Aw, Nuts!

Yep! Nut Rolls!!!
Yep! Takes a while to make them.
Yep! Worth every bite!

Sorry I only have pics of them in the raw stage. I'll post the finished pic and recipe when I make the next batch.

This is one of the family favorites for holidays in our house. I am of Croatian descent and my Mom always baked these for holidays. If she was in a really REALLY good humor, then we'd get them some time during the year. Actually, the 'good humor' was if she wanted some. So, we all benefited from her wants. My Aunt, of Blessed Memory, made the poppy seed rolls and some nut rolls. Sometimes, whoever made the best ones, swapped out with the other. It was interesting to see how different each person made theirs.

Here's a pic of the rolling process. Dough is rolled thin. Nut mixture is applied to 2/3 of the dough. For extra flavor, small wads of butter are placed here and there over the filling. Then, the roll begins. Ends are tucked in and under so nothing leaks.

This is my favorite dough recipe. I'll post this later, too. It is really weird to do, but it turns out great.

I hope all of you had a great holiday season. I wish you many blessings during the new year.

Take care.

Comforts of Home!

Mmmmmm! I know this isn't the most gorgeous picture, but it is a very comforting picture. Just think...these are warm out of the oven! Homemade! I sat down with a cup of steaming hot joe, these biscuits and a jar of lemon curd. How much more comforting can you get?! Here's my recipe.




Scratch Biscuits
2 cups all purpose flour
6 tablespoons of shortening, butter or margarine
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt

Cut all of the shortening into the dry ingredients until nice and crumbly.

Then, add...
1 cup of milk or buttermilk (I add 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup of either sour cream or plain yogurt)

Stir this all together until the ingredients are nice and wet.
Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead about 6 times. This will make a few flaky layers.
Pat into about a 1/2 inch slab.
Cut with a biscuit cutter or a floured drinking glass.
Place on an ungreased baking pan.
If you have dough left over, gather it, fold it once or twice and pat into another 1/2 inch slab.
Cut more biscuits.
When you don't have enough left over to cut, make a hand-styled biscuit (see top left biscuit).
Bake at 400 degrees until nicely browned.

Thanksgiving's Just Desserts

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving! This is my holiday to cook for family and friends. I really enjoy having the company and spending quality time with family and friends. We had several friends at our table this year. The more the merrier.

Here is a pic of just my desserts for this year. I went a little crazy.

The yellow bundt cake was made into a banana cream cake. Middle left pic is a cherry and blackberry pie, middle right is pumpkin. Top left pie is apple and top right is peach. I also made a banana cream pie, which was in the fridge. They all turned out well and I didn't have too much left over as most people took extras home. I gave away the apple pie to our yard boy and his family. He came over to help me out with a little chore the day before Thanksgiving, so I gave him the pie and a few bucks for his efforts. I hope they liked it.


Here's a really simple recipe I'd like to share with you. It's for the crumb topping on the pies.


Crumb Topping


Take equal parts of:

Butter, softened
Brown Sugar
Flour
Oatmeal


Mix them together until crumbly. Crumble on top of the pie and bake your pie as usual.


Tip: for each pie, I use half cup increments. This is the topping I use for Apple Betty. It works well on sweet potatoes, too.

Stylin' with Bunnies

Here is today's attempt at obento. After these first few, I'll only take pics of the ones using leftovers or ones of special interest. It can get boring seeing the same veggies and such.

This is my lunch (clockwise): apple bunny, orange slices, grapes, apple bunny, cucumber slices, half of a BLT that hubby took for breakfast, carrots, grapes, apple bunny and tomato.

Hubby took his away before I got a picture of them. He kept saying 'Don't make them so cute. I'm only going to eat them.' That's part of the idea of the style, from what I see. Make them cute and fun!

I'm trying to revamp our diets. After eating all of yesterday's lunch (see previous post), I felt a lot better in my stomach and a lot less sleepy and craving in the afternoon. There definitely is something to be said about obento!

I'm enjoying the creativity part of it, too!

Happy eating!

Tiramisu!

Bless you!

Oh. It's not a sneeze! It's a lovely dessert!

We had a going away luncheon for a gentleman at work. The company is returning him to his home country in Japan. However, he LOVES Italian food. We ordered the food from a local restaurant, which was really yummy. But the dessert was $40 for this size of a pan of Tiramisu. Since it's one of my favorites to make, I offered to make it. The only thing is, I don't use raw egg whites in this version. Raw egg whites gave me a stomach ache. I have made substitutions so I can eat it. Here is the recipe.

TIRAMISU

1 plain cake, cut into slices - I used angel food. You can use pound cake or bake a plain box cake.
(Ladyfingers are traditional for this recipe, if you can find them.)
1/4 cup strong black coffee
1 tablespoon orange flavoring or orange Curacao
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package mascarpone cheese - you can use plain or the 'tiramisu' flavored one
(If you're in a pinch, substitute Neufchatel cream cheese. I don't recommend it, but I have.)
1 package whipped dessert topping from the freezer section
chocolate syrup
grated chocolate or cocoa powder for dusting the top of the finished dessert

Method:

Put coffee and flavorings into a shallow bowl.
Dip one side of the cake slices into the coffee mixture and lay coffee-side up in an 8" x 8" baking dish.
You will use all of the cake. You will not use all of the liquid. Throw the rest of the liquid away.
After all of the cake is lain out in the pan, drizzle with chocolate syrup.
Mix the mascarpone with about 1 cup of the dessert topping until it is loose enough to spread.
Spread over the cake.
Spread the rest of the dessert topping over the mascarpone mixture.
Sprinkle with cocoa powder or grated chocolate.
Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.
That's it!

Grab yourself a cup of espresso and have a seat with a chunk of the tiramisu drizzled with more chocolate syrup. YUM!

'Hello' Post

Hello!

As you can see from my About Me section, I love to cook. My husband, family and friends are the recipients of my practicing. Lucky them?!

All of my 'family secret' recipes and tips will be lost with my passing. So, I want to share with all of you what I know about cooking, how I do it, etc. Long after I'm gone from this world, maybe my tips, tricks and recipes will still be used by those of you who love to cook.

I have some food allergies to additives and soy, so I'll be cooking from scratch. I do use some pre-packaged foods, but they are not a lot. So, if you're like me, this may be the blog for you.

I hope to entice all of you into trying to cook along with me. It's not hard. It's fun!

See you later!