Divine Breadsticks

I found this recipe at this blog and she was so right. This breadsticks are DIVINE!




Ingredients:

1 ½ cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
3 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
Butter for the pan (I used 4 Tbsp.)


Directions:

Mix all ingredients (except butter) and knead for three minutes.



Let stand 10 minutes. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Melt desired amount of butter on baking pan. Roll out dough about 1/8-inch thick and cut into strips. Place in butter and put close together. Sprinkle with garlic salt and parmesan cheese. Cover and let rise 30 minutes.

Bake 20 minutes at 375 degrees.



Make / buy some Marinara Sauce and enjoy!!!

Pumpkin Spice Scones / Mini Bites

Fall is in the air... I got this WONDERFUL recipe from "Pinch My Salt" blog. As I said it before, it is absolutely full of flavor and great consistency. Get your kitchen tools ready and let's start!



Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tspn. baking powder
1/2 tspn. salt
1/2 tspn. ground cinnamon
1/2 tspn. ground nutmeg
1/4 tspn. ground allspice
1/4 tspn. ground ginger (I substituted ginger for ground cloves)
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup heavy cream
6 T. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Get out a baking sheet and line with parchment paper (not required but makes cleanup easy!). Cut the butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back in the refridgerator. In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and all spices. Whisk together well. Place bowl in freezer (refrigerator is fine if you have no room in freezer).

2. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. Put this bowl in freezer (or refrigerator) and take the other bowl back out. Get the butter pieces out of the fridge and dump them into the bowl with the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the raisins if you are using them.

3. Get the liquid mixture out of the freezer and pour into the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is just moistened. The dough will be very crumbly, this is the way it should be. Turn the mixture out onto the counter and push the pile together with your hands. It should stick together fairly well. Knead it just a couple of times until everything is together. Don’t knead it too much or the dough will get too sticky.

4. Pat the dough out into a rough circle, 3/4 to 1 inch thick.



Cut it like a pie into 8 pieces.



Place pieces on the baking sheet so that they are not touching.



Bake scones for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees. They should be light brown on the bottom, the tops will darken as they cool.




Cinnamon Icing:

1 Cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. Milk
1/2 tspn. ground cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients and adjust amounts to change consistency. Icing can be brushed on or drizzled.







(Since I have little people, we decided to make them like Mini Bites)

Easy Yeast Dinner Rolls

I got this wonderful recipe from Real Mom Kitchen's blog and they turned so good that I would make them over and over! They are so simple and easy to make. The flavor so soft and delicious!



If you want to give them a chance in your kitchen, here's what you need to do:

Donnette's Rolls

2 C. Warm Water
2 Tbsp. Yeast
1/2 C. Sugar
Mix and let sit for 5- 10 minutes until yeast starts to foam

then add:
2 1/2 tsp. Salt
3 C. Flour

Mix well then add:
1 Egg
1/4 C. Oil

Mix together then add:
3 C. flour (1 C. at a time)

Mix together until dough is formed. Do not add too much flour or dough will be stiff. It is better for dough to be a little sticky.



Let dough raise for 1/2 hour.

Make it into desired shape. (The dough is quite stick so make sure you flour your work area good.)Then allow it to rise for 20 minutes more.



Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.



Once out of oven brush with butter while warm. (I would say this make 1 1/2 to 2 dozen rolls depending on how big you shape them.)

Chicken Salad with a Chilean touch

Chicken Salad... hummm yummy, with natural flavors... that's a very good combination.



Let's see. This is a good one!

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breasts cooked
1 garlic clove
1 fresh basil leaf (medium size)
3 celery stalks
1/2 cup mayo
1 Pinch of cayenne pepper
A little touch of lime juice
Salt and Pepper


Directions:

In a food processor or blender combine and chop finely garlic clove, basil and celery stalks. Pour over a big bowl. Chop the chicken (I used the food processor), and stir it with the celery mix. Add the lime juice, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper and mayo. Stir it well until combined. Serve and enjoy it! (My husband loves to add some tabasco drops on top of it)

Chili

This is an excellent recipe for Chili. I got it from Mom, and she originally got it from Aunt Judi Walker. It's so good that I cannot help myself to share it with you all!



So, here we go!

Ingredients:

I regular can tomatoes
I can pork n' beans
1 and 1/4 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup beef broth or consommé
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pkg McCormick's mild chili seasoning mix
1/4 to 1/2 cup salsa (any kind you like. You can make it less spicy by using less or getting a mild salsa)


Directions:

Mix all the ingredients in your crock-pot and cook it on high for at least 3 hours. Serve it and garnish with chips, cheese, sour cream, cornbread crumbs, etc.

Enjoy!

Corn Bread, Simply delicious!

I got this easy and delicius recipe from this blog : "Recipe Inside" and decided to give it a try. The results... a simple and delicious corn bread, ideal to go with Chili.



Here is the recipe:
(Adapted from the Quaker Corn Meal recipe).

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup enriched corn meal
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional) (I added)
1 cup skim milk (I used regular)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 egg whites or 1 egg, beaten (I used a whole egg)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F. Combine dry flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into 12 greased or paper-lined medium muffin cups or a round pan (as my husband likes it). Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Quiche

We love Quiche in our family. It's easy to make, yummy and you can put all those things that your children don't eat when you put them by themselves on a plate.



Here is a basic recipe I got from Mom and I made it today for lunch. Hope you enjoy it!


Ingredients:

2 frozen deep pie shells
5 eggs
1/2 cup half & half
salt & pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup heavy whip cream
1 tsp flour
1/4 cup water
1 cup cheese (I usually use mozzarella and provolone)
1/4 cup onion (cut finely in cubes)
1 1/2 tsp. of favorite herbs (basil, oregano, parsley, etc)
4 slices oven roasted turkey cut in cubes
1 tomato chopped in cubes
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used mozzarella and mild cheddar)
2 hands full of fresh spinach washed and cut into small chunks


Directions:

Start by heating your oven at 325ºF. Don't forget to divide the ingredients between the two pie shells. In a mixing bowl combine half and half, heavy whip cream, water, salt, pepper and flour until incorporated. Set aside. Get the shells out of the freezer and sprinkle the first cup of cheese on base of the shell. Add the onions and the herbs of your preference. Then add the turkey, tomato and the extra cheese. Finally, pour the egg mixture on top of the shells.

Set the pie shells on top of a cookie sheet (to prevent spills inside of your oven).



Bake at 325ºF for one hour.



Enjoy!

Assorted vegetables salad

This is a very simple and easy to make salad. You can serve it with almost anything. It's an excellent salad for pasta dishes, or you can even top it with grilled meat and serve it as an entree.



Let's get started!

Ingredients:

1 romaine lettuce heart, washed and cut into chunks (I inch wide)
1 hand full of baby spinach leaves (washed)
3 celery stalks cut into chunks (I personally like them very thin)
1/2 carrot sliced thin
1/4 onion sliced
1/2 tomato cut into wedges
2 Tbsp. sliced green olives (You can replace this for feta cheese or any other topping)


Directions:

Combine the lettuce, spinach and celery. Toss it on tray or big plate. Add the onions and carrots in layers. Put the tomato wedges around the whole plate and top with the olives.

Yield: 4 small portions.


I served it with French Dressing. It tasted really good. If you want to try it that way, here is a very good homemade recipe I got from "Cooking with Smitty's Mom" book.


1/2 cup ketchup
3/4 cup oil (I used canola)
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
1 clove garlic (small)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 onion

Place all ingredients in blender and mix well. Store in refrigerator.

White Texas Sheet Cake

This is a funny thing. When I told Jared (my husband) to help me to describe this food blog, we said "inexpensive and nutritious", well... this recipe is inexpensive... but definitely not very "high" in the healthy department!

This recipe is originally from Allrecipes.com, and then I saw it posted in several food blogs that I decided to give it a try. I wasn't wrong.. oh boy, this is really GOOD and YUMMY cake!



Let's start with the CAKE.


Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt


Directions:

In a large saucepan, bring butter and water to a boil. Remove from the heat, stir in the flour, sugar, eggs, sour cream, almond extract, baking soda and salt until smooth.

Pour into a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking sheet.



Bake at 375ºF fro 20 to 22 minutes (I did mine only 20) or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean and cake is golden brown. Cool for 20 minutes.



Once the cake is cooled for 20 minutes, You can start making the Frosting.


Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
4 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup chopped walnuts (Since I have little boys I left these ones out)


Directions:

Combine butter and milk in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Mix in sugar and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. Stir in pecans. Spread frosting over warm cake.



Let it rest until completely cold and firm (30 minutes) and cut into little squares. I decorated them with a whole almond on top.




(This cake is really good, especially the day after, so if you have company it's a good dessert to make ahead)


Enjoy!

Bavaroise

Hey!

I decided to start this food blog, with a common chilean and simple but yummy dessert. It's called Bavaroise. I know, the name doesn't seem chilean, actually it is in french, but I grew up eating it at home! It's very easy to make and you can prepare it in a cake bunt pan or if you want to make it nicer you can just serve it in goblets.



Ingredients:

1 12 oz. can evaporated milk (Chilled at least for 4 hours)
1 6 oz. package of Gelatin Dessert (I used strawberry flavor)
2 cups of boiling water
Whipped Cream to decorate


Directions:

Pour the evaporated milk in your electric mixer bowl, and with the whisk attachment beat it until soft peaks. It has to double its amount. Then, set aside.

Stir the gelatin in a bowl with the water and dissolve it completely. Start your electric mixer at medium speed and with a soft and continuous stream pour the gelatin mix into the evaporated milk and beat until well combined.

Finally, pour the mix into a bunt pan or if you prefer into goblets. Decorate with whipped cream. Let it chill for at least 3 hours. An easy way to remove the Bavaroise from the pan is to submerge the bottom of the pan in hot water for 30 seconds. Then, put a plate or cake plate on top of the pan and flip over.