Grandma's Yeast Rolls

I always love it when I'm able to get a recipe out of my grandma.  She's one of those grandma's who seems to cook by instinct.  Nothing is ever measured, and it's all in her head.  I did manage to get her to write this down as a birthday gift for me.  Her rolls are always the star of the meal at Thanksgiving. You can use this recipe for more than just rolls, it works for sandwich bread and for burger or hot dog buns. 






Grandma's Yeast Rolls

¼ c, Warm Water
1 T. Sugar
2 ½ t. Yeast
1 c, Scalded Milk
1 c, Water
¼ c, Crisco Or Oil
1 t. Salt 
¼ c, Sugar

Directions:
Combine ¼ c. warm water, T. sugar and yeast.

Combine scalded milk, 1 c. water, oil, salt and sugar.  Allow to cool.  Add milk mixture to yeast mixture after cooled.

Add 2 c. flour and beat until very smooth.  Add 1 more cup, beat,  Continue adding ½ c. at a time until dough is very stiff.  Then knead on a lightly floured counter top.  Place in a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled.  Punch down, and let rest 15 minutes.

Divide dough into 12 even pieces.  Take each piece and divide in two, rolling each piece into a ball. Place two balls in one muffin cup.  Once pan is full and all rolls are made, allow to rise another 30-45 minutes.

Bake at 375 for approximately 12 minutes, until golden brown.  Brush with butter last minute of cooking, if desired. 

Pasta in Creamy Garlic Sauce (Chicken and Broccoli version)

Although this meal is REALLY easy to put together, it does require a little bit of planning ahead. That's because the sauce (which you can make in about 5 minutes) needs to sit for several hours for the garlic to really get nicely infused. Otherwise, your sauce is just going to taste like milk:( But this is a great meal for making all the things ahead of time, and then throwing it all together in a snap later in the day (or even the next day). This is really, really easy to make!

Creamy Garlic Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 c. water, divided

2 Tbsp. chopped garlic

1 tsp. garlic powder

2 c. heavy cream (in India, use 1 c. Amul cream and 1 c. milk. This is not good with 2 c. Amul cream...trust me)

1 Tbsp. fresh parsley (or 1 tsp. dried parsley if you have it...I've made it without this before)

salt and pepper to taste (I also use Tony's creole seasoning)

2 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Directions

1. Pour half of the water into a saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the garlic and garlic powder, and boil until the water has almost evaporated, about 5 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream, parsley, salt, and pepper. At this point (before I add the cornstarch) I take it off the burner and allow it to cool, then put it in the fridge. I usually do this in the morning if I’m going to make this for dinner, or you could do this before you go to bed and let it sit overnight in order to make it for lunch.

2. When you are ready to make your meal, see the rest of the directions below.

Ingredients to add to the sauce:

2 baked chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces (I season mine with Tony's before baking)

1 small head of broccoli, cut into small pieces and steamed

3 cups of cooked pasta (macaroni, elbow, etc.)

When you're ready to assemble your meal, remove the garlic sauce from the fridge.

3. Add the cornstarch to the sauce and slowly heat it. Add all your other ingredients (I add the chicken and brocolli first, and then add the pasta so that I don't get too much in there. You want the sauce to nicely coat everything). Heat everything through til you get the sauce to the thickness that you want.

To turn this into a veg meal, leave out the chicken and add a variety of steamed vegetables (carrots, summer squash, etc.).

This goes nicely with French bread and Carrots with Rosemary Butter.

Enjoy!

Carrots with Rosemary Butter

This is a great savory side dish. I serve it alongside chicken 'n' dumplings, pasta, baked chicken...it goes great with just about anything and it's so easy and fast.

Ingredients:

3 c. carrots cut into sticks

1 1/2 Tbsp. butter, softened

1/2 tsp. rosemary, crushed

1/2 tsp. parsley

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Steam carrot sticks to desired tenderness. Combine spices with butter. Add carrots and toss to coat. So easy, and so delicious:)

Make your own Sausage (Minced Mutton)

This is my first attempt at a blog post...ever. I hope I do not mess up Megan's wonderful blog! I really appreciate all her hard work in keeping this thing going. I use lots of her recipes (the one I keep making over and over right now is Chicken Soup with Lentils ...with brown rice instead of barley. All of my family, even the picky eater, loves it.)

I'm not a big fan of mutton except in its minced form. If you have a pretty good selection of spices, mostly ones you use for Thanksgiving-type foods, you can easily make your own sausage using mutton keema. This is adapted from a Jimmy Dean sausage copy cat recipe.

1 kg mutton keema
2 1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
3-4 tsp. rubbed sage
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3-4 tsp. dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp. coriander (dhaniya powder)

Combine all the spices with the keema. Mix thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate several hours (I usually let it set overnight). If your sausage mixture smells really fragrant, then your spices are probably fine. I usually cook just a tiny portion in a skillet to see if I want to add anything else before cooking all of it.

Cook it, then use it to top homemade pizza, make breakfast casserole, put in sausage potato soup, etc. This makes quite a bit of sausage, so after I cook it I freeze it in several smaller batches. Later I will post a recipe for sausage stromboli that my family loves. Enjoy!
Rachel R.

Chicken with Roasted Pears and Rice

This dish calls for wild rice, something I've never been able to find here.  So I just used a plain short grain rice. This would be really nice served with some sauteed green beans or steamed broccoli.  You will need some craisins/cranberries that we can't typically find here.  I wasn't sure how I would like this, because I normally go for more savory main dishes, but this was really good, and the whole family loved it, especially the kids!  Also, I labeled it 40 minutes or Less, because it's less than 40 minutes of prep time, but 30 minutes of inactive baking time.  From start to ready, it's more than 40 minutes.

Chicken with Roasted Pears and Rice
3 pears, cored and cut length-wise into 1/2" slices
1 1/4 c. apple juice
3/4 c. water
1 cube chicken bullion
1 c. uncooked rice
1 lb chicken breast, cubed into 1 inch pieces
1/2 c. dried cranberries, or dried tart cherries
2 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 450F/220C.  Arrange pear slices in a single layer on a greased baking sheet. Bake for ten minutes, or until tender.  Remove from oven, and reduce oven tempt to 400F/190C.

Combine apple juice, water, and chicken bullion in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Add rice, cover, reduce heat, and cook until rice is tender, 15-20 minutes.  Fluff rice with a fork.

Combine rice, chicken, cranberries, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.  Spoon mixture in a a large baking dish.  Arrange roasted pear slices over chicken mixture.  Cover and bake at 190C for about 30 minutes or until chicken is done.  5-6 servings.

Luke liked this so much, he had a very clean plat.  And he wanted a pear slice with cranberries he dug out of the leftover neatly perched on top for dessert. : )

Thanksgiving 2011

We have so much to be thankful for this year!  It's been a great year in South Asia, our kids are growing and are healthy, and God has provided for our family in so many miraculous ways this year.


This year, our Thanksgiving celebration is turning out to be a lot smaller than in years past.  I'm okay with that. : )  We'll have five adults and our kids.  So my menu is pretty scaled down, and I haven't started cooking yet.  That's only because my husband is out of town, but coming back today, and I've not been feeling well.  Hopefully I'll be up to starting tomorrow.

So, this year, my menu looks like this:

-Baked Brie with maple syrup and pecans, crackers for appetizer
-Apple cider

-Roasted Rosemary Chickens
-Grandma's Stuffing
-Baked Winter Squash Gratin (I'm using kaddu)
-Mashed Potatoes
-Bay Scented Lentil and Red Cabbage Salad with Bacon
-Grandma's Yeast Rolls
-Iced Tea

-Pecan Pie
-Pumpkin Pie

This all sounds really good to me, but my only hesitation is that there's nothing really green on the table.  If I have time, I might do some bacon-wrapped green beans.  But I also have to remember that I'm working around a 2-hour morning power cut from 9-11.  That will throw a kink in my planning, I think. : )

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Greek Chicken Casserole

Here's a quick and easy meal in a dish! I love baked dinners, because I can clean up while dinner cooks in the oven. : )

Greek Chicken Casserole- from Barefoot Con Terra
1 T. Olive Oil
2 c. Chopped Onion
2 T. Dried Thyme
1-2 t. Black Pepper
10 cloves Garlic, Minced
6 c. Cubed potatoes (1/4 kg)
2 c. Cut Green Beans (1/4 kg)
½ c. Water
2 T. Finely Chopped Olives (optional)
2-3 c. Diced Tomatoes

8 Skinned, Boned Chicken Thighs, Or Breasts
½ c. Crumbled Feta Cheese



Salt to taste

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, and sauté for 3 minutes. Add the thyme, pepper, and garlic; sauté 1 minute. Increase heat to medium-high. Add potato; sauté 8 minutes or until potato begins to brown. Stir in green beans, water,and tomatoes. Salt to taste, adjusting seasonings to your liking. Remove mixture from heat. Nestle chicken thighs into potato mixture. Top with feta cheese. Cover and bake at 375° for 45 minutes. 

*I might be a little more generous with the feta cheese.  : )