So, I’m going to post a few super easy dishes that might help take some pressure off during the season.  These cheese sticks are a great side to soup or any other meal, but could also be made as an appetizer with dip or even served alone if you’re responsible for taking a dish to share at a holiday party.  My family devours them when I make them.

These cheese sticks have just two ingredients:  frozen puff pastry and parmesan cheese.  It’s one of those things you can always remember to buy, or is easy to keep on hand for nights when you’re in a pinch.

Here goes:

Crispy Cheese Sticks

Ingredients:

1 package frozen puff pastry, thawed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Thaw puff pastry according to package directions.

Lay pastry on baking pan lined with parchment paper.  Carefully cut each pastry sheet lengthwise into 1 inch strips, then cut the strips in half to make them a nice finger food size.  Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over pastry.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve!

Several weeks ago I purchased this publication.   At the time I wondered a little at my decision, but now I’m thrilled to have it.  I’ve tried more than half a dozen recipes from it and they’ve all been delicious. It’s full of bookmarks, a spill, and tattered corners.  One of the things I love about it is having a picture of every recipe included.  I highly recommend it.

One of  the first recipes I tried was this recipe for pumpkin biscuits.  Our whole family enjoyed them and one son in particular begs everyone else for their biscuit while the rest of us enjoy dinner.

Pumpkin Biscuits
(recipe from Taste of Home Fall Baking publication)

Ingredients:
1- 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2- 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cold butter
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup buttermilk

Preparation:
In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Cut in 1/2 cup water until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Combine pumpkin and buttermilk, stir into crumb mixture just until moistened.  *Note:  I’ve made these twice now and both times I had to add a couple of tablespoons more milk.

Turn onto lightly floured surface, knead 8-10 times.  Roll out to 1 inch thickness; cut with a 2 or 2-1/2 inch biscuit cutter.  Place 1 inch apart on a greased baking sheet (or just use parchment paper).

Bake at 425 for 18 minutes or until golden brown.  **Another note:  the recipe calls for 1-1/2 tsp. melted butter to be brushed over the biscuits, but I haven’t added it.  It seems to me there’s already plenty of butter in them.

According to the recipe, one batch makes 6 biscuits if cut with a 2 1/2 inch round cutter.  The first time we made them, we cut them into 1 1/2 inch circles for taste testing and it made two dozen.  Last night I used a 2 inch cutter and squeezed 10 biscuits out of a batch.  Next time I make them, I’ll double it for my family.

I hope you enjoy this pumpkin recipe.
Jennifer

The color of the bread is gorgeous, a beautiful golden brown on the outside and a light, creamy yellow with tiny green flecks when you cut into it.

My family has fallen in love with this bread.  They especially love it when I bake mini-loaves and meet them at school with a tiny warm loaf all their own.  I’ve done it twice now, and I love the “Yes!” I hear when they see it in the car.  So, here’s the recipe…

Lemon Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
2 cups cubed zucchini, with peel
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce
3 eggs
2 Tb. lemon zest
4 Tb. lemon juice
1 Tb. vanilla

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Preparation:
In a blender or food processor, combine zucchini, oil, applesauce, eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla.  Blend for 30 seconds.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Pour zucchini mixture into dry ingredients and stir until combined.

Coat two loaf pans with non-stick spray and divide batter between pans.  Bake at 325 for 50-60 minutes (in my oven it has only needed 50 minutes).  Let bread cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pans.  Cool on cooling rack, then serve and enjoy!

French bread loaves cooling on my kitchen counter.  Is there anything more wonderful?

I tried a new recipe yesterday.  Crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside, this bread was perfect.  It took a long time but was worth the wait.    I’ll be making more today, it’s that good  (and I promise to share the recipe after I master it).

The recipe said to let the bread cool completely before slicing.  I tried.  Really I did.  And then I thought to myself, “What good is a loaf of bread that isn’t fabulous when it’s still warm?”  So I tore a piece off, it’s heat warming my fingers as steam rose from the center of the loaf.  Don’t worry, it’s fabulous warm, and therefore a keeper.  I was grateful at that moment for a large hungry family to share with, else I would have eaten too much.

As I tore pieces of the loaf to share with each member of my family, a reverent feeling crept into my heart.  The words “making home” came to mind.  That is what I’m doing.  It is such a privilege.

Hopeful Homemaker

This pumpkin bread will be a nice after school snack for my children today.  Simple.  I love it.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour, divided
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tb. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup shortening
2 drops cinnamon flavoring (the kind you would put in candy)
nuts, raisins, chocolate chips or anything you may want to mix in

In a large mixing bowl combine 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and all spices.  Add pumpkin, milk, eggs and shortening.  Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until blended well.  Add 2 drops cinnamon flavoring.   Beat on medium or high speed for 1-2 minutes.  Add remaining cup flour and beat until blended.  Fold in nuts, chocolate chips, raisins or whatever you wish to mix in.

Spray bread pan with non-stick spray.  Pour batter into pan and bake at 350 for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.  Makes one large loaf.

Enjoy, and don’t forget the parchment paper giveaway ends tonight!  I’ll announce the winners tomorrow.

Hopeful Homemaker

I found this recipe online a while ago, and I prefer it over plain cornbread muffins.  The pumpkin keeps them soft and moist while the cornmeal adds texture and substance.

Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins

1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
3/4 cup buttermilk  (if you don’t have buttermilk, add a Tablespoon of vinegar to regular milk and let sit a few minutes)
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a bowl, toss together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. In another mixing bowl, mix with a wooden spoon, the pumpkin puree, buttermilk , butter and eggs until well combined. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture just until combined.  Spoon into greased muffin tin.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool.  Yields 12 muffins.

I love the recipe as is, with a subtle sweet flavor.  I like to make these as a side dish with a meal.  If you want to sweeten them up a bit, try sprinkling some raw sugar on the top of each muffin before baking.  It adds more sweetness and a hint of crunch to them.  It also looks pretty on top.

Hope you like them!
Jennifer

It’s a winner.  I’ve made them three times now, and my family has loved them.   The reason I love them is because they take about 5 minutes to mix up.  Because I use SAF Instant Yeast, I was able to simplify the already simple recipe even more.

Here’s how I made them.

In a large mixing bowl, melt 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter
Add 1/4 cup sugar
Mix together with hand mixer.

Add 1 egg and mix again.
Add 2 cups warm water and mix.

The recipe calls for 4 cups of flour.

I always use a quality bread flour (the best in my area is Roller Mills Turkey Flour) and add the flour one cup at a time, mixing after each cup.

With the second cup of flour, I also poured in 1/2 Tablespoon yeast.  Mix well.  (This is my only change to the basic recipe.  SAF yeast doesn’t have to be proofed in the warm water, so I can throw it in with the dry ingredients.  If you’re using active dry yeast, you need one packet (1/4 ounce) and you can add it to the 2 cups warm water before you begin mixing other ingredients.  If you want to learn more about SAF Instant Yeast, read here.)

Add the last 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth.

This is where it gets easy!

Transfer dough to a greased, airtight container and place in refrigerator to rise.
Refrigerate overnight or up to three days.  If it gets watery (mine hasn’t) you can add a bit more flour.
Remove from refrigerator and spoon dough into well-greased miniature muffin tins.  You really don’t have to do anything but spoon the dough out.  The recipe says it makes 5 dozen miniature rolls, but mine seemed to fill 4 dozen so I just went with that.

Now transfer to a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 18 minutes.

Remove from oven and brush with melted butter, sprinkling a pinch of kosher salt on each roll.  This is my personal addition.  I like to do this on all my roll recipes.  The bit of salt seems to make people feel like they don’t need to load the roll with butter or other things.

I’ve shared these rolls with my family and a few friends and everyone loves them!  They have a wonderful texture and are simply delicious.

The down side is that they’re more fattening because of the butter.  My traditional roll recipe doesn’t have butter in it.  I must say, though, that the ease of this recipe is fabulous.  It takes 5 minutes to mix it up, then you put it in the fridge until you want to make them.  When it’s time to make them, it takes about 5 minutes to grease and fill the muffin tins.  So simple.  I also like the concept of baking rolls in miniature muffin tins.  With little children, the size is perfect.  Even my husband, who usually skips the bread, ate a bunch of them.  They would also be the perfect roll to make into tiny sandwiches for a luncheon or a little girl’s tea party.  They make enough that my family all gets some, but we have no leftovers.  For a smaller family, this is a good recipe because you’re not going to end up with too much.

And because no bread recipe makes it into my recipe book unless it’s pretty versatile, I tried making these without refrigerating them.  I mixed the dough as described above, then covered the bowl and let it rise for 15 minutes (which is all that is required with SAF Yeast).  Then I spooned the dough into the muffin tins and baked it.  I did find that baking them this way meant a much shorter baking time because the dough was still warm when I put it in the oven instead of cold from the refrigerator.  So, this way I shortened  the baking time to about 10 minutes, or when there is just a hint of golden brown around the edges of the rolls.  This meant that I had fresh rolls, start to finish, in 35 minutes!  Now THAT is a roll recipe you can start in the middle of dinner preparations if you want to.  Cleanup is a breeze as well.

For perfection, just add homemade strawberry jam.

Many thanks to Trisha Yearwood, cousin Peggy and Country Living  for sharing such a great recipe!  It’s a new family favorite around here.  I hope you’ll try them.  I’d love to hear what you think.

I found this recipe on Heather’s blog, and had to make it.  In fact, it looked so good that I tried it out on guests without having made it before.  The verdict:  it’s fabulous!

Here is the recipe for how I made it:

Heather Bullard’s Casino Butter

1 pound butter, softened
2 Tb. fresh lemon juice
1-2 tsp. hot sauce (I used Frank’s hot sauce)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 green onions, finely chopped
1/3 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Heather chops everything finely, then puts it in a food processor.  I have only a tiny food processor and so I would have had to do 4 or 5 batches.   I put the butter in a mixing bowl and used my hand mixer to whip it a little bit.  Then I chopped the garlic, onions, pepper and parsley and pulsed them in my processor.  I then added everything to the mixing bowl and again used my hand mixer to combine it all really well.  I think it worked.

Heather takes half the butter, rolls it in wax paper and freezes it.  Then she uses the other half on a loaf of french bread.  It was the french bread I wanted to try.  I spread butter over both halves, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, and broiled it.  I think I only used 1/4 of the casino butter, though, instead of half.  I rolled up the rest in wax paper to freeze for another use.

Here is the link to Heather’s recipe, explanations and directions.  (She also puts wine in hers, which I omitted.)  And her pictures are far lovelier than mine.

Can I say that this became an instant family favorite?!  It was the YUMMIEST garlic style bread I’ve ever eaten.

Please, do yourself a favor and treat yourself!  It’s delicious!  Thanks for sharing, Heather!

First, make the zucchini bread.  My recipe calls for 3 cups of flour.

To the flour add 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder,
1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg.

Into a separate bowl, shred 2 cups fresh zucchini.

Add 2 cups sugar

and two eggs.

Next add 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

Pour in 1 cup of vegetable oil.

Combine well.

Add flour mixture to zucchini mixture

and stir just until combined.

I picked up this amazing pan at a sale last year.  It’s heavy and sturdy and it makes a dozen tiny loaves.
I like to use it for my quick breads.

Scoop the batter into your pans.  This recipe makes 2 regular sized loaves.

Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes for regular sized loaves.  These baked for about 20 minutes.
Be sure to check them a few minutes early so you don’t overcook them and dry them out.  Don’t they look great?

And now for the glaze.  This is where it gets delicious.
In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 6 tablespoons butter and 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon.

Add 1/4 cup water.

Cook and stir over medium high heat.  Bring to a rolling boil and then cook for another 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp. vanilla extract.

Spoon over hot zucchini bread.  Try to cover every spot.

Isn’t it pretty!  I love the shine it adds to the bread.

Continue until all your loaves are covered.  I usually do a thin coat and then go back and coat them all again.  Let the bread cool in the pans for at least 15-20 minutes so that the bread can soak in the glaze.

Remove from pans and serve.  Oh, this is good stuff!  Hope you love it like we do!

Hopeful Homemaker’s Glazed Zucchini Bread

3 cups flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 cups sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp. lemon juice

For the glaze
6 Tb. butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla

In small bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and baking powder.   In another bowl, combine zucchini, sugar, eggs, lemon juice and oil.  Add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir till combined.  Spoon into 2 loaf pans and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until done.

To make the sauce, combine sugar, cinnamon and butter in small saucepan.  Add water.  Cook and stir over medium high heat until mixture comes to a rolling boil.  Cook 2 minutes longer.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Spoon over hot bread, coating multiple times until glaze is gone.  Let bread cool 15-20 minutes.  Remove from pans and serve.

In my Bosch, I combined 3 cups warm water, 2/3 cups vegetable oil, and 4 large eggs.

Blend together, then add 1/2 cup powdered milk,

and 1/2 cup honey.  (I didn’t have time to go get honey from my basement, so I used honey powder.  Just pretend this is a nice gooey pile of honey going in.  The powder works fine, too, in case you have some.  I really like it.)

and 1 Tablespoon salt

Mix well, and now it’s time for the whole wheat flour.
This flour is straight from my grinder.  It doesn’t look very dark because it’s white wheat.
Using white wheat means I don’t have to add any white flour to the dough because it will be nice and light on its own.
If you’re using red wheat, you will probably want to have at least 1/3 of the flour be white flour.

I digress.  Add about 4 cups of wheat flour to the mixer.

And 2 1/2 tablespoons SAF Instant Yeast.

Turn on the mixer and blend until well incorporated.
Add another 3 cups of flour and watch so see the consistency of the dough.

You might need to add another cup or two, but you don’t want to add too much.
You want the dough to begin pulling away from the sides of the mixer.

Cover and let knead for 5 minutes.  Remove the dough hook and cover again.
Let rise for 10-15 minutes.  Then remove dough from mixer, divide into 4 pieces, and roll each piece out (one at a time, of course) into a large rectangle.

Using a pizza cutter, cut in half lengthwise.

Then cut each half into triangles.

Roll into crescent roll shapes.

Place on baking sheet to rise.  Cover and let rise another 10-15 minutes.

Bake at 400 for 8 minutes or until tops are just beginning to brown.
Remove from oven and brush with butter.
Enjoy with butter, or in our case this time, homemade cherry jam.

Talk about homemade goodness!  Yum!

Whole Wheat Rolls

3 cups warm water
2/3 cups vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup honey
1 Tb. salt
7-9 cups freshly ground white wheat flour
2 1/2 Tb. SAF Instant Yeast

In mixer, combine water, oil and eggs.  Mix well.  Add powdered milk, honey and salt.
Mix well, then add 4 cups flour and the yeast.  Mix again and continue adding flour until dough reaches proper consistency.  Let knead 5 minutes.  Remove dough hook and cover.  Let rise 10-15 minutes.  Roll into rolls, cover and let rise another 10-15 minutes.  Bake at 400 for 8-9 minutes.  You can also bake at 375 for a few minutes longer depending on your tastes.  They’re delicious either way!