Monday, August 23, 2010

Deb's Dill Dip

My BF's mom makes this great dill dip for family get-togethers. She kindly shared the recipe with me so I could make it for her son whenever he wants it. Here it is right from her recipe card... my changes are in red :)

Deb's Dill Dip
2/3 cup mayo - I used Kraft Olive Oil Mayo
2.3 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp dill weed
1 Tbsp parsley flakes
1 Tbsp minced onion flakes - I used a light sprinkle of onion powder to taste
1/2 tsp seasoned salt

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate overnight. Serve with rye and or pumpernickel breads.

Deb's additional variations:
Use an 8oz (1 cup) container of sour cream then use the empty sour cream container to measure an equal amount (1 cup) of mayo. Since this is 50% more mayo and sour cream, increase the other herbs and onions to 1 1/2 Tbsps and increase the salt to 3/4 tsp.

I made this and let it sit over night in the fridge. The BF loved it the next day, even with my changes :)

Enjoy!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Stuff to try out....

Here's some stuff I want to try soon. I hope school isn't going to tie me up as much as it did the last few months....


If you try any of these, let me know how they turn out :)

Friday, August 13, 2010

Crayon Roll

When my BFF's son was about to be a big brother, I decided to make him a cute crayon roll to keep him busy at the hospital :) I think it turned out sooo adorable :)


What do you think?





My First Hat

I made my first hat a little while ago :)

What do you think?


Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I have a get together to go to tomorrow so I decided to make cupcakes since everyone likes cupcakes. However, since I have a 20 page paper that is due Sunday, I decided to take the easy way out and just use box mix and canned frosting (GASP). I know its blasphemy but - hey - I'm busy.

Well of course I had to find some way to make it time consuming so I decided to get some cake decorating tips and make them pretty looking. But since I'm scatterbrained, I forgot that using fancy cake decorating tips to frost cupcakes would require a lot of frosting. I OBVIOUSLY didn't get enough to cover 48 cupcakes. So instead of running out at 10:30pm to try to find frosting I made my own - YAY ME!

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened
4-5 tbsp cocoa powder
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp vanilla extract
3-5 tbsp water (can use cream or milk as well)

Cream the butter and shortening until smooth. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl often. Add cocoa powder, making sure it blends well. Frosting will look a bit dry. Now add the vanilla and the water. You can add more depending on how stiff you want the frosting to be.

Cheers!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Pepperoni Rolls

I totally copied this recipe from Suzanne. It's delicious and can be grabbed as a snack or you can pack 2 for a lunch. I only made minimal changes. Check out her website - it's awesome and she has step-by-step pics of this yumminess.


Pepperoni Rolls


Dough

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 teaspoon yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 egg

1/3 cup oil

1 cup chopped pepperoni

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

4 cups flour (approx)


Filling

pepperoni slices or sticks

mozzarella or pepper jack cheese (approx. 2 cups)


In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, salt, sugar, minced garlic, egg, oil, chopped pepperoni, and the 1/2 cup of cheese. Let sit five minutes. Stir in the first cup and a half of flour with a heavy spoon. Add the next cup of flour a little at a time as needed, stirring until dough becomes too stiff to continue stirring easily. Add a little more flour and begin kneading. The amount of flour is approximate since dough can be temperamental.

Continue adding flour and kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let dough rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled. (Usually, about an hour. Mine took about 2 hrs to rise enough.) Uncover bowl; sprinkle in a little more flour and knead again before dividing in half into two balls.

Working with one half of the dough at a time, roll each ball of dough out onto a floured surface into a rectangle (approximately 8×12 inches). Sprinkle flour over the dough to keep from sticking as you roll. Make one slice lengthwise down the dough. Slicing from the other direction, make a slice down the middle, then again, until you have eight pieces. Sprinkle with cheese. Place about 3 pepperoni slices or sticks on each piece. Roll up, pinching seam to seal.

Let rise approximately 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Bake for 20-30 minutes. (Watch carefully–the size of your rolls will vary the baking time–they’re done when they’ve browned.) Makes 16 rolls.


Cheers!