Mmmm pancakes...

Chocolate chip ones at that. I read Joy the Baker and adore her. I finally gave some recipes a whirl recently and am in heaen. This was the 1st one and while I don't normally like pancakes I loved these. (Click!) I made mine much bigger than hers but I think next time I'll try and aim for smaller.

We've also done her raspberry lemonade (click!) but used blueberries. Pure heaven. That is all. Add in her pizza crust (click!) and you have an awesome meal. I've now made the pizza crust twice (and froze half of one) and I'm in love. I do not normally like homemade crusts. They just aren't the same as commerical, greastastic Pizza Hut type crusts. I like those. This? This one rocks. Enough so the two times I've made it have been in about 1.5 weeks. :)

Cinnamon rolls

I made enough to freeze some (though not many). They turned out so tasty! We topped ours with some orange vanilla frosting. Delish!

To freeze:
Once cut (regardless of recipe used), place on cookie sheet as if you were going to let them rise. Stick in the freezer! Once frozen bag them. Good to go. To use just take them out (however many you want) before you head to bed the night before. When you wake up theyll be nice and risen and ready to go. I've seen differing views on this. Some said stick them in a warm place and some said the fridge. Me? I stuck them on a plate in my oven. If you go the fridge route you may want to take them out earlier to ensure they have enough time to defrost.

Orange vanilla frosting:
3 tablespoons butter- softened
1 tablespoons orange rind
2 tablespoons orange juice
a splash of vanilla (I just dumped mine in all nilly-willy)
enough powdered sugar for the desired thickness

Mix it all up and enjoy!

White Kidney Bean Soup

This is a perfect soup for when you 1.)don't have a lot of time or 2.) need to use up pantry items. Both were the case tonight.

Vegetable broth/base (I did 4 cups)
1 can of white kidney beans
.5 cup minute rice (I prefer minute rice in my soup for timing reasons)
.5-1 cup frozen corn
5.-1 cup frozen peas

Add water and/or broth to pan (I used 4 cups water and 2 large bullion cubes. You could use premade broth). Bring to a boil. Add all other ingredients and cover. Let simmer until frozen items are cooked through and rice is soft (about 15 minutes). For deeper flavors simmer another 15-20 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Tasty, light, and warming (it's cold here today). Flavor could/would be deeper with a chicken broth. Garlic would be a good addition as well. I went for simple tonight and paired it with some saltines.

Fresh tortillas

I tried my hand at homemade tortillas today. They turned out awesome! I halved the recipe (just did a quickie google search for flour tortilla recipe and picked one) and still got 14 out of it. It took a couple to get the hang of rolling them out to the right size and thinness but once I did I flew through the rest. I did use EVOO instead of lard in the dough for a couple reasons (mostly being I don't use lard). I don't think there was much difference in taste from the store bought or even fresh ones in a food joint (though there is a difference). I had called my sister to ask about the substitution and she mentioned they may taste different so I was worried they would.

A few dried out in between making them and making dinner but nothing too bad. I could have warmed them up and loosened them up a bit. :) These weren't quite big enough to roll but that's ok. Those two are the first two I made so they were a bit thicker. Dinner rocked!

Yeast beast

I accidentally used too much yeast (well for my original recipe. I fixed that quick.). It was awesome.

1 cup water. From the 150 line on up is yeast. 3 minutes in.
5 minutes in. About 30 seconds later yeast foam flopped out onto my counter.

Done kneading and put into the bowl. Picture was taken at 7:54.

7:59. 5 minutes later.

8:20. I punched it down at this point for its 2nd rise. Reached the same size in 5 minutes. The end loaf was HUGE.

Fun in the kitchen

I found a blog the other night that had some awesome recipes. The whole blog itself is rather inspiring but the food. Oh man the food. One such recipe was for butter so I gave it a whirl. This was before I added some oomph to it. Just heavy whipping cream in a jar shook to high hell.
This is after the spice (Mediterranean mix) had been added and the butter shaped. The flavor is ok. I have another container of the cream so I'm going to try the flavoring that was in the recipe (salt, honey, and rosemary). I did make a loaf of bread intended for this but it got gobbled up with a different topping. I have used this in my pans when I make eggs and it works really well (not sure why I thought it wouldn't). You can smell the spice but the actual flavor is really light. Overall I like it. Going to tweak it a bit though.

The new house has red currant bushes (3 of them!) so I set the kiddos to work the other day. Between 2 bushes that have been uncared for we managed to get 2.5 cups worth!
To say they are a pain in the butt to pick is an understatement. After about the first cup I gave up and was pulling off the bunches. I ended up having to pick out lots of twigs but it was worth it.

This was my first jelly! I don't know anything about jelly making really so I'm not sure how good this is but it's tasty. Super sweet and the red currant flavor is light. I was hoping for a stronger one but that's ok. For my first time it's not bad. I only got the one bottle out of it and half of it is gone (ate it on the bread) already.

Not shown is some crackers I made. They were ok. Need to work on getting them thinner. Oh and the bread. I got a new pan not too long ago (a German made one) and it make a 12 inch loaf! The thing was massive. It contained a braided one so well. I expected it to stick to the sides and be moist (in the bad way) on the bottom but it fell right out and was cooked perfectly. Next time I'll have to get a picture. Other than that I don't really have anything. We've moved twice in the last few months so I haven't been too motivated to be in the kitchen and to document it. :)

**Back. I do have a picture of the bread!

Sunday Supper

(Somewhere between picture and uploading it went hazy. Le sigh. One day I'll have a rockin' camera....)

Quron Cranberry and Goat Cheese Chik'n Cutlet (see here) with a salad (baby spinach, spring greens, and another leaf with cucumbers, avocado, tomatos, and cheese) topped with a cherry balsalmic with rosemary. The dressing is SUPER tasty. A new brand we picked up at the store yesterday (New Seasons if you are curious).

Even though I had planned on a soup things but my house was incredibly uncooperative so I went for quick and easy. Surprisingly wonderful in flavor and filling. We love Quorn brand. Only downfall of the chik'n cutlets is the shape on one side. There is a hump on it which, in my mind, makes cooking uneven. Irritating but I imagine only for the perfectionist. :)