Garlic Pull-Apart Bread

I wanted to make bread to go with a pasta dish for a dinner party I was going to. I didn't want to make rolls and I didn't want to make a loaf. Then I found this recipe for garlic pull-apart bread. It got rave reviews!

Basically, make your favorite bread recipe but instead of baking it into a loaf, shape it into a rope and cut it into 1-2 inch pieces (15 to 20 pieces per loaf). Melt 1 stick of butter and add 1 beaten egg, 3 tbsps garlic salt and 1 tbsp dried parsley. Dip each of the bread pieces into the butter mixture and mush it into the pan. Pack them in fairly tightly and let it rise for another 30 mins. Bake for about 25 minutes. It's delicious!

The only change I would make to this recipe is to not make it in a silicone pan. The crispy parts were the best part. I think it would have been better in a regular metal pan.

Cheers!

Drop Biscuits

I've never had the courage to make my own biscuits. I don't have the room to spread out and really make a mess. Curse this tiny apartment! Anywho... Suzanne over at Chickens in the Road (one of my all time favorite blogs) had a recipe for drop biscuits!! I don't need lots of room for drop biscuits. I followed her recipe to the letter.

Drop Biscuits: recipe yoinked from Suzanne

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shortening, lard, or (softened) butter

1 1/3 cups milk

Place first 5 ingredients in a large bowl and work in the shortening, lard, or butter with a pastry cutter then pour in the milk. Drop biscuits are all about the extra milk.

Spoon biscuit dough into a lightly greased pan or onto a baking sheet. I used my large cookie scoop to drop them into little round balls into my cute little casserole dish.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes. These biscuits are moist, so they take a little longer to bake. Your actual bake time will vary depending on the size you make your biscuits and even the type of pan used. Always keep an eye on biscuits while they’re baking!

*Recipe makes one dozen biscuits.

These were delicious!! Even my BF liked them :) If you haven't visited Suzanne yet, you should check her out. She has delicious recipes and fun farm animals :)

Cheers!

Roasted Tomato (Sauce)

I like to make my own tomato sauce. It delicious, versatile and I like that I know what's in it. Here is my crude version of Val's recipe:

Roasted Tomato (Sauce)

a bunch of fresh tomatoes - enough to cut up and cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan

EVOO - a tew TBSPs to toss the tomatoes in

Italian herbs - to toss on the tomatoes

Preheat oven to 400*. Cut up the tomatoes and toss them in the EVOO. Don't bother taking the skins off. Sprinkle Italian herbs to taste. Bake in oven for about 40 minutes. Start checking on it when your kitchen starts to smell awesome :). You can use them as is in soups or other dishes. Or you can VERY CAREFULLY run them through a blender and make it into a sauce. Or you can even make your own soup. Next time tomatoes are in season, I'll do this and then can some of the sauce. It's really up to you :)

Cheers!

Kitty Hat

Another sewing project.... My other hat was getting a bit worn so I made this:

Isn't it adorable!! And the fleece is soooo soft and warm :)

Cheers!

Baklava

Hi everyone! I just realized that I hadn't posted a recipe in a while.... so I'm going to get caught up on all my recipe postings from the past few months. For a holiday potluck at work, it was requested that I make my baklava. My supervisors love this stuff :) I grew up with a lot of greek food so I used that history and this recipe and modified it to make my own version. So here it is:

Baklava

1 lb phyllo pastry, thawed if frozen

1 cup butter, melted at room temp

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3-4 cups chopped walnuts

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup honey

1 tbsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C). Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon and 1/4 c sugar. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep.
3. Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows the make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.
4. Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
5. Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers. This freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.

Cheers!

Triple Berry Spread

My sister was visiting on her last day before she heads back up to school (shes such a smart cookie :)). We just got back from the Dutch Market up the street and I though it would be neat to send her back to school with something sweet that she can use. I had about 6 cups of frozen mixed strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. I didn't want to make jam because I'd have to chop everything a little more than it already was. So I decided we were going to make a mixed berry spread. I slightly modified the recipe that I was given by the sweet lady at the Dutch Market.

Here's the original recipe (I thought it had too much sugar):

Dutch Jelly/Jam

2 cups fruit

4 cups sugar

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup dutch jell (like Sure Jell or generic pectin)

Mix fruit and sugar and let it stand for 10 minutes. Boil water and dutch jell for 3 minutes. Add the fruit and sugar mixture. Bring to a full rolling boil. Stir for 3 minutes, bringing back to a full boil. Remove from heat. Ladle into prepared jars and process or let cool and refrigerate.

Here's my version:

Triple Berry Spread

6 cups fruit

8 cups sugar (I'll decrease this next time to 6 cups since I think it was too sweet)

2-1/2 cups water

1-1/2 cups dutch jell

Mix fruit and sugar and let it stand for 10 minutes. Boil water and dutch jell for 3 minutes. Put sugar and fruit through a food processor until its the consistency of a very thick smoothie (no big chunks). Add the mixture to the water/jell mixture. Bring to a full rolling boil. Stir for 8 minutes, bringing back to a full boil. Remove from heat. Ladle into prepared jars, let cool and refrigerate.

We put them in the jars and went to a movie. After we came back we noticed that the spread that was in the jars settled a bit and there seemed to be some liquid on the bottom (I think its because of the amount of sugar we used). The consistency after it cooled was almost like a thick mousse - very light and almost poofy :) very surprising.

I had her take 2 jars and give my brother and other sister 2 jars each. I kept the left over big jar.
I had the spread on wheat toast this morning :) It was delicious!

Cheers!

Sewing Machine Cover

I was not happy with the yucky vinyl cover my sewing machine came with so I modified this pattern slightly and came up with my own reversible cover with a hole for the handle.

Cheers!

Upcycled Skirt

I found this tutorial and decided to make a cute little springtime purse. I went to the GoodWill and found a few adorable printed pleated skirts. Here's the first purse I made :)

I'm thinking of putting a clasp or something at the top to help keep it closed.

Cheers!

Why I Love Craigslist

A few days ago I was bored at work during my lunch break. I hadn't checked Craigslist in a while so I decided to check out the free stuff people were giving away. I hit the jackpot! I found a wonderful old man that had just retired and was cleaning out his basement to make room for his ceramics studio. Guess what he was giving away? ALL of his wife's old canning stuff!!!

Check it out!

I walked away with 28 wide mouth quart jars, 4 pint jars, and 3 half gallon jars (one of the half gallon jars was a wide mouth!).... I had to stop at Walmart on my way home to get these little crates that conveniently held a dozen quart jars each. The nice man just seemed to want all the stuff out of his basement and he also handed me a bag with random canning stuff. Check out the vintage items. I might keep them around just for giggles :)

Neat old spices :)

I know these lids aren't vintage but they are typically pricey. Plus they were still in the original packaging so I think they are brand new :)

I was half-tempted to send these forms in to see if they'd send me a book...

Jar Rubbers - I giggled when I read that :)

These lids aren't so vintage but they are almost a decade old.

So I am completely ecstatic about this. I thought I was going to have to BUY a bunch of the wide mouth mason jars so I saved a TON of money. If you haven't heard of Craigslist, check it out. Just click on the city nearest you to start finding stuff. People are giving stuff away everyday. If its not free, it's usually pretty cheap :)

Happy New Year everyone!

Sewing Machine

I splurged and finally bought a sewing machine - a Singer 7467 !! I went to JoAnne's thinking I was going to get a cheapo model that I could learn on, but after talking to the experts there, I got a $200 model that was discounted down from almost $400! It's a good thing I got it before Christmas :) Now all of my gifts are sewing/craft related!

I'll have pics of the first craft I made later :)