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.

Japanese Meatloaf

I tried a WONDERFUL meatloaf recipe from the blog I follow called Japanese Cooking Lovers. It is listed on the right of this blog. You MUST try this! This is a pic of my Hubby's lunch today. I made smaller meatloaves so they'd fit nicely into a container with other stuff. Green beans to the top left; meatloaf to the top right; baked potato on the bottom.

I can't tell you how yummy this was. It cooked up in a matter of minutes. It was SO juicy and had SO much flavor that I didn't even use the sauce given in the recipe. The best part is it cooks in a frying pan so you don't have to wait for hours to eat it.

There was a tip on the site to make the meatloaf very tender. It was a little hard to figure, but I asked Yuri about it. When you put all of the meat ingredients together, whip the meat until your arms get tired. Then whip it some more. And then whip it some more. This breaks down the fibers in the meat and incorporates all of the ingredients well. The meat should be creamy and loose when you are done.

Please check out the Japanese Cooking Lovers blog! You will not be sorry!

Happy cooking!

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!

Style Tips Received!

I asked my Japanese friend to look at yesterday's Bento. She was tickled I tried. She said 'Bento! Bonzai!' Of course, my first try had no method. I just threw things in. This is yesterday's breakfast for my hubby. Not bad, but no style.

Style tip (not quite stated this way): color + food = yum!

She said the more color you pack in with the food, the more 'wow factor' you'll have when you open the box. All of the pretty colors will make you want to eat your food.

Here is today's try at Bento for hubby. Breakfast is on the bottom. Lunch is on the top.

Breakfast (clockwise) = egg, grapes, orange slices, grapes, toast, ham, tomato

Lunch (clockwise) = crackers, tuna salad, celery sticks, orange slices, mustard, tomato, crackers and cheese, carrots

This looks a little bit better. At least, he'll have more choices and snacks to choose from.

Here's my lunch. This is much better for me. You can see I have pretty much everything he has between his two meals.

After work, yesterday, I went shopping for Bento stuff and foods with color. I bought the cupcake papers, the divided trays, the metal cups and the green silicone cups to hold rolly things like the egg. I bought apples, carrots, grapes, celery, tomatoes and oranges. I was running low on staple foods that hubby will eat.

Here's a pic of the cups I bought.

The green one on the left is called a 'pinch cup'. Supposedly for a pinch of this and a pinch of that. I like the little pedestal on the bottom of this. I like this so nothing will roll and you can actually put a lot of stuff into it. This comes two to a pack for under $2. See the Bento pics for size reference. The egg is a medium-sized egg.

The metal one on the right is a sauce cup. It holds 2.5 oz. This comes four to a pack for under a dollar. We can probably spread the tuna on 3 of the 4 plain crackers I put in our lunches.

Both of these cups fit nicely into the divided trays. They were cheap, too...all the better.

I can hardly wait to start using leftovers for more surprising lunches.

Now, I'll have to see what my friend says about this try at Bento.

Thanks, Yuri!

Happy Bento-ing!

Bento...kinda...

My Japanese friend and I were talking about Bento yesterday. In case you don't know what Bento is, I'll tell you in as simple of terms as possible.

Bento is a little of this, that and the other thing when it comes to making a breakfast or lunch. It is the style of putting together food items into an appealing arrangement while using either leftovers or first runs.

Let me show you my inspiration for this morning's breakfast for my hubby.

We have cubed cheddar, cottage cheese, raisin scone and pork sausage patty. He's diabetic, so I best watch what I give him. I should've put a bit of canned fruit in there, too. I had the room, but time is limited in the morning.

The box you put it in is a Bento box. Anything will do as long as it has a lid, but there are special boxes for Japanese meals. I need some style tips from my Japanese friend. Her blog is in my faves list to the right...Japanese Cooking Lovers. Check it out. There are some great recipes there and lots of tips for Japanese cooking.

Because of the economy, this style of meal is becoming popular. Of course, big cities like New York and DC already have this in fashion. But us little guys in the 'burbs of SC can do it as well.

Creativity is the key. Leftovers help, too!

Have a good day!