Of Microwaves and Paper Bags

The sign of a good recipe is a well worn recipe card - another sign is an empty container 2 days after making it... This caramel corn has been a favorite since Andy was a kid. In the 18 years I've been with the Raatjes family for Christmas - it's always been there. My kids have grown up with it and love it too. I finally asked my mother in law for the recipe and was gifted with a text with the well worn recipe card and the shock of it being a microwave recipe! I have a hunch this came from when microwaves first came around and they were the shiz! Bronwyn and I gave the recipe a try and while the paper bag method scares me - it works... I think next time I might try a big glass or plastic bowl so we don't get sneaky burnt corners. This will certainly be a recipe my kids will enjoy for the years to come. Easy enough for them to make and enjoy too.

Microwave Caramel Corn
16 cups popped corn (we did a full cup of kernels in our air popper half cup at a time)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp baking soda

Instructions
Pop popcorn and place in a large brown grocery bag
Cook sugar, syrup and butter in a medium to large glass bowl in microwave on high for one minute
Stir and repeat for a total of five minutes, should be hot and bubbly
Add baking soda and mix until foamy
Pour mixture over popcorn in brown paper bag, stir or shake to coat
Fold bag over and place in microwave.
Microwave for one minute and shake, repeat.
Microwave 30 seconds and shake, repeat
Pour on 2 cookie sheets with parchment to cool then eat!

Skillet of awesome still bringing happiness

We've been making this recipe for 14 years... Yikes... when I do math like that I feel old. Yikes. This recipe works great with extra ham from the holidays or just when you need some warm comfort food on a cold night or heck - for breakfast. My favorite thing about this is the tatertots. We love tatertots and when you get to top an scramble type dish with tots and cover with cheese - yes please! I made this while Andy was blowing snow. It's early January and we've had three snows already, Andy's less than pleased. I still think it's magical - we'll see what I think in another month here when I'm wishing and willing all my flowers out of the ground to come see spring. Prep on this is easy - chop the veg ahead and you have a very quick and easy to put together meal that will win the family. You can even customize this for whatever your family likes - sausage, bacon, other veg, all sorts of things can be subbed - go wild - have fun! Enjoy the skillet of awesome!

TaterTot Skillet of Awesome
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups tater tots
1 chopped green pepper
1 chopped onion
1 cup chopped mushrooms
2 cups chopped ham
1 tsp seasoned salt
salt and pepper to taste
10 eggs, beaten
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Make it!
Bake tater tots in oven as directed by package.
Heat cast iron skillet with veggie oil. Toss in onions, peppers and mushrooms. Cook until slightly soft. Add ham and seasonings.
Toss in tatertots, pour in eggs, top with cheese.
Throw in oven (still on from tater tots) for 15 minutes.
Carefully remove and enjoy!

Perfect gray soup accompaniment

Reheated soup for dinner... that was gray. Tasted great - but the color was not pretty. The star of dinner was absolutely the bread I made to go with it. Cheddar Scallion English Muffin Bread! Bread that you can stir up - and toss into the pan directly to rise then bake - easy. This bread is pretty delicious sliced and eaten.... but toasted with some butter? Oh my word... the perfect addition to gray soup - or any soup or any meal to be honest...
I had all the ingredients in the house - even the buttermilk. I appreciate that my family walked into the house saying "mmmm something smells good!" and they weren't wrong! I have some soup in the crockpot today - can't wait to cut a slice and toast it with some more soup - this time hopefully it's not gray....

Cheddar Scallion English Muffin Bread
3 tablespoons coarse yellow cornmeal, divided
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1/3 cup warm water (110–115 degrees F)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped scallions, whites and greens
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup thick buttermilk, at room temperature
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Instructions
Lightly grease or spray a 9×5-inch metal loaf pan with shortening or nonstick cooking spray. Wipe away any excess that pools in the corners. Line the pan with a piece of parchment paper that hangs over the edges. Grease the parchment paper. Dust the pan with 2 tablespoons coarse cornmeal and tap around the pan and paper to coat.
In a small bowl whisk together yeast, warm water, and a pinch of sugar. Let rest and froth for a few minutes.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whisk together the flour, remaining sugar, salt, black pepper and baking soda. Add the scallions and cheddar and stir to combine.
Add the buttermilk, oil, and yeast mixture. Stir with a spatula to lightly incorporate. Place on the mixer with the dough hook and mix on low speed for 4 to 6 minutes. Until all of the ingredients are combined and the mixture is soft and sticky.
Lightly grease your fingers and scrape the dough out of the bowl into the prepared pan. With oiled fingers gently press the dough evenly into the pan, corner to corner. Sprinkle the top of the dough with remaining cornmeal.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rest in a warm place until doubled in size, about an hour. The dough will come to about 1 inch or a smidge closer to the top of the pan.
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. When bread has doubled, place it in the oven and allow to bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when tapped in the center. (The internal temp will measure at least 190 degrees F).
Lift the bread onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely (it’s still secretly baking) before serving. Bread is delicious within 4 days of baking – extra yummy toasted with butter.

Snowflake Bread for Christmas

I've been hoping to make another snowflake bread for Christmas but my family decided on something else. For our sixth and final Christmas of the year I decided to make a cinnamon snowflake bread and also a blueberry one! So this recipe is a mash up - but it worked! I found a blueberry compote recipe which I used frozen blueberries and no zest - I had no lemons and no one to zest them anyway... This looks so fancy but it's really not that hard and pretty yummy. I made both snowflakes the afternoon before - stored them in the Midwest fridge - outside. Don't worry - I covered them so random critters and one black lab would not be tempted. Before I went to bed I slide them into the oven uncovered to proof overnight. They probably could have used some warm water in there to get them going but... I didn't. They worked out anyway, but weren't as fluffy as I hoped. The blueberry version got far more praise than the cinnamon - I'll take their opinions as facts because I'm not eating blue food... sorry. But this sure did look pretty!!

Blueberry Snowflake Bread
Dough:
1 cup warm whole milk
1 packet instant dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
2 eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3 1/2-4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg beaten, for brushing before baking
Blueberry Compote:
1 c fresh blueberries
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
Spread:
4 tsp butter
1/3 cup sugar
Frosting:
4 tablespoons butter
4 oz cream cheese
2 Tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

Instruction:
1. To make the dough. Combine the milk, yeast, honey, 2 eggs, butter, 3 1/2 cups flour, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the bowl. The dough should be sticky, but if it seems too sticky, add the remaining 1/2 cup flour.
2. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Kneed into a smooth ball. Grease a large bowl and add the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit 45 minutes-1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
3. Meanwhile, make the filling. To make the blueberry compote, add the blueberries, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar to a small pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once the pot is simmering, reduce the heat to medium low and allow it to continue to simmer until the mixture thickens up and becomes jammy. Be sure to stir the pot occasionally so that the compote doesn’t stick or burn to the sides or bottom of the pot. The compote takes about 20 mins from the time that you put it onto the stove until it’s done. Set it aside and allow it to cool. It will continue to thicken as it cools.
4. Lightly dust a surface with flour. Once the dough has doubled in size, punch the dough down and roll into a ball. Cut the dough evenly into 4 pieces and roll each piece out into a 10 inch circle. Place 1 circle on a parchment lined baking sheet with sides. Spread 1/3 of butter and sugar mixture on the dough, then the blueberry filling over the dough, leaving a 1/2 inch border around the edge. Place another piece of dough on top and spread with 1/3 of the filling. Add the 3rd layer of dough and spread with the remaining filling. Finish with the 4th dough round.
5. Place a 2 inch wide drink glass in the center of the dough and use as a guide when cutting the strips. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 4 triangles, then cut each triangle in half creating 8 triangles. Now cut each triangle in half again to make a total of 16 triangles (see photos above for a guide).
6. Remove the drink glass. Lift the edges of 2 wedges that are next to each other and twist them away from each other twice. Pinch the ends to seal (see photos above for guide). Repeat with the remaining pairs of wedges. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes, or let rise overnight in the fridge.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and position a rack in the center. Brush the snowflake with the beaten egg. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and carefully spoon any sauce that has leaked out of bread back over the bread. Return to the oven and bake another 15 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Meanwhile, mix together frosting ingredients and pipe or drizzle over cooled snowflake

An oldie and goodie...

Full disclosure - this recipe is older than me. It's something I've had my entire 45 years on this planet... I was sure that I had in my blog but I can't seem to find it. This recipes is what we call Eclair cake in our house, it was a requested birthday cake for most of my childhood. It's an icebox cake that is simple. We used to make it with complicated frosting with liquid unsweetened chocolate and all sorts of things. I've changed how I make it and just use a container of chocolate frosting and microwave it to be able to pour it. We also used to buy French vanilla pudding. I'm an Aldi shopper... Vanilla pudding is vanilla pudding, I french-a-fy it by adding some vanilla extra. Perfect! This is one of my friend Dan's favorite desserts so I try to make it around his birthday when we see them for our Christmas together. We've even met together at hotels and I've made it in disposable plastic containers that fit in the hotel fridges to keep the tradition! This is an easy one that is delicious. I'm sure you can do so many changes, add strawberries, or make strawberry pudding? chocolate pudding with strawberries? Whipped topping on top? So many things. I'll stick with the classic... brings back all sorts of good memories.
Oh and the main picture? Absolutely not mine. I was busy serving and completely forgot to take a picture. Whoever made this one did a great job and a clean cut. Haha!

Chocolate Eclair Squares

2 pkgs Instant Vanilla Pudding
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups milk
1 9 oz. Cool Whip
1 tub chocolate frosting

Mix filling and refrigerate until firm. Layer in a 9 x 13 pan; 1st layer - whole graham crackers; 2nd layer - 1/2 filling; 3rd layer - whole graham crackers; 4th layer - 1/2 filling; 5th layer - whole graham crackers. Refrigerate until set. Top with chocolate icing.