Rosemary Bread

I am a big fan of fast and simple cooking. This isn’t all that fast (it has to bake after all) but it was easy and it was quite the hit with even some of the more discerning pallets.

Rosemary Bread (Made in the Bread Machine)

Ingredients

·         1 cup warm water

·         2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (I measured, this was almost two packets but not quite)

·         3 tablespoons white sugar

·         1 1/2 teaspoons salt

·         3 tablespoons olive oil

·         1/2 teaspoon ground thyme

·         1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

·         2 teaspoons crushed dried rosemary

·         3 cups all-purpose flour

Directions 

Pour the water into the pan of a bread machine, then sprinkle in the yeast and sugar. Let the mixture sit in the bread machine until a creamy foam forms on top of the water, about 10 minutes. 

Sprinkle in the salt, then add olive oil, thyme, garlic powder, rosemary, and flour. Set the machine for light crust setting, and start the machine.

(On my machine that means it was mixed and baked on the white bread setting)

Cool and enjoy!

The cookies in the background of this photo are awesome! You can read about them over here!

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies

I wanted to make cookies that would be yummy and yet wouldn’t be that hard or time consuming. I adapted a recipe I found online and created these.

By far the easiest cookies to make and they were a HUGE hit with the family.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies 

Ingredients

·         1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

·         1 egg

·         1 (17.5 ounce) pouch sugar cookie mix

·         ½ bag of chocolate chips

(See what I mean... only 4 ingredients!)

Directions 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a bowl, beat the cream cheese until soft and fluffy with an electric mixer, then beat in the egg until thoroughly combined. Mix in the cookie mix, then stir in the chips.

Drop the dough about 2 inches apart onto the sprayed baking sheets. Lightly pat the cookies to flatten. (They won’t flatten or spread out at all)

Bake in the preheated oven until the edges of the cookies are lightly golden 12 minutes.

Cool before serving. Enjoy!

(Makes 44 cookies)

English Pasties

English Pasties

This recipe came from my pseudo sister in law Annie. I have, of course, slightly adapted it. (Specifically I took out the beef as eating beef tends to make me very very ill.)

 2-3 russet potatoes

2 carrots per potato

2 celery stalks

1 mushroom per potato

1 small onion

1 pound ground turkey meat

¼ teaspoon thyme

¼ teaspoon marjoram leaves

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon sage

Pie crust dough

Clean, slice, and boil the potatoes. (Place in pot with enough water to cover them and cook on high until an inserted fork slides out with ease.)

Chop carrots, celery, and mushrooms, and onion.

Steam the veggies, about 20 mins until carrots are not hard.

Cool the potatoes.

Cook meat: Brown 1 pound ground turkey meat. Add spices.

Take meat off heat, add cooled veggies and cooled potatoes.

Stir (mash) until thick and goop-ey

Roll out pie crust dough. Be careful to not knead it too much or it will get hard.

Cut dough into circles,4 inches across or slightly bigger. (We used a coffee can lid)

Place spoonful or so of mixture into dough, roll over and pinch the sides to make a little pasty packet

Cut four little vents in top of packets so air can vent.

Pop pasty packets into zippy bags and freaze.

Pre Heat Oven to 350 degrees.

Remove pasties from freezer, rub with butter. (I used tub margarine)

Place on greased cooking sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes.

I didn't get a photo of when they came out of the oven because they got eaten so fast. Trust me, they were golden brown and crispy and delightful! 

Goes will with either brown gravy or scrambled eggs. (Probably not both)

My Maifan-San was unsure to start but soon was requesting these over and over again. This recipe made 22 pasties and there was a lot of left over filling to freeze as well. We started with four boxes of pie curst dough.

I am going to use the frozen fillings to make some more… going to try crescent roll dough and see if it works. I’ll keep you posted!

How to avoid crying over a chopped onion.

So many new recopies on their way to this blog! I just learned how to make all sorts of things and I got a ton of photos!

But for now….

A Kitchen Tip courtesy of Annie my pseudo sister in law!

To avoid the tears that come when chopping an onion….

1.       Use as sharp a knife as possible. This will cut down on the friction and thus the amount of spray in the air.

2.       Keep your eyes half closed… but be careful!

3.       Have a cup of water nearby and rinse off the knife frequently.

4.       Accept that your tears are nature’s way of reminding you who is in charge.

Thanks Annie!

Battered and Fried Zucchini

I was given a rather large zucchini over the weekend. What does one do with a zucchini this big, I wondered. 

This is a big zucchini.

Then I remembered that I am the daughter of a chief and a red blooded American.

 So I fried it.

I did a bit of looking online for ideas and then came up with this recipe.

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

8 mighty shakes of Oregano
1/4 cup water

2/4 cup milk (2%)
2 eggs, separated
2 tbsp. oil
1 big ass zucchini
Oil for frying

Mix flour, salt, garlic salt, pepper, and Oregano.

Add egg yolks, water, milk, and 2 tablespoons oil.

Mix just until combined. Batter will be a little lumpy.

Beat egg whites. Add to batter.

slightly lumpy batter

Slice zucchini into thin slices.

That big zucchini all sliced up! No blood at all!

Dip zucchini in batter and fry until golden brown, 1-2 mins on each side.

 

I had a bit of batter left over, but had I not been so worried about running out, I don't think that would have been an issue.

Note 1: This amount of spice was okay, but next time I will use more pepper and maybe play with other spices.

Note 2: The batter had a bit of trouble staying on the zucchini in the pan, I found if I had the heat up high it cooked better and quicker while staying put.

Note 3: I had the over on Warm and added the cooked zucchini to a plate inside to keep warm while cooking the rest.

Note 4: I served the fried battered zucchini with an Indian bean soup (for protein). Next time I will serve with turkey burgers.

Note 5: Next time I will also either have more than 2 eaters at the table or make vastly less. The two of use only got through about half of the plate.

Finished Product! Yumm!

Home Made Chicken Soup

This is less of a recipe and more of a guideline or a list of what I did my 3^rd time making home made chicken soup. This time it turned out yummy!

1 bag regular carrots (I used all but 3)

1 cluster of celery (all)

½ a large white onion

3-5 garlic cloves (the little bits that you pull off)

2 packages of chicken broth, 32 oz each

6 cups water

3 tablespoons pepper (or to taste)

3 liberal shakes of basil (or to taste)

Chicken: I used half a package of frozen boneless thigh pieces, thawed and chopped.

Ignore the cherries, they don't go in the soup.

Bring broth and water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium high and add chopped veggies.

When veggies are tender, increase heat to high and add chicken.

Cook for t10 minutes adding the spices and stirring.

Turn to medium heat and let cook another 5-7 minutes until chicken is tender.

Remove from heat and allow to rest overnight in pot.

Separate into smaller containers and enjoy!