Joy in the Kitchen!

My daughter Audra has been making delicious, chewy pretzels for her family for a while.  They were getting rave reviews from her hubby and kids.... so of course I had to try them!  We decided to try them as pretzel bites rather than a full sized pretzel.  It worked perfectly.  Family loved them!  Win! Audra and I made several batches of these Pretzel Bites for a meeting I was attending.  So many of the people there loved them as well.  I've never had store-bought soft pretzels before, but several of the meeting attendees said they were as good as Pretzel Maker Pretzel Bites.   The recipe is simple and not too time consuming for bread.  Give it a try! Soft and Chewy Pretzels and Pretzel Bites 2 3/4 C. flour 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. sugar 2 1/4 tsp. yeast 1 C. warm water Pretzel Salt or Coarse Salt 3 T. melted butter (for brushing after baking) Put all dry ingredients in mixer bowl.  Pour warm water over and stir with a ...

If you have a sweet tooth at breakfast, this Pull Apart Breakfast will work to satisfy it!  We often do a similar dish in our dutch ovens when we're camping but this is easy to throw together at home as well. It helps to have a bundt pan but you could easily cut the recipe in half and use a bread pan or casserole dish.  You may just have to extend the cooking time a little so the center gets done.   I haven't tried it yet, but one of these times I'm going to add a sprinkle of cinnamon in these layers.  Pull Apart Breakfast Biscuits  2 rolls Grande refrigerator biscuits (in the dairy section) 1 can whipped topping (real cream preferably) 1/2 C. chopped walnuts 1 1/2 C. brown sugar 1 cube of butter sliced into 12-16 pieces Grease a large bundt pan.  In the bottom set half of the pieces of butter, sprinkle with 1/2 C. of the brown sugar and 1/4 C. of the walnuts.  Spray a small layer of whipped topping across the sugar layer.   ...

School was canceled for us today due to icy roads and snow.  That makes it a perfect day to have some Kids in the Kitchen time!   Easy Cheesy Pretzels are easy enough for 8 year old Wesley to mix up pretty much by himself, though I did stand by and oversee measuring and explaining a few things like "kneading". It depends on how much kitchen experience your little helpers have had.  We like to have Kid Aprons *First, gather all of the ingredients you need onto a cookie sheet or counter.  We measured and put into bowls for the picture, and that also makes it easy to see that you have everything.  Wesley especially enjoys measuring flour.  He measured that cup and a half several times before he was satisfied it could go in the bowl .  (we did not gather the beaten egg or the pretzel salt)  Easy Cheesy Pretzels 1 1/2 C. flour 2/3 C. milk 1/2 C. shredded cheddar cheese 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, sof...

Last week I was invited to a Christmas party for Relief Society. (a women's organization in my church)  We were to bring a "fun" white elephant gift and an appetizer.  I agonized over that white elephant gift!  Agonized!   My sense of fun and humor is probably odd to some people and I worried that I might offend someone with my silliness! I love a simple pun, and when I saw the idea on pinterest for these fun LOAFERS, I knew that was what I had to do!  I added the pair of holiday fuzzy socks so it wasn't a totally useless gift.  The shoe box for wrapping was the perfect final touch.  I used the recipe for my Fabulous French Bread   and made 4 half sized loaves instead of 2 regular sized ones.  I tried to make them as close to the same size and shape as possible and then I chose the 2 that looked best.    To make them dark and shiny, I used an egg wash by mixing 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water and whisking it until smoot...

Molasses Oatmeal Bread is a hearty (and heart healthy!) bread that is easy and delicious!  We love it toasted and spread with homemade jam.  So good!  Molasses adds a rich flavor and beautiful color. Molasses Oatmeal Bread 2 T. instant dry yeast (my favorite brand is SAF) 1/2 C. warm water Dissolve yeast in water and set aside In large bowl (or mixer bowl if you have one that will do bread), put: 2 C. quick rolled oats 2 T. oil 2 C. boiling water Stir and let sit about 10 minutes or until lukewarm.   Stir dissolved yeast, 1/2 C. molasses, and 4 tsp. salt into the oatmeal mixture.   Add about 3 cups of flour and mix well.  Stir in 2-3 cups more flour until you have a firm dough that you can knead.  Knead 5 minutes by hand or with mixer.  Place in a greased bowl, being sure to grease the top as well.   Cover and let rise until double.  About 45 minutes to an hour depending on how warm your room is. Punch down...

Today is PERFECT fall weather!  A bit overcast, breezy, high of 60 degrees if we're lucky.  I love fall!  One of my favorite fall things is SOUP!   Garden Chowder with Ham is a hearty way to celebrate fall. We grow a fair sized garden each year.  I love to wander through it in the fall and shop for dinner.  This is what I chose to use for our chowder today.   If you don't have a garden to shop in, enjoy wandering through the produce section of your favorite grocery store and select the vegetables you'd enjoy best! (Don't discount the small amount of green pepper though - it adds such a rich flavor!) The vegetables I chose today are those that are still available in my garden in the fall.  The summer squash is finishing up and the texture of it always changes a bit, more dry maybe.  If we were making this earlier in the summer we could add peas or green beans, but those vegetables are done in my garden this time of year.  You co...

Our garden is on full swing right now.  We love having so many fresh vegetables to use!  As usual we have an abundance of zucchini.  It grows so quickly.  One day I check the plant and the squash are a little bit too small and the next day I have zucchini the size of my forearm!   Those forearm sized zucchini are excellent for using in baked goods - like Zucchini Bread!  One can NEVER have too many zucchini recipes during this season!   As long as you use a fine grate there's hardly a sign of green zucchini in this and I rarely take time to peel them first.  If you have a food processor you can quickly grate a bunch of zucchini at once.  If I'm only making one batch, I usually just use my hand grater.... you only need 2 cups.... it's pretty quick and then I have one small item to wash.  Lazy, lazy me! You'll want to grease your bread pans.  My Mom always used a paper towel and some shortening BUT I love to use a cooki...

Pretzel Dogs are a fun twist to using hot dogs for an easy meal!   Add a fresh fruit and vegetable tray and you've got a filling meal!  This is a perfect recipe to work with your kids in the kitchen!   Our family really loves the soft pretzels and pretzel bites we've been making.  Dipped in cheese sauce or just by themselves, once a batch comes out of the oven it hardly has a chance to cool before it's gone. These Pretzel Dogs use that easy Soft Pretzel recipe.   Enjoy! Pretzel Dogs 1 batch of Soft Pretzels dough  (Recipe HERE )  prepared up to the point of shaping the pretzels. 8 bun length hot dogs, patted dry with a paper towel. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Divide the dough into 8 pieces.  Roll one piece of the dough into a long snake-like strand about 12 inches long.  Flatten the roll with your fingers.  Place the end of one hot dog at the end of the dough strip and roll at an angle until hot dog is...

Every Sunday we have a nice family dinner after church.   Right now I'm busy with extra church meetings some Sundays so my family pitches in and takes care of dinner preparation while I'm gone.  Yesterday I had planned a nice pork roast, mashed potatoes with gravy, fruit salad and brown sugared carrots.   My older daughters decided to make rolls as well.   Here is my beautiful daughter Keeley with her new calling in life:    A Roll Model! They used my favorite recipe for 60 Minute Rolls.   Go ahead!  Give them a try!  The world needs more good Roll Models!

Zippy Pizza Rolls! My 12 year old daughter has been requesting pizza a lot lately.  Today I made bread and decided to combine that with a pizza type dish to satisfy her craving.     I generally make 4 loaves of bread in a batch.  Today I saved half of that dough for the pizza rolls.   I keep shredded mozzarella and pepperoni in the freezer so every thing I needed was right on hand!  I love being able to keep a stocked pantry and freezer!  I can't tell you how much money that has saved me over the years! The bread recipe I used is found HERE .  You could use your own favorite recipe or frozen bread dough that is thawed and ready to work with.   You'll notice at the bottom of my recipe I have the ingredients for just 2 loaves.  That size will fit in a regular sized Kitchen-Aid mixer. Zippy Pizza Roll 2 loaves worth of bread dough 1 can spaghetti sauce small package of pepperoni sliced 2-3 C. shredded mozzarella ...

There's nothing that fancies up a soup like serving it in a bread bowl!  Thickened soups work best in my opinion, but any hearty soup will work great.   I just used my favorite French Bread recipe for the dough and divided it into 6 bowls.  I thought they were just about the right size.  Tonight we filled them with Cream of Potato soup topped with cheese. Mix up a batch of the dough - you can find the recipe HERE.   Be sure the dough is nice and firm - not sticky at all.  Divide into 6 pieces.  Shape into a nice, round roll and place on a greased cookie sheet several inches apart. (I did 3 bowls per cookie sheet)  Let rise until doubled and bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until nicely browned.   Let cool enough to handle.   Slice off top and pull out enough of the bread inside to make room for the soup.   These will freeze fine for a few weeks if you need to make them ahead. Bread Bowls are also a fun way to serve...

At least once a year we make delicious homemade doughnuts. (these are not those!)  YUMMY!  The dough is made from scratch from an old recipe and cutting out and letting them rise, all take time.  Sometimes we want the fun and deliciousness of a homemade donuts without the time and work!  (the original from scratch ones are best hands-down, but there work in a pinch!)   Tonight we had fish taco's for dinner using deep fried fish nuggets.   Since I'd already have oil out and splatters from that I decided to make these quick Cinnamon Sugar Donuts for dessert! My husband was already planning to press apple cider this afternoon and these warm, sugary donuts went perfectly with a fresh glass of cider.  I posted a few years ago about our homemade cider press and cider pressing day!  You can find that post HERE.   The ingredients and method for these are so simple!  If you don't love cinnamon, just leave it out and have Sugared Donut...

This Savory Garlic Pull-Apart Bread was a terrific accompaniment for the Turkey Pasta salad we had for dinner tonight. I wanted to make a garlic bread of some sort.  I used the dough recipe that my friend Pat uses for her cinnamon rolls (I had just printed it off and it was still on the counter!  Nice and handy!) though I did cut that recipe in half.  I did add a tad more salt, and a tad less sugar.  I dipped pieces of dough from that into melted butter mixed with garlic powder.    Next time, I will use more garlic and a little salt with the butter.  I included those changes with this recipe. I was pleased over all with how these turned out!  They did almost grow out of the pan though!  My favorite part to eat was the crisp outer edges.  Mmmmm!   Definitely making these again!  I can't wait to try these with soups later this fall and winter! Savory Garlic Pull-Apart Bread 1 3/4 C. warm water 1/4 C. oil 1/3 C. su...