Food For Thought

Carol's Cinnamon Rolls

2008-11-09T20:03:00.004-06:00

Submitted by Carol O. of Utah

Icing: 1/4 cup butter, capful of vanilla, powdered sugar til desired thickness, (drizzle of milk for thinning if needed)

1 stick butter
1 cup milk
microwave for 3-4 minutes

combine 1/2 cup warm waer with 2 packages yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar; set aside.

In large mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 cup warm water; add milk and melted butter. Stir in 2 eggs, add 2 cups flour and stir. Add yeast mixture, stir, then add 4 cups flour. Stir until all flour is absorbed. Knead for about 5 minutes, adding flour to make a sticky bal.(usually 1/2 to 1 1/2 cups) The color of the dough will lighten and the texture will become smooth. The sides of the bowl should be free of dough. Grease sides of bowl, cover and let rise until doubled.

Butter or grease a large cookie sheet. Combine one stick butter, melted, with 1 cup brown sugar and 3 tablespoons cinnamon.

Punch down dough: on a floured surface, roll out into a rectangle. The wider the rectangle, the bigger the rolls - (I usually roll it about 10 inches wide). Try to get the dough 1/2 inch thick. Spread the cinnamon mixture on evenly. Start in one of the bottom corners and begin rolling up the dough by first stretching out a portion then tightly rolling it up...Continue to roll up; bring the top of the rectangle onto the top of the roll and pinch to close.

With a sharp knife, cut rolls about 1 1/2 inch thick. Cover rolls on the cookie sheet and let rise until doubled. Bake at 350 for about 12 - 14 minutes. While rolls are still warm, cover with icing. Enjoy! *For orange rolls you can combine 1 stick butter, 1 cup white sugar and the grated rind of one large orange for the filling and spread evenly over the rectangle of dough instead of the cinnamon mixture.

Creamy Apple Pie

2008-11-06T07:11:00.003-06:00

From Lynne's kitchen

Approx. 4-6 apples (depending on size...I use a variety of types)
butter
cream cheese
vanilla
O.J.
sugar
brown sugar
cinnamon

I'm not much for measuring with this recipe, so everything is approximate to taste:

Cut up apples however you like and combine apples, about a tablespoon of butter, a couple tablespoons of cream cheese, a couple teaspoons of vanilla, a drizzle of O.J together in a pot. Add brown sugar and cinnamon to taste and if it doesn't look creamy enough add more of whichever of these wet ingredients you like to your own taste and bring to a slight boil.

Fill pie crust with this filling, put top crust on, cut holes or designs however you like, rub egg whites on top crust and sprinkle a litte sugar on top of the egg white rub.

Bake at 350 for 40 - 45 minutes. (Foil the edges for the first 25 minutes or so to avoid burning.)

If you'd like my crust recipe, leave a comment and I will ad it!

Summer Salads

2008-11-06T07:02:00.002-06:00

My favorite summer salad:

iceburg lettuce
mandarin oranges
strawberries
sunflower seeds
red cabbage
creamy poppyseed dressing

Wha-la! Soooo good.

Boiled Eggs

2008-10-31T00:16:00.004-05:00

This 'recipe' comes from Jackie G.:

I just thought I would add my favorite snack recipe to your site. This is a winner for adults and kids alike as they have just 78 calories and .6 grams of fat per serving. So boil and toot--oops, I mean snack away=)

Boiled Eggs
1. Put as many eggs as you want to boil in a pan.
2. Fill with cold water about an inch above the eggs.
3. Place the pan on the stove to high.
4. Bring water to a rolling boil.
5. Take pan off of hot stove plate and cover with lid.
6. Let sit for 18 minutes.
7. Remove lid and as you are dumping the hot water, cover the eggs with cold water.
8. Let sit until you are ready to peel.
9. I peel all of my eggs at once! This way when I want one for a snack or I want to make a quick egg salad for lunch, they are ready to go. I place them in a plastic bag and write the date, one week from the preparation day so that I know when the week is up. I have never had any left! I always use them before the week is over. They are as moist the first day as the last. YUMMY!

Now, just an interesting tidbit of info I found is this:
(GoodEgg.com) The older the egg, the easier it will peel. It said if you are going to hard cook an egg, the eggs need to be at least two weeks old. I had this happen to me once - I bought some eggs and hard-boiled them - for the life of me, I could not get the peels off without destroying the eggs. I didn't realize at the time that they were too fresh. I thought I had not boiled them long enough! NOPE!

Sugar Cookies

2008-10-27T10:36:00.004-05:00

From Natalie's kitchen:

1 1/2c Powdered Sugar
1c butter
1 egg
2 1/2c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter completely like soup and slowly add powdered sugar and mix together
Beat egg and add vanilla in a separate bowl
Put egg and vanilla in with the butter/sugar mix
Put 1 tsp baking soda mixed in 1 cup of flour and add to mix
Add rest of the flour one cup at a time
Put in fridge (if you live in humidity leave in fridge for 3 hours, if not then for two)
Put oven on 350 degrees and bake for 8 min. Watch cookies b/c it might not take a full 8 min to bake.

Chicken Potato Goulash (sp??)

2008-10-09T08:55:00.007-05:00

from Lynne's kitchen:

3 boneless skin chicken breasts boiled and shredded
red skinned potatos
1 onion
baby carrots
BBQ sauce

combine all above ingredients (chopped) into a baking dish
add seasoned salt and pepper to taste
add some liquid from the boiled chicken
Pour your favorite BBQ sauce all over the top

cover with foil

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until veggies are tender

This is SO easy and the kids love it.

Carmelitos

2008-09-25T14:43:00.001-05:00

from Lynne's kitchen:

2 1/4 C oatmeal
2 C flour
1 1/2 C butter/melted
1 1/2 C brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
12oz bag milk chocolate chips
caramel topping (don't unwrap a million caramels; instead purchase topping & mix it with 6 tbs flour to stiffen a bit)

Melt butter & brown sugar. Add oats, flour, soda & salt. Press 2/3 of dough in bottom of a 9x13 an. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Pour caramel topping over the chocolate chips. Crumble the remaining crust over the top.

Bake 15 - 20 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.
(I like to put mine in the freezer after they're cooled. You can then switch them to the fridge shortly before serving.)

Bavarian Apple Tort

2008-09-24T08:58:00.004-05:00

From Natalie's kitchen:

Crust:

1/2 Cup Parkay margarine
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup flour

Filling:

1 8oz package cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1sp vanilla

Topping:

2 cups peeled, thinly sliced Granny Smith apples (really just 1 or 2 apples is fine)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sliced pecans

Cream margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Blend in flour and vanilla. Spread dough on bottom and 1 inch up sides (lower if bigger pan) of 9" springform pan. Use fingers to mush the dough up the sides of the pan.

No need to rinse beaters or bowl. Combine cream cheese and sugar until well blended. Mix in egg and vanilla and pour into pan. Spread evenly.

Mix cinnamon and sugar and toss with apples. Spoon (or arrange festively) over filling and sprinkle with nuts.

Bake for 10 minutes at 450, reduce heat to 400 and bake 25 minutes. Cool a little and loosen from pan, chill.

Serve chilled or room temperature.

French Bread Pizza

2008-09-23T09:56:00.005-05:00

from Natalie's kitchen:

This is an incredibly easy and fast dinner idea that everyone will love. Take a loaf of French Bread and cut it in half long ways. Put spaghetti sauce on top of the bread and start to load up with your favorite pizza toppings. The possibilities are endless really: cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, peppers, onions, pineapple, Canadian bacon, pepperoni, ham, etc. Place in oven at 350 for 13-15 minutes and viola! Pizza! A fun idea if you have kids is to pre-cut the bread into thirds (or whatever size you want) and let the kids build their own personal sized pizza. Great for sleepovers, birthday parties, if you're hosting a game night, or just want to have a more "family together" type dinner.

Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

2008-09-22T21:50:00.005-05:00

from Lynne's kitchen:

Cake:

1 1/2 cups oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flower
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups pelled /sliced apples*
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Beat oil, sugar and eggs together and then add all the other ingredients.
Bake at 350 for about an hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting:

1 3oz pkg cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

*tart apples are best because the frosting is pretty sweet.

Frosting:

Chunky Salsa

2008-09-16T14:32:00.005-05:00

from Lynne's kitchen:

Red or Yellow (or both!) tomatos (diced)
Green Peppers (diced)
Cilantro (chopped)
Black Beans (canned works fine)
Corn (again canned)
onion (diced)
Jalepino peppers or hot red peppers(finely diced)
Lime Juice (fresh is best)

I honestly just cut up as many tomatos as I want (I can this stuff so it's a ton)and start adding all other ingredients to taste. For a big batch, when canning, I usually use two cans each of the black beans and corn.

Mix everything together in a bowl and serve if you're eating it fresh.

For canning, fill jars with a one inch head space and water bath them (boil) for 30 minutes.

Delicioso!

Apple Pie Cobbler

2008-09-15T11:18:00.007-05:00

We've had tons of apples given to us recently and after canning what seemed like a billion of them, I still had a bag or so. Cobler sounded good, but I didn't have a recipe for an apple one, so I thought about how I make apple pies and this is what I came up with. (*no ingredients were measured exactly...just tate test it throughout)

from Lynne's kitchen:

8-10 medium sized apples (whatever kind you have!)skinned and cut
cinnamon (abt 1/4 cup)
sugar (abt 1/2 cup)
butter (abt 1/4 cup)
O.J. (abt 1/4 cup)
Apple Juice (abt 1/4 cup)
Cream Cheese (abt 1/8 cup)
Vanilla (2 or 3 tsp)

Mix all above ingredients in a sauce pan until bubbly. Pour all of it into a 9x13 pan.

Sprikle a white cake mix all over the top

Melt 1 1/2 sticks of butter and pour on top of the cake mix

Bake at 350 for about 45 - 50 minutes.

It is so bad, but tastes so good! (sorry to say that we ate it with guests before I could snap a picture)