Thought of the Day #200 - Apricots

I'm overrun with apricots. I've made jars and jars of jam, juice, sauce and butter. And I know that the trees are still loaded. HELP!

Highly Recommended Roll Recipe...that I meant to share long ago...

These are always a hit when served to new people, and they're highly requested by those who have tried them. My mom used to make something very similar, although in my mind's eye, the ones she made were fluffier. In any event, the flavor is VERY similar.

By the way, the recipe calls for 2 cups of water, but if you'd like an even richer dough, try using warmed milk.

Parker House Style Rolls

6 cups bread flour
2 packages yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 sticks/cubes butter
2 cups hot water
1 egg


Directions:
Using a large heavy duty stand mixer with the dough hook installed(or a food processor), combine 3 cups of flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add a stick/cube of butter that has been melted. Add the water as you turn on the mixer. Add the egg. Keep mixing on medium speed for about 5 minutes. (Helps to activate the gluten in the flour!) On low speed, add the remaining three cups of flour, one cup at a time. At this point, I let the mixer do the kneading for several minutes. If your mixer can't handle the load, remove the dough and hand-knead the dough until the flour is incorporated and the dough has a good texture. Put the kneaded dough into lightly greased bowl. Cover with either plastic wrap or a moistened towel. Let rise until double. Punch the dough down. Take the remaining butter (1 stick/cube) and melt into a 13x9 or larger baking pan. The pan should be a dark coated pan to get maximum browning on the bottom of the rolls. Form into rolls (use your imagination, there are LOTS of shapes to make!). Dip each roll into the butter, flip it over and set into the pan of melted butter. Bake at 400 degrees for ~18 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Delicious!

Thought of the Day #127 - Gardens Goood

It's obvious, I know, but gardens are awesome. I say this after having a
yummy strawberry-rhubarb crisp which utilized the rhubarb from the
garden. Rhubarb is such an easy perennial that lasts for years and
years. Maybe I should be praising perennials, more than just garden
goodness...so far this year, rhubarb, asparagus, parsley, tarragon,
rosemary, thyme are all available for picking without hardly any work.
Gotta love that.

Thought of the Day #90 - Cinnamon

 

When making cinnamon rolls, don't use plain ol' cinnamon. Use Vietnamese cinnamon for a strong, almost biting flavor. Soooo good. Cinnabon uses something similar, and you know, the airport always smells good because of it.

Thought of the Day #16

I'm sure most of us have heard that when baking, you must be precise in your measurements. Baking is an "exact science" they say. Poppycock! I think they just don't want anyone to invent new things! A little too much leavening or too little and you've got something lookin' new, but tasting pretty much the same. Change the proportions of spice or other flavorings and it can turn out incredible. If you are feelin' creative, let your baking juices flow! Life's too short to bake within the lines.

A Little Ironic? Joy of Cooking Frozen Food

From the cookbook that has more detailed cooking techniques than you know you'll ever use comes frozen foods. Just heat, repeat. I can't be the only one that sees a little less "Joy" in this. They should have named the product line "Joy of the Microwave" or "Joy of the Reheat" or most simply "Joy of Not Cooking".

Tooting my own horn. Published in a Cookbook!

  I'm published! Well, not me, but a photo of herbs I sold on Istockphoto has been used in a book entitled, "Apples Recipes from Canada's Best Chefs" by Elaine Elliot & Virginia Lee. I found my photo credit on Amazon (here) through a Google search. If you haven't done it lately, Google yourself and see what you can find! You never know what you may have been up to. ;-) If you'd like to see, and or buy, the photo that was used in the book, go to my Istockphoto.com portfolio here. I think it's cool to be published in a cookbook. I appreciate that the authors granted me a named credit, too. This goes on my resume, right?

A Homemade Gift Idea

A co-worker of mine came up with a brilliant, thoughtful gift idea for a friend and also a relative -- home cooked meals. She's going to make a selection of frozen family size meals with little cards that have super simple accompaniment recipes. What a great gift idea for someone who doesn't know how to cook or just never has time. Save them from yet another boring fast food meal! Or several! It's an awesome way to buck the corporate machine yet again.

The Granola Experiment

The challenge -- Apple Cinnamon Granola and Tropical Granola. The hypothesis assumes that two very different granolas can be made from the same base recipe (a FoodNetwork.com favorite).

Here are the formula variations as I created them:

Formula 1 -- Apple Cinnamon Granola

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup cashews
1 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon Penzey's baking spice
1 cup dried apples, cut up
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, brown sugar and spices. In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color. (I usually cook it longer to bring out more toasted flavor. Your mileage may vary.) Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add apples and raisins and mix until evenly distributed.

Formula 2 -- Tropical Granola

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup cashews
1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
1-1/2 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup pineapple syrup
1/2 cup crushed pineapple 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried Sunsweet Mangoes, chopped
1 cup dried banana chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar. With a can of crushed pineapple in syrup, drain the syrup from the can so that you have 1/2 cup of pineapple syrup. Then measure out 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple. Combine the pineapple syrup and solids with the oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for approximatelyl 2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color. Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add fruit and mix until evenly distributed.

Conclusion
While both formulas exhibit a pleasing taste and a good amount of crunch, the tropical granola is by far the crowd favorite. Future experiments would have me altering the forumulas in this manner:

Formula 1: adding much more cinnamon and using a crunchy apple chip rather than the Nerf-like apple chunks often found in dried apples.

Formula 2: I'm not sure that the pineapple syrup really adds any additional tropical flair. I would, alternatively, opt for a dried pineapple chunks to be added as with the other fruits. Oh, also, I think putting in some additional un-cooked coconut may also bump up the tropical tastiness.

Tomatoes Coming Out of My Ears

We've got a crazy amount of tomatoes this year. I mean, typically we have a LOT. This year we've got double that many and 1000 more. We've canned tomatoes (48 quarts and counting), 12 quarts of spaghetti sauce, given away bushels and bushels and we're still overrun with 'em. It's crazy! If you're in Utah and need some tomatoes, let me know. I can hook ya up for free.

Gone! All Gone!

In my last post you may have seen my list of yummy jam flavors all containing apricots. I had only half of the apricots from the tree to make those jams and a couple of trays of dried apricots, too. I got up early this morning, grabbed a sack with which to put the remainder of the apricots. I went to the orchard. I looked at the tree. Where were the little yellow orbs? I rubbed my eyes and looked again. No yellow? NONE at all?! Where did they go?!?! (said in the tone of A Christmas Story's turkey debacle...) No more dried apricots. No raspberry apricot jam. No apricot syrup. No apricot chutney. No apricot leftovers. Dang! It was a bad year for apricots around these parts. A lot of the trees' buds froze before they produced, so it's likely that we've got an orchard thief! I would like to think it was just the painted desert sheep that live in the orchard. Yeah, that's it...they figured out how to shake the tree or maybe they climbed up and nabbed 'em. Ya never know...

Just a few tidbits, in case you were wondering

~~ I went to the doctor on Wednesday to have my thyroid levels checked and my bp taken. My blood pressure is waaaay down. Woohooo! I found out this morning that the thyroid results indicate that I need the next higher dose of synthroid.

~~ I'm excited to be heading off to the Las Vegas BBW bash on Monday of this coming week! Preparations are underway this weekend. You know, gotta make sure the undies, sunscreen and miscellaneous sundries are all packed. It's been several years since I've been to a big BBW event, so I feel a bit ill prepared for the whole "scene". There are definitely things I'm looking forward to --- THE POOL being a big one, catching up with few of my long lost online friends, hangin' out with a few of my Minnesota buds, gambling. Oops. Did I say that last one? ;-) Things I'm not looking forward to -- loud obnoxious drunk fat chicks (if you've been to these things, you've gotta know what I mean); backstabbing between desperate chickas (Too often, there is a limited supply of men. While the men aren't typically aware of it, there's a lot of chick-on-chick fighting going on. I've seen some pretty nasty behavior in the past. For those of you prone to this, DON'T DO IT! You can be better than that!); and sunburn, always a given no matter how much sunscreen I use.

~~ Jam season has started again! So far I've made blueberry-apricot, pineapple-apricot and just plain old apricot. The pineapple-apricot is fabulous! The blueberry-apricot is a smooth mellow yum, too. A friend of my hubby's has ordered a bunch of jars for her wedding as wedding favors. She's going to top 'em with lace and ribbons and a ceremonial wedding tag. A cute idea!

An Ode to My Mixer

I don't "glow" very often about a product, but I really must confess my love for the KitchenAid mixer. We got it as a wedding giftie and I don't believe it's had an idle week since. I always liked my little KitchenAid hand mixer, but until I got the stand mixer from them, I didn't know what I was missing! The power of it all! Making bread is a breeze. Heavy duty cookie doughs are a snap. Even when the dough gets super, duper thick, the mixer grinds through it with ease. It whines a bit more, but never fails to finish the job. You know, I always suspected there was a reason for the price...it's a bit high, but well worth it! My mixer is white. Pretty basic...goes with everything, even my little black dress, but now I see they have 18 colors! I really don't have a reason to rid myself of my current model JUST to get a colored one. I doubt the thing will ever break down. Oh, woe is me. ;-) But seriously, if ya ever want to invest in a tool that will make you seem like *the best* chef evah, get one of these puppies. (Note: I wasn't paid for this endorsement!!)