Saturday, November 20, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's turkey time!  Time for the family to gather 'round and be thankful for all that God has given us.  Health, family, life...ya know...the good stuff!  So, be gracious and kind this Thanksgiving...kiss and hug all your family, say Grace, love and live for the day...and wear those fat pants...'cuz you got some eattin' to do!
Have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!


Love, Peace and Bacon Grease-

Heather

Monday, November 8, 2010

Cinnamon Rolls on a Sunday afternoon...

Well...I finally did it!  I finally made (from scratch) Cinnamon Rolls...only one of my husband's all time favorite things to eat.  So it all worked out :o)  I found this recipe on Cooking with Libby, who by the way seems like a really nice lady and the only one who comments on this silly blog...thanks Olivia!  I was super excited to make these and a little nervous since I have never worked with yeast before.  I had heard through reading different blogs and websites that it can be tricky.  Let the adventure begin!

Libby's Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Dough
  • 2 1/4 tsp Bread Machine Yeast
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4/ cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Filling
  • 1/2 cup melted butter plus more for greasing the pan
  • 3/4 cups sugar plus more for dusting the pan
  • 2 Tblsp ground cinnamon
Cinnabon Cream Cheese Frosting (I used this recipe instead of the Glaze):
  • 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese
  • 1 cup margarine
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 350*.  Pour 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of water in a microwave safe bowl.  Heat in the microwave for 1 minute and 15 seconds.  Once heated, pour into the bowl of your electric mixer.  Next, take 1/4 cup of sugar and place it in the mixing bowl with the milk/water mixture.  Stir until the sugar is well combined with the liquid.  After the sugar is will mixed, add 2 1/4 tsp of yeast and mix in with the liquid.  Now, let it sit for 10 minutes.  This gives the mixture a chance to get poofy.  Once the mixture is good and poofed, mix 1 tsp salt, 1/3 cup of butter and 1 egg in.  Mix until well combined.  Next, add 3 1/2 cups of flour to the mix.  Keep mixing until it forms a ball.  I used my hook attachment on my mixer and it worked like a charm :o)  Leave the ball of dough in you mixing bowl and cover with a dish towel.  Let it sit in a warm, dark place for an hour.  While the dough is rising, grease up your baking pan with butter.  Make sure to get the sides as well as the bottom.  Then sprinkle with good amount of sugar.
To make the filling, start by combining 3/4 cups sugar and 2 Tblsp cinnamon in a bowl.  After the hour is up and your dough has risen, punch it down once.  Take the dough out of the bowl, spread it on a lightly floured surface and roll it into a 9x15 inch rectangle.  Melt 1/2 cup of butter and spread it all over the rolled out dough.  Sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon mixture all over the buttered dough.  Once the dough is all sweet and spiced, take the 15 inch side and start rolling it upward.  Roll it nice and tight, making sure to pinch any open edges to seal them shut.  Cut the dough into 1 inch pieces using a serated knife.  Place each roll into the buttered baking pan, cover with a dish towel and let it rise for another 45 minutes.  Then place them in a preheated oven for 30 minutes.  While the rolls are baking, prepare the frosting.
Whip together cream cheese and margarine until smooth.  Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing after each cup until smooth and creamy.  Then add the vanilla and lemon juice, blend until all combined.  Once the buns are cooled down a little, slap some of this incredible frosting on 'em and chow down!

Noshing commencing in 3...2...Yum!
These turned out awesome and I had no trouble using yeast for the first time ever!  I must be a natural ;o)  I will definitely make them again and again.  The only thing... they do take a while to make, so do these on a lazy day when you have time to spare getting cozy with your oven and making your house smell absolutely heavenly.

Dad is great...give us chocolate cake!

 My mom's friend Cindy's birthday was on Monday...so my mom wanted me to get a cake and surprise her. This was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at cake making...from scratch! And I knew just the recipe to use. A while back I had been watching The Barefoot Contessa and she made this awesome Chocolate Cake. I have never made a cake from scratch (aka not out of the box) and was really excited to try it. Instead of making the chocolate frosting, I made a Whipped Cream Frosting.


Beatty's Chocolate Cake

  • Butter, for greasing the pans
  • 1 3/4 cups all-pupose flour, plus a little more for the pans
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cups Hershey's Cocoa Powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 xtra lrg eggs, at room tempature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup freshly brewed coffee
Whipped Cream Frosting
  • 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (I used 2)
In a big bowl, whip the cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla until smooth. In your electric mixer's bowl, dump in 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until well combined.

Preheat the oven to 350*. Grease up 2 (8 inch..I used 9) round cake pans with the butter and dust them with flour. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the bowl of your electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed until all is combined. In a seperate bowl, mix buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. With the mixer on low speen, slowly add the wet ingredients the dry. While the mixer is still on low, add the coffee...take a moment to inhale...then make sure to scrape the bottom and sides with a spatula to ensure all batter is getting mixed. Pour the batter into the prepared pans making sure to keep the amounts in each pan equal to one another. Put the pans in the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. A toothpick (or in my case a dry spaghetti noodle) should come out clean when insterted into the middle of one of the cakes. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and let 'em chill out the rest of the way until they are completely cool. Place one layer, flat side up on a flat plate. Spread a good amount of the frosting on the top. Put the second layer on top, rounded side up and spread out the rest of the frosing on the top and sides.

Happy Birthday to You!

Yum!
Success!  This came out great and everyone loved it!  I am not really the biggest chocolate cake fan, but my my...this was heavenly.  Both great recipes and extra tasty!

It was a Monster Mash!

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!  Here at the Hills we had a blast! 
My husband and I had our parents and some friends over.  We had a little bonfire out in the driveway while the kiddies came and trick or treated.  It was a lot of fun!  And of course there was food!  I made my spaghetti and had various treats for everyone to snack on.  I found this recipe for Carmel Peanut Butter Dip on Real Mom Kitchen.  Sounded simple and tasty...so I tried it!

Carmel Peanut Butter Dip
  • 3/4 cup Caramel Apple Dip (I found this in my grocery store's produce section)
  • 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
First combine the Caramel Apple Dip and peanut butter until smooth.  Then fold in the marshmallow fluff.  Dump it all into a small serving bowl.  Serve with apple slices.



Easy right?  Well...of course I was in a hurry and missed the part of the recipe where you are supposed to FOLD IN the marshmallow fluff... But it still turned out really good!  I might use less peanut butter and more caramel next time.  It was VERY peanut buttery, but it went over really well at the Mash!