Beer Bread with Cheese

It's been a while since I've posted a new recipe. So today seems like a good day to do that. I've made this beer bread before, but this is the first time I've made it with cheese. We're going to have it tonight for dinner with broiled salmon, steamed corn, and a mixed green salad...It feels really good to be well enough to enjoy cooking again. And since my husband has had chicken pox (he had it when he was a kid), I don't have to worry about exposing him to my germs as I prepare our meal. This recipe came from a blog I've enjoyed reading over the past several weeks, but the addition of the shredded cheese is my experiment tonight. It looks really good!

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
12 oz. beer
3 Tbsp. melted butter

Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add shredded cheese, mixing by hand to make sure that the cheese is well distributed and not clumped together. Add beer and mix well. Pour dough into greased and floured 9x5 loaf pan. Pour melted butter over top, taking care to make sure the butter doesn't all flow down the sides of the pan. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes, or until top is golden brown and toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Honey Whole Wheat Rolls

I've done quite a bit of baking in recent weeks, but haven't had (or taken) the time to post about it. Lately, we've really been enjoying my homemade honey whole wheat bread dough made into rolls instead of loaves.

Since there are generally just two of us for meals here, except on weekends when we often have dinner guests, I've been finding that making individual serving sizes for bread instead of large loaves work better for us. These rolls freeze well, and we can just pull a few out of the freezer when we need want them with a meal...whereas the large sandwich-sized loaves tend to get dry after they've been sliced.

I posted the recipe for this dough here, and just adjusted the baking time to about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Mom's Hot Cross Buns

Last year, I made my mother's Hot Cross Bun recipe for the first time, and I'm ashamed to say that they came out hard, almost like hockey pucks.

So this year I resolved that I would follow the recipe more closely, even taking time to sift the flour, and then use the scoop-and-level method of measuring it...Well, lo and behold it really worked well! These were light and fluffy, just like I'd remembered when my mother made them. As one who has been cooking now for more than 30 years (I started when I was very young), I should know by now that sifting flour can really make a difference.

Another comment I could make about this recipe, which I made for our dinner on the day we celebrated our Lord's Resurrection, is that I think this recipe originally came from my maternal grandmother, who immigrated from Denmark with her family when she was seven years old. So she was old enough in the "old country" to remember Danish traditions, at least one of which involved these Hot Cross Buns.

As I remember Grandma telling us one year, the children in her village would take willow branches and wrap them with colored crepe paper, shaping them like a shepherd's crook. Then, they would knock on the doors of friends and neighbors and shout something like "Fah-stah-lahton rays" (written phonetically as well as I can remember it). Basically, it was like our modern-day traditional of trick-or-treating, but Grandma told us that they never did any tricks to anyone. They probably knew which houses would have hot cross buns to share with them, and wouldn't go there unless they knew they would be welcome.

I still miss my maternal grandmother. Actually, I miss all of my grandparents, but I'm so thankful that there are recipes and stories to help me to remember.

Ingredients:
1 cup milk, scalded
2 Tbsp. shortening
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 pkg. rapid-rise yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 egg, well-beaten
3-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2/3 cup currants

Combine scalded milk, shortening, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cool to lukewarm. Soften yeast in lukewarm water and add to lukewarm milk mixture. Add egg. Then gradually stir in flour to make a soft dough. Add currants and mix to distribute evenly. Place dough in large greased bowl; cover; put in warm place to rise until double in size.

Form dough into small buns, flatten slightly and place about 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until double in size. Just before baking, cut a cross into the top of each bun with a sharp knife or kitchen scissors. Bake 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

A minute before the buns are done baking, brush top of buns with milk, sprinkle a little sugar and return to oven to glaze. After cooling, fill cross on top of each bun with confectioner's icing.

Really Crunchy Oatmeal Cookies

One of my husband's aunts recently shared a wonderful new cookie recipe with us. It came from the side of a box of Grape-Nuts cereal, and the original version of it had dried cranberries as well as the ingredients I've listed below. But my husband isn't fond of dried fruit in baked goods, and I didn't think the cranberries added much to the cookies, which were wonderful on their own.

I've made them twice now, and though they make a big batch they don't last long. They're the thinnest, crunchiest oatmeal cookies we've ever had...really good!

Grape-Nuts Oatmeal Cookies
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups Grape-Nuts cereal
2 cups quick-cooking oats

Mix flour and baking soda in a small bowl. Beat butter in a mixing bowl to soften. Gradually add sugars, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in cereal and oats. Drop by rounded tablespoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 minutes at 375 degrees, or until lightly browned. Cool 1 minute on pan and then remove to cookie sheets. Cool completely on wire racks. Makes 5 dozen.

Another Tennesee Orange Cake!

Well, the Tennessee Orange Cake has definitely become a popular recipe for me. My husband had to bring treats to a leaders meeting for his church, and when I asked what I should make for him to bring, this recipe came up again.

I do like trying new recipes, but it's hard to say no when someone wants something you've made in the past. Needless to say, he didn't come home with any leftovers, so I'm thankful that I didn't send the whole pan, but instead chose to set aside four pieces for us to enjoy afterward. (I cut the cake and sent a generous, large plateful to the meeting.) We're going to have the last two pieces tonight...Mmmmm. :-)

Fast and Easy Huevos Rancheros

I found this recipe on another cooking blog called Smitten Kitchen. It was more of a tutorial there than it was a recipe, but it really made a great dinner for us this past week. I'll try to add a photo of it here as soon as we make it again.

The only change that I made from the original is that I couldn't find Goya Black Bean Soup in our local grocery, so I improvised with a can of black beans, chopped onion, minced garlic, and seasonings. I liked that combination so well that I probably won't worry about continuing to look for the commercial soup.

Ingredients:
1 can black beans
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
Garlic salt, ground black pepper, cumin, and cayenne pepper to taste

4 small flour tortillas
Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
4 large eggs
Salsa
Light sour cream

Saute onions in a small amount of olive oil or another cooking oil until translucent. Add minced garlic, black beans (undrained), and seasonings to taste. Simmer until well combined.

In a frying pan, lightly brown one side of a tortilla, then flip to the other side and sprinkle a little shredded cheese on top. Crack and egg over it, season, and flip the whole thing when egg is halfway set. When egg is cooked to your taste, slide it onto a plate and serve with black beans, salsa, and sour cream. Repeat with three other tortillas, eggs, etc.

Chocolate Loaf Cake (made with yogurt)

I can't take any credit for this recipe. It came from bakingbites.com a great blog I only recent discovered. This was super easy to make, and really good...but only after it sits for a few hours on the counter in a plastic bag...I know that sounds strange, but it's true.

I tried a sliced of this loaf cake when it was still warm, and I wasn't terribly impressed. But I cut a few more slices anyway for my husband to try when he got home from work. I put a plastic zipper bag over the whole thing to keep it moist and, low and behold, it tasted really great after that! It seemed more moist, and the flavors seemed to have blended better by then. It also seemed more chocolate-y and rich, even though the only change was a little time on the counter and the bag. My only guess about this is that, since this is a lower-fat recipe than many chocolate recipes, and since the yogurt has such a distinctive flavor, it just needed the time to blend and soften a bit. I'm definitely going to make this recipe again, but next time, despite how good it smells while it's baking, I'm going to resist the temptation to try a piece until it's had a little time to rest.

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup plain, low-fat yogurt

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

Whisk first four ingredients together. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and egg white. Mix in 1/3 of the flour mixture.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk remaining ingredients until smooth. Add half to the sugar mixture, followed by another 1/3 of the flour mixture. Stir in the remaining yogurt and remaining flour, stirring only until no streaks of flour remain. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cake cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Then carefully loosen the sides of the cake from the pan with a knife and turn it out into a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Note: Did you notice that the instructions call for letting it sit until cool? I should not have ignored these instructions the first time. :-)

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

I've been trying to use what we have on hand lately, just to keep our food bills lower than usual, but we sure didn't feel like we were living on a budget when we enjoyed this Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole for dinner today.

I've always enjoyed wild rice, but I had never tried cooking it at home. Since I had some in the pantry, and we had bone-in chicken breasts in the freezer, this seemed like a good recipe to try...and it was.

Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 can (14.5 oz.) chicken broth (I actually made my own broth from the bones after broiling the chicken breasts)
1 cup half and half cream
4 cups cubed cooked chicken (I brined the chicken first just to make sure that it would be nice and juicy)
4 cups cooked wild rice
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
4 oz. diced pimientos, drained
1 Tbsp. fresh minced parsley
1/3 cup slivered almonds, roasted

In a large saucepan, saute onion in butter until translucent, then add garlic and saute for a couple more minutes. Stir in flour, garlic salt, and pepper until blended. Gradually stir in broth, bring to a boil. Boil and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in the cream, chicken, rice, mushrooms, pimientos, and parsley, and heat through. Transfer to a greased 2-1/2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until bubbly. (Serves 6-8.)

Note: In case you're new to wild rice, like I was...First wash 1 cup of wild rice thoroughly in hot tap water, then heat it in a pan with three cups of water and 1 tsp. salt. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and cover. Simmer until rice is tender, about 30 to 45 minutes, draining any extra water when the rice is tender but not mushy.

Another Note: If you'd like to try brining the chicken before cooking it, like I did, for 4 lbs. of bone-in chicken breasts, mix 2 quarts water, 1/4 cup salt, and 1/4 cup sugar in a large container. I used a clean, empty, 5-quart ice cream bucket. Add the chicken breasts to the brining solution and refrigerate for an hour. Then rinse and cook as intended.

My Mother-in-Law's Wonderful Goulash

Among our friends and family in Minnesota and Iowa, it seems like everyone has a memory of goulash from childhood.

My mother has a great goulash recipe, but my husband loves his mother's best. And since he is working very long hours this week, I thought that it might help to have some comfort food at home. This recipe was the first that came to mind.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1-1/2 cups diced celery, precooked
1 can chicken noodle soup
1 can mushrooms, drained
14.5-oz. stewed tomatoes
8 oz. tomato sauce
4 oz. spaghetti, broken in half and cooked
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

Brown ground beef, drain excess fat. Add onion and green pepper and saute. Add remaining ingredients and cook until thoroughly hot and well-blended.

Pick a Peck of Pickled (Banana) Peppers

Last summer, I made beet pickles, sweet pickles, and hot and spicy pickles. Well, this year I didn't have anything to pickle until now. But this afternoon I made a single jar of Pickled Banana Peppers. Now I wish that I had more peppers to make another jar! Maybe there will be more banana peppers next weekend when I have a chance to visit our local farmers market again.

I found this recipe on Cooks.com. It's called Canned Italian Peppers. I made 1/6 of this recipe and probably could have made just an 1/8 and had plenty of liquid for the five peppers that I had in our refrigerator.

I originally bought those peppers thinking that I would eat them raw, but even though banana peppers are considered mild, they were a bit too hot for me to eat raw. Pickling mellows them, without taking away their nice little kick.

Anyway, this is a great recipe. I made this one jar of peppers earlier today, and I've already enjoyed eating a few of them. I didn't can them. I just put them into a jar in the refrigerator, with plans to use them over the next couple of weeks.

Ingredients:

Sliced banana peppers (five peppers filled my little pint-sized jar)
Italian seasoning (I used dried basil and oregano leaves)
Garlic cloves (I didn't have fresh garlic on hand, so I used garlic powder)
White vinegar
Water
Fresh basil leaves
Canning salt (I used table salt)
Olive oil
Sugar

Fill pint jars with sliced peppers. In each jar put: 3-4 basil leaves, pinch of Italian seasoning, 1 tsp. salt, 2 cloves garlic (I used a pinch of garlic powder), and 1 tsp. olive oil.

Bring to a boil in a saucepan: 2 quarts vinegar, 1 quart water, and a pinch of sugar. Pour over peppers and seal jars. (I just used a clean commercial pickle jar and closed the lid after it had cooled a bit.)

Fresh Tomato Soup

Alongside homemade bread, I love a hot, steamy bowl of homemade soup. And this time of the year, with lovely tomatoes from the farmers market to use, I've made this recipe twice. It's a great way to use tomatoes that are still good, but need to be used in short order. And it's really fun for me to be able to use the fresh basil from the planter on my front deck.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 medium, very ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 handful fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tsp. sugar
1 small can tomato paste
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 can chicken broth
1 small pinch baking soda
1 cup whole milk

Saute onions in olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. When they are translucent, add tomatoes, garlic, basil, and sugar. Simmer for 10 minutes or so. Stir in tomato paste, garlic salt, and pepper. Add chicken broth and simmer for a few minutes. Add pinch of baking soda (this neutralizes some of the acid from the tomatoes). Add milk and simmer to heat for serving.

My Uncle's Chicken Enchilada Recipe

This recipe always makes me think of my dear Uncle Bruce, who passed away last year. He was such a blessing to our family. He was a true warrior and example of a life lived for Christ.

This recipe was one that he made for us at least a couple of times when we were in South Dakota and stopped by his house in Brookings to visit him and my Aunt Marian. It's definitely comfort food.

Ingredients:
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup skim milk
1 cup light sour cream
1 small can chopped green chilis
4 chicken breasts, cooked and finely chopped
4 green onions
2 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
8 oz. shredded pepper jack cheese
10-20 medium flour tortillas

Heat soup, milk, sour cream, and chili peppers in a small saucepan. Mix chicken, green onions, and one-half of each cheese in a large bowl, and then distribute this mixture among the tortillas, rolling each tortilla and placing it into a prepared 9x13 baking pan. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and pour heated sauce mixture over all. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, or until bubbly. Serve with chopped lettuce and salsa.

Making our own pizza

We love thin-crust pizza. There's a great little place down the road from our house that makes the best (in our opinion) thin-crust pizza. Because of that, I've steered clear of trying to compete at home. But recently, I found a recipe for thin-crust pizza dough that I really wanted to try. It wasn't as thin as the great pizza crust they make down the road, but it was really good just the same.

I also did a search online for homemade pizza sauce and found a really good sauce recipe as well.

As usual, I made a few adjustments from the original recipes. Here is what I did in the kitchen for both the pizza crust and the sauce.

Pizza Crust Ingredients:
1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
3-1/2 cups bread flour (divided)
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large egg yolk

Lightly coat a large bowl with olive oil and set aside. Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in a measuring cup and set aside. Combine 3-1/4 cups of the flour with salt in a large bowl, stir in the yeast mixture, olive oil, and egg yolk, and mix until a soft dough forms. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead in the remaining 1/4 cup flour.Continue to knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to the prepared bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover with a clean, damp kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until the dough doubles in volume (about 90 minutes). Punch the dough down and remove from the bowl. Use dough immediately or wrap in plastic and store refrigerated for up to 24 hours. To use immediately, divide the dough into desired number of pieces and roll out to desired shape. Pre-bake the crust for 10 minutes. Then top, and bake for another 10 minutes until golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.

Pizza Sauce Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 oz. tomato sauce
6 oz. tomato paste
2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. garlic salt
½ tsp. sugar
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 small bay leaf

In a large skillet, melt butter with the oil. Add the onion, celery, and garlic and sauté until soft and transparent. Add tomato sauce and tomato paste and stir until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and bring to slow simmer for 30-60 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and spread the sauce on your prepared pizza dough.

Homemade Granola

I recently made a big batch of granola with walnuts, coconut, wheat germ, and dried cranberries. This is one of my favorite things to have on a weekday for breakfast, with soy milk and sometimes fresh strawberries or bananas sliced on top...Yum!

Ingredients:

8 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2-3 cups seeds, nuts, or other add-ins (coconut, flax seeds, wheat germ, oat bran, walnuts, almonds, pecans, sunflower and sesame seeds, etc.)
1 cup honey
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, mix the oats with your other add-ins. In a small saucepan, heat oil and honey until blended and then add vanilla and salt. (Note: You could add a big spoonful of peanut butter, too, at this point, if you like.) Stir honey mixture into oats until everything is well coated. Spread into shallow roasting pan with sides. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes (until nicely browned), stirring every 5-10 minutes to ensure even cooking. After it's all baked and sitting on the counter to cool, you can mix in dried fruit.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

Spring is here! And we enjoyed having dinner guests on Tuesday night this week!

We have two nieces and two nephews, but only one nephew lives in the area. So we had him and his wife over for steaks on the grill, corn on the cob, fresh green beans, and homemade whole wheat rolls. And I made our favorite fresh strawberry pie for dessert.

There's really nothing like the taste of strawberries this time of the year. They're not local yet, but the ones from California are really sweet right now. And this pie is the best way that I know how to enjoy them, other than just eating them straight from the carton.

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
2 cups hot water
2 (3-oz.) pkgs. strawberry gelatin
1 9-inch baked pie crust
2 lbs. fresh strawberries, sliced

Combine sugar and corn starch in a medium-sized saucepan so that no lumps of corn starch remain. Add hot water and stir to combine. Then cook over medium heat until thickened. Turn off the heat and add the two packages of gelatin, stirring to combine until smooth. Set aside to cool to lukewarm temperature.

Meanwhile, arrange the sliced berries in the pie crust. Then, when the gelatin mixture is lukewarm, pour it evenly over the berries, making sure that each has a nice covering of filling and that you can start to see the filling on the sides of the pie crust. Refrigerate for a few hours to set. Serve chilled with whipped cream.

(Note: This recipe for the filling makes enough for 1-1/2 pies, I've found. Put the remainder into a covered container in the refrigerator. It keeps well for a quite some time, and when you're ready to have this pie again, make just half the filling recipe to fill another pie crust with berries. When that new recipe of filling is done but still hot, add the reserved leftover filling from the first batch to the new filling and stir over low heat to combine.)

(Note: If you'd rather use the leftover filling right away, I've also found that it's good just poured over fresh fruit, like strawberries, blueberries, and bananas and served in pretty dessert cups. It's kind of a jello dessert, but more rich tasting than ordinary gelatin.)

How about Pasta e Fagioli for dinner tonight?

A couple of years ago, I went to Olive Garden with some friends from the ministry where I work, and I remember enjoying a soup called Pasta e Fagioli. We don't eat out very much, so I haven't been back to Olive Garden, and when I saw a recipe for this soup in my copy of The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, I knew that I'd have to make a point of trying it.

I wasn't at all disappointed. It had more vegetables than the Olive Garden version, and this Pasta e Fagioli recipe is one we'll definitely make again. It's hearty and satisfying, with a great tasting base, starting with chicken broth, but then flavored with bacon, red pepper flakes, oregano, and lots of tomato, onion, and garlic. You top it all off with some grated fresh Parmesan.

Ingredients:
6 slices bacon, chopped medium
1 large onion, chopped finely
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 Tbsp. red pepper flakes
28 oz. diced tomatoes
2 (15.5-oz.) cans cannellini beans, rinsed
3-1/2 cups chicken broth
2-1/2 cups water
1 tsp. salt (I used garlic salt)
8 oz. pasta (traditionally something like orzo, but I used small penne)
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley (I used a tablespoon or so of dried)
1 cup grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the bacon in a large heavy pot over medium heat until crisp. Stir in the onion, garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cook until the onion is softened. Stir in the tomatoes with their juice, beans, broth, water, and garlic salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

Stir in the pasta and cook until just slightly underdone. (Note: You want to be sure not to overcook the pasta, especially if you're using orzo or another really small kind of pasta, because you don't want the pasta to become mushy in your soup.) Stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle individual bowls with Parmesan.

Note: Traditionally, you also drizzle a little olive oil on each serving of soup as a finishing step, but I always try to cut calories where I can (especially when the extra oil doesn't seem necessary). So I just topped each bowl with the Parmesan.

Blueberry Scones

One of my friends loves to watch America’s Test Kitchens on public television. My husband and I rarely turn on the TV, unless it’s a special sporting event, like the World Series or the Super Bowl. So I would never know about programs like this or their websites, if it weren’t for her enthusiasm in sharing these recipes.

So to that friend I am very grateful for sharing with me recently the recipe from America’s Test Kitchens for Blueberry Scones. Hands down, these are the best scones my husband and I have ever tasted!

Unlike many scone recipes, which are dry and crumbly, these scones are moist without being cake-like. And they’re sweet and buttery, too…definitely richer than other recipes I’ve tried. But if you don’t make them often, I think they’re worth the few extra calories.

Ingredients:
1 stick + 2 Tbsp. frozen unsalted butter
1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
½ cup whole milk
½ cup sour cream
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup + 1 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. grated lemon zest

Grate the stick of butter into a bowl and then freeze again until needed. Keep blueberries in freezer until needed, too.

Whisk together milk and sour cream in a medium-sized bowl and then refrigerate until needed.

Whisk together flour, ½ cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in a large bowl. Add frozen grated butter to the flour mixture and toss until thoroughly coated.

Add milk mixture to flour mixture and fold with spatula until just combined. Transfer dough to a liberally floured work surface, dust dough with more flour, and flour your hands as well before kneading the dough six to eight times, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking. At this point, it should just hold together in a ragged ball.

Roll dough into a 12-inch square. Fold it into thirds like a business letter (bringing part of it up half way and then bringing the other part down over the folded part). Then lift the short ends of the dough and fold into thirds again to form a 4-inch square. Transfer dough to a plate lightly dusted with flour and chill in freezer for five minutes.

Transfer chilled dough to floured work surface and roll into a 12-inch square again. Sprinkle blueberries evenly over the surface of the dough, pressing them down to slightly embed into the dough.

Roll the dough into a tight log. Lay seam-side down and press log into a 12-x4-inch rectangle. Using a sharp, floured knife, cut rectangle into 4 equal rectangles, and then each rectangle into two triangles. Transfer the eight triangles onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Melt remaining 2 Tbsp. butter and brush it over the tops of the scones. Then sprinkle them with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake at 425 degrees in a pre-heated oven until tops and bottoms are golden brown, about 18-25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 10 minutes before serving.

To Make Ahead:
Refrigerate unbaked scones overnight or freeze until needed. When ready to bake refrigerated scones, heat oven to 425 degrees and bake as directed above. For frozen scones, heat oven to 375 degrees and extend the cooking time to 25-30 minutes.

Important Tips:

• It’s important to work the dough as little as possible—knead and fold the dough only the number of times specified.
• The butter should be frozen solid before grating, and if it your climate is warm or humid, you’ll also want to chill the flour mixture and the work bowls. If using frozen berries, do not defrost them.
• An equal amount of raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries can be used instead, as long as larger berries are cut into ¼- to ½-inch pieces first.
• Refrigerate or freeze leftover scones in an airtight container. To serve, place scones on baking sheet again and heat in a 375-degree oven until warmed and re-crisped.

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef

I love slow cooker recipes. It’s so satisfying to mix a few things together and set it to cook for several hours.

I often do this the night before and make room for the slow cooker in the refrigerator so that I can just take it out and plug it in before I leave for the day. When I come home from work, the house smells wonderful, and my main dish for dinner is nearly done. When I do a roast, I usually just serve it as is, carved and served with baked potatoes (made in the microwave), a microwaved vegetable, and a quick tossed salad. Oh, and I also make a quick gravy with the juice from the roast.

But recently, I decided that I wanted to try another way of cooking a roast. I’ve been tempted at the grocery store by the pre-made shredded beef and pork products, but as usual, I wanted to make it myself at home. So when I found this recipe through the Reiman Publications Taste of Home Menu Newsletter, I thought it would be worth a try.

As usual, I made a few changes for our own kitchen. I increased the garlic and onion, and the amount of cayenne pepper to give it more kick. Also, I didn’t have regular cola on hand, so I used some of my husband’s favorite cherry-flavored cola instead (Cherry Coke or Cherry Pepsi).

It turned out wonderful! And it was so easy to make! I served it on hamburger buns with roasted asparagus, and homemade spicy garlic pickles on the side…Yum!

Ingredients:
¾ cup cola
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp. vinegar (I used red wine vinegar, because that’s what I had on hand)
¾ tsp. chili powder
¾ tsp. ground mustard
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 boneless rump roast (2 pounds)
3 medium onions, chopped
1 cup ketchup

Combine everything but the roast, onions, and ketchup in a 4-cup measuring cup. Set aside.

Cut the roast in half crosswise, and brown meat on all sides in a nonstick skillet.

Place onions in a 3-quart slow cooker. Top with meat, and pour half the cola mixture over the meat (saving the other half and refrigerating it until later). Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until meat is tender. Remove meat from cooking liquid to cool a bit. Strain the onions from the liquid and put them back into the slow cooker, saving the liquid. Shred the beef with two forks and add it back to the slow cooker with the onions.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the cola mixture that you saved in the refrigerator and about half the leftover liquid from the meat with the ketchup to make a barbecue sauce to add back to the meat and onions. Mix together and heat again to serve.

Easy and Delicious Roast Chicken

First of all, I apologize for the long lapse in posting on this site. My husband and I are just getting over our third severe sinus/head cold this winter. He teaches piano, and he has double the students this year, and all we can think is that we're being exposed to double the germs than we are usually are...In any case, every time I've found myself feeling really tired as well as congested. Thankfully, I was spared the high fever that my husband had several days ago.

In any case, I haven't quick cooking or doing crafts during this time. I've just slowed down a bit. But one recipe I found was easy enough to make even when you're sick with a bad cold.

I found a recipe for roast chicken is even easier than my favorite recipe for roast turkey. All you do is season the bird well with garlic salt and pepper and then roast in a 450-degree oven for about an hour for 2-1/2-pound bird (my two chickens, pictured above, took an extra hour because they were both larger birds and had a combined weight of about 7 pounds).

When the meat registers 165 degrees at the thicken part, take it out of the oven and sprinkle it generous with leaf thyme and rubbed sage. Then baste it a few times with the rendered fat in the pan (you could add a little melted butter, too, but I had enough pan juices to baste it well). And that's it. Serve your chicken and enjoy! And be sure to save the bones and leftover meat for homemade chicken soup, chicken and biscuits, etc.

Don’t throw away that ham bone until you’ve made some soup!

Here in Minnesota, it’s not just cold in the winter—it’s BITTERLY COLD! That’s what one of my co-workers said last month as he was experiencing his first exposure to Minnesota winter. In response, I gently reminded him that it was only December. Historically, January is even colder.

All that to say, it’s a great time of the year to think about making soup, especially a crockpot recipe that not only warms you as you eat it, but also warms your kitchen a bit while it’s cooking all day long.

That’s what I did yesterday while I was working from home. I put together a big crockpot of Lentil-Ham Soup in the morning. When my husband came home last night, we both enjoyed this hot, hearty meal. And because it makes a big batch, we’ll enjoy it again as planned-overs in the days ahead.

I choose to title this post “Don’t throw away the ham bone…” because I used a ham bone that my mother-in-law saved for me after baking a ham for Christmas Eve this year. She wrapped it in foil and packed it in a zippered freezer bag along with some of the leftover meat from the meal. She gave it to me because she knows that I’m probably the only woman in our family who regularly makes soup…I’m very thankful to have such a thoughtful and generous mother-in-law.

So that’s one good way to get a hold of a ham bone so that you can make this wonderful recipe. Or, you can do like we also do and watch for sales on bone-in ham before holidays. Our local grocery chain often has a buy-one-get-one-free sale before Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. So we always try to have a ham or two in our chest freezer. Then, because it’s usually just two of us for dinner, I slice each ham into dinner-sized portions, saving the bone for a future soup meal. You can also make this soup without the bone if you just have the meat to use. But I have found that the bone imparts a much richer flavor to the recipe.

Lentil –Ham Soup

1 lb. (2-1/3 cups) dry lentils
1-1/2 cups chopped carrot
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
¼ cup snipped parsley
1 tsp. garlic salt
½ tsp. dried marjoram, crushed
½-tsp. ground black pepper
2 large bay leaves
1 meaty ham bone (about 1-1/2 lbs.)

Add all ingredients to your crockpot, ending with the ham bone on the top. Add 7 cups water. Cover and cook on medium setting for 9-11 hours. Lift ham bone from soup. Remove meat from bone, and chop and return meat to soup. Serves 10.