yummy cinnamon twists

drooling yet? I spied this bread thing over on I'm a Mom, not a Professional Drool drool drool
We made it last night. But i was dreaming of it as a breakfast, snacky thing instead of savory. Turns out, she got the recipe here at Just Love Cookin and it appears to be such the thing. Here's my pictorial homage to it, the sliced bread roll:
Roll out dough, I used my bread machine pizza dough recipe, which will be at the end of this post.

I melted brown sugar and cinnamon in butter. I don't think i would do this next time. it's in the oven enough to melt on it's own. Maybe. Spread it over the dough.

Roll it length wise. Please note: I only used half of the dough I made. The others look like they used the whole thing, hence, the multi layers of cut goodness that mine is lacking.

Cut the roll all the way through, length wise.

Twist them together with the cut side exposed.

Shape it into a ring. Place on pan and let it rise.

I brushed it with milk. This made the top brown too quickly before the rest was done. I put foil on top to cut down on the browning. Not a Professional one uses an egg wash. Much better.
With the other half of the dough, I made 2 little bread buns to bake for supper accompaniment.

And with the magic of internet, bing. all cooked.

And here's my twist. So yummy.

I transferred it out of the baking pan into another one before the gooey bottom got hard and sticky. Smart choice, otherwise, You'll be need to chisel the bottom off of the pan.

Here's the bread dough recipe:

1 1/2 cups of water. (Sometimes the flour needs more or less moisture. Depends on the season and where you live)
1 Teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of sugar
1.5 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of bread machine yeast.

Use the dough setting for 1.5 lb bread.

When I use it as pizza dough, I'll add some powdered garlic, 1 tsp cornmeal and 1 tsp Newfoundland savoury ( much like oregano, only not).

try it, so yummy.

I have a feverish girlie who finally fell asleep. Nice day of hanging out and my girlfriends came for tea and a more sock knitting lessons. Now I can get around my stalled heel and get closer to a toe!

Have a good weekend,
Amanda

Orzo roasted veg salad

I had this dish a few summers ago while visiting a friend in Nova Scotia. It is easy and brings memories of warm summer fun! Remember those times? brrrr here.

I cut up some zucchini, various colours of peppers for some happy, mushrooms, and grape tomatoes. If you have more veggies that tend to roast well, go for it. I forgot to add some kind of onion, sweet or green for me. I put cut veggies into a large bowl and seasoned with olive oil, kosher salt, pepper and garlic powder. ( I was being too lazy to go to the basement to get fresh garlic from our stash.) Put it in a roasting dish and into a 350 degree oven. I just check on it every once and a while. I don't like it too mushy as it will continue to cook after you remove it from the oven.

Oh, and the most bestest part of alllllllll... goats cheese with pesto. We have homemade pesto that I hoard. The goat's cheese gets it. It is also good on cranberry garlic bagel wafers. yum!!! Mix it up and put pieces into the orzo and roasted vegetable mix. it can be served cold, warm or room temperature.


Can I get a little personal here? Throughout my adult life, I've always had trouble with my belly. Many tests in university showed nothing. Over the years, the pain and symptoms would change and most recently, it has been bloating. So much bloating that even drinking a glass of water or a morsel of food would bloat me as if I was 6 months pregnant. And the pressure on the upper stomach, under the diaphram was intense. Last fall, I started drinking a a generous teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and a teaspoon of honey in warm water 1st thing in the morning. All was well. I stopped doing it around Christmas time. This past week, the pain returned. I'm not saying the vinegar/honey thing sured me, but I forgot I had those problems.

This week, when the flare up returned, I decided not to just let it be and to do something about it. I decided to go gluten free. I stopped eating things with wheat. I went out and bought some gluten free bread, cookies, cereal and different flours to do my own baking. In a word, I dropped a load of $$$ to help my belly.

The next morning, as my husband was going out the door, he said, "google 'Yeast in the gut'". So I did. And the symptoms were more similar to mine. I ate gluten free bread and green tea for breakfast. I could feel the bloat coming on. In the car around lunch time, I had rice cakes. Full on bloat! It hurt. When I was chatting with Rafael's hairdresser, she said she had similar problems and that I should try Bio-K. I bought the probiotic in liquid/yogurt form rather than pill. I drank it in the car and as I was coming home, I could feel it working! BLESSED BE THE LORD! IT WAS WORKING!!!!! I could feel the rumblings in my upper belly and the bloat deflating. It was such a relief. And almost instant! And it lasted. I went to a house party last night, ate lasagna, cake, cake and more cake and a fruit punch with fizzy soda in it and was kind of ok. Much more ok than if I had not had Bio-K working for me. Before I went to bed, I drank a 1/4 of the small bottle of bio-k and all was well.

So here's my regimen, 1st day, one whole bottle. 2nd day, 1/2 bottle, 3rd and subsequent days, 1/4 bottle for maintenance. I'll see how that goes for the 6 bottles I bought and play it by ear after that. I'm curious to see how different foods and time will do to my upset digestive system. I'll let you know too if you want. I feel so much better. now, I can focus on the rather large and spreading muffin top at the gym!

Cheers,
Amanda

Cinnamon Rolls

This weekend is a blur and it's not even over! I sang for 2 concerts yesterday for Remembrance Day. Nice. Then singing at 2 church services this morning and tonight a sing along for the agency that I Christmas Carol with. it's only 2 days of singing in a row, but after focusing on my family for the last 8 years, I wonder how I ever did it as a singer/music teacher. every. single. day. My whole life was singing. Over all parts of town. now I get wiped after 2 hours! stamina I tell ya, it's gone!

Anyhow, some time this past week, I got to play house mom and made some cinnamon rolls.

The recipe comes from the back of the brown sugar bag and my memory, as I threw it out the bag after the sugar was all gone.
First up is some bread dough. You can use premade pizza dough, or as I did, make it in the bread maker. (recipe at end of post)

Roll it out to a rectangle. Brush some melted butter. They suggest 2 tablespoons.

Mix a teaspoon of cinnamon with 3/4 cup of brown sugar. Spread it on the dough. Please note, I used more cinnamon and did not spread all of the sugar on the dough. This was a mistake! Use all the sugar! It makes it sloppier and gooey-er. Mine, not so much. I added some raisins to one side of it. ( i also used some of the leftover cinnamon brown sugar in my tea. So good.)

Roll the dough from the short side to the opposite end.

Cut them about 1 inch thick.

Place in a greased dish. Let rise for about 1.5 hours until the rolls touch each other. I didn't let it rise long enough. next time I will.

Bake on 350 for 20-25 minutes. I think. I can't remember. Sorry.

There ya go. A nice afternoon treat with a cuppa.

Here's the pizza dough recipe that I use in the bread maker. I also use it as a bread recipe:
Put it in the bread maker in this order:

1+cup of water. (Sometimes the flour needs more moisture, so I add up to 1/2 C extra sometimes. Depends on the season and where you live)
1 Teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of sugar
1.5 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of bread machine yeast.

Use the dough setting for 1.5 lb bread.

If you want to make a nice pizza dough recipe, use the one above, then add a tablespoon of cornmeal and a teaspoon of dried herbs, ( I use a Newfoundland savory or oregano)

There ya go. This is not a quick treat, but one that can be tended to when you're in the house all day.

At the moment, the kids are playing with boxes brought home from the grocery store. They made cars from them and are now traveling around the world with the maps I printed out of places I've been too. They are at the drive in watching old Pink Panther movies on Net flix. Ah, Sunday afternoon.
DH is in the basement making a brew of beer. He's doing it from scratch, Mad scientist that he is. I'm ok with all this experimenting. It gives me equal footing to get lost in my sewing room from time to time!

I think I'm off for a nap before my next appointment. No crafting for this weary body today.

Thanks for stopping by,
Amanda

tomatoes, tomatoes, everywhere tomatoes

Or at least some sort of juice, spluice, mess....
So, you take a few of these burners...

A few boxes of Tomatoes. This is how you buy a bushel these days. Not so romantic. Oh well, we got 2, crazy amateurs.

We blanched them, took the skins off, quartered them and boiled them again. Actually, my husband did all that before I came home from church.

With all the skins left over, he put it through a nifty puree machine to get the pulp. This was half a bushel.

My job was the jarring. Then boiled them for 90 minutes.

Here is a bit of the set up.

Nice and pretty. I hope we did it all right. It will be a tasty winter if we did.


Oh to have strength and better weather to do the rest. It was hotter and more humid than Hades last time. He wants to make sauce out of it.
have a good one,
Amanda

Home Made Ice cream

This year, instead of sewing for the teachers and assistants, I decided to make home made ice cream. I use an electric ice cream maker we got at William Sonoma as a wedding present. I love it!

I use the basic recipe of 1 cup milk, 3/4 cup of sugar dissolved into it, then 2 cups of cream and 1-2 tbsp vanilla. Flick the switch for 20-25 minutes. The trick is the cream. I made some last week with whipping cream. Lovely. The stuff I made in the last 2 days was with table cream 18%. It was more watery when it froze, not as creamy, but still good.
These tags are Stampin' Up! stamps from years ago.

These stamps are from PaperTrey ink. I made different flavours by adding the ingredients in the last 5 minutes.
For cookies and cream, just let the kids have fun crushing oreos in a baggie. The strawberry was sliced and mashed with sugar to help it juice. The strawberry rhubarb was cooked down, cooled and added.

There are so many other flavours to make, but the trick is that if you have to cook anything down, it has to cool completely before being added. So it's a think it out thing, not a spur of the moment thing. When you feel like making it NOW, then it's cookies and cream, or vanilla bean. Oh, we have homemade vanilla that DH made a while back. Vanilla beans soaked in vodka for about a month. nice. the longer, the better. Then I scraped a pod into the cream as it was swirling around in the machine.

k, next up.... This basket was a steal at a yard sale for $2! I grabbed it and ran. It's a great size. I fit all the ice cream containers into it and then some.

And another tea pot cozy. I've made a few more colour ways. Fun Fun Fun. The designer that I got the sweater scraps from has offered more scraps twice now. I still have 3 bags, but I want to get more! Help me. Fun to figure out colour combos. I think this one is my favorite. This time, I used boiled wool suiting for the front and back. Hope it keeps the pot hot.


Whew, you still here?
School is out and I feel relaxed! We played at the sailing club until way past bed time. It's great to see them playing imaginative games. Tonight it was traveling to Portugal on the Hobie cat trampoline. But they came to the picnic tables to stay at a hotel. Hope the kids sleep in tomorrow. I know I will.

Thanks for stopping by,
Amanda

Fish Cakes Portuguese style

Two nights ago, we had salt fish for supper (salt cod). A common dish in both Newfoundland (me) and Portuguese (DH) cultures. In our house, that means fish cakes the next day!!!
It's a process much like the Croquetes here

Use leftover fish, potatoes, sometimes the leftover carrots and fresh chopped parsley. Apparently, this is important. An emergency market run was in order to get the parsley!

Mash it all up. We used the potato ricer for the potatoes. it made the cakes very "fluffy" compared to the usual mashed potatoes. nice. 2 spoons are used to shape the cakes into triangle shapes. You don't get to work alone in this kitchen. Always a little sous chef around.

With the fat fryer outside, (really, we don't eat that much fat fried food. just had 2 traditional treats in the same month. that's about all we fry, and hand cut fries) a little queue was getting started inside.

And leftovers the next day. It's hard to sit and eat a proper length meal with this type of food. When the first ones come out, there is a constant dipping into the bowl for more before we even get to the table. Everyone is full by the time we sit down!

We make fish cakes in Newfoundland also. But it is more chunky shaped in a hamburger patty shape and pan fried. My mama makes the best salmon cakes! yum.

And yes, they are even good cold!

Ciao,
Amanda

croquets Portuguese style

Every once in awhile, our meat leftovers get to be enough to make croquets. It's a treat to have this Portuguese tradition when my husband makes them.

We grind the meats, in this case, pork tenderloin and a nice pot roast. And don't forget the chourizo. It adds great flavour. Hand grinding makes it that much closer to the rustic days.

Add some kind of oil/ fat to the mixture. this time it was olive oil, but next time, it will be lard. It was kind of dry. 3 eggs for this amount, salt, pepper and some bread crumbs to hold it together.

Here's the shaping...

And rolling it in more bread crumbs.

then comes the deep frying part. I forgot to take pictures at this point, as there were some ready to be eaten. Distractions. Anyhow, here is the presentation picture of the leftovers. Not much. Many consumed at the table with coleslaw and polenta shaped in bricks and pan fried. The parmasean cheese melted deliciously.


have a good one,
Amanda

yum-o break

Hubby has been busy in the kitchen this week.
One night I went to bed early with the smell of ribs boiling on the stove. i could just imagine the overnight marinade and the scrumptious ribs on the grill the next day. It didn't disappoint!
Then, I challenged him to make this no knead bread that I had at a neighbour's house last week. Well, he's made his 2nd loaf in 2 days. This time, whole wheat.
Yesterday, it went with a batch of homemade baked beans, Newfie style. Fills you up, full as an egg I tell ya.

And the latest in his canning, bottling phase is orange marmalade.

Yesterday, the house smelled so good with seville oranges. And the knife I used to cut the bread is the knife he used to cut some oranges. A bit of orange on bread is indeed a good thing.
So here's a snap of the marmalade on said bread.


Yes, some good eats have been happening here.....

thanks for drooling,
Amanda

recipe book

So here's a sneak peek at the recipe book I'm making for my mom and her siblings. This paper is from Papertrey Ink. I've just done some in SU Western Sky and am cutting out paper from Summer Picnic for a few more. There are 7 of them all together. Big family. Well, at least there aren't 10 like my dad's! lol

I have to redo this book b/c I dropped it in the snow and the ink ran. boo hoo. But at least the template is done and I can whip them off like that after everything is cut. No prob.
The title on the cover is done with Maddie Ann alpha from Quickutz. And a few of the little dies were used inside the layouts also.

Got a great patch on my upper back for the sore muscles, so I was able to work. Thank goodness. It was a rough day before I decided to try it. It's lovely, nice menthol scent. Clears the sinuses. :}

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

T42

Tea anyone? I was so excited to make this set. The box template comes from a tutorial at www.sarahiscrafty.com Dec. 4 entry
The box contains 2 tea bags, a tin with 2 heart shaped sugar cubes, 2 heart chocolates and a 3x3 note tag.


The heart shaped sugar cubes are molded in an ice cube tray. I used the reciped from the Jan. 14th entry for
http://hemidemisemiquaver.wordpress.com. Look it up under recipes on her side bar. Becky has really great ides! Thanks Becky. In short, I mixed one beaten egg white in 3 cups of sugar. It goes a long way. but that was good, as I worked a long time on the sugar. My molds were too deep to fit 2 into the tin, so I had to half fill them. I also had to bake them longer, like 15-20 minutes. I decided not to tint them, as I had no red dye.
The tin is a 53 mm tin from Lee Valley with double stitched Pomegrante ribbon on the side. The paper is from SU, Berry Bliss. Yummy no? The heart on the cover is from SU "time well spent", stamped on the outside of the glass with Pallete ink.


I wanted to add a card, but a full card would have been too thick for the box, so I just used a card front. You can write a note on the back. The hearts are from SU "Loads of Love" set.


The last picture shows the contents of the T42 box. Of course, a nice compliment to a cuppa tea is a friend and a bikkie. (biscut), but I didn't have wrapped cookies. So of course, I substituted chocolate. Any objections?

Anyone wanna come over for a break?

Thanks for looking,
Amanda