk (or evaporated milk or cream)
dash salt

Instructions:  Sift cocoa and powdered sugar over snow in a large bowl (sifting helps avoid powder lumps).  Stir in, then add vanilla, milk, and salt to taste and stir until incorporated.   Eat immediately!  This does not re-freeze well as it just gets hard.  I tried it.  Today we ate the whole bowl instead of saving some for Papa.  Sorry, David!

My Mushroom Gravy

The first deer of the season.  It's tradition: fresh deer steaks for supper.  And it seems I'm always wondering how to cook it and trying something new.  The mushroom gravy I made this year turned out so yummy that this might just have to become part of the tradition too.  =)  I seared the steaks on both sides, then removed them from the skillet, made the gravy recipe below, and returned the steaks to the gravy to simmer.  Wish I'd had them in all day.

My Mushroom Gravy 
yield: about 3 cups gravy


2 cups sliced mushrooms (I had button mushrooms)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP flour
2 cups broth (I had vegetable bouillon)
splash of wine or balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup yogurt (or sour cream if you like)
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:  Melt the butter in a pan and saute mushrooms, garlic, and onions over medium to low heat until soft, stirring occasionally.  In the meantime make broth or warm it up if you have canned broth.  Add a splash of wine or vinegar (about 1 TBSP) to the broth for extra flavor.  Set aside.  When the mushroom/onion mixture is soft, sprinkle flour all over and stir in.  Cook a minute or so.  Over medium heat, add the warm broth, stirring to reduce clumps.  If the broth is warm, this will thicken up right away.  Add bay leaf and simmer a while.  Stir in yogurt and add salt and pepper to taste before serving.  Remove bay leaf.

We thought this would be good with ground meat added in, served over biscuits, or in any other way you like to eat gravy.  We had it with mashed potatoes on the side, which was delicious too.

Curried Lentils and Raita

A simple recipe for curried lentils.  I don't think I ever make them quite the same way twice, but here's one incarnation that we enjoyed the other night with company.  All measurements are approximate--going by my visual memory.

The raita recipe is what I usually make to go along with curried lentils.  If you don't feel like it, plain yogurt is always good on top too.  But add in the garlic, herbs, and cucumber . . . ahhhhh!  Adds a new dimension to the pile.  Oh, and if you've got any chutney on hand, throw that on there too!

We almost always eat brown rice at our house, so this is pretty filling.


Curried Lentils

1 TBSP oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed or minced
1 bay leaf
1 3"-cinnamon stick
1 tsp ea. cumin and turmeric
1/2 tsp ea. ground mustard, ginger, and coriander
2 cups lentils
6 cups water
salt/lemon juice to taste

 Saute the onion and garlic in oil over medium heat until soft.  Add  spices and stir a few minutes until fragrant.  Stir in lentils and water.  Bring to a boil, then simmer until lentils are tender (about an hour--if in a hurry, I cook them in the microwave in water first for 10 minutes or so), stirring occasionally.  Add more water as necessary.  When lentils are tender add salt to taste (1 tsp.?) and a splash of lemon juice.

Raita (Cucumber Yogurt Salad)

2 cups yogurt

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced

small bunch of cilantro and/or mint chopped 

Stir everything together and refrigerate until ready to use.  How simple was that?!?  This is my basic "recipe"--like I said, all measurements are approximate and subject to change.  I use what herbs I have on hand, though if at all possible have both cilantro and mint.  In the summer I like to add a little chopped fresh tomato, and a little minced onion or chopped green onions never hurts.

Pears with Blue Cheese

It's not rocket science.  It's just a simple, fast, delicious fall treat if you like blue cheese.  An un-peeled pear half with a dollop of blue cheese where the seeds have been scooped out.  Warm for 20-30 seconds in the microwave.  Eat with your hands.  Elevate with a drizzle of honey and/or a few broken pecan pieces.  

This Year's Sauce (minus the long cooking time!)

It seems like I keep experimenting with tomato sauce.  I want something I can use on a pizza--not too runny--but not so thick that it wouldn't make a good, quick tomato soup.  Oh, and I don't want to have to spend hours and hours cooking it on the stove (i.e. unnecessarily heating up my whole house which is already August HOT).

Last year when I made sauce, I strained off some of the juice after the tomatoes were cooked but before they went into the mill.  I did that again this year, and I'm not sure if I just had meatier tomatoes, or I didn't mind my sauce not being quite so thick but the texture seemed perfect with no further cooking!  So, we ended up canning 5 quarts + 10 pints of tomato sauce, PLUS 3 quarts + 5 pints of juice that was strained off first (and maybe another 5 pints put right in the fridge to drink or use in soup this week).  

Yay, yay, YAY!!!  Two products at one shot and no long hours into the night of reducing the sauce.  I'm a happy woman, even if I still am up way too late waiting for them to boil in their hot water baths.

For future reference (or yours):

lots of tomato chunks 

peppers, de-seeded and chunked

onions, peeled and quartered

garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

fresh basil leaves----------------simmer altogether in large pots until vegetables are tender (add basil a little later than the rest)

When done cooking (30 min. to an hour depending on how big the pot is) strain tomato mixture in fine enough strainer to remove seeds then process through a food mill.  Save the juice!

Season with salt, pepper and sugar to taste.  I used 1/2 cup sugar, 1 1/2 TBSP salt and a tsp pepper for about 6 quarts of sauce.  So delicious!  I can't wait to see how it turns out on a pizza!  When I filled the jars, I used my parents' trick of adding a bay leaf to each one for a little extra flavor.  The juice I seasoned to taste also with sugar and salt before ladling into jars with a bay leaf.

Process in boiling water bath (40 min. quarts and 25 min. pints).

Go to bed and stop asking yourself if all this work was worth it.  =)

Summer

I love summer cooking.  Especially when people are so generous in sharing their garden produce with us.  Steam some beans, boil some corn, slap some bread, tomatoes, and mayo on the table.  Dinner.  DONE!  (this is the sweetness after the beans have been picked in the scorching sun and the corn has all be husked and silked).

And then there's dessert:

Sorry cooking blog.  It's summertime around here and I'm not messing a lot with so much of a good thing.