The first BFN Day… To the First Neighbor, I took Butterflake Herb Rolls

04 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, Baking for Neighbors, BFN, community, food, Inspirational, recipe, Uncategorized

Tags

baking, Baking for Neighbors, BFN, bread, community, food, neighborhood, neighbors, recipe

And also to the Second Neighbor!

It started several weeks ago. I don’t like admitting this, especially to myself, but my recovery seems sooooo s. l. o. w.! sigh. (I actually sighed after typing that sentence.) I broke my back on July 16th, 2012 and got scoliosis surgery in October. It’s been over a year. So come on, what’s with this tedious recovery? Alas, my research proves that I’m normal and doing well. But it still takes me days to recover from a simple outing because riding in a vehicle is just not friendly to my concrete spine. Not yet.

On the plus side, my stamina is better than it’s been in years. I’m tackling long overdue tasks, such as sorting through bins of old papers and organizing shelves. I’m rearranging rooms and overseeing remodeling. And I’m back in the kitchen cooking and baking. But I want to do more. I want to be involved in Community.

Since I can’t get out easy, I’ve decided to serve my own neighborhood. I call the service …

BFN – Baking for Neighbors.

Instead of bye for now, my BFN is Baking for Neighbors. I think there are 71 houses in my neighborhood. I barely know four of them so just one or two at a time, I’m going to bake something for all my neighbors. Baking for Neighbors will give me an excuse to bake, encouragement to walk outside (which is still slow and painful), and I’ll get to meet new people. It’s a win-win situation!

Several days ago I declared my first BFN Day. I took Butterflake Herb Rolls. This recipe has been in my family for decades. It was from an old Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbook my mom had. I wrote up the recipe on a blank card, which is now all stained from use.

Butterflake Herb Loaf recipe

Herb Butter Recipe

I rarely make these rolls so I’m not sure why I started with them. It just seemed like the right recipe and I was at peace. And they are delicious! With each recipe I pick, I’m going to pray that it will be ok with the neighbor and perhaps even be just what they need.

Butterflake Herb Rolls

Most yeasts no longer needs proofed but I did it anyway. 4 1/2 tsp (two packets) of yeast are softened in 1/4 cup warm water.

Dry yeast is sprinkled on warm water.

In a large mixing bowl, place 1/3 cup shortening, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp salt and 1 cup hot scalded milk. Cool to lukewarm.

Blend in 2 eggs and the softened yeast. I also mix in two cups of the flour at this point and beat till the batter is smooth. Gradually add 2 1/2 to 3 more cups of flour.

The first two cups of flour are beaten in, making a nice smooth batter.

On a floured surface…. And here I pause. I wonder if all bakers enjoy sprinkling a surface with flour. There’s just something magical about scattering that soft powder over the counter and then spreading and smoothing it out with your bare hands. I love the dusty flour on my hands.

Knead the dough on a floured surface till smooth and satiny. This was the first time in over two years that I kneaded dough so I ran out of steam fast. I wasn’t able to get it to “smooth and satiny” but it still turned out.

I put the dough in a greased bowl and place it in the cold oven. Then I turn on the oven light. The light from the lightbulb is enough heat for the dough to rise. While the dough is raising, I make the herb butter. I usually leave out the onion and just used fresh or dried garlic. Sometimes I add a little more of everything if I want a stronger herb roll.

We were out of Cayenne Pepper so I scraped the last little bit of Chipotle Pepper from the jar. There was about 1/8 tsp. We were out of fresh garlic too so I ground up dried garlic with a mortar and pestle.

I used to use a saucer and cut around the rolled-out dough with a sharp knife to make nice tidy circles. But it’s a lot faster to just use a bench knife to divide the dough up into little pieces. I cut the dough in half, then half again, etc until the lumps of dough are about the size of a small egg, about 32 rolls.

Each piece of dough is rolled out flat. It doesn’t matter if the piece is perfectly round or not. Herb butter is spread on half the dough piece and then it is folded in half.

Herb butter is again spread on the top each folded roll and then they are slightly overlapped on a parchment covered baking sheet.

The loaf is left to raise. Again, I put them back in the oven and let it stay warm with just the oven light on.

After they raised about double in size, the loaves are taken out of the warm oven and the oven is preheated to 350F. Then they are baked for 20 to 25 minutes.

For giving, I placed a hot loaf, fresh from the oven, on a paper napkin on a sturdy paper plate and wrapped it in foil. And then I carried it next door. :)

I asked the first neighbor if I could take a picture of her holding the plate and she didn’t mind. The reason the foil is left on is because the rolls are keeping warm. But most important of all, it’s NOT about the rolls, it’s about the neighbor. The hands in this photo are more important than what’s on the plate. I want to keep it that way.

Blessings to you, Neighbor 1!
And here is the second neighbor. Blessing to you too, Neighbor 2!

I don’t know if they’ll ever see this blog. But I was so happy to finally be able to do something for my neighbors.

I shall be posting all my BFN days. 2 down, 69 to go.

Torn Bread Crisps for fondue or dip

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

bread, fondue, food, leftover bread, recipe, roll recipe, torn bread crisps

These are addicting! We scarf the entire batch so fast. They’re good even plain.
Start with leftover rolls. We used homemade rolls. (Recipe follows if you’re interested.)
Tear rolls into ragged bite size pieces and scatter on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, stirring once. Stir pieces again and lower oven temperature to 300 and bake 5 more minutes.
The Torn Bread Crisps will be deliciously toasted and irresistibly crispy, delightful plain or dipped. (Say that one fast, ha!)

Torn Bread Crisps after baking. The quantity shown here is two baking sheets worth.

Torn Bread Crisps after baking. The quantity shown here is part of two baking sheets worth.

Tonight we didn’t fuss for supper. We made a quick cheddar cheese sauce and steamed some broccoli. Then we ate with our fingers, dipping the broccoli and bread crisps in the cheese sauce. Supper was yummy, light and fun.

This is our Everyday Rolls recipe. We make them a couple times a week, using the bread machine on Dough Setting. I’ve made them a couple times by hand and they turn out great but the bread machine makes the job super easy.

In bread machine, place:
1 c. water
1 egg
3 1/4 cup bread flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 c. unsalted butter
2 tsp yeast

Use the dough setting to prepare the dough. When ready, remove dough from the machine.
On a floured surface, divide dough in about 24 pieces. We don’t usually make tidy round rolls, we just drop the chunks of dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and place them in the cold oven and turn on the oven light. The little bit of heat from the oven light bulb is enough to raise the rolls.
Let the rolls rise 45 minutes and remove from the oven.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bake rolls 15 minutes. Serve warm or cold.
The rolls may be eaten immediately or cooled and stored in airtight plastic bags overnight.
Perfect for making Torn Bread Crisps. Each roll can be torn into six or seven bite size pieces, allowing two or three rolls per person, depending on what other foods you have for the meal.
And yes, you can use them as croutons. We don’t season these because they’re more versatile, such as using to dip in peanut butter and jam. They’re also wonderful dropped in a bowl of soup.

Crust-Lover’s Apple Pie

02 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

apple pie, baking, dessert, food, king arthur flour, pie crust, recipe, williams sonomas

Sometimes a gal just needs more crust.

Crust-Lover’s Apple Pie

I very loosely follow the recipe in this 2003 cookbook. Here is a similar recipe Williams Sonomas’ Apple Pie, but I use more apples, more brown sugar and less or no white sugar, triple the cinnamon, a little ginger and nutmeg. I don’t measure the filling ingredients. For the past 35 years, I’ve always used an assortment of apples in pies for better flavor, usually a couple Granny Smith for tartness, a couple Macintosh for extra apple-i-ness, and Rome or Gala for structure.

I discovered King Arthur Flour’s thickener – Pie Filling Enhancer, so now my pies aren’t soup-in-a-crust. The Emile Henry ruffled pie dishes are gorgeous and make any pie look extra delicious. The dishes also bake a better crispy crust than normal glass dishes.

But the crust… oh the crust! The recipe is probably in some cookbook somewhere because there are only so many ways to make a pie crust with few ingredients. It started out as a Good Housekeeping recipe and slowly morphed into a WS recipe with a couple tweaks.

Pie Crust

Whisk together:
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour (I always use King Arthur flour – it has the best flavor and is always consistent)
About 1/4 tsp salt
About 1 tsp sugar
Using a pastry blender, cut in:
2/3 shortening (NOT butter flavor stuff, just the regular white shortening)
1/3 cup unsalted butter
Cut in the shortening and butter at the same time till dough is craggy. If you cut the fats in too little, there will be too much flour when you stir in the water, making a glutenous, stretchy tough mess. If you cut the fats in too much, the fats will coat all the flour, basically greasing it, so you can’t add the water. At that point, your pastry will fall apart when you bake it. So the right amount of cutting-in has some small baby pea-size pieces of butter at the most but mostly looks like a lumpy powder.
Stir in with a fork:
About 6 tablespoons cold water. Sometimes you’ll need more if your house is extra dry, which drys out the flour too. But usually 6 or 7 tablespoons is enough. As you stir with the fork, the dough will almost lump together in one big mass. Press it together the rest of the way. There will still be little bits of yellow butter. That’s good because those bits mean a flaky pastry! Never knead the dough or it will get tough.
At this point, you can chill the dough to use later. I’m usually in a hurry and just roll the dough out between two pieces of floured plastic wrap for pie crust as usual.

Today my back was hurting wicked fierce and I had completely run out of decorative-edging patience. I didn’t do my usual pretty scalloped edging. I didn’t neatly trim the excess pastry from around the pie. I didn’t make cute cutouts for the top. With zero finesse I flopped the excess pastry on top of the vanilla-sugar-sprinkled pie and had one of the boys heft them into the oven.

This suits me fine. I’ve been known to make a pie crust, roll it out flat on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake. Eaten as is. So this pie, with it’s splendid mass of buttery pastry, meets my crust lovin’ appetite today. And the scrumptious apple filling is a bonus!

Cheers!

Just look at all that yummy pastry! Truly a crust-lover’s pie.

Homemade Goldfish Crackers by the slice

02 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, grandkids, recipe, tutorial

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

after school snack, baking, cheddar crackers, crackers, food, Goldfish crackers, homemade crackers, king arthur flour, recipe, snack, tutorial

The boys say the flavor is closer to Cheez-Its than Goldfish, but either way they are delicious!
I used King Arthur Flour’s recipe for Cheese Pennies from their Baker’s Companion cookbook.
This is our version to make the Goldfish.
2 cups finely grated sharp cheddar cheese
8 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
a generous 1/8 tsp Ground Red Chipotle

In a bowl, combine all ingredients to make a dough that sticks together. Add one teaspoon of water at a time if necessary, just enough to make the dough squeeze together. Squish the dough together and it should be a nice consistency, like playdough. Which is great because the next part is playing with the dough!

Divide the dough into a couple pieces. We made two small 1/2″ logs for “bubbles” and three 1 1/4″ logs to make the fish. To make the gold fish, work with one log at a time.
1 Pinch the length of the top for the mouth end of the fish.

Pinch along the roll to form the front of the fish.

3 For the tail, carefully slit about 1/4″ into the round side of the log.

4. Pinch the two sides of the slit you made in the log to form the two tail fins.

5 As you pinch the fins out, also press at the base of the fin to form the fish body shape.

6 Once the basic tail shape has been formed, press the tail between two wood spoon handles to straighten out the fish body.

8 I also pressed each side of the tail against the spoon if the tail seemed too misshapen.

9 The finished goldfish roll.

10 Repeat for the other two rolls of dough to make goldfish rolls.

11 Place the rolls on wax paper on a tray and place in freezer for no more than 20 minutes. If the dough is too cold, it might crack as you slice it. If it gets frozen, just let it thaw for a couple minutes before slicing.

12 To make the bubbles, cut the round roll into 3/16″ slices and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. The crackers don’t raise so they can be placed fairly close together.

13 Bake the round “bubbles” at 375 for about 9 minutes. They won’t burn quickly so just watch them and pull them out when they are lightly brown on the bottoms. Turn out on paper towels to cool.

14 Using a sharp, non-serrated knife, slice the goldfish rolls about 1/4″ thick and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

16 Aren’t these cool?

20 The dough doesn’t raise much so the goldfish can be placed fairly close together.
Bake at 400 for 14 minutes. Cool on paper towels.

21 The Goldfish Crackers are all ready for her.

Goldfish in a bowl.

22 She walks home from school with her mom and little brother.

23 And then we have tea (Apple Juice or Water) and Goldfish and Shortbread.

25 We ate them by the handful. None got away.

Pizza Salad

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in food, recipe

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

food, leftover pizza, pizza, recipe, salad, veggies

I made Pizza Salad for my lunch today with leftover spinach mushroom pizza, leftover veggie tray items and fresh Thai and Lime Basils.

Pizza Salad Ingredients: leftover Spinach Mushroom Pizza, grape tomatoes, celery sticks, carrots, spinach, Thai basil and Lime basil leaves.

The pizza slice was toasted till bubbly and then set aside to cool a little while chopping the grape tomatoes with the basil.

The basil was chopped a bit first and then the tomatoes were sliced right on top of the basil.

Celery is often very strong tasting but this was mild so I used a little more than usual. I didn’t want to bother with a grater so just chopped the carrots.

The pizza slice had cooled enough that the cheese was no longer dripping.

Warm piece of homemade Spinach Mushroom Onion pizza, cut into 3/4″ squares.

The vegetables and basil were tossed with the spinach and placed in the bowl. Then I added the still-warm pizza. Last was a drizzle of good olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar over the top.

Pizza Salad

It was delicious! Pizza is definitely an up-scale crouton.

We made up a new recipe – PB & Jam Joconde Cake – Part 4

30 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe, tutorial

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

cake, dessert, food, joconde, mousse, PB & J, Peanut Butter, recipe, sponge cake

PB & J Joconde – Almond Sponge Cake wrapped around a layer of Chocolate Almond Sponge cake under a thick layer of Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Mousse and topped with Cherry Topping.

After the pan was lined with the joconde strip and cake, we made a batch of Peanut Butter Mousse. I’ve made vanilla and chocolate mousses many times so I just adapted a vanilla mousse with the addition of peanut butter and cream cheese.

Peanut Butter Mousse
1 pkg + 1 tsp gelatin softened in 3 Tbsp water.
6 Tbsp boiling water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz cream cheese
2/3 cup peanut butter

Stir the boiling water into the softened gelatin. Stir till dissolved. Set aside.
Beat sugar, whipping cream and vanilla until softly mounding.
Beat the cream cheese with the peanut butter until smooth.
Beat a little whipping cream into the cream cheese peanut butter mixture. Beat in the rest of the whipping cream until almost stiff.
Gradually add the gelatin mixture to the whipped cream mixture. Do NOT overbeat or the mixture will turn grainy.
Spread the Peanut Butter Mousse in the prepared pan.

I made mousse but I didn't measure all the ingredients. It wasn't peanut buttery enough so next time I will add more peanut butter.

When I made the mousse for this, I didn’t measure the peanut butter but it was about 1/3 cup. It wasn’t peanut-buttery enough so I made a second batch with 2/3 cup peanut butter (as in the recipe in this post) and that was much better.

I didn’t have any fresh fruit to make a jam topping so I used cherry pie filling. A fresh Crushed Blueberry Sauce would have been divine!

The finished cake was placed in the refrigerator for several hours. Six hours would have been better and made the cake slice better.

The cake is taken out of the springform pan.

I used a candy mold to make the chocolate shapes from Ghiradelli Bittersweet Chocolate.

There were rave reviews over our first Joconde cake. PB & Jam, dressed up to the max!

I’m looking forward to making a Lemon Almond Sponge with Pineapple Cream Cheese Mousse and Pineapple Mandarin Topping. Also a Raspberry rendition. And perhaps three crisp hazelnut dacquoise layers with coffee cream filling. The joconde was good just plain so we’ll be using the mat to develop some bar cookie recipes as well. All in all, we are very satisified with our first joconde cake.

We finished off the Valentine’s Day cookies…

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe, tutorial, Valentine's Day

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baking, cherry cordial cookies, chocolate, dessert, food, recipe, scottish shortbread recipe, shortbread, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day cookies

They were delicious! We kept it simple and made just two recipes: Shortbread Hearts and Cherry Cordial Cookies.

The Cherry Cordial Cookies recipe was from a Chocolatier magazine from years ago. I cut out the recipe and taped it into my recipe notebook. I should have written down the year but it was probably from the 80’s.

The Shortbread Hearts were made by slightly adapting our traditional Scottish Shortbread recipe. The recipe was handed down from relatives in Scotland for ages. The usual form is patted out into two rounds or pressed into a 9″ x 13″ pan and cut into squares. We always do the square thing just for simplicity.

Here is the original Shortbread Recipe, which takes just 4 ingredients.

Scottish Shortbread
1 lb butter (Note: We use 1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter and 1/2 cup of salted butter for best flavor)
1 1/4 cup fine sugar (Note: We use granulated sugar and process it in a food processor until it is less grainy. It should be half-way between granulated sugar and powdered sugar in texture when you pinch a little bit between your fingers.)
1 1/4 cup cornstarch (Note: Various Scottish relations argue over whether this should be rice flour or not. We stick with corn starch because we like the melt-in-your mouth texture of the baked shortbread.)
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (Note: We always use unbleached King Arthur flour for best texture and flavor.)

~ Knead ingredients by hand. (…um… we use a mixer…faster and way less messy!)
~ Press into a 9″x13″ pan.
~ Prick dough all over with a fork.
~ Bake at 325 for 50 to 60 minutes. The edges will be light golden brown but the top will still be pale. We usually break open a tiny bit in the middle of the pan to test for doneness in the middle, since these are very thick squares.
~ Cut while warm into 1″ squares.
~ Store at room temp for a couple days. Refrigerate air tight for several weeks. May be frozen, wrapped air tight, for over a month. (We’ve found shortbread in the freezer six months later and it was perfectly fine. It just has to be wrapped well in plastic wrap and then in foil to avoid picking up any off-flavor from the freezer.)

To make the heart shaped shortbread cookies, we added about 1/4 cup extra flour to the recipe to make the dough a little stiffer. The Valentines Day Conversation Heart Cookie Cutters were from Williams Sonoma.

Rolling out the shortbread. The cutters were from Williams Sonoma.

One side of the cutter featured Valentine’s Day sentiments, which were pressed into the shortbread. We also used a fork to press holes around the edges of the cookies.

Valentine Shortbread Heart cookies. We baked them about 20 minutes at 325 but don’t remember the exact timing. They’re very hard to ruin.

A little tray of Shortbread Heart Cookies and Cherry Cordial Cookies, ready for giving away.

A little tray of Shortbread Hearts and Cherry Cordial Cookies, ready for giving away.

The last three cookies, posing sweetly beside my vanilla bean coffee. I ended up not eating them though, I gave them away.

I didn’t take any photos when we made the Cherry Cordial Cookies but here is the recipe as printed in the magazine.

Cherry Cordial Cookies
1 pkg Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (NOTE: The recipe does not specify the size of bag. 1 cup of chips are used in the cookie dough and the “remaining cup chips” are used in the frosting.)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups unsifted flour (We use King Arthur unbleached flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 jar (16 oz) maraschino cherries

~ In double boiler, melt 1 cup chocolate chips over 1-inch simmering water.
~ Cream 1/2 cup butter with sugar.
~ Add egg, vanilla and melted chocolate; beat until smooth.
~ Combine flour with baking powder and salt (NOTE: salt is not listed in the ingredients so we figure this was a printing error. We use 1/4 tsp salt); add to creamed mixture, beating until smooth. Chill at least 1 hour.
~ Enclose 1 cherry in 1 tablespoon of dough.
[NOTE: Enclosing that cherry in the dough takes a lot of work! The dough is fairly dry so it has to be squished around the cherry, it can’t be rolled and folded around the cherry. We drain the cherries while the dough is chilling, otherwise, the dough becomes a gooey mess when trying to squeeze it around a squishy cherry. We put a tablespoon of dough in the palm and pressed a little hole in the middle of it to start. Then the cherry was placed into the hole and the crumbly mixture was pressed up over the cherry. Then we carefully squished the whole lump in our fists to close it all up good and tight. Finally, we gently rolled around the lump to make a nice round ball.]
~ Place on greased baking sheet. (Note: we used ungreased, parchment paper-lined baking sheets.)
~ Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes. (ours took exactly 15 minutes)
~ Cool on wire rack.
FROSTING:
Melt remaining cup chocolate chips with 2 Tbsp maraschino cherry syrup and 1 Tbsp unsalted butter.
(NOTE: We used 1 Tbsp kirsch and 1 Tbsp maraschino cherry syrup)
Frost tops of cookies.
YIELD: 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

It was so tedious forming the Cherry Cordial Cookies that we vowed we would never make them again. But then when we bit into the deep dark chocolate cookie and tasted the exquisite cherry buried within, we decided to make these cookies our new Valentine’s Day tradition.

Rum Raisin Scone – for ONE

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

baking, cooking for one, food, recipe, rum, rum raisin, Rum Raisin Scone, scone, scones

It all started with the Sloppy Joes last night. He needed molasses to make a homemade sauce but we were out.
"Use a little Rum," I suggested. He considered but changed his mind. I googled rum sloppy joes but there wasn't a single recipe. So I poured a shot anyway.

There was some left so I plopped in raisins for no reason at all. When I woke this morning, I saw those plump little raisins and thought Rum Raisin Scone. Serving size: One. Not for sharing.
Keep it simple.

Single Serving Rum Raisin Scone - 1/8 cup all purpose flour, 1 Tbsp whole wheat flour, 1/2 tsp brown sugar, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, about 1/3 shot half n half or cream, 1/2 shot of rum raisins, little shredded orange rind. - Click photo for larger image -

Dry ingredients mixed together, along with the orange rind. Soft butter squished in with a fork. Raisins spooned in. I didn't use all the raisins.

Raisins and some of the cream stirred in with a fork. I used a little more flour, perhaps a teaspoon or so to make a dryer scone that I could shape by hand.

Dough shaped into one scone and placed in sizzling butter in the skillet.

The glowing red burner light reminded me that something good was happening under the old scratched lid. I forgot to look at the clock because the conversation went something like this...
-You're saying there is just one. As in Only one. No others. That's cruel!-
-No, cruel would be a single oatmeal raisin cookie.-
-That wouldn't be cruel, that would be Malevolent Overlord Boss.-
-Well this is just a Rum Raisin Scone with a touch of orange.-
-It's still cruel...-

And finally it was done - hot, steaming, melt-in-your mouth texture, barely sweet with the dark rum raisins and a touch of orange. It was flipped twice and took about 15 minutes on lowest heat.

I broke it with the intent of sharing anyway. But they declined. So I enjoyed my Rum Raisin Scone for ONE.
Unfortunately, there was one victim of this cruelty... Me. After I ate every buttery crumb, I craved another. But there was none.

Gingerbread Valentine – Gold & Yellow

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, food, recipe

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

baking, cookies, food, heart, recipe, tea, teacup

I live 500 miles away from my hometown and miss my dear sister, Donna. Boo hoo. I was delighted to find a teacup in her favorite shade of yellow at the local thrift store last week. So of course I had to decorate some Gingerbread cookies in yellow and gold to go with the teacup. The water for tea is in the kettle. All that is missing is my sister. The next time she visits, she will drink from this cup.

To my sister, Donna: a pale yellow teacup and Gingerbread await you!

Ok, I’ll be honest, I almost ate my sister’s gingerbread! But I stopped in time to wrap it up well in plastic wrap and then foil and then freeze it. It will last well that way at least 6 months. In the meantime, I’ll eat one of the pink decorated hearts.

Click for recipe.
Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Salad with Stuffing Croutons and Cranberry Dressing

27 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by Julia Monroe in food, recipe, Thanksgiving

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

food, leftovers, recipe, salad, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving leftovers

Today’s lunch was Thanksgiving Salad. What a refreshing way to have Thanksgiving leftovers! Salad ingredients were cold Thanksgiving dinner leftovers: Turkey, Bell Pepper Rings, Stuffing, Cranberries, Parmesan Crusted Pumpkin Wedge and Green Bean Casserole.

To make Stuffing Croutons, I baked leftover stuffing on a cookie sheet at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes.
For the dressing, I combined equal amounts of leftover Cranberry Orange Relish and Pomegranate Salad Dressing. Thinly sliced cranberries were used for the garnish.

Thanksgiving Salad dressing ingredients

The Thanksgiving Salad was delicious!

All Sparkled Up

~ Like dew hanging from the tip of a leaf, a single bead or word adds sparkle where there was none. BE the bright!

Tag Archives: recipe

The first BFN Day… To the First Neighbor, I took Butterflake Herb Rolls

Torn Bread Crisps for fondue or dip

Crust-Lover’s Apple Pie

Homemade Goldfish Crackers by the slice

Pizza Salad

We made up a new recipe – PB & Jam Joconde Cake – Part 4

We finished off the Valentine’s Day cookies…

Rum Raisin Scone – for ONE

Gingerbread Valentine – Gold & Yellow

Thanksgiving Salad with Stuffing Croutons and Cranberry Dressing

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