One of our favorite family treats has always been cinnamon rolls.  For 20+ years, on special occasions, or sometimes just because, we would buy a can of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls and bake them up!!

A few years ago, I wondered how hard they were to make.  I made them from scratch a few times, but in order to have them ready for breakfast I would have to make the dough the night before, put it in the refrigerator, and do the final rise and bake first thing in the morning.

For Christmas, I got a new bread machine and decided to try making the dough that way.  If your family are early risers, you may still need to put the dough in the refrigerator the night before, but total time from putting the ingredients in the machine to pulling hot yummy rolls out of the oven was 2 1/4 hours as compared to almost 3 hours without the machine.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Combine first seven ingredients, in order into bread machine pan.  Select Dough cycle.  Once timer beeps, remove dough from pan immediately.  Gently push fist into dough to deflate.  Roll dough into a 15 x 10 inch rectangle on lightly floured surface (I recommend flouring the rolling pin also – this dough is sticky!!)  Spread with the 2 tablespoons of butter.  Sprinkle with filling.

Filling: Combine 1/4 cup brown sugar with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.  I used a restaurant-style cheese shaker, which you can buy for around $2 online or at a restaurant supply store.

Roll rectangle up tightly, from the long end.  Pinch dough under to seal.  Cut into 1 inch slices, using dental floss.

Place slices slightly apart in a jelly roll pan or deep cookie sheet.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until double, about 15 minutes.

Heat oven to 350F.  Bake rolls for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove rolls from pan to wire rack.  Cool for 10 minutes.  Drizzle with vanilla glaze.

Vanilla glaze: Melt 1/3 cup butter in a small saucepan over low heat.  Remove from heat and stir in 2 cups powdered sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla.  Continue stirring and add hot water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until consistency of thick syrup.

Enjoy!!

Ratatouille is one of my favorite springtime “everything but the kitchen sink” type dishes.  And for those of you who are not familiar with this dish, it has nothing to do with rats   Ratatouille is a french vegetable dish, usually comprised of tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, onions, bell pepper and eggplant.  It is usually served as a side dish, but I serve mine as a main dish, sometimes over pasta.

For me, the best thing about ratatouille is that as long as I have tomatoes, onions and zucchini I can wing it on the other ingredients.  The other day I came upon some lovely early eggplants, so I knew what I had to make!!  Here is the recipe for this month’s easy sauteed ratatouille, but keep in mind you can substitute or add your favorite vegetables along the way.

Ingredients:

Directions:

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The other night Art came home with some cube steak from the “grey meat” section of the grocery store.  “Grey meat” is the clearance section of the meat department – meat which is about to expire and is marked down anywhere from 30-50% or more off the original price.  We call it grey meat because often the edges of the meat have started to oxidize, taking on a greyish tinge.  You can get some really great deals. The only drawback is you either have to use it that day or freeze it that day.

We hadn’t had chicken fried steak in a long time, so we decided not to freeze the meat.  It turned out so well, we reheated the extra pieces the next day and had them with eggs, biscuits and gravy.

Yummy!!

Ingredients:

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A couple of weeks ago, Art and I took a road trip to Oregon to scout colleges for his degree.  Art’s parents live in Central Oregon, so we stayed with them two nights on the way up and one night on the way back.  It was fun to catch up and hang out.

One morning, Art’s mom made us Eggs in a Nest.  I’m not a big fan of baked eggs (pretty much hard boiled or scrambled are it for me), but Art loved them so much I asked her permission to share the recipe on my blog.

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen hash browns (shredded, not patties)

salt and pepper

cooking spray

4 large eggs (or however many you need for your family)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Spray a muffin pan generously with cooking spray.  Scoop 3-4 tablespoons of frozen shredded potato into each hole. Use your fingers to press down the sides and bottom in each muffin hole to make a nest.  Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper and spray the nest with cooking spray.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, watching to make sure they don’t burn.

Allow the nests to cool.  Crack an egg into each one.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake just until the whites are set, about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!!

One of my very favorite children’s books is Maurice Sendak’s Chicken Soup with Rice.  At one time I had the entire book memorized.  Its verses were so comforting to me, just like a nice steaming bowl of chicken soup with rice!!

Here’s the verse for April:

In April I will go away
To far off Spain or old Bombay
And dream about hot soup all day
Oh, my, oh, once, oh, my, oh, twice
Oh, my, oh, chicken soup with rice

So, as you can guess, the recipe for today is for Chicken Soup with Rice!!  The broth and chicken come from the poached chicken recipe I posted last week.

Ingredients:

1 quart chicken broth (ours was frozen)

12 oz. cooked chicken meat, cut into half-inch cubes, (or you can use a can of chicken)

1/2 pound carrots, cut into thin coins

1 cup long grain rice (not minute)

The beauty of this recipe is that you don’t have to add a lot of herbs and seasonings since you already this when poaching the chicken.

Directions:

Thaw the frozen broth, then pour into a medium-large stockpot.  Bring to a boil.  Add carrots and rice.  Reduce to simmer and continue to cook for 15 minutes.  Add rice and chicken. Continue to cook for another 10 minutes or so, until rice and carrots are cooked through.

Enjoy!!

About a month ago a friend gave us some frozen chicken.  It looked to be half of a whole chicken.  We stuck it up in the freezer and forgot about it.  For easy dinners, we usually eat chicken breasts, and at the time I had about six breasts in the freezer already.

Last week we were trying to eat as much as possible from food we already had at home and we were running low on meat.  Art is not a big fan of roasted chicken (not sure why), so he suggested I boil the half a chicken we had in the freezer and we could use the meat for chicken tacos or whatever.  I did him one better and came up with this poached chicken recipe.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Before I start the directions, let me just say that once the chicken was thawed, I realized that what we thought was a half a chicken, was, in reality three thigh/drumstick combos and a very large breast.  So maybe a mutant chicken?

Wash and pat dry chicken, then place in a large stockpot with 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil.  Add chicken broth and enough water to cover chicken by 3-4 inches.  Add remaining ingredients.

Cook over high heat until broth reaches a rolling boil.  Cover and reduce heat to low, simmer for about an hour.  (Don’t let it boil or the meat will get tough and stringy).

Remove chicken, cover and refrigerate.  The next day you can remove the skin and bones and save the meat for future recipes.

The broth can be saved in the refrigerator for 4-5 days or do as we did and after it has cooled, pour it into quart size resealable bags and freeze. Then you can just pop out as much as you need at a time.

Here is how much broth and meat we got from just that little bit of chicken:

This worked out to about a pound of meat and 4 /12 quarts of broth.  Yum!!!

Try it for yourself!! Poach a chicken and let me know what you do with the meat and broth!! We made chicken tacos and chicken soup.

Sometimes I get really tired of chicken, don’t you?  I mean, it’s healthy and not too expensive, but sometimes it seems like I’ve made every chicken recipe known to man.  It’s all been done before.

Well, last week, Bud’s girlfriend surprised me with a new chicken recipe, which, amazingly, everyone in the family (except Boo, who is a vegetarian) was in love with.

So, Aspen agreed that I could share here White Wine Sage Chicken recipe with you!!

Ingredients:

1-2 pounds, boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes

1-2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 cup sherry or other dry white wine

1/2 tsp. sage

1 clove garlic, minced

1-2 cloves shallots, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook chicken in olive oil over medium heat until no longer pink.  Add wine.  Reduce heat to low.  Add sage, garlic, shallots, salt and pepper.

Continue to simmer for 5-10 minutes until “sauce” has thickened slightly.

Serve with rice.  Spoon a little of the sauce over the chicken and rice, if desired.

 Enjoy!!

As I’ve mentioned before, one of my family’s favorite meals on a cold winter’s night is beans-n-ham-n-cornbread.  I’ve shared my recipe for Crockpot Beans and Ham, but I’ve never shared my sweet cornbread recipe before.  Well, here it is.  It’s not as sweet and cakey as, say, Marie Callender’s, but we think it’s just right.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9″ square baking pan.

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.

Combine milk, eggs, oil and melted butter in a small container (I used a 2 cup measure); mix well.

Fold liquid mixture into flour mixture; stir just until blended.  Pour into the pre-greased baking pan.

Bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Enjoy!!

Hope that everyone who celebrates it had a Merry Christmas!!

Here is my gift to you – our favorite super easy fudge recipe, inherited from Art’s mom.  We make it every Christmas.  I hope you enjoy it as much as our family does!!

Ingredients:

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened, condensed milk

1 package (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips

6 oz. butterscotch chips

1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Grease bottom and sides of a square pan (8x8x2).  My mother-in-law lines the pan with foil first so it’s easier to lift out the fudge.  But you will still need to grease the foil, so it’s up to you.

Heat milk, chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in a 2 qt. saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until chips are melted and mixture is smooth.  Remove from heat.

Stir in vanilla.  Spread in a pan and refrigerate until firm (at least 1 1/2 hours).  Cut into 1 inch squares and serve.

Enjoy!!

Two weeks ago I posted my recipe for Hazelnut Hot Chocolate with Hazelnut Whipped Cream using Torani Hazelnut flavored syrup.  This week I used the Gingerbread flavored syrup I received from Torani to make gingerbread pancakes.  They turned out so yummy I knew you would want the recipe.  So here it is:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp. Torani gingerbread syrup (or to taste – Bud thought it needed more.  I thought it was perfect.)

Complete pancake mix (we used Hungry Jack) water

Directions:

Prepare pancake mix according to directions on box.  (You can make as many as you want  – there is enough filling to make about 22 pancakes).

In a separate bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar and gingerbread syrup.  Mix well and pour into a small plastic storage bag.  Squeeze out the air and seal the bag.  Cut off one corner of the bag (the smaller, the better.)

Pour a 1/3 cup of batter onto a well-greased skillet.  Squeeze on filling in a circular motion.

Cook until bubbles form throughout, then flip.  Continue cooking until golden brown.   (In between pancakes, be sure to wipe off the griddle with a clean damp rag and regrease).

Enjoy!!

What recipes would you make with Torani syrup?  Leave a comment below.

This is a sponsored post on behalf of SheSpeaks and Torani.  All opinions are 100% my own.