100% Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pull-A-Part Bread

I’ve been reading Chef Dennis’s Blog, “More Than a Mount Full” since I began blogging. How could I not? His blog provides a wealth of knowledge for both new and seasoned bloggers. For seasoned bloggers, he provides recipes and tips that are inventive and original.  For new bloggers, in an effort to help them find their niche and succeed, in what some may consider, a saturated market, he dedicates a great deal of his posts to [food] blogosphere “trade secrets”. He also dedicates every Friday to giving a blogger the opportunity to blog on a stage, other than their own.

I’ve been secretly dreaming about the day I would be able to metaphorically, sing on his stage. (I’m sure this isn’t a surprise to many of you as I’ve already shared what happens when I have an opportunity to sing.)

Well, today is my first opportunity, since launching my blog thee months ago, to have my voice heard in front of an audience other than what I’ve been able to generate on my own. Sure the timing wasn’t ideal, and I didn't really feel ready, but when is it ever the right time and when do we ever feel ready? If I spent my life waiting for the perfect moment, I’d never get anything done. So, I said, “ YES!” (As it turns out…that was the easy part). To find out what I did next, you’ll have to head over to Chef Dennis’s Blog More Than a Mountfull.  (don't forget to say hey when you stop over.)

Thank you Chef Dennis! I’ve truly appreciated how this opportunity has helped me find my [blogging] voice.

Dutch Oven Funeral Potatoes

If posting frequency is an indication as to whether a blog is active or dead, then I should probably start planning my blog’s funeral. Man! My summer schedule and new full time hours at work are really throwing me for a loop. I’m sure that once I figure out how to juggle it all, my kids will be back in school and it won’t matter anymore. Oh well, please forgive me of my infrequent posting and know that my blog is not dying. J But hey, why not go along with the theme? (oh yeah, it’s kind of morbid to  talk of death) hmmm…how about a happy spin on the theme? Funeral Potatoes…in a dutch oven! And hopefully when you eat these it will be at your next cookout and not your next funeral.

Oh I feel it necessary to let you know that this dish is NOT from scratch. That is generally unusual for me, but when I’m on vacation (yes I consider camping a vacation)  I like to keep meal prep as simple as possible that is also why this recipe can be prepped almost entirely in advance.

Dutch oven Funeral Potatoes

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Serves 10-12

Equipment: (for cooking – not prepping)

12” dutch oven

Charcoal Briquettes

      Optional

      charcoal chimney           

tongs

      lid rest

lid lifter

      grill gloves

large spoon

Ingredients:

33 oz (8 cups) potatoes, cooked and shredded you can use frozen hashbrowns)

10 Tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

2 cans cream of chicken soup

3 green onions finely chopped

1 ½ cups sharp cheddar, shredded

1 ½ cups sour cream

1½ - 2 cups corn flakes, coarsely crushed

Corn flakes

salt

pepper

onion powder

Directions:

1. Cook whole potatoes until tender, cool then peel and grate (Or use frozen uncooked hash browns)
2. In a 12 qt stockpot, heat 6 tablespoons of butter until melted then add green onions and sauté.  Stir in soup, sour cream and cheese and heat until cheese is melted.
3. Mix in shredded potatoes and mix until combine. Add salt, pepper and onion powder to taste. (If making this in advance, empty the contents of the stockpot into a large ziplock bag and put in the fridge or freezer until ready to cook. Before cooking, be sure the potato mixture is thoroughly thawed)
4. Heat briquettes
5. Empty contents of the ziplock into a 12” dutch oven. Combine crushed corn flakes with melted butter and sprinkle on top.
6. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or at 325 for 1 hour. To achieve proper heat with charcoal briquettes in a dutch oven refer to the heat/briquette calculator.

Notes: Rotate lid and/or dutch oven a ¼ turn every ½ hour to avoid hot spots and scorching. Replace coals that have burned to ash with new hot coals to ensure the chicken cooks in the time allowed.

Source: Adapted from a family recipe provided by Dina at Dina’s Diner (unposted). 

Gwenevere

Dutch Oven Chicken

Every year, since I was 9 years old, my family has been going to Jackson Hole, WY to camp along the banks of the Snake River and to go whitewater rafting.

In an effort to minimize the amount of work that must be done in the kitchen while at camp, the week prior to the trip is set aside to prepare as much of the food as possible. Food assignments are divvied out among those who are attending and everyone takes a part in preparing something; a sauce, browning meat, cutting chicken, washing lettuce, etc. By the end of the week much of the meal prep is complete and all that is needed to prepare each meal is to put it all together and heat it up. It’s a nice little system and it allows the cooks the opportunity to play along everyone else rather, than slave away in the kitchen all day.

This is that week. Well…it would be…if we were going…but for the first time since I can remember, the trip isn’t happening. I’m more than just a little bit sad about it but rather than dwell on what cannot be, I’m going to share some of the most memorable bits and bites from years past.

The portable outdoor kitchen has grown over the years in order to accommodate the 40-65+ people who accompany us, there are a few items that have been coming along since the beginning. One such kitchen essential are our Lodge dutch ovens. I don’t know what it is but eating food that has been prepared in a dutch oven, after a day spent paddling an 8-man raft into the eye of over a dozen rapids, flipping capsized rafts, water fighting other boats, pulling rafters in [and out] of the raft all while keeping a keen eye out for mutiny among your own raftmates, just tastes better than food prepared by conventional methods.

Although dutch oven cooking really isn’t that difficult, for someone who doesn’t have much experience with charcoal or open flame cooking, it may seem a little intimidating. (At least it was for me the first few times I tried it) So, to lessen the intimidation factor I’ll start with something relatively simple, dutch oven BBQ/Teriyaki Chicken.

The most difficult part of this recipe (and really any dutch oven recipe) is adjusting and distributing the heat so that you cook your food properly.  How much heat you use depends on the size of your oven. How to distribute the heat depends on what your cookin’

First – Calculate the heat

The general rule is to use twice the amount of coals as the diameter of the oven. For this recipe I used a 12-inch deep dutch oven, therefore 24 coals will be used on the oven at any given time.

Second – start your briquettes

Start more than you’ll need incase you need to replace some once you get started.

I prefer to use charcoal that has NOT been pretreated with lighter fluid because we have found that charcoal with lighter fluid starts out super hot, but loses it’s heat quicker and thus must be replaced more often in order to ensure the food is cooked properly.

I also prefer to start my charcoal in a chimney. The chimney keeps the coals from losing too much heat plus it’s easier to keep the coals going.

Third – determine your cooking method

Baking = more heat on top than on bottom

Roasting = even heat

Stewing = more heat on bottom than on top

Frying/boiling = all the heat on the bottom.

For this recipe, we prefer to stew so we distribute the heat with a little more on bottom (14) than on top (10).

Once you’ve done all the calculations it’s time to cook.

Place your chicken in a well seasoned dutch oven and coat with the sauce of your choice. (Since we’re camping and I want to keep it simple, I prefer to use my favorite store bought sauce.) Replace the lid on the dutch oven. Put the dutch oven over the coals and then place the needed amount of briquettes evenly, on the lid. Cook for 2 hours, rotating the lid and oven a ¼ turn every half hour or so to ensure there are no hot spots burning the food. If necessary, replace dying coals with new. If you’d like the chicken to have a nice char on it before serving, thrown the chicken pieces on a hot grill for 2-4 minutes.

For more information on dutch oven cooking please visit The Dutch Oven Dude. He has a handy little calculator to help you figure out how many coals to use and he has a lot more information on how to prepare your ovens and such. Just make sure that you write down the numbers BEFORE you leave camping as hopefully wherever you are going will be out of range for cell and internet service and you will not be able access the information once you arrive.

Dutch oven BBQ/Teriyaki Chicken

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Serves 8-10

Equipment:

12” deep dutch oven

Charcoal Briquettes

      Optional

      charcoal chimney           

tongs

      lid rest

lid lifter

      grill gloves

large spoon

Ingredients:

10 lbs chicken thighs and drumsticks, skinless

40 oz bottle of BBQ or teriyaki sauce

Directions:

1. Heat coals
2. Place chicken into a dutch oven and coat with desired amount of sauce.
3. Replace lid and put dutch oven over 14 hot briquettes. Place 10 briquettes on top and let cook for 2 hours. Chicken is done when it begins to fall off the bone.

Notes: Rotate lid and/or dutch oven a ¼ turn every ½ hour to avoid hot spots and scorching. Replace coals that have burned to ash with new hot coals to ensure the chicken cooks in the time allowed.

Source: family file, Apron Appeal original.

Gwenevere

100% Whole-Wheat Waffles

Does someone in your family make the best…something? Have you ever asked for the recipe? If your family is like mine, what you end up with is a recipe that reads something like this.

You add a little bit of this to the mixture until you get it to the right consistency.

Then you sprinkle some of this and that in until it tastes just the way you want it to.

These recipes frustrate me to no end because up until about 6 months ago I followed recipes religiously. It’s all I knew how to do. I followed them blindly always believing that what the creator had written would turn out as promised if I followed the directions. I lacked the understanding and knowledge to tweak the recipe at all. So when I came across recipes like the one above, I was parallelized and didn’t really know how to move on. Plus even if I did take a chance, I didn’t keep notes in the kitchen so if a miracle did happen and my tweaking worked, repeating my happy mistake was nearly impossible. So what was to be done with Dad’s whole-wheat waffles?

When I got married I wanted to continue some of the traditions I grew up with, like Saturday morning waffles. When I asked my Dad for the family recipe he said:

“The recipe?” while staring at me with a worried look. “Well I guess I could come up with a recipe, I just kinda throw it all together.”

Ergggh!

Over the past 13 years (or is it 14) I’ve been doing my best to make these waffles just like Dad’s. Sometimes I hit; sometimes I miss.

When I started this blog I knew eventually I wanted to share this recipe with all of you but before I could I knew I had to get it right AND it needed to be duplicable so with my handy kitchen notebook in tow, I set out to get it right.

There were two issues with the original recipe that I wanted to change. 1)- I wanted it to be 100% whole wheat and 2)-I wanted to eliminate the sugar.

The biggest problem I had in trying to reach my goal was that the 100% whole-wheat batter was too heavy, even with the egg whites. While the first batch of waffles was cooking on the waffle iron the eggs would separate from the batter leaving a less than ideal runny mess in the bowl for the next batches. The second issue I had was that the waffle, although super tasty with syrup and fixings, wasn’t good enough to stand on its own. After several attempts to add flavor with other sweeteners & flavors I began to think a bland waffle was just the way it was meant to be, after all It would be loaded with fruit, syrup (may I suggest strawberry or white), whipped cream and what have you.

While watching Food Network Star this week, Bobby Flay made a comment on how it was essential for each component of a dish to be able to stand on it’s own while still being able to meld with everything else in the dish and on the side. I knew what had to be done - my goal to keep sugar out of the recipe had to be nixed – a little bit of sugar was necessary to keep the acidity of the baking powder and buttermilk at bay. It worked!

Well, that day has come. I’ve finally done it! I’ve tweaked the recipe just enough so that it can be shared and duplicated. And wouldn’t you know it, the day after I figured it all out, someone emailed me a waffle recipe that was almost exactly the same as what I had come up with. Why didn’t I just google in the first place? You think you have an original idea or an “old family recipe” only to find out that about a million other people had the same idea and the same recipe. How does that happen?

100% Whole Wheat Waffles

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Yield:  20 4x4” waffles (easily halved)
Serving Size 2, 4" waffles

Ingredients:

6 eggs

2 tablespoons lemon juice

~2 cups milk

¼ cup vegetable oil

3 – 3 ½ cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¾ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ cup sugar (optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Separate the eggs placing the yolks in a small bowl and the whites in a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer. Set aside and bring to room temperature (or just long enough to take some of the chill off)
2. Pour 2 tablespoons of lemon juice into a 2-cup measuring cup and then fill the measuring cup to the 2-cup capacity with milk (this is essentially a 2 cup buttermilk substitute but I prefer this to buttermilk in this recipe). Stir the lemon juice and milk together then set aside to sour and thicken.
3. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F and waffle iron to desired setting.
4. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 3 cups of the whole-wheat flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt; set aside.
5. With a stand mixer on low, whisk the egg whites until frothy (about 1 minute). Add in the cream of tartar and whisk eggs on high until soft peaks form. With mixer still on high, slowly add ¼ cup sugar (if using) to egg whites until stiff peaks form. With mixer on low add in vanilla until just incorporated. Set aside.
6. Whisk egg yolks, soured milk and oil into the dry mixture. If batter is too runny, whisk in another ½ cup of flour until lump are gone.
7. To temper the batter, stir in a quarter of the egg whites into the batter until well combined then carefully fold in the remaining egg whites. Once folded together, the batter should be airy and silky.
8. Spray your waffle iron with cooking pray then pour a portion of the batter (about 1cup or so) onto the center of your iron, close the top and cook to desired doneness. Place waffle onto a wire rack in the oven until all the waffles are cooked or serve immediately with syrup, fresh fruit or whipped cream.

Source: family file, Apron Appeal original

Nutrition Facts/Info:
Without sugar: Serving Size: 2, 4" waffles. Calories - 231, Fat Calories - 75, Total Fat - 10, Saturated fat - 1.7, polyunsaturated fat - 1.9, Monosaturated - 5, Cholesterol - 113, Sodium - 122mg, Total Carbs - 29, Dietary Fiber - 3.6, Sugars - 2.5, Protein - 10, Vitamin A - 5.6%, Vitamin C - 1.6, Calcium - 9.6%, Iron - 2.4%.

WITH sugar: Serving Size: 2, 4" waffles. Calories - 250, Fat Calories - 75, Total Fat - 10, Saturated fat - 1.7, polyunsaturated fat - 1.9, Monosaturated - 5, Cholesterol - 113, Sodium - 122mg, Total Carbs - 34, Dietary Fiber - 3.6, Sugars - 7.3, Protein - 10, Vitamin A - 5.6%, Vitamin C - 1.6, Calcium - 9.6%, Iron - 2.4%.

Gwenevere

Strawberry Syrup

Letting children explore and experience life unfettered from parental supervision can be unnerving… especially when your kids are hot wires…like mine. I can’t help but wonder what reflection of my parenting they will project when I’m not around? 

Well three weeks ago, I got my chance to find out. Grandma and Grandpa asked to take our 8-year-old with them on a 10-day trip to Houston to spend time with his cousins. TEN DAYS! Who knows what manner of chaos could unravel in 10 days without mom or dad!  So we did what any parents would do, we packed his bag, gave him a kiss and said goodbye.

What?

That’s not what most parents would do?

Oh well, me march to a different drum around here.

He had a blast while he was gone. So much fun in fact that he wouldn’t be bothered to call and let his parents know what he was up to. I was certain he had forgotten all about us. My fears were put to rest when I ran to give him a hug when he got home. He hugged me back and then promptly handed me a recipe card, “Mom, will you help me make this for breakfast tomorrow?” Ahhh, he hadn’t forgotten about me. And of everything I’ve tried to teach him, it was my love for all things kitchen that he projected while we were apart, and I’m ok with that.

Strawberry Syrup

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Makes 2 cups

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

½ sugar

Directions:

1. Puree strawberries and sugar in a blender.
2. Pour puree into a heatproof container (a mason jar) and then warm the container in a pot of boiling water. (if you have a Blendtec, apparently you can puree and heat all at once.)
3. Serve syrup over your favorite breakfast bread or over ice cream or smothered on a slice of warm bread…the possibilities are endless.

Source: Amy-Jo, family file

Gwenevere

S'mores Brownies

I won something! Actually I’ve wont two somethings. The first something was a cookbook: Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans given away by Sommer at A Spicy Perspective. I love Sommer’s blog, her food is delicious, her pictures are amazing AND she lives in Asheville, NC – what’s not to love? By the way, if anyone knows of any legal/attorney job openings in Ashville, I would greatly appreciate the referral. Living in NC (specifically Ashville) has been a fantasy of mine since I visited there over 20 years ago as a freshman in high school.

When the book was delivered, it “fell open” to the S’mores Brownie recipe. I’m not one to argue with fate…actually I am, but not in the case of s’mores or brownies, so I willfully obliged. The original recipe suggested baking the brownies is a 5x3 inch  (2 cup capacity) mini loaf pan but since I didn’t have a 5x3 inch loaf pan I figured muffin cups would work just as well. Good call on my part if I must say so myself – every bite gets it’s own “edge crust” (the corner pieces of brownies are fought over in my family).

These brownies are so darn good. They are soft and fudgy with a crunch from the graham cracker crust and of course the marshmallows and s’mores component makes these puppies brilliant. The only issue I had with these brownies is that I have no idea how to photograph them. I had some issues with the white marshmallows, shiny tin foil and rough top. So if you make these and manage to get some pictures of them, please let me know so that I can learn from your awesomeness.

I made this treat (and many others) while wearing the super cute apron (the second something I won) from Shawnda at Confections of a Foodie Bride. Shawnda's blog is another great one everyone should have added to their reader. It is her blog that brought me my favorite Real Strawberry Cake, Vanilla Bean and Ginger Carrot Cake recipes. Thank you Sommer and Shawnda for hosting these giveaways and turning me into a giveaway junkie. I love free stuff and now that I’ve actually won something, I find myself even more hopeful that I can win more…and this is why I don’t gamble (with my own money).

S’mores Brownies (small batch)

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Makes 8 brownies in regular muffin cups

Makes 4 brownies in jumbo muffin cups

Ingredients:

3 regular size graham crackers, crushed (1/3 cup)

4 teaspoons unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon sugar

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup sugar

1 tablespoons unsweetended cocoa powder

1 large egg, lightly beaten

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 regular size Hershey bar, roughly chopped or 1-cup milk chocolate chips

1 graham cracker rectangle, roughly chopped

1 cup mini marshmallows

Directions:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 8 regular muffins cups with 4 x 4” tin foil squares (or line 4 jumbo muffin cups with 6 x6” squares). Spray with cooking oil.
2. In a medium microwave safe bowl, mix the graham cracker crumbs with sugar then add in the melted butter. Mix with a fork until well combined. Press about 2 teaspoons of graham mixture into the bottom of each muffin cup (If using jumbo cups, use 4 teaspoons). Bake until it is light and golden 4-6 minutes.
3. Wash out your bowl and dry with a clean cloth. Place chopped chocolate and 2 tablespoons butter into the bowl and microwave on medium power until the chocolate is soft and butter is melted, about 1 ½ minutes. Stir until smooth.
4. Add sugar and cocoa powder and whisk the mixture to blend. Whisk in the egg, vanilla and salt. Stir in the flour until just combined.
5. Spoon 4 teaspoons of the batter into each muffin cup (8 teaspoons if using jumbo). Bake the brownies until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 24-27 minutes; the top will appear puffed and slightly cracked. DO NOT OVERCOOK.
6. Remove pan from oven and turn on the oven broiler. Scatter the chopped heresy bar and graham crackers on top of each brownie then sprinkle on the marshmallows. Broil until the marshmallows are lightly browned, about 1 minute. Let the brownie layer cool completely in a pan or on wire rack.

Source: Adapted from Small-Batch Baking – for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans

Gwenevere

Stretch Yer Buck Burgers

I got this idea from an episode of 30-minute meals with Rachel Ray. It’s kind of a non-recipe and more of an idea but I feel it’s worth sharing for a few reasons. 1)- It’s going to save you money. 2)- home pressed burger patties are, in my opinion, better tasting and better for you than store bought frozen patties because there are no additives or preservatives. If I’ve done the math right, frozen, ground turkey burger patties at Costco are about 75 cents a patty. If you buy Costco’s unfrozen ground turkey at $3.00 a pound you will be spending about 50 cent a patty. So there you go, a 25 cent savings. That's worth it isn't it? Well I guess it's not quite a quarter because you have to figure the cost of the rice...I'll let you do that. :)

FYI, Costco is not paying me to name drop, it’s just where I do most of my shopping so it’s what I’m familiar with.

This is what you do.

Stretch Yer Buck Burgers

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Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey

1 to 1 1/2  cup precooked brown rice

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl combine the ground turkey with the rice. Using your clean hands moosh the rice and turkey together until well combined.
2. Divide the meat into 6 equal portions shaped into a ball
3. With a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper, press each ball to a ½ inch or ¾ inch thickness, salt and pepper to taste (you can add other seasonings if you wish but I like to keep it simple), Grill or skillet fry each patty until the juices run clear and the meat reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. Serve with the worlds greatest burger bun or on top of fresh summer squash either variety will leave you satisfied and wondering why you haven’t been doing this all along.

Source: Rachel Ray

Gwenevere