GF Product Review- Arrowhead Mills AP Baking Mix

So in this journey to being Gluten Free I've tried many new things.  I did find a brand of bread that is tolerable (only when toasted) for sandwiches.  I've did find that corn pasta will hold up to a reheat whereas rice pasta turns to glue, but the consistency is still weird.  I've learned that my favorite candy bars are no longer a temptation because they all have malt in them, but at least I still have potato chips to munch.  I can eat as much fruit and veg as I can hold, but when it comes to salads I need to be wary of dressings.  I can eat meat, as long as its not deep fried in a glorious, golden, brown, delicious coating.  Yup, you guessed it- I'm really struggling with this.  I miss real pasta and pizza desperately!  That is why tonight I'm trying GF pizza.  I've tried the Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust Mix before and it was a rubbery, heavy, bland dough.  Tonight I'm trying Arrowhead Mills GF All Purpose Baking Mix (found at Walmart for about $5 a box).  The box says that it can be substituted 1 for 1 with regular AP flour so that is what I'm doing.  I took my pizza dough recipe and used this instead of the regular flour. 
...
So far, it is definitely a much courser dough and lacks elasticity due to the lack of gluten but it rolled out OK and transferred to the pizza stone without incident.
...
First one is done pre-baking and seems a little heavy but at least the little piece I tried of it actually tasted like something close to the 'real thing'
...
Much better than Bob's Red Mill.  It reminds me of the thin crust pizza at Marco's down the street.  I do think I need to cook the crust more on the pre-bake than just 8 minutes.  If I have to eat thin crust pizza, I like it to be crispy on the bottom. 
Verdict- good enough to keep trying to perfect!

Dim sum good vittles

Ok, this one is really good and really easy.  We had it tonight for dinner and I could have eaten a lot more than I did.

Bourbon Chicken  (don't ask me why because unfortunately there isn't any bourbon it)

• 2 lbs boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces 
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 1 large broccoli crown, cut into bite-size pieces, stems removed 
• 1 -2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar, or red wine or rice
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 T corn starch
• 1/4 cup cold water

 


In oil, cook chicken until lightly browned and remove. Add remaining ingredients except for broccoli and carrots, heat over medium heat until well mixed and dissolved. Add chicken, broccoli and carrots and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Dissolve corn starch in cold water and add, cook until desired consistency.  Serve over rice.

 

 

From a loaf to a ball...

My meatloaf and meat ball recipe is exactly the same.  Why?  Because I'm lazy.  Because I make them in very large batches using similar ingredients.  Here is my recipe for both:

Meatloaf/Meatball Recipe
1 lb ground pork
3 lb lean ground beef
1 cup frozen tri-color pepper strips, chopped and thawed.  (Buying them this way is much cheaper than buying fresh peppers)
1 large onion, diced
1 cup quick oats
1 large egg
1 - 2 Tablespoons steak seasoning (I use McCormack's Montreal Steak)
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350.  In a VERY large bowl mix everything together.  If mixture is too wet add more oats.  If too dry, add another egg.  This should be able to hold its shape without falling apart or being too sticky.

Divide this into two.  Take one half and divide into two loaves.  Place a cookie rack in a large baking pan or use a broiler pan and place the two loaves onto this, be sure to spray whatever you use with non-stick spray.  Combine 2 Tablespoons mustard, 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/2 Tablespoon chili powder and a pinch of cayenne.  Pour this on top of the loaves during the last 15 minutes of cooking time.  Bake until internal temperature is 165, about and hour.
With the remaining mixture, form into 1/4 cup balls.  I use a 1/4 cup cookie scoop because I'm lazy.  Place the balls into a mini muffin pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.  Bake for 30 minutes.  I usually do this when we are eating one of the meatloaves that have just come out.  When its time to use just toss them in your favorite spaghetti sauce.
Allow the extra meatloaf and the meatballs to cool completely then freeze.  Just let them thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat.
In the time it takes to make one meatloaf, you can make 2 meatloaves and 2 dozen meatballs.  This is enough for us to get two meatloaf dinners, along with leftovers for lunches for two days and meatballs enough for 3 to 4 spaghetti and meatball dinners or up to 8 meatball sandwiches.
This technique also works well when making lasagna.  I never make just one at a time because I'm lazy.

Back in my element...

I was able to spend time today coming up with a menu for the week, doing the monthly Sam's run, making a loaf of bread, trying a new recipe and making an awesome dinner for my family.  These are the little things that I really enjoy but lately haven't had the time and energy at the same time to do it.
Tonight's dinner was blackened Tilapia, roasted potatoes with chive and steamed carrots.  I cook a lot, but really don't make fish very often.  Mostly because my favorite way to have fish is fried, but when I found this recipe it looked so good.  It was too.  I changed several things from the original recipe like not using lemon juice or celery salt and didn't use as much oil or serve on white bread with the remaining oil poured over.  Ewww.  This is what I did:

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crush this in your had to release the oil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crush to release the oil
• 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
•  
• 5 Tilapia fillets
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions

• In a small bowl mix all of the spices together.
• Coat both sides of the fish with the spice mixture, rubbing it in to the fish.
• Let sit at room temp for no more than 30 minutes, but at least 15 so that the spices soak in.
• In a heavy skillet, heat the oil until almost smoking and carefully add fish.

Cook on each side 2 - 3 minutes.  Be sure not to over cook, the fish is done when it flakes easily with a fork.


Next time, I'm going to serve it over some Cajun seasoned rice.  Hey, that sounds like an awesome meal for Mardi Gras!

Canned Pie

I had some local, organic peaches that had to be used soon but I'm not one to sit down and get covered in sticky peach juice.  I like the taste, I don't like the mess.  So I decided to make some cobbleresque pie.  My pies generally have a bottom crust and the top is a mix of oats, brown sugar and butter.  I don't really know where I came up with this except to say I'm not real crazy about pie crust.

I've also learned in the past few years that if you can bake it, you can can it.  Mason jars are awesome to bake in and if you put the lids and rings on when they are straight out of the oven they seal air tight.  Even if a couple don't seal, the jars are freezeable so none have to be wasted.  You just have to remember to let them cool completely before putting in the freezer so they don't shatter; however, they are making jars specially made for the freezer that can go straight into the oven.  Pretty cool.

I made these in tiny 4 oz jelly  jars.  What I've noticed is that there is just enough there to make me want more.  My next batch will be in 8 oz jars and will be blackberry, maybe even some cherry too.  

You can use any pie recipe you like.  The only thing to keep in mind is that you don't want to fill it all the way to the top. Things tend to puff a little when baking so I recommend only filling to the bottom of the rings on the jar.  This should leave just enough room for the lid to seal after it's baked.

Can't you just imagine come those cold, dreary winter months opening up one of these.  Hmm, I think I just figured out Christmas presents for this year!

Jammin'

There are things in the world that are impossible; levitation, keeping on top of laundry and winning the lottery without buying a ticket.  Making jam in an hour... possible!  Don't call me crazy like it's an insult, making home made jam in an hour is truly achievable.

Freezer Jam
1 quart strawberries
4 cups sugar
1 pkg Sure Jell pectin
3/4 cups water

Wash, hull and chop strawberries.  Using a potato masher, mash the strawberries to release juice but leave some little chunks of fruit too!  Let sit for about 10 minutes.
While the berries are resting, bring to a boil the water and pectin.  Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Add the sugar and water to the berries.  Stir for 3 minutes until the sugar is dissolved.   Then pour into prepared jars.  I use the little tiny jam jars since we don't go through a whole lot at once.

I got almost 7 jars out of this recipe, most of which were given away.  One of the jars I gave away was to my friend Beqi- she ate it with a spoon and promptly returned the jar when she heard that might mean getting more sooner.  Yes folks, it's that good.

Penny Popcorn

Gryffin and I love popcorn.  Let's face it, it is the perfect snack.  It can be salty or sweet and its not that bad for you.  Plus, you can eat a ton since it has very few calories.  We've been out of those handy dandy little single serving microwave packs with uber amounts of butter for a while.  The other day while at Sam's I looked into getting more but that stuff is expensive.  That's when I remembered that you can make microwave popcorn in a brown paper lunch sack.  I had never tried it before but knew I had a recipe for it somewhere.
www.allrecipes.com to the rescue!  If you've never visited this mecca of deliciousness, you should.  All of their recipes are rated by the users.  I have yet to be led astray and don't attempt anything under 4 stars.  This is where I had the popcorn recipe stocked away.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil (I used canola)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Directions

In a cup or small bowl, mix together the unpopped popcorn and oil. Pour the coated corn into a brown paper lunch sack, and sprinkle in the salt. Fold the top of the bag over twice to seal in the ingredients.
Cook in the microwave at full power for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, or until you hear pauses of about 2 seconds between pops. Carefully open the bag to avoid steam, and pour into a serving bowl.  

Before I poured the fluffy goodness out into a bowl I added a couple pats of real butter and shook it up to melt and coat.  It worked beautifully!  Real butter popcorn tastes so much better than the fake stuff. 

Now there were quite a few unpopped kernels but you get that with any popcorn and there weren't enough to make it non cost effective. 

I vow never to buy the gross, cancer causing, synthetic flavored, has to use the word butter in parenthesis stuff again!

Being sick is no fun, but thankfully we are getting over it pretty quickly.
While not feeling well enough to cook dinner one night I discovered that the Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup makes an awesome spaghetti sauce.  I just added garlic powder, basil and oregano, then tossed in some cooked pasta.  Now I may have to start making REALLY big batches and freezing it for this purpose as well. 
I love double duty recipes!

Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup

 This is a super close up that shows the real color of the soup.

1 t olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jar roasted red peppers, chopped (I use the Trader Joe's brand, but you could always roast your own)
4 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (or a 28 oz can)
1 1/2 t dried thyme
2 t paprika
1 lg can tomato paste
6 cups broth of choice
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1/4 c fat free 1/2 & 1/2 (or you could just use milk too but the 1/2 & 1/2 really makes is creamy)
sour cream for garnish (optional)


In a giganto, mungo pot soften onion and garlic in olive oil. Add in tomato, bell peppers, thyme and paprika. Cook over medium heat until reduced by about 1/2. Stir in tomato paste, broth and cayenne. Let simmer for about 10 minutes. Puree the entire batch, then add the 1/2 & 1/2 and heat through. Serve with sour cream. It's also good with some pepperoni sprinkled in, but we ate it with some Goldfish crackers swimming around.
I want to try it with some other add-in's like: corn, rice, chicken or bacon too.
Try it and let me know what you think!

Oh, to freeze: let cool completely and pour into labeled freezer bags. Lie flat on a baking sheet and freeze solid. This will keep for about 4-6 months.
To reheat: let thaw and either heat through on stove top or in microwave.

Time to make the doughnuts...

At one of my towns fantabulous thrift shops I found a couple baking pans for doughnuts.  Traditionally, doughnuts are fried but since the pans only cost me a quarter for both why not try baked ones.  I scoured my usual internet recipe sites and believe it or not, there aren't a whole lot of recipes for baked doughnuts.  I did find one that got pretty good reviews though.
Gryffin and I found out that they were as fun to make as they were to eat!
I think next time I will add more cinnamon to the batter and not forget the vanilla.  Oops!

please excuse the Christmas sprinkles, it was all we had.

Baked Doughnuts
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon shortening


Preheat oven to 325 and spray doughnut pans with non-stick spray.  I'm sure a mini muffin pan would work too.  In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients and on medium add in the rest.  Beat until combined.  Pour into pans until they are 3/4 full.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the top springs back when poked.  Let cool about 5 minutes in pan, then remove to a rack.  When cooled either spread with icing and sprinkles or whip up a glaze of powdered sugar, milk & vanilla.
I'm going to freeze some so I can find out if they thaw out OK, but I better do this now before they're all gone!

A Dozen A Day

Yesterday I made one dozen cherry pies.  Sounds like a lot, huh?  Not really.

Pie By The Dozen

3/4 jar of Dark Morello Cherries from Trader Joe's
1 refrigerator pie crust
1/2 cup quick cook oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 cup flour + 2 Tbsp
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 stick of butter, softened
Non stick cooking spray
and the ancient Chinese secret... a muffin pan!

In a bowl, mix the brown sugar, oats, salt & 1/4 cup flour.  Set aside.  In another bowl, pour out about 3/4 of the jar of cherries and a few Tbsp of the liquid. (Save the rest to pour in soda, lemonade or better yet, vodka!)  Add in the sugar and 2 T flour.  Mix and set aside.  Liberally spray a regular size muffin pan with non-sticky stuff.  Set aside.  Unroll the pie crust and using a biscuit cutter cut out 12 circles. Using a rolling pin roll each of these circles into a slightly larger one and fit them into muffin pan.  They won't come up all the way on the sides, but that is OK.  Now spoon in a layer of cherries but do not overfill!  Spoon the oats & sugar mixture over the top.  Now dot the tops with the softened butter.
Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes or until you can see that cherry juice bubbling up and the tops are brown and crunchy.
Let them cool a few minutes in the pan then run a knife around the edge to loosen them.  Remove them for the muffin pan and cool on a wire rack.
Eat a few, then hide the rest from your family.  This can be done by wrapping each in foil and placing into a large freezer bag.  Label as follows:  Beets, Brussel Sprouts and Other Yucky Stuff.  Put in the freezer. 
When your family has gone to sleep, sneak a couple out and microwave for 30 seconds while you pour a glass of milk.  Savor, enjoy but don't tell anyone!

Chicken Marsala

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup dried mushroom slices
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup flour
2 T olive oil
2 T butter
1 T dried rosemary
3/4 c Marsala wine
Salt & pepper

Act I: The Prep
Scene 1:  Split the chicken breasts into cutlets.  To do this, lay the breast flat on a cutting board, use the palm of your hand to flatten them.  While keeping flat use the knife to slice the top of the breast from the bottom.  Kind of like you cut a bagel or a cake in half.  Salt and Pepper each side.
Scene 2:  Chop the dried mushrooms and rehydrate them by placing them in 1 cup boiling water.  Let them sit and wait patiently.
Scene 3:  Roll the dried rosemary in your hands to release their oils, then chop.
Place the flour in a shallow dish and add the rosemary.

Act II: Fry Baby
In a large, deep skillet heat the olive oil and butter over medium-high heat.  Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour, shake off excess and add to the oil.  Wait!  Make sure the oil is ready.  To do this, drop a little bit of flour into the oil, if it dances the oil is ready.  If it just sits there like a wallflower, the oil needs more time.  Brown each side.  It shouldn't take more than 3-6 minutes.  Remove the browned breasts to a plate.

Act III: Gettin' Saucy
Remove the pan from the heat and add the wine.  Return the pan to the flame and scrape up all those little bits of stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Or you could deglaze the pan with the wine to release the fond.  These are the same things, but one sounds a heck of a lot fancier.  Bring the wine to a boil, add in the mushrooms along with their water.

Act IV: The Big Finale
Add the chicken back into the pan, cover and let meat and sauce simmer for a few minutes.

I usually serve this over some egg noodles and a green veggie, last night it was broccoli.  I would show you the pictures but they didn't turn out very well.  I told y'all I am not a food stylist.  I will keep trying though.

Now you may be asking yourself why slice the chicken breasts in half, why not just fry them as they are?  Wow, that's a really good question!  Nice to see you paying attention.  First off, money.  More servings with less meat equals money in the pantry.  Second, time.  The thinner the meat, the faster it cooks.

Another question?  Ok, why don't I use fresh mushrooms?  Geez, you really are paying attention!  I go back again to the money factor.  Eight ounces of fresh mushrooms run around a dollar.  That adds a dollar to every dinner with mushrooms.  An entire bag of sliced dried mushrooms from Sam's costs under $8 and will last me at least 6 months.  You can do the math if you want, but without breaking out the calculator I can tell you I'm sticking with the dried ones.

Here's another reason, I REFUSE to use condensed cream of mushyroom (not a typo) soup in a recipe.  One cup of the rehydrated mushrooms along with their water and one cup milk simmered until thick makes cream of mushroom soup!  Again, buck a can versus a few coins and a few minutes.  Hmmm, need a calculator?

So there you have it.  I like food, I like to cook and I'm cheap.  Don't get me wrong, I have faults.  I just keep forgetting what they are.  ;)

So last night we indeed had pizza.  It was quick and none of us were really that hungry.  Even if I hadn't had a spare crust already in the fridge it would've still only taken less time than having it delivered.

No Knead For Delivery Pizza Crust
3 cups flour (I use bread flour but AP works well too)
2 1/4 tsp rapid rise yeast (or 1 envelope)
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
3/4-1 cup warm water

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 400.  With the blade in your food processor, add the dry ingredients and combine for 10-15 seconds.  With the machine on, add the olive oil and slowly add just enough water to make the dough come together into a ball.  Remove dough onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rise for 10 minutes.  Cut dough in half for 2 large or thirds for medium.  Roll out, prick crust with a fork and slide onto hot pizza stone.  Bake for 8 minutes.
I usually par-bake all my crusts first so they can go into the oven one after the other or I can just freeze the plain crust for use another day.  After the par-bake, load up the crust with the good stuff: sauce (I use spaghetti sauce, cheese, meat, veggies, more cheese (of course!).  Then place back on pizza stone until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is GBD (golden, brown, delicious).  In my oven, this only takes about 8-10 minutes depending on how loaded the pizza is.  The more toppings, the more time.

When I freeze my crusts, I wrap them in a couple layers of foil before sliding them in a freezer bag.  The dough itself can be frozen as well.  Just thaw in fridge overnight, let come to room temp and bake as directed above.

Tonight is Chicken Marsala... I'll try to go all food stylist and take pictures.  But y'all know how good I am at that.

Freezyer Meat

I got quizzed on my previous post about how and what I used to do this so I will let y'all in my secrets:

Ground Beef
1.  I use a 80/20 blend because too lean a ground beef tastes like cardboard.  Fat may not be your friend but damned if it don't have flavor.
2.  I cook it in one or two batches in the biggest pot I've got.  I can do about 4 lbs at once.  It takes a lot of stirring to get everything browned evenly but just look at it as an upper body workout.
3.  I lightly drain the meat by pouring it into a colander.  I don't want to lose all the fat because it will lose flavor and dry out when reheated.
4.  I don't season the meat.  What?!  Freezing changes the flavor of some things.  Things like onion and peppers can become overpowering and bitter.  When it's time to be used I can just saute up what I need in the time it takes to defrost  the meat in the microwave.  This way I can make sure the flavors and seasonings for the dish I'm making are just right.
5.  I thoroughly let the meat cool before freezing.  This will keep the freezers temperature from plummeting when I put it in and also help when packaging.  Don't want to burn those fingers!
6.  Don't skimp on the packaging.  I am lucky enough to have a FoodSaver machine.  But if you don't, don't worry.  Cheap freezer bags are just that- cheap.  I've found that I had to double up on them which doesn't save any money in the long run.  Use a good name brand freezer bag like Ziploc Freezer Bags.
7.  Air is the enemy.  Don't overstuff your bags, 3/4 full at the most and about 3/4 lb of meat per bag.  After filling the bag, lay on its side and flatten the meat.  Open one corner of the bag and smooth out as much air as you can.  Then reseal and freeze flat.  This not only helps you fit more in the freezer but also makes defrosting quicker.
8.  Date and label.  No one like mystery meat.

Chicken
1,  I use boneless, skinless breasts.  I also trim them of any fat.
2.  I put the breasts; however many I have or will fit, into a crock pot along with 1 to 2 cups of water and whole bunch of Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute.  I cook this on high for 4-5 hours or until the breasts fall apart.
3.  I drain the them in a colander and let them cool completely.
4.  I use two forks to shred the meat.
5.  Package the same as the ground beef.
6.  Date and label.

Hope this answers some questions!  If you have more, just leave a comment.

Today I cooked up 6 lbs of ground beef.  What will I do with all of this loose meat, you ask?  Well:
1. Spaghetti sauce
2. Lasagna
3. Sloppy Joes
4 Shepherds Pie

I also cooked up 7 lbs of chicken breast in the crock pot to shred.  This will be used for:
1. Chicken enchiladas
2. Chicken and dumplings
3. Chicken noodle soup
4. Tetrazini
5. Salads
6. Chicken chili

I know, not very interesting.  Sorry.

Give us this day...

I jumped in head first and landed in flour.  I was at Satan's (aka Sam's Club) and saw they had 25 lb bag of bread flour for $7.  A loaf of bread at the grocery costs, when on sale, $2.50.  Stand back, I'm about to do math.  That's 2.5 divided, no multiplied, carry the zero, that's not right.  My brain hurts, let's just say that if I waste (shame) most of the flour I will still have saved a frillion pennies.  And with Gryffin eating PB&J's like crazy and toast with breakfasts, we go through a lot of bread.  Plus with Fall Soup season on the brink, what's better than some fresh bread with soup?
For years I've struggled with bread machines.  When they first came out I wanted one so bad.  Mike and his Mom bought me one for my birthday one year.  I used the hell out it until it gave up the ghost.  Got another one used and ran it into the ground too.  For over a year it's been sitting my cabinet taking up valuable real estate, but not for long.
I used to think mixing, kneading, proofing, waiting made for a whole day to make one loaf of bread.  And sometimes it does, depending on the recipe.  However, I've found a recipe that in less than 1 hour, most of it resting time, I can have a loaf of bread in the oven.
This recipe is from breadworld.com and is so quick, easy and delicious it's unbelievable that it requires so little work.

Rich White Bread (Food Processor recipe) Makes 1 loaf. 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons sugar 1 envelope FLEISCHMANN'S RapidRise Yeast 1-1/4 teaspoons salt 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into pieces 1 egg 3/4 cup warm water (120° to 130°F) Directions Insert metal blade in food processor bowl. Add flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt; process 5 to 10 seconds to combine. Add butter and egg. Begin processing, then slowly pour warm water through feed tube just until dough forms a ball, about 10 to 15 seconds (all water may not be needed). Continue processing for 60 seconds to knead dough. Carefully remove dough from processor bowl to lightly floured surface. Cover; let rest on floured surface 10 minutes. Roll dough to 12 x 7-inch rectangle. Beginning at short end, roll up tightly as for jelly roll. Pinch seam and ends to seal. Place, seam side down, in greased 8-1/2 x 4-1/2-inch loaf pan. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 30 to 45 minutes. Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes or until done. Remove from pan; let cool on wire rack. Nutritional Information: Per serving: Serving size: 1 slice (1/12 of recipe) calories 159; total fat 4g; saturated fat 2g; cholesterol 25mg; sodium 280mg; total carbohydrate 27g; dietary fiber 1g; protein 4g.

Just as an example, today I had the ingredients out, mixed and covered for the first rise in 5 minutes.  That gave me a 10 minute break to put on some eggs to hard boil, clean up the mess, empty and refill the dishwasher.  Then it was roll, put in the pan and cover for another 30.  During that time I put on my makeup, did my hair, brushed my teeth and ruined them with a cup of coffee.  Then the bake time was spent playing with Gryffin. 
Fresh, home made bread with only about a 15 minute investment of time. It took me longer than that to wrestle the behemoth bread machine to the counter, plug it in and program it!  Not to mention all the time saved by not having to curse at it, clean it and figure out why the crust was nasty.
My bread machine will be put in the "Donate" corner of the basement, along with the waffle iron, the old clothes and the numerous other things I felt I just HAD to have.

Manwich, schmanwich. I want real food!

Yesterday was a day that screamed for something warm, hearty and comforting for lunch.  I had cooked, crumbled ground beef, hamburger buns and peppers.  Hm, Sloppy Joe's!
A while back after reading the ingredients on a Manwich can I was surprised.

INGREDIENTS:
Tomato puree (water, tomato paste), high fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, corn syrup, less than 2% of: salt, sugar, dehydrated onions, dehydrated red and green bell peppers, chile pepper, tomato fiber, spices, guar gum, xanthan gum, dehydrated garlic, carob bean gum, natural flavors.

 Yes, the 2nd, 4th and 6th ingredients are sugar!  And exactly what are guar gum, xanthan gum and carob bean gum?  I want a sandwich not candy!  

The first couple of recipes I tried were OK, but around here OK isn't good enough to get a second try.  The one I tried last night was THE ONE!  http://www.recipezaar.com/Manwich-Copycat-198485 

I did make some changes, so here is my version:

1 lb ground beef, cooked, drained and crumbled

1 cup ketchup

1 T mustard (I used Jack Daniel's mustard because I don't like the neon yellow stuff)

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

1 T chili powder

1 T paprika

1 small chopped onion

1 chopped green pepper

1 T chopped garic

Saute the onion, pepper and garlic until softened but not mushy.  Mix everything else in and heat through.  

Yesterday I made six pounds of this stuff, that is how good it was.  No, we didn't eat it all.  We had a little less than a pound for lunch, another pound in the fridge and the rest was put into freezer bags and well, frozen.  In the time it took me to make lunch, I made another 5 meals!

Mmm, (almost) year old bread.

Yes folks, the date on the jar is correct. This bread was made in October of last year.
I've never know anyone I've given my 'canned' bread to to wait more than a few days before cracking it open so I just had to make sure for myself that it would last this long.
I hid the jar way in the back of my pantry so I would forget, which worked pretty well until this morning when I was craving something sweet but filling for breakfast. I had my doubts, I mean 10 month old bread, yuk. I unscrewed the ring and was happy to have to pry the lid off. That meant that it was sealed up tight this whole time. I just couldn't believe it, it was as moist as the day I made them and tasted just as fresh!
Any kind of quick bread can be baked right in the jar like this, just make sure to spray the inside with nonstick spray and when they come out immediately place the lid and ring on. When the middle of the lids are completely depressed they are sealed air tight, this is accomplished by the hot air in the jar vacuum sealing the lid on. You should hear a little pop when it seals. When the jars are completely cooled label them. Don't forget to label! No one wants to eat mystery bread that's who knows how old.
I don't know the true shelf life of these but I would have to assume they aren't the infinite lifespan of a Twinkie. Especially since they taste a whole hell of a lot better.

It's not a doughnut, but it will do

Last week Gryffin was begging for doughnuts for breakfast. I tried explaining to him that without dough you can't buy doughnuts. He didn't get it. My humor isn't even bad enough for a four year old to understand.
I looked in the fridge and spotted a can of crescent rolls and a jar of blueberry/blackberry jam. Hmm, I could do something with that. The addition of some brown sugar and chopped walnuts made it perfect.

Store bought potato salad, sort of

Last night I was going to fix some sweet potato fries to go with our pork burgers but didn't feel like: A. heating up the house or B. waiting for them to cook. Mike mentioned getting some potato salad from the market so off I went on my merry little adventure down the alley.
Hmmm, lets see, the Market's potato salad for $3 for a quarter pound of $1.30 for 1 lb of their baby baked potatoes from yesterday. I opted for the leftover potatoes and the idea of making my own potato salad, which silly as it may seem I have never done before.
But I will certainly be doing it again:

1 lb cold baked potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
3 T Miracle Whip
1 T yellow mustard
1/2 red pepper, chopped small
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped small
2 large green onions, sliced thin
good shake of salt
even better shake of pepper
1 tsp of celery seed

Mix until combine and fight over!