This week's menus

In no particular order, i am making:

fetticini alfredo with sliced chicken (using up two miscellanous chicken breasts found in freezer)
garlic toast (homemade)

Poppy seed chicken (with baggie found with two chicken breasts shredded up in freezer)
broccoli

hawaiian meatballs
baked beans
homemade hot rolls
corn

steak
baked potato
cauliflower

roasted sticky chicken
broccoli and cauliflower mix, steamed with garlic butter sauce
baked potato

chicken quesadillas
rice
beans

beans
mexican cornbread
fried potatoes

Italian pinto beans
crusty french bread

Onion Cheese Bread

Onion Cheese Bread

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3/4 cup finely diced onion - can use any type, red, white or yellow. The white or yellow "looks" more appetizing.

1/2 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 cups biscuit mix

1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar

1/2 teaspoon onion salt

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives or parsley leaves or italian seasoning

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until tender, about 7 minutes.

In a large bowl, add the milk and egg to the biscuit mix, stirring just until the mix is moistened. Fold in the onions and 1/2 cup of the cheese.

Spoon the dough into a greased 8-inch round cake pan (or cast iron skillet, i always, always use my skillet if i can). Mix the onion salt into the melted butter and drizzle the mixture over the dough. Sprinkle the bread with chives or parsley and bake for 15 minutes.

Top the bread with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese and bake until the bread is cooked through and the cheese top golden, about 5 minutes longer, and you get the bread shown at the top. It is yummy!

Bacon Ranch Potatoes

These are my husband's almost favorite way to eat potatoes. it is very yummy! This is just a guide, not a real recipe. If you don't like the Ranch flavor (not strong in this dish, it is just that extra little 'sumpin') feel free to leave it out and just use sour cream only.

grease a baking dish and preheat oven to 375

peel and slice as many potatoes as you need for your family. I think i used about 8 or 9 smallish ones. Slice in 1/4 inch slices, or thereabouts.

Dice up as much onion as you like. i used about half of a red onion, but you can use white, yellow also, i have used it all, whatever i have on hand. sprinkle onion over the sliced potatoes.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper

Pat on lots of butter, for this sized dish, i used a half stick of butter.

Cover with foil and bake until fork tender, usually at least an hour, depending on how "thick" you have it in the pan. So, if you need it to cook faster, use a bigger pan and make the layer thinner.

When fork tender, here is where the fun starts. You plop in a big scoop of sour cream, at least 1/2 cup, if not 3/4 of a cup. and then squirt all over the top some Ranch dressing, again, at least a half cup. Sprinkle over it all 1 cup of shredded cheese (can use more) and 3/4 of a bottle of Baco's bacon bits. Take a big spoon and stir up the entire thing. The potatoes will break apart into slightly smaller peices, which is what you want, but don't stir so hard that it turns to mashed potatoes, use a light hand when stirring this up. When it is well mixed, taste test it....does it need more Ranch for flavor, more salt, more pepper? now is the time to get it to taste perfect! Smooth out of the top and sprinkle all over the top more cheese, covering the entire top. Sprinking on the remaining bacon bits left in the bottle and for looks you can either sprinkle on some italian seasoning or do like i did, and go out to your italian parsley plant and sprinkle fresh chopped parsley on top.

Stick the pan back in the oven now to melt the cheese and slightly brown.......

Grandma E's hot rolls

Makes 24 rolls 400 degrees

1 pkg yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup water with 1 tsp sugar to proof.

I have this neato handy-dandy spoon that is a yeast spoon, one scoop equals 2 1/4 tsp....no measuring!

here is the yeast mixture proofed and bubbly.

In a large bowl, beat one egg, set aside. (didn't get a pic)

in saucepan, scald:

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp salt

Let cool until warm.

I put mine in the freezer to hurry up the process...about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Dump yeast mixture into beaten egg, stir. Dump in cooled milk mixture to yeast/egg mixture. stir. I did it backwards, here are the pics:

Slowly add in 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups flour (how much flour will depend on how humid the air is).

Turn out onto floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.

When it is smooth and elastic

Place into a bowl with 1 tbl oil, turn to coat dough.

cover with a damp towel and let rise until double.

punch down and shape into rolls. i roll two ball sized peices and put into muffin pan, i like how it looks and breaks apart for buttering.

Okay, so i only got 23 rolls out of this batch, some are bigger than others :)

Cover and let rise a second time. These rose nicely.

When you take them out of the oven, immediately brush them with melted butter or a mixture of honey and butter. it is delicious!

You can roll into larger sized balls and place into a greased 9x13 pan or even shape into loaves and bake in loaf pans (two).

I always make these when i make homemade chicken and dumplin's. these get made every year at Thanksgiving also and sometimes, when dh is wanting it, i will make two loaves of this bread and he will eat it with butter or toast it and put PB on it.

Garlic-Herb Crusty French Bread

I made this bread to go with our lima bean soup tonight and it was out of this world! I just used my regular crusty french bread/pizza dough recipe and added in the herbs and spices. It came out great! Here are some pics.

Recipe:

2 1/4 tsp yeast
1-1/2 Cups warm water, divided
1 Tbl honey
2 tsp salt
1 Tbl olive oil
4 Cups all-purpose flour (can use half whole wheat, yummy)
1 tsp granulated garlic (this is to make it garlic-herb bread)
1 tsp italian seasoning (this is to make it garlic-herb bread)
Cornmeal (optional)

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup water with 1 tsp sugar, let it proof. Add honey, salt, oil and remaining water; stir until dissolved. Add flour and stir until you can knead it. Knead for 6-10 minutes or until it is elastic and smooth. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise n a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled. Punch down. Divide in half; let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each half into a 10" x 8" rectangle. Roll up from a long side; pinch edge to seal.Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Sprinkle tips with cornmeal. With a very sharp knife, make 5 diagonal cuts across the top of each loaf, about 1/4" deep. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 400* for 20 - 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

You do not need the cornmeal if you use a W pan.

Here is the dough, oiled and ready to rise.

Here it is risen:

Here it is punched down, shaped and ready for second rise:

It has doubled and ready to bake!

Finished results! It was a BIG HIT! The entire family ate every piece of it! Dh i think ate 3/4 of one entire loaf. I put four slices in a baggie to go with his lunch tomorrow. You can see in this picture that after i took it from the oven and ran to get my camera, some little bread thief had been by.......my family loves homemade bread. this is such a great savory bread. You gotta try it! It went great with the Lima Bean soup!

My menus for this week

I am not really doing a formal menu, but i will post what i have done so far, we are eating from our freezer this week, so it might ecclectic :) I got stressed yesterday and so i spent lots of time in the kitchen, cooking and baking from scratch. it is my stress outlet....at least my family benefits from that :)

Sunday - my version of Chicken Tetrazzini with broccoli and mushrooms. I seasoned the chicken with a new seasoning i just got. it was lovely and yummy! If you get the chance, go get some Herbs De Provinc seasoning. I found it at Reasor's. Smells wonderful when cooking and tastes even better!

Monday - Beans, cornbread and hot spanish rice (out of potatoes).

Tuesday (stressed day and no, NOT from taxes, LOL)- Homemade chicken and dumplin's with homemade hot rolls (Grandma E's recipe, will post pics and tutorial for that when camera quits acting wonky), and some strawberry shortcake. (will post recipe tonight - keep forgetting). I can't believe i made 23 rolls and all but 3 were eaten last night!

Wednesday - Lima Bean Soup with homemade crusty french bread. We have made this recipe many times and it is so yummy! Hint, make it up earlier in the day and let it set for a while to thicken up (that is, if you don't like soupy soup :) ) We are using leftover ham from Christmas in this dish.

Strawberry Shortcake with Homemade Shortcake

I made this at the end of March, when the really good strawberries were in the stores. It was SO YUMMY!

Now, in my family, we just can't stand that yucky spongy mess of grossness that they sell in a package of 4. We have always made this dish with pie crust laid flat on a cookie sheet sprinkled with sugar and baked. It was much better....but this recipe was off the roof good! Real, homemade with love, shortcakes! It was so easy to make and so yummy!

My son decided since he helped me cut the strawberries, he had to get the first dessert :) We ran out of strawberries before we ran out of shortcakes, so we ate the shortcakes like cookies!

Menu Plan Monday

Sunday
BBQ pork steak
Mashed potatoes
Rolls
Blackeyed peas
(mashed cauliflower for me)

Monday
Monteray Chicken
Baked potatoes
SB mashed potatoes for me
Broccoli and cheese
Salad

Tuesday
Chili

Wednesday
Chicken Picatta
Asparagus
Broccoli and cauliflower
Salad

Thursday
Ham steaks
Mashed potatoes
SB cauliflower
Ranch beans
Salad

Friday
Taco Salad

Saturday
Keilbasa
Ranch beans
Salad
Broccoli and cheese

Breakfast:
Eggs and broccoli omlet
Sausage and egg
V-8 juice
Canadian bacon
pancakes and cereal and oatmeal for kids.

Lunch:
Lunch meat rollups
SB fajitas

it has been a while since i was able to particate in MPM.
Lettuce BLTs