Is there anything better??

Than the smell of Cinnamon Rolls? And this time, I'm not even talking about that Cinnabon you walk past in the mall or the kind that you crack open the can for! I decided that since I'd never made Cinnamon Rolls from scratch, that today would be the perfect day to try! It was rainy out, Paul was gone to hang out with his brother and I had the whole day ahead of me and nothing but time! Heaven...

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com. It had over 600 reviews and got 5 stars, so that's what sold me...I had to run out and get the Instant Vanilla Pudding, but that's about it! Everything about this recipe was outstanding. The rolls came out light and fluffy, the frosting was as good as any old Cinnamon Roll chain booth you can think of! I'll definitely be making these again, I have one pan of them in the freezer to pull out one weekend and have fresh rolls!
Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients for dough

• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix (Based on Allrecipe.com reviews, I used the whole package)
  
• 1 cup warm milk
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups bread flour (I used regular flour)
  
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (I used 2.5 tsp. of bulk yeast)
  

Ingredients for Filling

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans (I omitted)
  

Ingredients for Frosting

• 1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used 1 tsp.)
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons milk (I used 2 tsp.)
  

Directions

1. In the pan of your bread machine, combine water, melted butter, vanilla pudding, warm milk, egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast. Set machine to Dough cycle; press Start. (I don't have a bread maker. I put all the ingredients into my stand mixer, the warm water, sugar, butter, warm milk then yeast, let it sit for a minute or so, then added the rest of the ingredients, mixed it until it was a ball shape, covered & let it rest for 1 hour. Then I turned it out onto the floured surface, kneeded it for about 5 minutes and proceeded with the next step...)
   
2. When Dough cycle has finished, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 17x10 inch rectangle. Spread with softened butter. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over dough.
3. Roll up dough, beginning with long side. Slice into 16 one inch slices and place in 9x13 buttered pan (I used 2 9" round cake pans, 8 rolls in each). Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. (At this point, I froze one of the two pans for use later.) Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. While rolls bake, stir together cream cheese, softened butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and milk. Remove rolls from oven and top with frosting.

Friday Fish & Chips

I saw the recipe for Alton Brown's Chips and Fish on Bridget's beautiful blog, The Way the Cookie Crumbles....I thought it looked FABULOUS.....and a little lightbulb went off right over my head like "*BING* You have an electric deep fryer in a box downstairs!!!" So, we broke it in using this recipe.

I used cod fillets and cut them into smaller chunks, made the french fries and got to work on the fish. It got stuck to the basket. I had to pry it out, but it looked promising. I know what to do next time to prevent that, but I guess I learned some valuable frying lessons this time around.

The taste was delicious...it was very time consuming though and not something I would make all the time, but I'm glad to say that I did make homemade fish & chips. Now, to work on airing out the condo from smelling like a greasy spoon!!!!

You can find the recipe that I used here...I followed it pretty much exactly, however I used Cod and omitted the Old Bay Seasoning, only because I didn't have any!

I also made my own Tartar Sauce...for this:

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups of Mayo (I used Hellman's Light)
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbs. finely minced onion
• 3 tbs. jarred pickle relish
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. dried dill

Directions

• Mix all together, chill in fridge until you are ready to use.

Artisan Bread....take 2

Paul ate the small loaf I made already, so I threw a larger amount of dough in the oven today and it turned out great! :) See for yourself...

Roasted Broccoli Alfredo Pasta

Paul's favorite veggie these days is roasted broccoli - hands down. It's like his crack. ha ha
He saw the pan of broccoli sitting on the counter and got positively giddy! I said it would be a little different this time and tossed the roasted broccoli and roasted garlic in with some angel hair pasta and added Alfredo sauce to make a quick weeknight comforting meal.

Paul loved it and though I would never make this ALL the time, it was a much needed dose of comfort food after a rough work day.

Roasted Broccoli Alfredo Pasta

Ingredients

• 1 head of fresh broccoli, cut into florets
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• Pasta of your choice, we like angel hair
• Salt
• Pepper
• Alfredo Sauce, recipe found *HERE* (you could use jarred...nah, just make it!)

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Toss the broccoli florets, garlic, olive oil, some salt & pepper to season and place mixture on a sheet pan. Roast for 12-15 min. until golden brown edges appear.

MEANWHILE, start your pasta water and cook as directed and make your Alfredo sauce, which takes about 15-20 minutes, so if you start it prior to putting the broccoli in, it will all be done at the same time.

Drain pasta, put back into pot, add the roasted broccoli and pour Alfredo sauce over, mix well and plate up! Enjoy!

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day - first loaf

Remember my post *here* about my newest endeavor of bread baking? I baked my first loaf out of that dough today...The dough is supposed to make 4 loaves of bread. I broke off one "grapefruit sized" chunk and shaped it....it was super small after resting - next time I'll let it rest for much longer out of the fridge and see if that makes a difference! That's the only thing that disappointed me...the texture, crust and taste of this bread is very good! I'll be making this again, obviously, since the dough remains in the fridge. I have heard it's much better the longer it sits, so next time I'll use a much larger portion of dough!

I am excited to make other items using this same technique with different recipes in the book for bagels, cinnamon rolls, etc...

Simple Crusty Bread
Adapted from ''Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,'' by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)
Time: About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours' resting and rising

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough

Cornmeal.

1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.

3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.

4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Yield: 4 loaves.

Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.

A delicious meal to wrap up my "weekend"...

I also have Mondays off from work, so Mondays feel like my Sundays...I made a few easy things and they pulled together wonderfully to make a "fancy-looking" meal that was super simple to make! Total time to make this was an hour, but a half hour to really make the chicken and 15 minutes to make the biscuits. The hour was really baking the potatoes, which was no work on my part!

Chicken in a Cream Mustard Sauce
Recipe can be found here on my blog.

Garlic Fan Potatoes
Recipe inspired by Cooks.com
Ingredients

• 4 Idaho Potatoes, washed and dried
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced thin.
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• Parsley

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Place potato on a shallow large serving spoon.
• Slice potatoes 3/4 way through in thin slices, the spoon helps you not cut all the way through.
• Place 1 thin slice of garlic in each slot in the potato.
• Place in baking dish.
• Baste the potato with the melted butter.
• Season with salt, pepper and parsley.
• Place in oven and bake for 1 hour.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits
Recipe Inspired by About.com Recipe Here
Ingredients

• 2 cups Bisquick baking mix
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 tsp. garlic powder, divided in half
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 tbs. parsley flakes

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Mix Bisquick, cheese, milk and 1 tsp. of garlic powder.
• In a separate small dish, mix butter, 1 tsp. garlic powder & parsley flakes.
• Spoon batter into non-stick sprayed muffin tin.
• Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

My newest endeavor

Baking all our own bread. With times as tight as they are these days, I can't justify buying a loaf of bread for $3 or more, having it go bad quickly and have it pumped full of preservatives! My goal this year was to make more breads, which honestly, I was quite afraid to do, since I haven't worked with yeast breads very much at all...it's been so easy and rewarding!

My newest attempt is making "Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day" as the book by the same name promises...now this 5 minutes does not take into consideration the rising and resting time, but the dough is now in the fridge and can stay there for up to 14 days, ready for me to grab a chunk, shape, let it rise and then bake at a moments notice! Since I just made the dough today, I will let you know tomorrow how the first loaf goes!!!

The technique reminds me of the No-Knead Bread I've been obsessed with lately...a wet dough that requires no kneading but the longer it sits, the better it gets. It requires minimal special equipment, such as a covered bin to keep the dough in, an oven thermometer, and a baking stone. Easy!! I'll keep you posted!

Lisa's "Always Different" Pasta

We went to visit my sister, her husband and my niece and nephew over the weekend. My sister was nice enough to cook us dinner. She said it has no true recipe and it's something that turns out differently every time she's made it. Basically, it is handy in utilizing what you have left over in your house!

I'm going to try to tell you about this "recipe" as best I can!

Ingredients

• (the amounts of these vary to your tastes!)
• Broccoli
• Chicken, cooked and chopped into bite size pieces
  
• Spinach
• Sun-dried Tomatoes - chopped
• Heavy Cream
• Parmesan Cheese
• Garlic - chopped
• Butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• Bow Tie Pasta

Directions
Melt butter in large skillet and add chopped garlic. Cook until tender. Add chicken, broccoli, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, salt & pepper. Simmer until sauce is thickened (you can add other cheeses here too). Meanwhile, boil pasta to directions. Once pasta is done, drain and add to the sauce, tossing to coat and mix.

Baker's One Bowl Brownies

These didn't knock our socks off...but they did cure a chocolate fix...and they were a hit with my brother-in-law, Greg, who has a serious sweet tooth! You can find the recipe HERE, at Kraft Foods website!