Homemade Rolls

Another food that is often store-bought instead of homemade are rolls. For some reason a lot of people find bread making difficult and time consuming. While this recipe does take a decent amount of prep, a lot of the time is spent just letting the rolls rise, and you can be working on other recipes while you wait.

The only problem I had with this recipe is I just could not get the rolls to cook through when they were all bunched up together in the pan. I ended up having to separate the rolls and cover them (so they wouldn't get too brown) and finish cooking them in batches. This took a significant amount of time but the rolls turned out perfectly, and I had tons of compliments on them at Thanksgiving. My sister requested I bring these for our Christmas party, too.

Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups warm milk

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons salt

7 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed (I used a bit more)

1/2 cup butter, melted (omitted - use this if you're going to brush the tops with butter after cooking and serve immediately)

Directions:
Pour milk into a large mixing bowl, and sprinkle yeast over the surface. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. Beat in the sugar, eggs, 1/2 cup butter, and salt; blend thoroughly. Gradually stir in the flour to make a soft dough. Cover bowl, and set in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.Punch down the dough, cover the bowl, and allow to rise again. Repeat this step two more times.

Break off 2 to 3 inch size pieces of dough, roll lightly into round shape, and place in prepared baking dish, edges touching. Repeat to make 36 dough balls (**I only got 29 rolls**). Cover and let rise until doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Bake rolls in preheated oven until tops turn golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.

No more from-a-can!

Growing up my family would always have canned cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. My mom would spend hours slaving away over the other entrees, but for some reason we never thought to make our own cranberry sauce. It's ridiculously easy, and once you've tried the homemade version you'll never buy the canned stuff again!

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup orange juice
1 pkg fresh cranberries (10-12 ounces)
Pinch of cinnamon

Directions:

Dissolve the sugar, orange juice, and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the cranberries and cook until you hear them popping (usually takes 10 minutes). Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl. Cool completely.That's it! How easy is that? Just keep a close eye on the cranberries or they might bubble over!

Yummiest pork tenderloin ever!

We don't eat that much meat in this household, so when we do eat something more unusual (and more expensive), I want it to taste amazing. We probably only eat pork tenderloin two or three times a year, and this recipe makes me want to eat it every week. Seriously, it's incredible. The pork is juicy, and the peach salsa is incredibly flavorful. We absolutely love this recipe, you must check it out!!

Pork Tenderloin with Peach Salsa
from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

For the salsa:

2 peaches, pitted and diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

¼ cup red onion, diced

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely minced

Small handful cilantro, minced

Juice of ½ a lime

Pinch of coarse salt

For the pork:

1½ lb. pork tenderloin

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp. olive oil

Directions:

To make the salsa, combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well to combine. Cover and refrigerate.

To make the pork, preheat the oven to 375˚ F. Season the pork with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the pork in the skillet, rotating, until evenly browned on all sides. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the internal temperature registers 160˚ F on an instant read thermometer. (Alternatively, heat a grill to medium-high. Oil the grates. Add the pork to the grill and cook, turning so the sides are evenly browned, until the internal temperature registers 160˚ F on an instant read thermometer.) Remove from the oven, tent with foil, and let rest 15 minutes before slicing.

Serve the warm slices of pork topped with the peach salsa.

Turkey with Potatoes and Peas

I love a good stew, and this recipe is almost stew-like. Served over rice, it's a perfect easy fall meal. Next time I'll add a little more flavor by cooking a white onion with more garlic before adding the tomato/garlic/cilantro mixture, and using stock instead of water.

Turkey with Potatoes and Peas

Ingredients:

• 1 medium tomato
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 20 oz 93% lean ground turkey
• 4 medium scallions, chopped
  
• 1 cup fresh peas (I used frozen)
  
• 1 potato, peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes
• 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 3/4 cup water
  
• 1/2 tsp cumin, or to taste
• salt, to taste
• 1 bay leaf

Directions:

Finely chop tomato, garlic and cilantro. In a large skillet, brown turkey and season with salt and cumin to taste. When meat is browned and cooked through add scallions, chopped tomato mixture, peas, potato, tomato sauce, water, cumin, salt and bay leaf.Cover and simmer over medium-low heat until potatoes are cooked through, about 25 minutes stirring occasionally. Add more water if needed. Remove bay leaf and serve over rice.

Cauliflower can be tasty!

I'm starting to fall in love with cauliflower. First I tried a curried cauliflower recipe (I blogged about it here), then a friend asked me to make this recipe and give it a try. So I did. The verdict: totally tasty!! These take a bit more work than I usually like for a side-dish, but they're worth it.

I ran in to a couple problems. First, I don't have a food processor so I thought I could put the almonds in my little coffee/spice grinder. It was going all fine and well until I started smelling something "hot" and discovered the grinder was overheating. No problem - I brought out my meat tenderizer and used that to break up the nuts. It's always nice to smash things! :)I also decided to not use parchment paper, and instead had some foil so I used that instead. The cauliflower bites stuck horribly, and I ended up having to pry them off. Not a problem, they were still super tasty!

Cheddar Cauliflower Bites

Ingredients (I doubled all of these amounts and made 2 batches):

• 1 medium size head of cauliflower, chopped and steamed until tender
• 1 cup almonds
• 1/2 bunch (about 4) of green onions, chopped
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 6 – 8oz Cheddar cheese, grated
• salt
  
• a few turns of ground pepper

Directions:

Take your steamed cauliflower and use either a pastry blender or a chef knife to chop the cauliflower into more uniform pieces. You don’t want big chunks or the patties will fall apart. Pre-heat the oven to 375°F.

Use a food processor to pulse the almonds until you have a somewhat coarse meal. I like the texture of the almonds in the patties, you may prefer the tenderness of traditional breadcrumbs. If the latter is the case, you’ll want to pulse the almonds carefully until they are finely ground, but be careful not to go too far or you’ll make almond butter.

Throw everything into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or line it with parchment paper. Now use your hands to shape the mix into small patties. Don’t worry they aren’t going to spread like cookies, they can sit pretty close to each other on the baking sheet. Just leave enough room to turn them with a spatula.

Bake at 375°F for 12 – 15 minutes, turn and bake for an additional 10 – 12 minutes depending on how browned you prefer your cheese.

Katsu...burger?? Really?

A new place just opened that we absolutely had to check out. Katsu Burger! You're probably more familiar with chicken or pork katsu, but this restaurant literally takes a burger and breads it, then deep fries it.We checked this restaurant out on a Thursday afternoon around 2, to avoid the crowds (it's quite popular during regular lunchtime hours). We had the place to ourselves, and the staff was super friendly and interested in what we thought of the food.I ordered the Tokyo Classic (the most basic burger) and the husband had the Ninja Deluxe (pork with cheese and bacon). We also tried the curry and nori fries, and split a green tea milkshake.
The food was crazy rich, but I did enjoy it. I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon (this is maybe a once-a-year meal), but it's such a novelty that you should totally check it out.

Not just any snickerdoodle

What is better than a snickerdoodle? A pumpkin snickerdoodle! You heard that right, pumpkin has met snickerdoodle and history has been made. These cookies were just the right amount of pillowy goodness - go make these, then give them to everyone you know. Right now is the perfect time to be using pumpkin, too; these would be great for Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

3¾ cups all-purpose flour

1½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar

¾ cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the coating:

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground ginger

Dash of allspice

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Blend in the pumpkin puree. Beat in the egg and vanilla until incorporated. With the mixer on low speed add in the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Cover and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Combine the sugar and spices for the coating in a bowl and mix to blend. Scoop the dough (about 2½ tablespoons) and roll into a ball. Coat the dough ball in the sugar-spice mixture and place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough to fill the sheets, spacing the dough balls 2-3 inches apart. Dip the bottom of a flat, heavy-bottomed drinking glass in water, then in the sugar-spice mixture, and use the bottom to flatten the dough balls slightly. Recoat the bottom of the glass in the sugar-spice mixture as needed.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until just set and baked through. Let cool on the baking sheets about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough. Store in an airtight container.