SWEET DINNER ROLLS

I made these rolls to go with last night's dinner. I used the bread machine to complete the first rising stage. You don't need a bread machine though. You can mix everything and left it rise on it's own. You then just follow the rest of the directions.

This dough was so easy to roll out. It never stuck to the rolling pin which IMO, is rare!

They were light and fluffy. Scott couldn't get enough of them and must have had at least 10 of them. He blamed me for putting them in front of him!

I think next time I make these, I may add some herbs to give it more of a savory flavor and see how they are. DELICIOUS!

Sweet Dinner Rolls
SUBMITTED BY: Donna West "This dough makes wonderful dinner rolls but can also be used to make cinnamon rolls. Mixing it in your bread machine but bake the rolls in the oven. They're light, soft and sweet."

PREP TIME
20 Min
COOK TIME
20 Min
READY IN
2 Hrs 20 Min
yield 16 rolls

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 cup warm milk
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup butter, softened

DIRECTIONS
Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start.
When cycle finishes, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread 1/4 cup softened butter over entire round. Cut each circle into 8 wedges. Roll wedges starting at wide end; roll gently but tightly. Place point side down on ungreased cookie sheet. Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden.

OUR NEW ORLEAN'S FEAST...

Scott commented to us that he missed Red Beans & Rice so we thought it would be nice if we made New orlean's favorites and let Scott & Alyssa invite some of their friends over to enjoy it with us. We decided that 'Saturday night' would be perfect.

I didn't realize it when we picked the date (August 29th) for this feast but today is the anniversary of when Hurricane Katrine hit New Orleans. What a perfect day to honor the people and part of what makes them special.
On the menu...
Corn & Crab Soup
Gumbo
Jambalaya
Red BeansRice
Shrinp Etouffee
Corn Bread

Alyssa made the Gumbo.
Making the roux is the toughest part. You need to stir that stuff for like an HOUR before it gets to the proper color! Talk about a labor of love!

Corn Bread in my favorite cast iron pan.

Jambalaya

Shrimp Etouffee

Red Beans

I put labels on the table so everyone would know what they were eating.

My plate!

I have to say... I was very impressed with our efforts. It was a lot of work but everyone enjoyed themselves and had a great food experience. Most of the kids had never had this kind of foods so it was great to have them try them. I think my favorites were the Gumbo and the Shrimp Etouffee. YUM!!! Good times!!

Here's the recipes:

SHRIMP ETOUFEE (or Crawfish)

½ pound butter
¼ cup flour
1 cup green onions, chopped
1 cup yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup green pepper, chopped
½ cup celery, chopped
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon basil
8 oz. tomato sauce
½ teaspoon white pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 tblsp. Worcestershire
Tabasco to taste
2 cups water
2 pounds Shrimp (1 kilo)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tblsp. grated lemon rind
¼ cup minced parsley
2 tablespoons cognac

1. Make a walnut-colored roux with ¼ cup butter and flour.
2. Add green onions, yellow onions, garlic, green pepper, celery, bay leaf, thyme, basil and the rest of the butter. Sauté uncovered, over medium flame for 30 minutes.
3. Add tomato sauce, white pepper, salt, Worcestershire, Tabasco and water. Bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer slowly, uncovered, for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.
5. After 1 hour, turn off fire.
6. Immediately add shrimp, lemon juice, lemon rind, parsley and cognac.
7. Serve over white rice or with French bread.

Best if made the day before or early in the morning. Cover & refrigerate. Reheat quickly, without boiling.

CORNBREAD
1 1/3 cups Flour
2/3 cups Cornmeal (yellow)
2/3 cups Sugar
½ cups Corn Flour (use ¼ Cup Flour and ¼ Cup Cornmeal)
5 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups Milk
5 tablespoons unsalted Butter, melted
1 Egg, beaten

In large bowl, mix Flour, Cornmeal, Sugar, Corn Flour (see note), Baking Powder, and Salt. Mix well, breaking up any lumps.
2. In another bowl, combine the Milk, Butter and Egg.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, blend just until mixed and large lumps are dissolved. Do not overbeat.
4. For Bread: Pour into a greased pan and bake at 350 F until golden brown, about 55 minutes.
For Muffins: Spoon mixture into 12 greased muffin cups. Bake at 350 F until golden brown, about 45 minutes

Red Beans & Rice
1 pound dried red beans
1 meaty ham bone
1 ¾ quarts water (enough to cover ham bone)
3 cups chopped Bermuda onion
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cup parsley, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tablespoon salt
Dash red pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon sugar
Dash Tabasco
¼ teaspoon oregano
¼ teaspoon thyme leaves
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½ (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
Seasoned salt to taste
Cooked Rice
Soak beans overnight in water to cover. Drain. Cook beans and ham bone in water slowly for 3 hours. Add all ingredients except seasoned salt. Cook slowly for 1 ½ hours. Cool. Reheat and simmer for 1 hour. Add seasoned salt to taste. Served over cooked rice. Serves 8.

The other recipes will be added when I have more time!

BIEROCKS TOTALLY ROCK!!!

On our last trip to Ithaca (Dec), we stopped at the Farmer's Market http://www.ithacamarket.com/home.php
to get a bite to eat before heading out to start our Holiday Shopping Spree at the Cayuga Lake wineries. The Farmer's Market has an array of different ethnic food vendors so there's a lot to choose from. While walking down the isle I noticed a sign on a warming/steaming pot... HOT STUFFED BUNS $1.50 each!

Well, that hit the spot. It was a cold and windy day. This is just what we need. They had a choice of 3 kinds but I only remember 2 of them because those are the ones that we bought. We got one that was onion and bacon and the other was spinach, feta and garlic. And YES, I took pictures of them as we were driving!

They look like softballs. They were DELICIOUS!!! We couldn't stop talking about them. We were disecting the insides with every bite!

After we got home I posted the question, on my favorite web site, of what these buns were actually called because I wanted to make them. I found out that they were called Bierocks, sometimes referred to as Runza. They are German and often made with cabbage and ground beef.

I went on http://www.allrecipes.com/ and found a recipe that got good reviews. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pams-Bierocks/Detail.aspx

I used that recipe for the dough and then made our version of the fillings as we remembered them from our trip. The recipe made 18. I thought there would be a lot left over for another dinner. WRONG!!! All 18 were eaten! I didn't stuff the ones with the onions and bacon enough but the flavor was still there! We will be making these quite often.

Pam's Bierocks
SUBMITTED BY: PUSHKEMAA PHOTO BY: Michelle S "A German dish, these sweet dinner rolls are stuffed with ground beef, onion, and cabbage. A great alternative to the Finnish pasty!"

PREP TIME
50 Min
COOK TIME
25 Min
READY IN
1 Hr 30 Min
Original recipe yield 20 stuffed rolls

INGREDIENTS

2 cups warm water
2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup margarine, softened
1 egg
2 teaspoons salt
7 cups all-purpose flour

I didn't make this filling but this was part of the recipe
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
6 cups shredded cabbage
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup melted butter

**The fillings that I used are:

-I defrosted a box of frozen chopped spinach and squeezed out the water. I then mixed it with crumbled up Feta Cheese and chopped garlic. There were no measurements. I just added until I liked the flavor.

-I sauteed chopped onions and chopped smokey bacon that we got from Oscar's Smoke House in Warrensburgh., NY. http://www.oscarssmokedmeats.com/

I'll miss going there being that it was a must stop on the way home from Plattsburgh.

And that's it. Replace those filling recipes in place of the filling part below *.

DIRECTIONS
Prepare dough: In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Mix in sugar, margarine, egg, salt and 1/2 of the flour. Beat until smooth; add remaining flour until dough pulls together. Place in oiled bowl. Cover with foil and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight, OR let it rise for 1 hour.
*In a large heavy skillet, brown meat. Add onion, cabbage, salt and simmer 30 minutes. Cool until lukewarm. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Coat a cookie sheet with non-stick spray.
Punch down dough and divide into 20 pieces. Spread each piece of dough out on an un-floured surface and fill with approximately 2 tablespoons filling. fold dough over and seal edges. Place on prepared cookie sheet and let rise for 1 hour.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with butter and serve.

UNCLE STAN'S ROLLS....YUM!!!!

Every year, just before Thanksgiving and Christmas, Uncle Stan comes to our house to bake his famous crescent rolls. This recipe was from Grammy (PJ and Stan's Grandmother) so it must be a very old recipe. He has been making these rolls for at least 3o years, probably closer to 40+.

My fondest memory of these rolls is when we had dinner at Gran's house, Stan would always pack up extra rolls for us to take home. We would all get in our car and start to pull out of the driveway but BEFORE we even would get out of the driveway... the kids would have the bag of rolls open and they'd sit there stuffing their faces! It happened EVERY time! Now that Grans house is no longer, Stan comes here to bake them. We always mail some down to Brooke to enjoy. She even started making them for her friends!So Saturday Uncle Stan came over to make his rolls for Christmas. We thought it would be nice for him to help us decorate our Christmas tree in between the risings of the dough. Scott and Alyssa got into their 'silly' moods and played a trick on us. I put the margarine in the microwave to soften it. Stan asked where the mixer was. I said that I put it on the counter for him. It was no where to be found! I asked S & A if they saw it and they said no. I then went into the microwave to get the margarine and Scott yelled that I'm loosing my mind if I'm looking for the mixer in the microwave! (He thinks he's funny). Where did the stinking mixer go??? We found it. Of all places, they hung it from a hook on the beam by the ceiling!! Leave it to them! Uncle Stan thought it was so funny!

A & S holding Brooke's ornament from the day she was born.

The rolls took a long time to make this year. The dough just wasn't rising. Also, I put them back in the oven in the morning because they were under baked. Much better now.
I hope the tradition of having these rolls for the holidays will carry on with the kids. It's a nice tradition.

SUPERB GOLDEN CRESCENTS

aka...

UNCLE STAN'S ROLLS

Mix together:

1/2 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of milk

1ts. salt

2 eggs

1 stick of margarine (melted)

Mix:

1/2 cup of warm water (closer to room temp) and 2 pkgs of dry yeast. Add to the above mixture. Mix all together then add 3 1/2 - 4 cups of flour. When mixed, leave in mixing bowl and put a dampened dishtowel (CLEAN) over the bowl. Put it in a draft free and warm area and let the dough rish until double.

Turn dough out, cut in half. Roll/flatten out into 2 circles; cut into 8 triangle pieces. Roll up into a crescent and lay out on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Cover with the dampened dish towel. Let rise until double. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Yield: approx 16 rolls

WENDY'S RED LOBSTER CHEDDAR BISCUITS

Chris had a great time visiting his friends in Rochester. Before he would tell us anything about his trip, he told me that Wendy (Jay's Mom) made the best biscuits and that I should ask her for the recipe. He just raved about them! So I went straight to the computer and within a few hours, I had the recipe. On Easter, I decided to make them to go with our dinner and not let Chris know. As he walked up to the table, the biscuits were the first thing that he saw. He looked at me and said... "you made these"? I told him that I had heard back from Wendy. He grabbed one and started to eat it. He said "they look like Wendy's... and they taste like Wendy's"! He was so excited! Thanks again Wendy!!!

Here's Wendy's version of the Red Lobster Biscuits.

Red Lobster's Cheddar Biscuits
Serving size: 10

2 cups Bisquick (I used Heart Smart Bisquick)
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (you can shred your own or buy it that way)
2/3 cup milk

1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Mix Bisquick, cheddar, and milk into soft dough. Beat with a wooden spoon for about 30 seconds. Spoon 10 biscuits onto greased cookie sheet (I use a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper). Smooth down tops (Bisquick forms sharp points otherwise). Bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 450 (10 minutes worked perfectly for me).

While baking, melt butter in pan and stir in garlic powder. Take biscuits from oven when done and brush butter on tops and serve hot.