Baking Powder Biscuits

Photo by me

Recipe by Williams Sonoma

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 tblsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup whole milk

In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in the butter just until the mixture forms large coarse crumbs, the size of small peas. Pour in the milk and mix with a fork or rubber spatula just until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead gently a few times until it clings together. Using a spoon, drop biscuits onto the pan to make drop biscuits. OR roll or pat out the dough until 3/4 inch thick if you want to cut it out with a biscuit cutter.

Yield 12 biscuits

**These are yummy by themselves, but tastes great paired with soup too. Beware, they're addicting!

Spinach Lasagna

1½ lb ground turkey
1 jar spagetti sauce (28oz jar)
1 can tomato sauce (8oz can)
1 tub cottage cheese or ricotta (24oz)
1 pkg (no boil) oven ready lasagna noodles (8oz)
1 egg, slightly beaten
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
1 bag baby spinach
4 cups shredded mozarella cheese
2 tsp crushed chili flakes*

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large skillet, cook meat until brown. Drain into a strainer and rinse with water (this removes excess fat). Return to skillet and stir in spaghetti and tomato sauce.

In a small bowl, combine egg, cottage cheese, spinach, basil, oregano, and chili flakes. In a 13x9x2inch baking dish, spread just enough meat sauce enough to cover the bottom of pan. Place 3 pieces of uncooked pasta on top, making sure pieces do not over lap or touch sides of pan. Spread ¾ cup cottage cheese mixture over pasta, covering pasta completely. Spread 1 cup meat sauce onto cottage cheese. Repeat layers of noodles and cottage cheese and meat sauce until you’ve used up ingredients. Sprinkle with mozarella cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake for 10-15 minutes or until hot and bubbly. 10-12 servings.

*We love this spicy version, but if you can’t handle the burn…omit the chili flakes and it still tastes great.

**Note - I usually triple or quadruple the recipe so that I can freeze them! It only takes me an extra 20 minutes to do which saves me a ton of TIME in the long run!

Just buy 3-4 foil lasagna pans and assemble as usual EXCEPT do not add the cheese. Cover with foil and freeze. Before baking frozen lasagna, make sure it has thawed out (otherwise it'll take forever to bake). Before placing thawed lasagna into oven, add 2 cups or more of additional spagetti sauce to prevent it from being too dry after baking. Add the cheese on top, cover with foil and bake for 1 hour or so on 400F.

Honey Whole-Wheat Bread

Photo by me

Recipe by Williams Sonoma


This is the best 100% wheat bread that I've ever made. I love my Williams Sonoma cookbook, their recipes always impress me. I was squealing with delight when my bread came out looking this beautiful! This recipe will make 2 loafs of bread. If you just want 1 loaf, then half the recipe.



2 packages (5 tsp) active dry yeast

2 cups whole milk, 105-115 F

1/4 cup honey

2 large eggs

6 cups whole-wheat flour

2 tsp sea salt

6 tblsp unsalted butter, at room temperature



Dissolve yeast in the milk into a large bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add honey, eggs, flour, salt and butter. Place bowl on the mixer (or knead by hand) and knead on low speed. Add a little more flour as needed for the dough to come away from the sides of the bowl after a few minutes of kneading. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, 5-7 minutes. Remove dough from the bowl.

Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot until it doubles in bulk, (30-40 minutes is what it usually takes for me).

Butter two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

Punch down dough using your palm of your hand, pressing to release bubbles. Place dough onto lightly floured work space and cut dough in half. For each half, evenly flatten the dough with the heel of your hand. Roll the bottom third up onto itself and seal it by pushing it gently with the heel of your hand. Continue rolling and sealing the dough until you have an oval log. Place the log, seam side down, in the prepared loaf pans. Press on them to flatten them evenly into the pans.

Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let the loaves rise in a warm, draft-free spot until they double in size (30-45 minutes). Be careful, you don't want the bread to rise too much otherwise it will fall during baking. So just until it doubles in size.

Bake on 375F for 35-40 minutes, or until they are honey brown and sound hollow when tapped on top. Be careful not to overbake this bread or it will be dry. Carefully remove the loaves from the pans and let cool completely on wire racks before slicing.



Enjoy!



**If you don't have milk on hand, or are lactose intolerant, you can substitute water for the milk and use only 2 tblsp honey instead.

**If you're using a breadmaker to bake this bread, make sure it doesn't rise too much. You will have to punch it down manually and control the rise time, then set it on "bake only" once it's doubled in size after the second rise.

If you don't do this and just use the "whole wheat" cycle on your breadmaker, you'll have a FALLEN LOAF. I've tried this and other wheat recipes on 2 different breadmakers, with the same drastic results.

So, just trust me, and do the "basic cycle" for kneading, manually controlling the rises and then "bake only" and you will have BEAUTIFUL BREAD!

Pretzel Wreath

These are yummy just as a treat, but they can also be an edible ornament! This idea came from The Pampered Chef. Lydia came over and we made them together. Brynlee was great at dipping the pretzels!

Sweet & Salty

need I say more?

1 bag Mini Pretzels

1 pkg Almond Bark

Colored Sprinkles

Yield 26 wreaths

Break almond bark into chunks and put into a small deep bowl. Melt in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted completely. Make sure your stirring utensil is completely dry, even one drop of water can ruin the consistency of the chocolate.

Dip the bottom half of each pretzel into the chocolate mixture. Place coated pretzel onto a piece of wax paper. Arrange 5 coated pretzels into a circle, with the chocolate touching each other in the center. Repeat this again for the second layer on top. Sprinkle toppings as desired. Let cool, about 15 minutes.

*Helpful Tips*

-Don't use any other type of chocolate except the almond bark or candy melts (candy that is designed for melting). These have certain fats that have great melting qualities, whereas they are removed for chocolate chips.

-If the almond bark starts getting stiff and cold, melt it again in the microwave.

-Don't have any sprinkles? No problem. Just use one drop of food coloring to 1/2 cup of regular sugar and stir! Get a variety of colored sprinkles for a fraction of the cost of the bottled stuff! Store the remaining sprinkles in an air tight container for future use.

Cinnamon Christmas Ornaments

The recipe that I use is:

1/2 cup ground cinnamon,
1/3 cup applesauce, and
1 Tbs. Tacky glue

Mix in bowl and stir until well blended. Work mixture in hands for three minutes to form a ball. If it is too dry, add applesauce, if too wet, add more cinnamon. Knead ball on cinnamon-sprinkled surface until it holds together well. I roll this out and use cookie cutters for the shapes. I also use a drinking straw to cut a hanging hole. These can be air dried for 24 to 48 hours. Turn several times. They can also be baked in a slow oven.


Learn how to make these delicious cinnamon smelling ornaments here. They cost about $1 to make 25 ornaments. They're great for giving away to friends and are easy for the kids to make!

Plus, they make your house smell wonderful!

The star pictured above is one that I got from my single's ward Relief Society 5 years ago and it still smells wonderful! (Rachel, I think you were Relief Society President at that time)

Tamale Pie

We could have this dish at least once a week,

it's THAT GOOD

recipe from Joan Arrington (from Apache Park Ward)

1 lb. hamburger
1 chopped green bell pepper
1 chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced
16 oz. can diced tomatoes
6 oz. can tomato paste
12 oz. can corn, drained
1 can sliced olives (optional)
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2-3 tsp. chili powder
Dash of pepper
1 ½ c. sharp American cheese, grated
3 c. cold milk

1 c. yellow corn meal
1 tsp. salt


Brown the first four ingredients together. Drain the fat and add tomatoes, tomato paste, corn, olives, sugar, salt, chili powder, and pepper. Simmer heated through. Add cheese and stir until melted. Pour into 9 x 13 inch baking dish.

Make corn meal topping by heating milk to a boil. Remove from heat. Add salt and quickly stir in corn meal with a whisk (use a silicone coated whisk if you have non-stick pans). Mix completely. Spread over top of meat mixture. Bake at 400* for 30 minutes.

*For Kid Friendly, just use 1 tsp of Chili powder or omit it entirely. We just add Cholula hot sauce to the adults' plates and it's so GOOD!

In the photo, I ran out of green bell pepper so I improvised with zucchini instead. Tasted Great!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are SUPER EASY!

1 box Spice Cake Mix

1 can pumpkin puree (14oz) not pumpkin pie

1 bag milk chocolate chips

* Walnut/Pecans optional, chopped

Empty dry cake mix into a bowl. Add canned pumpkin puree. That's it! Do NOT add the other ingredients on the box to make a cake. Mix well. Add chocolate chips and stir. Drop onto cookie sheet and bake for 18 minutes at 350 F.

YUMMO!

**This is a vegan recipe too Becks, especially if you make it with cinnamon chips that you can special order at Hershey's website (they're not available in stores.) I got this recipe from my friend Charmaine and have made it several times!