Stromboli/Pin Wheels

I love Stromboli -- I stink at making it. The traditional Stromboli is meat and cheese rolled up together inside bread dough, then baked like a log and then finally sliced. When I bake it in a log, it comes out soggy on the inside and the dough is never fully cooked.

A long time ago, I went to a Pampered Chef demonstration where they made pepperoni pinwheels. A-ha! No more soggy Stromboli. Slice before baking, that's the ticket!

The recipe below will feed 3 adults, with 3-4 slices each. It is a very filling meal. You can add any meats/cheeses or veggies that you like. I have to say though, the veggies add liquid which again adds to the main problem of soggy Stromboli. I prefer just meat and cheese -- I get my veggies from dipping it in the spaghetti sauce :)

Note: This recipe is one of those that the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. In other words, it's much tastier than it first appears by the list of ingredients. It has a wonderful buttery, sweet and spicy tang to it.

Stromboli

1 package Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
3-5 slices honey ham
15 slices pepperoni
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup spaghetti sauce

1. Roll crescent rolls out flat. Use a rolling pin to smooth the cracks or perforations until the dough is like one piece. Roll it out a bit so that you have a large rectangle.
2. Place the ham in one layer covering the entire space of the dough.
3. Place the pepperoni in two rows.
4. Cover the entire thing with the shredded mozzarella.
5. Roll tightly.
6. Slice into 1 inch pieces and lay flat on a cookie sheet -- so you can see the swirl.
7. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until light golden brown.
8. Serve with spaghetti sauce for dipping.

BBQ Bacon Chicken

This is one of those recipes I often turn to for a quick fix meal. I usually have the ingredients on hand, and it's EXTREMELY tasty. It even passes the kid test in my house, which is truly saying something. I serve it with roasted potatoes, baked potatoes, or rice and corn.

I buy chicken breasts that are about 1 1/2 inches thick, so I usually slice them in half for this dish. The amount here feeds our family of four with a smidgen left over.

BBQ Bacon Chicken

4 strips cooked bacon, diced
2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 cup cheddar cheese grated

1. Place chicken in a baking dish.
2. Cover each breast with 2-3 tablespoons BBQ sauce
3. Crumble bacon and place on top of the chicken.
4. Top with cheese.
5. Bake covered for 35 minutes at 350. Remove cover and bake 5 minutes more.

My White Bread

A few years ago I set out to learn how to make bread. It's amazing to think I really had no clue back then what I was doing. AT ALL! I found a recipe for Challah bread and fell in love with it. I've modified the original recipe a bit over the last two years, and now this is the staple recipe in our bread baking diet. I'm always surprised how many people think it tastes a little like cake. Maybe I like cake a tremendous amount and don't know it.

All I know is that I love this bread served with a little bit of salty butter or dipped in soup. YUM!
NOTE: I usually whip this up in the bread machine and let it do its thing. However, you can make it by hand also.

Darcy's White Bread

3/4 cup milk, scalded
2 eggs
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup honey
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups bread flour
3 teaspoons yeast

First, scald the milk in the microwave by heating it for about 1 minute.

Add the oil and honey to the milk to cool it a bit. Stir thoroughly.

Add the eggs, salt, then flour, then yeast. Turn bread machine to the dough cycle and let it go -- check during the first kneading process to make sure the dough has enough flour to 'clean' the sides of the dish.

When the dough cycle is finished, remove and punch down dough. Form into two loaves. Place in greased baking pans. Let rise for about 45 minutes.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until internal thermometer reads 180 degrees. I usually put aluminium foil on the top about 15 minutes into the baking time.

Remove from pans immediately and transfer to a cooling rack.

***You can also make this into one really tall loaf -- that's what is pictured above.

Chocolate Chip Cherry Scones

I first tried scones a few years ago at one of those places where you put together dinners to take and bake at a later time. They were pretty good, but a bit dry for me. Since then, I've tried several scone recipes, but fell in love with this one. I'm so in love that I even passed on chocolate chip cookies last night in favor of scones -- unbelievable!

I think a good scone should have chocolate chips. Always love the chocolate. Also, I'm a huge fan of dried cherries. If you aren't, or don't have any on hand, dried cranberries will work too -- just swap them for the cherries in the recipe below. So I modified the beloved recipe to become this -- my favorite recipe for scones:

Chocolate Chip Cherry Scones

1 1/2 Tbs freshly grated lemon zest

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 Tbs butter, cut into 8 or 10 chunks

3 Tbs sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup dried cherries

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. With a vegetable peeler remove the zest from lemons and chop fine, reserving lemons for another use.
3. In a food processor pulse flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal and transfer to a large bowl.
4. Add chopped cherries and chocolate chips to flour mixture. Toss to coat.
5. In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.
6. Shape scones as desired. Bake at 400 for 15 to 20 minutes, just until they start to turn a light golden brown.

NOTE: Dough can be frozen. I usually divide the batch into two halves and freeze the second half for another day.

Servings: 12

Wild Rice Soup

This recipe is one of the best around. It truly is a soup that eats like a meal. It is a great one to take to other people when you need to lend a helping hand.

Wild Rice Soup

1 large Onion
2 cups Carrots, diced
3 cups Celery, diced
½ cup Butter
2/3 cups Flour
6 cups Water
2 tablespoons McCormick chicken base (or 4 Bullion Cubes)
2 pkgs Rice-A-Roni Long Grain and Wild Rice
5 Chicken breasts (cooked and cubed)
2 cups Half and Half
½ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Pepper

1. Chop vegetables and place in large soup pot. Melt butter and sauté vegetables until tender.
2. Add flour and stir until vegetables are coated. Let the flour cook for about 2-3 minutes until it has a golden blond color.
3. Slowly add water and stir vigorously until flour dissolves. Prepare Rice-A-Roni as directed on box, then add to the soup.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer on low until well blended, usually about 1 hour.

French Peasant Bread

This is a very simple bread to make. It is absolutely fantastic to eat! It's very similar to Macaroni Grill's appetizer bread that they bring to the table.

(If you are looking to make it taste even more like Macaroni Grill, add a small amount of crushed rosemary and shake kosher salt on the top of the loaves just after they've been brushed with the final butter.)

The first time I tried making it some friends were over, and we gobbled down a loaf in just a minute or two. I like it best fresh out of the oven dipped in balsamic vinegar. I just bought a gigantic bottle of vinegar at Costco this week, and I'm dying for some bread. Maybe on Sunday.

French Peasant Bread

1 package dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons butter

1. Place yeast, water, sugar and salt in a warm bowl and stir until dissolved.
2. Add flour and stir until blended, but DO NOT KNEAD.
3. Cover and let rise one hour or until doubled in size.
4. Flour hands, remove dough from the bowl and place in 2 rounds on an oiled cookie sheet.
5. Let rise an additional hour.
6. Brush the top with melted butter and bake at 425 for 10 minutes.
7. Reduce oven temperature to 375 and cool an additional 15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and brush again with butter.
9. Serve warm.

This recipe comes from one of the three vital cookbooks every woman should have -- we'll cover the other two another time. The cookbook is..... "Favorites" by the Ivory Family. You can purchase a copy here by calling the Make-A-Wish foundation. They will ship it media mail, so the shipping is really cheap. I highly recommend you call them on Monday!

Garlic Lime Chicken

This recipe is unique, but I really like it. I've pulled it together from several different recipes. Give it a try:

1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon thyme
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup Ritz crackers, smashed
2 chicken breasts, sliced into smaller strips
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese grated

1. In a plastic bag, mix everything but the butter, chicken and lime juice.
2. Drop the chicken pieces into melted butter, and then put them in the bag. Coat pieces evenly.
3. Place pieces into a well-greased baking dish. Dribble the lime juice over the chicken. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350.

Banana Bread

We had some wonderfully dark brown bananas begging to be baked into something tasty today. I thought I'd try out a new recipe from King Arthur that I haven't tasted yet. So, here goes banana bread!

This is something that many bakers make, but I've had a hard time finding a recipe that I just love. Well, I tweaked the one from King Arthur. Give it a whirl and see what you think -- I was pretty happy with the results. Here's my version:

Banana Bread
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1 tablespoon orange juice (optional)
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 5" loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, beating till smooth.
3. Add the mashed bananas, jam, honey, and eggs, again beating until smooth.
4. Add the flour, then the walnuts, stirring just until smooth.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top. Let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.
6. Bake the bread for 45 minutes, then gently lay a piece of aluminum foil across the top, to prevent over-browning.
7. Bake for an additional 25 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven; a long toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center should come out clean, with at most a few wet crumbs clinging to it. The tester shouldn't show any sign of uncooked batter. If it does, bake the bread an additional 5 minutes, or until it tests done.
8. Allow the bread to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Remove it from the pan, and cool it completely on a rack.

Day 25 -- Bread Bowls

Today I set out to learn how to make bread bowls and copy Panera's wonderful Broccoli Cheddar soup. I used a baguette recipe, but instead of shaping it into three baguettes as directed in the recipe, I shaped it into four balls and cut an 'X' in the top of each one. I couldn't believe how big they got! It was actually astonishing to pull them out of the oven. I wish I would have taken a 'before' picture, they were just tiny 3" round balls of dough. They rose before they went into the oven, and then almost another 25% when they were baking. The recipe has a great crumbly, crunchie crust. Maddie was quick to tell me that I got the bread right. We gobbled up a loaf in about 2 minutes flat. The bread was a huge success -- now on to the soup.

It's not very often that I completely fail at cooking -- even my mistakes are usually tolerable. The soup was awful. Disgusting. Terrible. I was so angry about the soup I was snapping at everyone and I refused to eat it. I wouldn't even let them make the bread into bowls.

Maddie and I ate bread and cheese. Jared ate some of the soup. We threw the rest away. I can't believe how awful it was. I don't even know if I'm going to try to copy the soup again. It was expensive to try -- one pound of cheese, one pound of broccoli, julienned carrots, half and half, chicken stock, etc. It probably cost around $11. If I would have had 3 dinners out of it, I would have been OK. Now, nada. UGH!

My only consolation is that I now know I can make some kickin' artisan loaves, bread bowls or baguettes.

Day 21 -- Cheese Bread

Today, a friend called to say she's had the stomach flu, and the only thing that sounded good to eat was my cheese bread. How flattering! So, of course I whipped up a batch and ran it right over. For those of you curious about the recipe, it can be found here. The only thing I change is the cheese -- I use a Mexican blend rather than the expensive stuff.