Sabbath Supper

A New Course

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 19:59:00 +0000

Throughout this blog's life I've focused on one thing: sharing recipes and the tricks I found useful when cooking. I used this blog half for myself (to keep records to help me later on), and to just share what I learned with whoever stops by to read. In retrospect, I have rarely touched on what was happening in my life. So much so that you all probably need to scroll to the top of the page every now and then to remember my name!

I would like to have this blog go beyond the new recipe I just found, or the old-favorite dish I just unearthed. I'm taking a new course in my life (career oriented), and I would like to write about it and hopefully you all will find it interesting, endearing, exciting, or just something that will rock your boat! OK, that sounded mysterious! Before I spill the beans, let me rewind a little bit and take you through the years leading up to this new endeavor of mine.

The blog, Sabbath Supper, was so named because when it first became public (March 1, 2009) I cooked one meal a week for the family: Sunday supper. I started cooking supper every Sunday in 2008 and didn't start the blog until the next year. I wanted to use the blog as a way to track all the new cooking skills I was learning.

I didn't start to cook out of necessity (my step mom was an awesome home cook and have everything done like clock work), but to satisfy the urge to go in the kitchen, knock around a few spoons and measuring cups and create a meal that my large family would love. I remember when I was eleven or so, my two sisters and I acquired a set of pots and pans from a yard sale and started playing what we called "Experiments." Experiments usually was played out like this: we would gather various leaves, berries, bark, dirt, etc. and use them as we would ingredients in a kitchen. We would combine all or a few of these "naturally-sourced ingredients" in our set of pots and pans and stir them around with wooden spoons and serve them up on some old plastic plates, complete with fork and knife. We didn't eat a morsel, even though the choke berry "wine" looked tempting. But we had so much fun concocting these dishes, plating them up, and measuring out ingredients using our old pyrex measuring cup. Measuring must of been the best part, it always created the atmosphere of a true kitchen.

So my first actual meal that I cooked for the family (besides the Cream of Mushroom Soup that I had done previously), was Chicken Argentina and Potato Parmesan. According to my blog post the chicken had lime and olives; it was good but, "...Not good enough for a repeat." The Potato Parmesan, which was technically mashed potatoes with parm thrown in, was the first time for me to use real potatoes when making mash. Overall, the meal turned out to be well received, even though it was 30 minutes late! I write a note about this: "Meat can take a lot longer than a recipe says." To this day, I agree.

Several weeks into this blog I joined the Food Network Challenge blog challenge. The members had to go through the long list of Food Network t.v. personalities, like Bobby Flay, Sunny Anderson, etc., and make one or more of their dishes each week. This challenge really got my cooking momentum going and made me go out and buy new ingredients that the family didn't typically eat, such as mushrooms, cream, fettucini, and so on. I remember this challenge to include some high, YES-I-CAN-COOK moments and some I-GIVE-UP moments. One very hard Sunday supper to prepare was oven baked chicken with homemade curly potato fries. Because I wanted to give myself a jump start on the supper that day, I prepared the curly fries in the morning and had them sit on a cookie sheet in the oven. Not a good idea. When I went back to turn on the oven, the fries had oxidized by then so they had an unappetizing brown color. I cooked them anyway, but only after having a good cry. Those potatoes were not the only thing. The chicken coating for the baked chicken was not adhering and whatever did stay on was so charred and hard by the time the chicken was cooked, it became almost inedible. I think that one brought the tears! My family is made up of troopers, and they ate every bite and told me they can't wait for next week.

In 2010, cooking turned from hobby to necessity when my step mom started working again and someone needed to fill in for her. The first couple months were the hardest for me. I had to learn new recipes quickly and get two meals on the table each day. My family doesn't order in or go out to eat, so from-scratch meals are a daily occurrence and that means a lot of forethought. 2010 also brought grocery shopping. My step mom did all the shopping so I hadn't a clue about pricing, couponing, price-matching, and keeping everything stocked. Because if you do the food shopping you also do the paper towel, toothpaste, shampoo, and light bulb shopping that comes with it! You just can't get around that!

Even cooking every single day and doing the majority of the menu planning, grocery shopping, canning/freezing, etc., I felt like I wanted to cook more and learn more. Granted, I did feel burnt out at times, especially on Sundays (strangely enough!) but these moments didn't last for more than two days. I still enjoyed curling up with a good cook book, watching cooking shows on tv and youtube, and reading Cook's Country magazine.

The blog writing dwindled during this time because I just got way too busy with all the new things that had to be learned to run the house, to keep up with the farm and its never ending job list, and taking on side jobs like working at a summer camp. At this time I knew I had to seriously think about working towards a goal for myself as an individual, but I was unsure on what that goal was.

Then things took an unexpected turn when my stepmom became critically ill in 2013. She somewhat gained her health during the summer but fell ill once more in January 2014. She passed away the following month. My first mom, Susan, wasn't able to share with me her love of cooking before she passed when I was ten, but my stepmom, Annemarie, was happy to show me around the kitchen and share with me what she knew with her newly acquired home cooking skills. She cooked everyday and especially loved to bake. We're Catholic so she made sure to include a special dessert for every feast day of the year. I admit, I had to run to the calendar to find out what saint's feast it was that day when I saw that she was making a special cake or bread!

My step mom said that I had a lot of talents and I need to choose one of them and grow with it. A lot of different pursuits were floating in my head. I love to sew and knit so for a time I thought I should enter the field of design or fashion. I also like to help others on a physical level so humanitarian work entered my mind. Neither one of these I thought could work for me because, a.) I am more into the construction process of fashion design and not really the fashion scene, and b.) the humanitarian work would be for me very stressful and probably wouldn't be something I could do day after day.

But cooking was there. It had been there for such a long time and according to family, friends, and acquaintances, I was good at it. Could a career be made out of it? There is a demand for chefs, sous chefs, pastry chefs, personal chefs, caterers, and dietary chefs in almost every city in my area and throughout the state and beyond. Would a career in the food industry be something I can see myself doing? Yes. Technically, I've been in the food industry for a good long while because I've worked on my family's fruit and vegetable farm my entire life. I have a good grasp on what is fresh and what is in season. You can't help but be inspired to cook by growing your own food.

This long and drawn out story of mine brings me to what I wanted to state at the very beginning of this post. My entirely new life course is culinary school. Yes, I am going back to school! Its been awhile! I am twenty-five now and will be starting culinary school this coming January. I am going the Culinary Institute of Michigan (the CIM) located in downtown Muskegon. The CIM is connected with Baker College, which is right next door to Muskegon Community College. I am beyond excited to start!

I was able to take a tour of the campus earlier this month and visit both the Baker Campus as well as the CIM, which is located five minutes from the campus.

I would like to look at this post as a prelude to a series of posts. I am looking forward to writing about my experience through culinary school, from the weeks leading up to the first day to the final day of the final semester. There is so little information on the internet/literature about the culinary school experience; believe me I've looked. I wanted to know what I will be getting myself into! That is why I thought a series on this topic would help so many prospective students decide if a degree in such a field is something they want to do and can do. I know, of course, that the Culinary Institute of Michigan is not like all other culinary schools but I do believe it will be a good benchmark. Just gaining the "feel of the land" would be so helpful.

So in the upcoming posts I will be covering how I enrolled in the college, what degree I am shooting for, and all about the campus tour I took, which included free chocolate by the way! :) Hope to catch up with you all soon!

The Culinary Institute of Michigan building. Source.

Culinary school students at CIM observing a presentation given by visting chef, Sylvain Leroy. Source.

Tried and True Recipe: Ultimate Cheesecake

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 00:51:00 +0000

It's been awhile since my last Tried and True recipe so I thought it was high time to write up a post featuring this concept. For those who need a refresher, Tried and True Recipes (TNT) are those great, no-fail recipes you reach for again and again. I was doing a series of TNT recipes last year and so if you want to check those out, I will be including a compiled list with all the links at the end of this post.

The recipe that is highlighted today is the Ultimate Cheesecake. I've done this one before, as you might remember, and really is foolproof as you're going to get. Which is no easy feat when considering it is cheesecake. Cheesecake can have all sorts of issues: lumpy filling, crumbly crust, holes, etc. Not with this recipe!

I first came upon this recipe when I was watching Tyler Florence's show, Tyler's Ultimate, for the first time. (Yeah, I guess it's been awhile!) His recipe is called The Ultimate Cheesecake and is topped with a decadent blueberry and lemon sauce that is really, really good (I've tried it once). I didn't include the sauce in my recipe and I did change a few things, just because my TNT series is all about the recipe's simplicity. But if you are looking for a cheesecake with that extra something something, here's Tyler's original recipe.

Now onto my recipe!

Ultimate Cheesecake
click here for printable recipe
Serves: 8

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 cups finely ground graham crackers (about 30 squares)

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

1 pound cream cheese, 2 (8-ounce) blocks, softened

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 pint sour cream

1 dash vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 325F.

In a mixing bowl, combine the crust ingredients with a fork until evenly moistened. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Pour the crumbs into the pan and, using the bottom of a measuring cup or the smooth bottom of a glass, press the crumbs down into the base and 1-inch up the sides. Refrigerate for 5 minutes.

For the Filling:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese on low speed for 1 minute until smooth and free of any lumps. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue to beat slowly until combined. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy, for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add sour cream and vanilla. Periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters. The batter should be well-mixed but not overbeaten. Pour the filling into the crust-lined pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Set the cheesecake pan on a large piece of aluminum foil and fold up the sides around it. Place the cake pan in a large roasting pan. Pour boiling water into the roasting pan until the water is about halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan; the foil will keep the water from seeping into the cheesecake. Bake for 45 minutes. The cheesecake should still jiggle (it will firm up after chilling), so be careful not to overcook. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes. Chill in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for at least 4 hours. Loosen the cheesecake from the sides of the pan by running a thin metal spatula around the inside rim. Unmold and transfer to a cake plate. Enjoy!

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List of past TNT recipes:

TNT Recipe: Turkey Dressing
TNT Recipe: Mashed Potatoes
TNT Recipe: Pizza Buns
TNT Recipe: Chicago Style Pizza
TNT Recipe: Favorite Brownies
TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes
Tried and True Recipes Intro

Chocolate Chip Cookies - My Favorite Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:28:00 +0000

Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes are plentiful. Many of them that find their way into cookbooks or internet recipe banks, are just a stepping stone away from the famous Toll House recipe. Some walk on the wild side and sneak in sour cream or oats or even pumpkin. (Yeah, intrigued about that last one.)

I've tried many, many different recipes. For a time the Toll House recipe was trending high on my favorite list but the recipe is always a hit and miss because the cookies sometimes spread when baking and create a thin cookie. Not what I want a lot of the time.

I wanted to try out another Chocolate Chip recipe to make a cookie that has a chewy exterior and soft interior and that doesn't spread, the last being top priority. I'm excited to announce that I found one! It turns out that it was right under my nose. Let me explain. . . I was baking my favorite Four-Way Fudge Brownie recipe one day and I was saying to my brother that the cookbook I was using (Better Homes and Garden Cookie Classics--the first cookbook that I ever owned), has AWESOME recipes. Not only do they have some really approachable cookie flavors (such as their White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies), the recipes never fail. They always turn out great.

That made me thinking. . . How about the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe at the beginning of the book? There were so many recipe treasures in this book, the Chocolate Chip recipe could be a winner as well. And as I soon found out--it was.

Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

click here for printable recipe

Yield: 50 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup shortening

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoon vanilla

4 eggs

5 cups all purpose flour

2-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat mixture until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the vanilla. Follow with the eggs, drop in one at a time. Add flour and beat until dough just comes together. Beat in chocolate chips.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto lined baking sheet. (Line with either nonstick foil or parchment.) Using a #40 spring loaded ice cream scoop really makes this step go a lot faster.

Bake cookies in a 375F oven for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool.

Watch and Bake

I filmed a how-to video on how to make these chocolate chip cookies. It is a really fun video to watch and hope you check it out before you turn on the mixer. :)

click on image to view video

Homemade Tuna Noodle Casserole (Without the Can!)

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 15:30:00 +0000

The condensed soups, be it tomato, chicken noodle, cream of this or cream of that, they all have personal recipe books to their name. Instead of choosing the pot o' soup route, you can take your condensed soup and make Southwest Chili or Garlic Chicken.

Or arguably the most famous condensed soup based recipe: Tuna Noodle Casserole.

Cream of mushroom soup, the star of the Tuna Noodle Casserole stage, was actually my favorite Campbell's soup when I was growing up. And it was one of the few meals that I could cook for the family when I was eleven. (Yeah, it was basically soup and cinnamon toast then!)

Using the cream of mushroom as a base for Tuna Noodle Casserole is always a fast and effortless way of pulling a casserole together, but sometimes this is not always possible. Such as last week. I proposed the idea of making Tuna Noodle Casserole that week and since we haven't had it in SUCH a long time, the family was getting kind of excited about the whole thing. I started check-boxing the ingredient list in my head. . . "So I will need peas. Check. Cheese. Check. Tuna, cheese, milk. Check, check, check. Think I'm all set. Wait a minute. I don't have any cream of mushroom soup. Actually no cream of soup at all!"

I just couldn't bring myself to burst the Tuna Noodle Casserole bubble for the family so I scoured the internet searching for a recipe that didn't include the "can." I found one at "Sing for Your Supper Blog." It it not your traditional Tuna Noodle. It uses spaghetti, olives, canned mushrooms, etc. Not many flavors or textures the family would like. But the recipe has good bones, especially when speaking of the roux. So I took some components from this recipe, added a few of mine and produced a casserole that we think is better than the Campbell version. And hey, making Tuna Noodle Casserole from scratch also means less salt and the sometimes "chalky" aftertaste you get from a canned soup. Not a bad comeback!

Homemade Tuna Noodle Casserole
click here for printable recipe

Yield: One 5 quart casserole

Prep Time: 1 hour
Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. jumbo elbow macaroni (use any pasta shape you like!)
2 cups chicken stock (I use chicken bouillon cubes. To make: Drop in two cubes into two cups boiling water. Boil until cubes have dissolved)
4 medium onions
1/2 stick butter
5 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons dried parsley
1 quart frozen peas (I use whole sugar snap peas. Alternatively, you can use two 15 oz. cans of shelled peas)
2 cans chunk white tuna (5 oz. cans)
2 cups shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese
2 packets of Ritz crackers, crushed (Tip: Put two Ritz cracker packets into plastic bag and crush by hand until crumbs resemble large bread crumbs)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F. Boil 4 quarts water in 6 quart pot. In the meantime, chop onions into small dice. Add macaroni to pot and boil until fully cooked (around 11 minutes). Drain pot and pour cooked pasta into separate bowl. Return pasta pot to medium-high burner and add 1/2 stick butter. As soon as butter is melted add onions, salt, and pepper. Put lid on pot and cook onions until softened, about 10 minutes. Next, add 5 tablespoons flour to onions, stir vigorously and cook onion-flour paste for 2 minutes. Slowly begin adding chicken stock and milk to pot and stir continuously. Simmer until thickened. As soon as liquid has thickened, add in dried parsley, salt, pepper, cooked macaroni, frozen peas, tuna, and cheese. Bring pot to a simmer. Pour tuna noodle mixture into casserole dish that has been either buttered or sprayed with nonstick spray. Pour a little milk at the sides of the dish to prevent a dry casserole. Top casserole with cracker topping. Place dish into oven and bake for 10 minutes or until cracker topping is slightly brown. To avoid an overly browned topping, top casserole with aluminum foil and return to oven to cook for an additional 30 minutes. Look for a ready casserole that is golden brown and bubbling around the edges. Enjoy!

Watch and Cook

I also filmed a how-to video on this Tuna Noodle Casserole of mine. Be sure to watch it before you tie on your apron!

click the image to see the video

Tried and True Recipe: Turkey Dressing

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0000

No, there is no turkey in this dressing. It just earned such a title because it is the perfect choice for a turkey dinner, or a pork dinner, or a chicken dinner. You'll be making up excuses to have this side make its way into the menu plan. The family had a turkey dinner the other Thursday (who said turkey is once a year?), so I jumped on the opportunity to whip out the camera and get a few shots of this tried and true recipe that goes back decades.

Tried and True Recipes (TNT) are those great, no-fail recipes you reach for again and again. I am doing a TNT series here on this blog where I will post one of my family's TNT recipes every other Sunday. See my previous posts:

TNT Recipe: Mashed Potatoes
TNT Recipe: Pizza Buns TNT Recipe: Chicago Style Pizza
TNT Recipe: Favorite Brownies
TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes
Tried and True Recipes Intro

When I was a kid and Thanksgiving came along, I didn't care much for the turkey part (save for the skin!), or the veggies. What I couldn't wait for was the dressing. Yes, it's true that I probably ate most of the canned cranberry sauce in Jell-o form, too, but dressing was my all time favorite. It still remains high on my list and the cranberry sauce? Canned is good, homemade is great!

As I said earlier, our dressing recipe goes back decades and was first introduced into the holiday food lineup by my grandmother, Gertrude.

[ recipe binder that includes some of my grandmother's recipes ]

So want to see this dressing I've been raving about?

The recipe starts off with you browning bacon bits, removing them from the pan and leaving most of the fat behind. Make sure you cut your bacon fine.

After chopping up an onion and some garlic cloves, you throw them into the pan and let them cook until translucent. Follow up with cup-after-cup of milk (6 in all!), eggs, and poultry seasoning. Next is the saltines, crushed and grounded until they resemble a tuna noodle casserole topping. Once the saltines have soaked up most of the milk and are looking more and more like oatmeal, you add in the bacon bits you rendered earlier. You cook this until most of the moisture is gone and the dressing is sticking to the bottom of the pan. Yes, stick.

May look like the dishwasher will have a hassle later on but you can avoid breaking out the elbow grease. When the meal is done and no dressing is to be seen, add water to the pan and let it simmer for a few minutes (like 5). Come back and scrape up the sticky, dressing bits with a spatula. You'll be surprised on how easily the bits come off the bottom!

OK, onto the recipe!

Turkey Dressing

Serves: 6-8

(for printable recipe click here)

Ingredients:

20 slices of bacon

1 medium onion, chopped fine

4 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups milk

4 eggs, scrambled

1-1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning

4 packs of Saltine crackers, crushed and grounded

salt and pepper

Directions:

Cut the bacon crosswise, into small bits. Try cutting partially frozen bacon, it is easier to handle. Add bacon to a large skillet or dutch oven and cook until browned. Remove bacon from pan. Drain away some of the fat if need be. Make sure you are left with 4 or so tablespoons.

Throw in onions and garlic and cook until translucent. Add in milk, eggs, poultry seasoning, and finally, crackers. As soon as the cracker mixture begins to look like oatmeal, add back in the bacon bits. Cook, stirring often, until most of the moisture is gone and dressing is sticking to bottom of pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

For easy pan cleanup: add some water to pan, let simmer for five minutes, and scrape stuck-on, dressing bits using a spatula.

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See you on May 5th!

Tried and True Recipe: Mashed Potatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Rice, noodles, bread, and potatoes are my family's usual "starch choices" for a meal. Potatoes must rank as #2 in the lineup for I seem to be always scrubbing and chopping those spuds. So for this week's tried and true recipe I thought it was high time I showed you how we make mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes can be prepared many, many different ways. Cream or milk. Skinned or skin on. Red potatoes or russets. Whipped or mashed. OK, I think you get the picture!

TNT Recipe: Pizza Buns

TNT Recipe: Chicago Style Pizza
TNT Recipe: Favorite Brownies
TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes
Tried and True Recipes Intro

For our mashed potatoes, we keep things thrifty and simple. We use milk, butter, skin-on red potatoes (usually), and salt and pepper for seasoning. When it comes to the mashing part, we grab for either the "ye old" potato masher or the hand-held electric beater, it really depends on the cook.

There are a couple things you should keep in the back of your mind when cooking up a pot of mashed potatoes. First off, when boiling your potatoes, cut the potatoes in quarters; it will make them cook a lot faster. Also, make sure your potatoes are fork tender (fall apart when you stab them with a fork), before you drain and start mashing. Mashed potatoes with chunks of raw potatoes. . . Ek. Lastly, go a little adventurous with the salt. I've noticed that you need to use more salt than you initially think when it comes to this side dish. OK, let's get to the recipe!

Simple Mashed Potatoes

Serves: 6

(Click here for printable recipe)

Ingredients:
2-1/2 lbs., or 16 medium-sized, potatoes (I often use red skinned potatoes)
6 tbsp. butter
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper

Directions:
Wash and clean potatoes. Leaving the skins on, cut potatoes in quarters or halves, depending upon the size. Place potatoes in a 4 quart pot and fill with water until potatoes are covered. Put on high heat and bring to boil. Boil for 30 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender, (potatoes full apart when you stab them with a fork).

Drain potatoes and return to pot. While potatoes are still piping hot, mash with potato masher. Before the potatoes are fully mashed, add butter and milk. Add more milk if the mixture looks too dry. If you want, you can use an handheld electric beater at this time to whip up your mashed potatoes. Alternatively, you can continue using your potato masher. Finally, add salt and pepper to taste.

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See you in two weeks! Next TNT recipe will be posted on the 21st.

Tried and True Recipe: Pizza Buns

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Back again this weekend to share with you yet another pizza recipe!

So the tried and true recipe for this week is Pizza Buns. Tried and True Recipes (TNT) are those great, no-fail recipes you reach for again and again. I am doing a TNT series here on this blog where I will post one of my family's TNT recipes every other Sunday. See my previous posts:

TNT Recipe: Chicago Style Pizza
TNT Recipe: Favorite Brownies
TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes
Tried and True Recipes Intro

This recipe, simply put, is a pizza done cinnamon roll/jelly roll style. Don't worry, it's not one of those fiddly yeast dough recipes that require great skill in dough manipulation. May not be as easy to make as the Chicago Style pizza from last week, but it is, in my opinion, easier to make (and bake), than the traditional flat, circular pizza pie. I have found through my experiences that it is not always easy to roll and stretch out pizza dough to a large and thin circular object. Main cause of this is not giving the dough enough time to rest and have the gluten relax--and time is not something I always have. So with these pizza rolls, the dough needs just a short spurt of rising (for me, 50 minutes on average in a warm kitchen), before rolling it out into a shape that resembles a rectangle. It needn't be exact, because jelly rolls through their nature, always turn out beautifully, even if they start with rather poor aesthetics.

So after rolling out the dough to a rectangular shape, you spread out your filling. In my case I used ground Italian pork sausage that was browned and cooled beforehand. Follow this with a few handfuls of mozzarella, and we're good. Taking a long side, roll the dough into a log just as you would your traditional jelly roll. Seal the edges with a bit of water; it is not a sticky dough in the first place and it needs some help in the adhesive department. Using a knife, cut twelve rolls from each log.

[ rolls with sausage and cheese filling rising for the 2nd time ]

[ I chose to do six of them with only cheese ]

After another short rise (twenty minutes or so), and fifteen minutes of baking in a 350F oven, take out the rolls and give them a good dollop of homemade pizza sauce. I would say two large dollops per roll. I think "dollop" terms do help. Should be placed right alongside "pinch."

And of course more cheese! Place rolls back in the oven and bake for fifteen minutes more. Before you take them out you may want to do what I do to get a nice golden brown cheese topping. (I love crispy cheese!) I like to turn on the broiler and broil until I see the right amount of golden brown. Takes only but a few minutes more and I think it is well worth the extra time. If you try to achieve golden brown cheese delight by way of extended baking at 350F, your pizza bun bottoms will be past satisfactory by the time the cheese catches up. Believe me, I've been there.

So without further ado. . .

Pizza Buns

Recipe comes from the King Arthur Flour website. See it here.

(Click here for printable recipe)

Buns

1/2 cup milk
2/3 cup hot tap water
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons Pizza Dough Flavor,* optional but good
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
2 tablespoons potato flour or 1/4 cup instant potato flakes
3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
*Increase the salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons if you omit the Pizza Dough Flavor

Filling

1 1/2 lb. Italian sausage, removed from casing, crumbled, and fried
1 cup shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese, or the pizza cheese of your choice

Topping

1 cup pizza sauce
1/2 teaspoon Pizza Seasoning, optional
2 teaspoons sugar, optional
3 cups shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese, or the pizza cheese of your choice

Directions

1) Whisk together the milk, hot water, and olive oil. The hot water should heat the milk so that the entire mixture is lukewarm. Set it aside.

2) In a separate, larger bowl, whisk together the salt, Pizza Dough Flavor, sugar, dry milk, potato flour, all-purpose flour, and yeast.

3) Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring to combine.

4) Mix and knead the mixture — by hand, using a stand mixer, or in a bread machine — to make a smooth, soft dough.

5) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or a large (8-cup) measuring cup, cover it, and allow it to rise till doubled, 60 to 90 minutes.

6) Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a lightly greased work surface.

7) Roll the dough into a 12" x 18" rectangle.

8) Spread evenly with the 1 cup cheese, and the browned sausage, gently pressing them into the dough.

9) Starting with a short end, roll the dough into a log. Cut the log into 12 pieces.

10) Space the rounds on two parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheets, six to a sheet. Flatten each to about 1/2" thick.

11) Cover the pan, and allow the buns to rise for 60 to 90 minutes, till they're nicely puffed. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

12) Bake the buns for 15 minutes. While the buns are baking, combine the tomato sauce with the Pizza Seasoning and 2 teaspoons sugar, if you're using them.

13) Remove the buns from the oven, and brush each with a generous tablespoon of sauce. Sprinkle with about 1/4 cup shredded cheese.

14) Return the buns to the oven, and bake until their edges are golden brown, and the cheese is melted, about 15 to 20 minutes.

15) Remove from the oven, and serve warm. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator. Reheat for about 10 minutes, covered, in a 350°F oven; or very briefly in a microwave.

Yield: 12 pizza buns.

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Come back on April 7th for another tried and true recipe!

Tried and True Recipe: Chicago-Style Pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 10:00:00 +0000

My family loves pizza. I've tried many different variations throughout the years, from BBQ Chicken Pizza to Ciabatta Bread Pizza. We like any version really but one does stand out in regards to being flavor-packed and easy to make. You may remember me mentioning it last year; it is the Chicago-Style Garlic and Butter Pizza. Made it so often that it has become the Tried and True Recipe of the Pizza World; for this house anyway!

TNT Recipe: Favorite Brownies

TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes

Tried and True Recipes Intro

So this is what the pizza looks like:

13x9 pan! Yay! Makes it so much easier to do. If you have a Pyrex dish of some sort you might want to make the pizza in that. It allows you to take a peek of the bottom while cooking to make sure it is not too under or over browned.

So here is the recipe and a side note to go with it. It is not necessary to use garlic and butter in the crust. The garlic can be completely omitted (which I did once and it still was tasty), and vegetable or olive oil can be substituted for the butter.

Update: I modified the following recipe on 4/14/13 to make it closer to what I personally do.

Chicago-Style Garlic and Butter Pizza Crust

Yield: One 13x9 pan / Click here for printable recipe

1 (2-1/4 tsp.) package active dry yeast
1-1/4 cups lukewarm water (110F - 115F)
3-1/4 cups flour, plus more for dusting (Try using half bread flour; makes for a chewy crust)
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. butter
4 garlic cloves, minced
pizza toppings, your choice (What I Did: My toppings were homemade pizza sauce--tomato sauce, dried basil, salt and pepper, sugar--mozzarella cheese, sliced bell peppers lightly sauteed, and browned, Italian pork sausage)

Directions:

1. In a measuring cup, dissolve yeast with 1-1/4 cups lukewarm water and sugar. Wait until yeast starts to "bloom" or create foam.

2. In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add garlic to butter and cook on medium heat until fragrant. Move from heat.

3. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, and salt. Stir in yeast mixture. Add butter and garlic mixture.

4. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until soft and elastic, about 5 minutes. Lightly grease a large bowl, add the dough and turn to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

4. Deflate dough. Grease a 13x9" baking dish and press in dough to cover bottom and 2 inches up the sides; let rise for 20 minutes. While waiting for dough to rise, preheat over to 400F.

5. Top pizza dough with your favorite toppings and bake for 30 minutes.

Tried and True Recipe: Favorite Brownies

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Whenever a recipe allows me to spend fifteen minutes prepping, thirty minutes baking, zero to three minutes cooling, and all done with a 13x9 pan, well, let's just say that the recipe print out or cookbook page quickly becomes crumbled and stained by multiple use. I love this type of recipe because advance planning is not necessary and I wind up with a dessert in under an hour. Oh, and don't forget that 13x9 pan tagline. I don't know why but whenever I see the 13x9 pan as recommended hardware in the recipe, everything seems so much more doable.

Now onto my promised Tried and True Recipe for today. Tried and True Recipes (TNT) are those great, no-fail recipes you reach for again and again. I am doing a TNT series here on this blog where I will post one of my family's TNT recipes every other Sunday. See my previous posts:

TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes

Tried and True Recipes Intro

Actually, this time I will be sharing two recipes, each being a recipe for a brownie. And yes, they come together in no time and 13x9 pans are in your future.

The recipes are called "Best Butterscotch Brownies" and "Four-Way Fudge Brownies." Sounds yummy, huh? So you can better picture them in your mind. . .

I could take credit for these moist, chewy, fudgy, butterscotch-y brownies, but I shouldn't. My sister Catherine baked these and did a mighty fine job. They tasted better than usual!

What I really like about these butterscotch brownies is that no butterscotch chips are used. Brown sugar and butter heated together is what gives them their flavor. To me, butterscotch in chip form leaves a metallic aftertaste so not too fond of them. Another highlight for these brownies is how well they travel. Great lunchbox choice.

I tried a lot of different chocolate brownies before I found the Four-Way Fudge Brownies recipe. With a lot of the recipes I found the chocolate to be prominent, but the brownie's chewiness was always an issue. They always turned out more crisp than I wanted them to be. Up until last year when I found the Four-Way Fudge Brownies, I thought boxed brownies were the best. Yeah, I was that far from brownie bliss.

Onto the recipes!

Best Butterscotch Brownies

(click here for printable version)

source: www.cdkitchen.com

Ingredients:

2 cups light brown sugar

1-1/2 sticks butter, melted

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Melt sugar and butter together. Cool. Add eggs. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla together. Add to other mixture. Mix well. Bake in greased 13x9 pan at 350F for 30 minutes.

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Four-Way Fudge Brownies

(click here for printable version)

source: Better Homes and Garden cookbook, out of print

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, cut up

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1-1/3 cups flour

Directions:

Grease a 13x9 pan and set aside. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat lightly by hand just until combined. Stir in flour.

Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake brownies in a 350F oven for 30 minutes.

------------------

Next TNT recipe will be posted on March 10!

Tried and True Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Here's the premiere post of my brand new blog series: Tried and True Recipes. TNT recipes are those great, no-fail recipes that you reach for again and again. See my previous post to learn more.

Homemade blueberry pancakes have been a staple for my family for years. They are the pinnacle of Sunday brunches and most recently, Friday lunches, as we abstain from meat on this day of the week. Add the fact that we grow and freeze our own blueberries and you have one spectacular pancake. We typically reach for the Bisquick mix to make pancakes, but last year I found a wonderful pancake recipe from Annemarie's famous Betty Crocker cook book from 1950. According to Pinterest, this is one popular cook book! Recipe follows photos. . .

Blueberry Pancakes

(click here for printable recipe)

Ingredients:

1 egg

1-1/4 cups buttermilk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. sugar

2 tbsp. soft butter

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 to 1/3 cup frozen blueberries

Directions:

In a bowl, combine eggs, milk, and baking soda. Beat until foamy. Beat in flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, and salt. Make sure you don't over beat. Pour frozen blueberries in (don't bother rinsing them unless you see ice), and stir gently with a spoon.

Heat griddle and grease with butter. Here's a tip on how to grease: take a stick of butter straight from the fridge and unwrap it at one end. Using the other end as a handle, slide the butter stick over the entire surface of the griddle. Place butter back in fridge until you have to grease again. Using a ladle, pour batter on hot griddle. Test and adjust amount of batter you need for a pancake in your preferred diameter. (Hey, every family is different. Some like it big, others small!) Once the pancakes' edges are firm and you see large bubbles in the middle, it is time to flip. First, use a large spatula to cut and separate the pancakes that are touching, then flip!

As soon as the other side is brown the pancakes are ready to eat. You can have them right off the griddle or you can place them in a warm, glass baking dish and put them in a warm oven. They will be still nice and butter-melting-warm when it's time to eat!

Yield: 16 4" pancakes.

------

Next TNT recipe will be posted on February 24!

New Tried and True Series

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:27:00 +0000

I've been mulling over in my mind an idea I came up with a couple weeks ago. In a nutshell, it is a series of blog posts where each post will have the slogan: "Tried and True Recipe." Or "TNT" for short. So what makes a tried and true recipe? For me, a TNT recipe is one that I grab for first whenever I think of making that particular dish. I remember watching Melissa D'Arabian (host of Ten Dollar Dinners on Food Network), a couple years ago and she used to say, "This is a good recipe to have in your back pocket." In other words, a great, no-fail recipe that has proved his worth in the past and acts like a culinary swiss army knife. Aka family favorites. Aka comfort food. Aka tried and true recipe. Aka TNT recipe.

Years ago when Sabbath Supper was just starting out, I used to post each week what I cooked/baked on Sunday afternoon. That's where the name came from! For this new series, I will be scheduling a post every other Sunday morning with a TNT recipe to share with you. So you can sip your coffee and read at the same time. :) A written (and printable) recipe will be shared along with any tips that will help make my recipe a TNT recipe for you.

The first post in this series will be going public this coming Sunday, February 10th.

----------

Some other news: I thought I should fill you in on some recent news of mine. First I will give you some background info! Last summer I started to sell homemade baked goods at Magicland Farms (my family's roadside farm market), under the Michigan Cottage Food Law. I was selling bar cookies, brownies, blueberry muffins, sugar cookies, cupcakes, and more throughout the summer and fall months. All of them were really popular and I had a hard time keeping up with the demand! Thank goodness we had air conditioning because I don't think I could have made it through hot summer baking without it!

Later in the year I started selling my baked goods at craft shows and forming my own business called Becky's Sweet Delights Bakery. (See website here.)

Last month I managed to obtain a job at a local camp and will be working part time as Food Service Staff. In all likelihood, I will need to cut off any bakery pursuits for this year which is a sad thing considering how new it is. On the bright side, it will always be there for me to lean back on and it is something I know I will enjoy. I am very excited to start working at the camp; my training will be starting at the end of February so I don't have to wait very long at all! Pray for me and my new endeavor!

How to Freeze Broccoli - The Long Awaited Video

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:38:00 +0000

Hi there! No news from me since July. Gosh! Sabbath Supper just kept on being pushed down to the end of my to-do lists. Maybe there will be a change soon with my posting schedule. I do hope so!

In October (yeah, way back then), I had the chance to freeze some of our broccoli and thought it may be a good topic to do a how-to video on. Broccoli is not the easiest vegetable to do namely because of three things: how to remove the bugs, if any, how to cut the broccoli so everything cooks at the same rate, and lastly, the blanch timing. I covered all of those questions in the video and I do hope you enjoy it! See the video here.

Have an upcoming post in the works that has something to do with a local bakery. Will share the details soon.

A Cooking Video by Yours Truly

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:00:00 +0000

OK, I may not be really "cooking" in the video I just put together last Sunday, but it does include ingredient preparation. It is called "How to Pick and Prepare Garlic Scapes." I start out in the garlic patch out on our farm showing you how to pick the scape from the garlic plant. I then go to the kitchen and show you the way I chop them--may seem like a no-brainer but, really, scapes can be cumbersome to cut!

I started making videos and uploading them to YouTube last February. Until the creation of the garlic scape, I was only constructing craft-related videos, such as How to Find Both Ends to Skein of Yarn and How to Find the Straight of Grain. I love my how-to videos! I've been playing with the idea of a video that was in the world of cooking for, um. . .Since I heard of YouTube. So 2006? Took me a long time to make it a reality, don't you think? I suppose I needed to practice with this video making stuff before I took the plunge. Anyway, I'm glad I did and I have a lot of other ideas for cooking videos. I'll probably save all of this for Fall when I have the time (farm work, you know), so be expecting some updates in September.

In the meantime, give me so more ideas by leaving a comment below. I would love to see what you have to say!

P.S. If your cable or satellite package includes Cooking Channel, you're most likely familiar with their little blurbs they do often. Like: "This is Cooking Channel. . . Stay hungry." Familiar? Well, if you pay close attention to one, the sliding background depicts the ever-so-unlikely garlic scape. :) Could not believe it.

CHOW's Bread and Butter Radishes

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:47:00 +0000

If you ever had to cook for a large amount of people, work for a restaurant, or work at a grocery store or farm market, you're probably well acquainted with leftovers. Produce or product that just wasn't consumed or bought.

So last Saturday at the family farm market, we had bags of radishes leftover. And since we're closed Sundays, these radishes would not find another home.

My family doesn't normally eat radishes in quantity and so I wasn't sure what to do with all this surplus product over the weekend. They looked so cheery and fresh and, well, just had to be used someway, somehow!

Then it happened. How about pickling them? Hmm. I love pickled vegetables: beets, relish, corn, etc. Not too sure how I arrived at this idea; must be something to do with my fixation of Chopped or something. They pickle everything on there, even kohlrabi.

Found a tantalizing recipe soon enough on Chow.com. Don't go there often. . . But after great success with a pancake question on their forums, will be stopping by again.

So here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch red radishes (about 13 radishes)
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon yellow or brown mustard seed
1/4 teaspoon whole coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 medium dried bay leaf

INSTRUCTIONS

Rinse radishes and trim off their leafy tops. Holding the stem end, thinly slice radishes with a mandoline or a sharp knife. When you get close to the stem, stop slicing and discard the end. Place radishes in a heatproof, nonreactive bowl, and set in the refrigerator while making the brine.
Combine red wine vinegar, sugar, water, salt, mustard seed, coriander seed, peppercorns, and bay leaf in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally until sugar is dissolved.
Remove from heat and let pickling brine cool for about 5 minutes. Remove radishes from the refrigerator and pour brine over them. Let cool at room temperature for 20 minutes; cover and refrigerate. Use to top burgers, sandwiches, or anything else that needs a little tarting up.

------

Modifications: Made a few modifications out of necessity. Didn't have coriander or black peppercorns on hand but I did have pickling spice which is comprised of these two spices and more. So I added that to the vinegar solution using a two-layer cheesecloth sack tied with butcher's twine. I don't know why but I feel very French when I break out the cheesecloth.

I also didn't have dry bay leaves only a bay leaf tree. Yeah, not your typical house plant! I decided against plucking the fresh leaves because I knew the fresh ones are less potent, and these pickled radishes were going to be devoured in a matter of three hours. Just not enough time to impart their flavor.

How Did We Like It? The family and I thought they were really, really good. The radishes were crisp and the "juice" was sweet, tart, and perfectly spiced. Will do again. We have another patch of radishes coming along which is good to know!

Here is how they turned out:

P.S. Yes, I know very well that my blogging has been few and far between. My mindset these past months have been more of "get the job done" than "let's stop and take a few pictures!" Having to make a homecooked meal almost everyday of the week (sometimes two meals), zaps the whimsy, fun, and creativity out of a person. It becomes more of a day-to-day chore. That is why I was so happy to flip through some new cooking magazines Annemarie lent me yesterday. They gave me some great inspiration and made me motivated to really give these bread and butter radishes a try. This week I'm going to go recipe exploring and try out two new ones. Maybe even try pickled kohlrabi when it comes along. Haven't had cooking excitement in awhile and I like to see it back!

Cuppycakes for Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:23:00 +0000

3/6/12: Yellow Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Haven't shared much of my cooking with you all lately, but I'm still here! I've been cooking and baking almost every day each week and trying out some new recipes every now and then. Two of the "newbie" recipes I gave a go as of late were Yellow Cupcakes from Cook's Illustrated and Peanut Butter Frosting from the Bake-Off Flunkie blog. Boy, that sounds like a yummy duo, eh?

It may sound strange to some, but I like to bake a dessert and have that as the sole dish for evening supper every once in awhile. My family always has lunch as the main meal of the day, so we can get by with dessert-for-supper with no problem. So for yesterday's supper, I made these cupcakes on the spur of the moment. Yeah, I would have liked to plan supper in advance but the days got away from me!

Here's how they turned out yesterday:

For Christmas I received the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (which I think weighs more than two bibles put together!), and this cupcake recipe is one of many I've tried so far from the book.

So what do I think of the "cake" part of this cupcake?

I don't know if I baked them for too long or what, but they were a bit dry. The batter was a thick one so it was difficult to evenly fill the cupcake liners, which led to some baking faster than others. So right now I am on the fence about them.

So what do I think of the frosting?

I wanted to have the family's opinion on this one because I wanted to give feedback to the recipe creator. Here's the feedback:

Papa: OK. Isn't a peanut butter fan.

Sibling 1: Very good.

Sibling 2: Very good.

Sibling 3: YUMMY!

Sibling 4: OK.

Me: Good, but a bit too sweet for me. Would add more butter.

All and all, it looks like it is a keeper, even though I may not be a huge fan. I'm a frosting fuss budget, especially as of late. I've been making more cooked frostings than buttercreams (like this one), and it is hard to go back.

Thanks, Tiffany, for sharing the recipe on your blog! Frostings are one of my favorite things to make so I'm glad to add another one to my file.

Thinking of Garlic

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:44:00 +0000

1/23/12: Chicago-Style Garlic and Butter Pizza

When it came time to figure out what to have for Monday lunch, garlic kept on coming to mind. Probably caused by the chicken vesuvio I have planned for later this week; that recipe sure has the garlic!

So, yes, garlic. The recipe that jumped out at me was for a Chicago-style pizza that has a garlicky pizza crust to boot. Annemarie gave me this recipe late in 2010 and I made it for the first time about a month ago. Not too sure where she found it, but it really is an extremely flavorful pizza crust and doesn't take that much work to put together. May have a lengthy preparation time like all yeast doughs, but that is fine with me during these long winter days.

So here is the recipe for those who want to try it out:

Chicago-Style Garlic and Butter Pizza Crust

Yield: One 13x9 pan

1 (2-1/4 tsp.) package active dry yeast
1-1/4 cups lukewarm water
3-1/4 cups flour, plus more for dusting (What I Did: I used 1/2 all-purpose and 1/2 bread flour)
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. butter, melted
1 garlic clove, ground to a paste (What I Did: I used 4 large cloves, minced them, and grounded them to a paste by sprinkling them with salt and smashing them against the cutting board with a chef's knife)
pizza toppings, your choice (What I Did: My toppings were homemade pizza sauce--tomato sauce, dried basil, salt and pepper, sugar--mozzarella cheese, sliced bell peppers lightly sauteed, and pepperoni)

Directions:

1. In large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water. Add 1/4 cup flour and the sugar, stir together. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.

2. Stir the remaining 1 cup lukewarm water, 3 cups flour, cornmeal, and salt into the yeast mixture. Combine the butter and garlic; mix into the dough.

3. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until soft and elastic, about 10 minutes. Lightly grease a large bowl, add the dough and turn to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

4. Deflate dough then knead for 2-3 minutes. Grease a 13x9" baking dish and press in dough to cover bottom and 2 inches up the sides; let rise for 20 minutes. While waiting for dough to rise, preheat over to 400F.

5. Top pizza dough with your favorite toppings and bake for 30 minutes.

I am not only a sucker for garlic but for peppers as well. Can you tell? :)

Project Cookie for Christmas 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:12:00 +0000

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It is the day after Christmas and we've been happily "sampling" the seven different cookies we baked for the season. When we were baking them the days leading up to the 25th, we were scratching our heads at some moments. I mean, we've baked all of these cookies for Christmases past (with the exception of one), and we wanted to make sure they came out the same way they did previously.

So questions arose like "did we use shortening or butter?", "how long does this dough need to chill?", and "how many times the recipe did we use?"

To help ourselves when future cookie baking beckons, I am writing down here what we did this year with all the nitty-gritty details. Because all in all, I think each cookie turned out well and I would like to repeat our results.

1. Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe: used the recipe on the back of the morsel package
How Many Times the Recipe: used 1 recipe
Yield: made little less than one tin
Shortening or Butter: used room temp. butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: dropped by spoonfuls
How They Turned Out: cookies were somewhat thin (1/2" thick) and were soft and chewy
Side Notes: none

2. Cherry Surprise Balls

Recipe: old family recipe -- blogged about it here
How Many Times the Recipe: 2-1/2 times
Yield: little less than one tin
Shortening or Butter: used room temp. Crisco butter flavored baking sticks
Was Dough Chilled: chilled in fridge for 1 hour
How Were Cookies Formed: formed into balls by hand after dough was chilled
How They Turned Out: came out perfectly round and with a shortbread-like texture. No flat bottom.
Side Notes: best indicator when these light cookies are done is when their bottoms turn golden brown. Cookies will remain soft until completely cooled. Did raise oven temp. to 350F.

3. Snowball Cookies

Recipe: old family recipe -- blogged about it here
How Many Times the Recipe: 1-1/2 times
Yield: little less than one tin
Shortening or butter: slightly soft butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: formed into balls by hand; used flour to prevent stickage
How They Turned Out: turned out round and with a shortbread-like texture. No flat bottom.
Side Notes: cookies are done when edges are slightly brown. Kept dough in fridge when waiting for first batch.

4. Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Recipe: Quaker Oats recipe
How Many Times the Recipe: 1 recipe
Yield: one full tin
Shortening or butter: slightly soft butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: dropped by spoonfuls.
How They Turned Out: cookies did not spread much, remained tall. Crispy exterior and chewy interior.
Side Notes:

5. White Chocolate Cherry Chunkies

Recipe: a Paula Deen recipe -- blogged about it here
How Many Times the Recipe: 1-1/2 times
Yield: little over one tin
Shortening or butter: room temp. butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: used small ice cream scoop
How They Turned Out: cookies spread moderately. Turned out chewy and slightly crunchy.
Side Notes: used dried cherries instead of candied. Used 6 oz of dried for 1-1/2 times the recipe.

6. Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe: from a cookbook of mine, A Year of Cookies by Lorraine Bodger
How Many Times the Recipe: 2 times
Yield: little over one tin
Shortening or butter: room temp. butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: used small ice cream scoop and pressed down each cookie with a fork
How They Turned Out: cookies spread moderately. Turned out to be slightly crunchy.
Side Notes:

7. Drop Sugar Cookies

Recipe: created by Tiffany from the Bake-off Flunkie blog.
How Many Times the Recipe: 1-1/2 times
Yield: one full tin
Shortening or Butter: cold butter cut into small pieces
Was Dough Chilled: no, but dough was set aside at room temperature for 15 minutes before forming the cookies
How Were Cookies Formed: used small ice cream scoop
How They Turned Out: cookies spread moderately. Had a slight crisp exterior and a chewy interior.
Side Notes:

How to Make Chicken Vesuvio--Step by Step

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:07:00 +0000

This recipe has a lot of history and not only in the Italian culinary world, but in my family's as well. It has been a special meal choice for the folks here for decades! Our version includes multiple heads of garlic, lots of white wine, and a few secrets.

I've been cooking the family meals this past year and a couple weeks ago I attempted this dish for the first time. At the start, I didn't even have a vague idea on how to pull this thing together, so I spent my time bombarding my father with Vesuvio-ly questions, (which he took just fine. . . He likes to talk about food), all morning long. In the end it turned out to be very, very yummy!

The dumb thing I did, or should I say didn't do, was write down exactly what I did. I mean, here I was hunting down every possible nugget of information on this recipe and I didn't write down a thing. Yeah, stupid me. And I was feeling really stupid today when I wanted to give this Vesuvio a try again. Start from scratch once again!

Didn't remember much at the beginning but after talking about it with my father (again) it sort of came back to me. Anyhow, I managed to come close to what I did before and now I am writing it down here for reference. Not going to make the same mistake twice!

Chicken Vesuvio

Serves: 6-8*

Cooking time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

16 chicken drumsticks
20 medium to large red potatoes or Yukons**
6 tbsp. butter
1-1/2 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tbsp. garlic salt
20 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups white wine
2 chicken bouillon cubes
Vegetable oil
salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. In two large casserole dishes or steamer trays, pour some vegetable oil to coat the bottoms. Add drumsticks to pans and season them with salt and pepper. Place pans in oven, uncovered. After 30 minutes turn oven temperature down to 375F.

2. In small saucepan, melt butter. Add oregano, garlic salt, and minced garlic to butter. Saute garlic on medium-high until fragrant: about 1 minute. Add 2 cups of wine to garlic mixture and bring to a boil. Once boil is reached, add bouillon cubes and stir until dissolved. Remove pan from heat.

3. Wash potatoes and slice them into halves or quarters, depending upon their size. The potato wedges in this dish is unusually large in size so keep them big!

4. Once chicken has been cooking for 1 hour it is time to add the potatoes. Nestle the wedges underneath the drumsticks to allow the potatoes to soak up the chicken juices. Next, pour the wine mixture over the chicken and potatoes, cover, and return pans to oven.

5. After 30 more minutes of cooking, stir the chicken and potatoes so that everything is immersed in the sauce. Add some water to bring sauce level half way up the pan contents.

6. Cook for another 20 minutes. Remove cover, raise oven to 400F and cook for another 10 minutes. The last 10 minutes at this high temperature helps with the browning of the meat and vegetables. And there you have it. . . Enjoy!

*roughly two drumsticks per person
**I used a type of white potato that has yellow skin. It is called Kennebec (which we grow at the farm), and it is a starchy potato that holds it shape well while still having a smooth, buttery texture.

How to Make Chicken Vesuvio Step by Step

(condensed written recipe is found above)

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Add some vegetable oil to two large casserole dishes or steamer trays. Place chicken drumsticks in pans and season with salt and pepper. Place pans in oven, uncovered. After 30 minutes turn oven temperature down to 375F.

2. Now to make the garlic wine sauce, which includes garlic salt, dried oregano, butter, white wine, minced garlic, and chicken bouillon cubes.

3. In small saucepan, melt butter. Add oregano, garlic salt, and minced garlic to butter. Saute garlic on medium-high until fragrant: about 1 minute. Add 2 cups of wine to garlic mixture and bring to a boil. Once boil is reached, add bouillon cubes and stir until dissolved. Remove pan from heat.

4. Wash potatoes and slice them into halves or quarters, depending upon their size. The potato wedges in this dish is unusually large in size so keep them big!

5. Once chicken has been cooking for 1 hour it is time to add the potatoes. Nestle the wedges underneath the drumsticks to allow the potatoes to soak up the chicken juices. Next, pour the wine mixture over the chicken and potatoes, cover, and return pans to oven.

6. After 30 more minutes of cooking, stir the chicken and potatoes so that everything is immersed in the sauce. Add some water to bring sauce level half way up the pan contents.

7. Cook for another 20 minutes. Remove cover, raise oven to 400F and cook for another 10 minutes. The last 10 minutes at this high temperature helps with the browning of the meat and vegetables. And there you have it. . . Enjoy!

How Tempting the Carrot Can Be

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:14:00 +0000

10/5/11: Cream of Carrot Soup

There's been lots of tempting fruits and veggies on the farm the last month or so. Lots of great baking apples, sweet potatoes, sugar pie pumpkins, and winter squash. These are the type of veggies I like: ones that take a long time to bake but end up sweet and comforting. And they warm up the house to boot!

Another vegetable that has been on my mind is the carrot. We planted numerous rows of these this year (500 feet long rows, I should add), and we've been harvesting bushel after bushel ever since August.

Up to a couple days ago, I only roasted carrots in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and s&p. Carrots, plain and simple. But during the last part of September I was looking for a different recipe, and I found one via one of our good customers at the farm stand: Suzanne.

She gave me a recipe card for a Cream of Carrot Soup. Ah, very intriguing, don't you think? (She gave my sister and I a couple more cards which we will be giving a try soon!)

Suzanne was telling me that she came across this recipe when she was visiting the Fernwood Nature Center in Niles, MI. There she tried this soup for the first time and thought it was really delicious.

Before I get to my carrot soup experience, let me write out the recipe for you as Suzanne wrote it:

Cream of Carrot Soup

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 ham bone
6 cups water
1-1/2 lb. carrots, peeled and diced
4 stalks celey, cubed
4 medium red potatoes, cubed
2 bay leaves
2 cups half and half
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place ham bone and water in large pot. Bring to a boil. Remove any scum, then add carrots, celery, potatoes, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 2 hours, or til vegetables are soft. Strain mixture and save water. Discard bay leaves. Puree vegetables using some reserved cooking water in blender, food processor, or using stick blender. Remove any ham from bone and puree if desired, (I would chop up and add unless you desire a very smooth soup). Add remainder of cooking water you saved, then re-heat to simmer. Add half-and-half and salt and pepper. Serve HOT!

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I planned on making this soup for two weeks but just couldn't find 2-1/2 hours of time to make it happen. But when last Wednesday rolled around and I needed to stay home to freeze some green beans, I thought I could work on the soup at the same time.

I am very pleased to say that I followed the recipe precisely--I even had the ham bone, bay leaves, and half-and-half. Let me tell you, that doesn't happen too often for yours truly!

So the soup turned out to be wonderful; I could taste the carrot and it had a smooth texture because of the potatoes. And the ham bone gave it full-body, rich flavor similar to that of split pea soup. Since it was so good and simple to do, I think the humble carrot has found a new place to put up his feet. ;)

Sweet Cakes for a Sweet Gal + Thoughts on the Sweet Chic Cookbook

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:36:00 +0000

What I think is harder than being a daily blogger is writing up a post after a long (and in my case, very long), duration of blog silence. And that is where I'm at today. It is harvesting time at the farm and there are lots of fruits and veggies to pick, but that little ol' thing called "Time" is hard to come by these days.

Cooking for me over the past couple of months has been sort of on-the-fly, usually coming up with a meal plan the day before. Very much unlike my Winter and Spring meal calendars where I was all set a month in advance. But I'm making it work, anyway!

What is the real disappointment I've found with all the craziness of the harvesting season is not finding time to bake. Baking takes a little extra time and so I haven't been breaking out the baking powder and measuring spoons much.

Now enters Sunday. Sunday, August 14 to be exact. Ah, yes, that's when I found some time to bake using a new cookbook I just received a couple weeks ago. It is called Sweet Chic and this is what I made:

That is a chocolate cupcake. But wait.

Now it is a cupcake with chocolate frosting. Now that's better. :) And oh look, there's more:

The Sunday I made these was my sister Catherine's birthday and so I made 3 dozen worth and had milkshakes, too:

I was one proud baker after making these cupcakes. They were extremely moist (probably because the recipe uses solely vegetable oil instead of butter), and the frosting was chocolatel-y and not too sweet. Catherine loved them (yay!) and my Papa, a cake and frosting connoisseur, thought they were excellent. Sigh. What reviews! I'm blushing.

The Sweet Chic--Stylish Treats to Dress Up for Any Occasion cookbook, written by Rachel Schifter Thebault, has a very interesting approach to baking. The book is divided into three sections: cookies, cakes/icings, and confections, like truffles and bark. A good portion of the recipes provided are basic in nature, such as CCC (Chocolate Chip Cookies), chocolate brownies, sugar cookies, chocolate cake, vanilla cake, buttercream frosting, chocolate truffles, etc. Complete with clear photos for most of the recipes! I'm a sucker for the photography.

What the author did to give her own twist to the book was to supply you with ideas to create special variations of the basic recipes; allowing you to dress your desserts up or down. Dress up or down? Hmm, sounds like fashion, right? That is the exact metaphor the author is using for this book. Each subsection is given a fun fashion nickname like the Scoop Cookies are the Basic T. Fun! So now I can take the basic recipe, Devil's Food Cake, and make mini S'mores Cupcakes, Rocky Road Cupcakes, and even Individual Mud Pies.

When I first glanced through the book I thought, "Oh, another cookbook with lots of basic recipes. I probably could easily find all of these with a quick google search." But after getting comfortable in bed and reading it thoroughly, I knew I found something special. I have the habit of deciding to bake something out of the blue, so I don't give myself much preparation time. You can usually find me running around for a peanut butter cookie or a fudgy brownie recipe just minutes before I get into the kitchen. And once I find it (usually off the internet), I need to alter it a bit because of pan size, yield, and then I cross my fingers that I got the recipe from a good source.

Sweet Chic helps so much in this recipe-finding turmoil I usually find myself in. I just go to one of the book's basic recipes, find the variation I want, maybe change the yield, and then simply execute. The book has all the usual desserts I make on a weekly basis so it is all in one place.

So this is how it panned out last Sunday. First, I knew I wanted to make cupcakes. Looked in the cake section of the book. Found chocolate mini cupcakes. Hmm, no mini cupcake liners on hand. So just doubled the recipe. Simple. Next, frosting. Found chocolate frosting made with a melted chocolate base and sour cream. Sounded good so I chose that one. DONE!

If I had to do it my old way I would be going through my huge recipe binder for 10 minutes at the least. It is so helpful to have a cookbook at the ready!

Mary's Potato and Cheese Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:12:00 +0000

4/27/11: Potato and Cheese Soup

My recipe searching usually ventures down one of three roads: internet, magazine, or cookbook. AllRecipes.com, sure. TastyKitchen.com, been there. Cook's Country magazine, yep. And we mustn't forget our dear Betty Crocker cookbook.

So where did the Potato and Cheese Soup recipe come from? I am happy to report that it didn't come via the sources above. It came from Mary H. from California (the Quilting Bibliophagist), who is my sewing/quilting buddy. Whenever either of us have a sewing or quilting related question, we email each other for advice. One of my emails strayed off into the realm of cooking and I asked her if she had any good, easy, and quick recipes she could share. And that is how the Potato and Cheese Soup was found! Here it is:

Potato Cheese Soup

8 cups of peeled and sliced potatoes
4 cups water
3 teaspoons salt
1 large onion, sliced
1 tablespoon oil
10 sprigs parsley
3 cups milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 to 4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoons pepper (or to taste)
2 pinches of garlic powder

Cook the potatoes in the water with the salt until tender. While the potatoes cook, saute the onions in the oil until soft. (I use a nonstick frying pan. If you're using a regular pan, you might have to use a little more oil.) When the potatoes are done, puree the potatoes, onion, and parsley in a blender. If you wish, you may leave some of the cooked potatoes un-pureed.

Be careful. Do not fill the blender more than half full at a time. You must also use a blender which has a glass container, not a plastic one, to puree the hot soup. If you run out of cooking water while pureeing your batches of soup, just add a little of the pre-measured milk. If you do not have a blender, you will need to chop the onions instead of just slicing them, and you will need to finely chop the parsley and either mash the potatoes or run them through a food mill. This all takes more time which is why I love using the blender.

Return the potato puree to the pot. Add milk, pepper, garlic powder, and butter. Stir. Add cheese. Heat and stir over a very low flame just until the cheese melts. Caution: High heat will cause the cheese to become a rubbery mass. Check the seasonings and adjust if necessary. (A thick pan is ideal for soups like this. I have a soup pot that is made of porcelain covered cast iron which I love. It's also great for rice or beans.)

If you need to prepare this soup very quickly, wash your parsley and slice your onions the night before and store them in the refrigerator in a tightly-covered container or zip lock bag. Peel and slice your potatoes and store them in the 'fridge covered with the water so they don't turn grey.

I like to serve this with cornbread or whole wheat Irish Soda Bread. Or just regular whole wheat bread. Adding a salad to the meal makes a little more well rounded nutritionally, though my husband was perfectly happy just with soup and bread. And potatoes are very nutritious anyway. Serves 5-7.

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I tried to stay true the recipe as well as I could. The only thing I changed was using dried parsley instead of fresh. So this is how the kitchen time unfolded:

I cleaned the potatoes:

Peeled them:

Measured the amount of potatoes by using my large, 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup. No home should be without it. :)

Placed the potatoes into our 6 quart pot. (Oh, by the way, I doubled the recipe. That's the reason for all the potatoes! I had freezing leftovers in mind.)

While the potatoes were coming to a boil, I sliced the onions thin:

Pureed everything together and then added the milk, cheese, and seasonings:

The end result was a creamy, flavorful bowl of soup that everyone loved--even the soup haters. Yay!

And because bread and soup is like Astaire and Rogers, I made some biscuits using my tried and true recipe.

Even though I made this soup way back in April, I wanted to say a thank you to Mary for sharing this recipe with me. I will be making more once our new red potatoes are ready to harvest, which is not too far from now come to think of it. There is only a few weeks between the time our potatoes from the previous year are spent and the time we harvest the new crop. But how long those weeks seem!

What about you? What is your favorite potato recipe of all time? How about soup? Send some recipes to me at herlittleway at gmail dot com.

The Colorful Side of Brown Food

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 12:00:00 +0000

3/30/11: Quesadilla Casserole

I remember watching an Iron Chef America episode when there was a discussion of "brown food." Oh, there is nothing wrong with brown food in most cases--nicely browned pork cutlets or a dark, rich chocolate ganache is always a good thing, but not all dishes should showcase that shade. And that is exactly what happened during the episode's judging. A dish came out and it came with a very unappetizing shade of brown, a brown similar to a cardboard box.

So the three judges searched for their inner Andrew Zimmern stomachs and went in with their forks. Mind you, I do not recollect who was challenging who, what the secret ingredient was, or which tie Alton Brown was wearing, but what I do remember is the look on their faces. They loved it and the dish went over with flying colors.

A very similar scenario happened in my house. I made this Quesadilla Casserole, a recipe I found in the October 2009 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray, and I substituted the black beans with refried beans because I was out of the former. Yeah, you can see where this is going. The casserole came out browner than brown.

But because of my Iron Chef capabilities (yeah, right), the dish turned out to have great flavor. I guess brown food isn't all that bad.

When I made it again and decided to make it just as flavorful but add a bit of color, I did this simply by making a couple cups of homemade enchilada sauce and using that as a layer. I also made sure I used a can of black beans; they add color and contrast to the casserole.

So here is the casserole all spruced up:

What about you? Have you been cooking any Mexican inspired dishes? Which is your family's favorite that you cook again and again?

Home Cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:52:00 +0000

In all appearances, my dear old Sabbath Supper has been totally neglected since the last post was published, which was. . . Let's see. . . In APRIL! Gosh, how did that happen? Did I stop cooking or something?

Au contaire! There has certainly been lots of home cooking and baking around these parts but because I've been diligently working on my crafting blog (St. Gemma's Art and Needlework), all last month to try to achieve my May-Every-Day enterprise, Sabbath Supper fell to the wayside. It is a very sad thing, too, because talking recipes and ingredients is something I enjoy and I've already found that I'm forgetting some important tips from past recipes I did. I try to write down notes and such right in the cookbook or recipe print out, but sometimes I feel tuckered out once the dishes are clean and not one scribble of guidance is left.

So the May-Every-Day project has come and gone and now I will be able to concentrate some of my energies on posting to this blog.

Before I left Sabbath Supper alone and forgotten, I did put some future posts on file but didn't have the time to finish them. Now I will. Expect to see them today and tomorrow! Here are a couple sneak previews of what is to come:

Homemade Hamburger Buns

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:41:00 +0000

3/15/11: Homemade Hamburger Buns

You should never let the name "hamburger buns" lead you into thinking that these circular buns that are split in half are just used for hamburgers. No siree! My family does sometimes use them for the ordinary hamburger but we have found a million and one other uses for this bread vehicle. Sloppy Joes, BBQ pork, turkey, and beef, chicken patties, steak-ums, sizzlers, pulled pork, fish fillets, and more.

That is why after my success with my homemade hot dog buns, I decided it was high time to try the faithful old hamburger bun.

So after using the exact same recipe that I used for the hot dog buns, here is what I came up with:

They were as soft and wonderful as the hot dog version. Very happy about this! So now I've been cutting way back on our hot dog/hamburger bun buying and keeping our freezer full of home-bakery freshness:

English Muffins for the First Time

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:02:00 +0000

3/15/11: Homemade English Muffins

They always say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I don't mind this bit of advice, whatsoever, for breakfast foods tend to be my favorites. Eggs, toast, bacon, French toast, waffles, pancakes, bagels, and of course English muffins; when they make the scene, you know I am not far away.

I've tried making many a breakfast dish from scratch but up till a few weeks ago, I never gave English muffins a try. To me, they have always sounded a bit tedious and I didn't like the idea of a yeast dough being grilled. Scary sounding, don't you think? So when one evening came along when there wasn't a real need to make a full meal, I decided to give these muffins a try.

The recipe I chose to use was published in the Early Spring 2009 issue of The Baking Sheet. I wish I could type out the recipe here but it is copyrighted material. However, I noticed that the King Arthur's Flour website has some English muffin recipes available. So take a look at their Breakfast Sandwich Muffins and this English Muffin recipe. They may not be exactly like the recipe I found in the Baking Sheet, but the latter one does come close.

The making of the dough was very easy to execute, the only part that needs skill is the frying. I used a small non-stick skillet for the frying since I was making such a small recipe. (I would have used the king-sized griddle we have if the whole family was attending.) When frying, there is a need to keep the burner on low heat. So the muffins do take a while to thoroughly cook. I do, however, like my muffins to have a crispy exterior, so near the end of the cooking time I turn up the heat and allow them to form a crust.

I do not own special English muffin cutters so I did as the magazine suggest and use cleaned tuna cans. Works perfectly fine!

So here are the muffins. . .

I had my muffin with a smidge (OK, maybe a big smidge), of blackberry jam and a fried egg. They were wonderful! This makes me wonder. . . Do I love breakfast because of the inclusion of butter and jam in almost every single dish? Could be. ;)