Thursday, October 14, 2010

Applesauce Bread

1 TB (or package) yeast
2 1/4 cup bread flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 TB sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
2/3 cup applesauce
1 TB butter
1/2 cup apple juice or cider
1/2 cup shredded fresh apple, room temp

Combine applesauce, butter, juice in microwave safe bowl and microwave 1 1/2 minutes (until like warm, butter does not have to melt). Pour into mixer bowl and add yeast. Let sit 5 minutes or so. Add salt, sugar and spices. Mix. Add flours and shredded apple. Knead until dough clings to hook and sides of bowl are clean.

Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise until double.

Form into ring and place in bundt pan.

Cover. Let rise until double.

Bake about 15-20 mins on 350.

I made a glaze with apple cider and powdered sugar. It was gone in less than 15 mins! What a hit!

Spaghetti with meatballs

Meatballs:

1 lb ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1 TB dried parsley
1 TB grated Parmesan
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1 egg, beaten

combine, form into balls (about 12-20), refrigerate.

Sauce:

3/4 cup chopped onion
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 (28 oz) cans tomatoes
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 bay leaf
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
3/4 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp pepper

In large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in oil til onions are translucent. Stir tomatoes, salt, sugar, bay leaf. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 90 minutes. Stir in the rest including meatballs and simmer 30 more minutes. Serve over pasta.

YUMMMMM!!!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Slushy Punch

2 1/2 cups of sugar
6 cups water
2 (3 oz) packages strawberry jello
1 (46 oz) can pineapple juice
1 qt (4 cups) orange juice
2/3 cup lemon juice
2 (2 liter) bottles lemon-lime soda

In large saucepan, combine sugar, water, and jello mix. Boil for 3 minutes. Stir in pineapple, orange and lemon juice. Divide mixture in half and freeze in two separate containers.

When ready to serve, place the frozen contents of one container in punch bowl and stir in 1 bottle of soda until slushy.

Tips:
This has a LOT of sugar! If you're making this for kids, you can use the full amount. For adults, I'd cut it in half. And if you like it on the tart side, you could just use 1 cup of sugar.
Don't freeze more than 24 hours. If you have to make sure you remove frozen contents at least an hour or two before serving.
I used a potato masher to mash into slushy and worked GREAT.

Hamburger Buns

2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 TB or 2 packages yeast
2 tsp salt
about 6 cups flour

In microwave safe bowl, mix first 4 ingredients. Microwave for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes. You want the mixture to be luke warm (butter does not have to melt completely, but you want it soft). Mix in yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutes.

Add salt and 5 cups of flour. Knead in mixer. Add flour as necessary until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl.

Rolls dough into balls (anywhere from 15-25, depending on how big you like your buns). Place on baking sheets (or stones :). Let rise 20 mins-1 hr.

Bake 375 for 15 mins.

Cool slightly before slicing for buns.

Options:
Coat with egg wash and sesame, dill or poppy seeds.
Add 1 TB of dough enhancer with the flour to add more fluff to your buns.
If dough is too much, you can bake them all and freeze the rest. I have also wrapped extra dough around polish dogs, baked them and froze them for future "bagel dogs" (not really a bagel, I know, but they're yummy!)