On sweet goodness

I made up a recipe for sweet rolls today because my impatient husband and son wanted sweet rolls "NOW!"  I didn't want to make the short cut recipe I usually do when we want sweet rolls quickly- so I improvised by using the ratios I use on my pizza crust.  They ended up being better than almost all the other recipes we usually use!   After breakfast I had 4 left out of a pan of 15...
(It also made a small pan with 6 small ones in it that I'll freeze.)

The results.....

What I did:

Sweet Cinnamon Rolls with Orange Vanilla Glaze

5 cups flour
add 1/2 stick of butter (melted) and put in mixer with dough hook
On stove warm 2 cups milk
(You want it to be warm, but cool enough to stick your finger in and not be burned if you count to 10)
To this add 3 1/4 teaspoons of yeast and about 1/4 cup of sugar (I use Mexican cane sugar instead of white sugar in everything.)
In a small cup beat 2 eggs
Add milk mixture and eggs to flour mixture and blend. 
If dough is really sticky add enough flour to make it still moist but where you can touch it and
not have sticky fingers (it's okay if it's more on the sticky side now because you can add flour later when your knead.)
Let rise about 15 minutes (would be better to let rise til double, but we are impatient.)
Knead dough on floured surface.  Add flour to make a nice dough if it's sticky.  Knead until you have a pretty, soft dough. 
Roll out into a large rectangle (about 18 x 20)
Brush with melted butter and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (you can add nuts or chocolate chips or raisins if you want to.)
Roll up from long side pressing as you go. 
Cut into about 1 inch pieces and place cut side down in a greased baking dish.
Let rise at least another 15 minutes (or ideally until doubled.)
Bake at 350 until light golden brown. 
Pour or brush glaze over rolls while warm.

Glaze
About 1/4 cup of melted butter (more or less)
Add powdered sugar (1-2 cups, again more or less)
thin with orange juice and add about 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

Green Tomato Goodness

In November, before the first frost hit us, 

Mom decided we should pick all the peppers and tomatoes we could from her beautiful garden. 

She has a beautiful garden, and I didn't realize how many she was talking about until I went to help her pick!

One of many trays...

There must have been four large baskets of tomatoes and probably two full trays like this.  As for peppers we couldn't even pick them all- habaneros, hot Chinese, jalapenos, and more.
We scoured the internet for recipes for green tomatoes and peppers, and ended up mostly just winging it anyway...

Pickled (Dill) Green Tomatoes!

For the pickles we just followed a basic pickle formula (with regular vinegar, not cider) and then added fresh dill, some hot peppers, garlic, peppercorns and sliced green tomatoes then processed them.

Upside Down Pepperoncini!

 She had enough banana peppers to make about five or six jars of pepperoncini (our fave.)  We just pickled these too (with no dill.)

Green Tomato Salsa!

We had so many tomatoes left over and wanted to make a salsa of some kind.  Our favorite salsa is Herdez Tomatillo/Green salsa and we thought, "Why not make a green tomato salsa?"  We only made about three jars of this and it came out so yummy!  Basically it was chopped green tomatoes, jalapenos, chopped onion and garlic, cilantro, a bit of cumin and salt, some lime juice and touch of vinegar and then we cooked it.  I should have written the recipe down!

Our Green Bounty

Our next day we made THE HOTTEST pepper jelly from basically all habanero (aji chombo) peppers and a few jalapenos and Cayenne peppers.  We had to cook it outside on the grill because it was so hot, then processed it inside.  It came out a beautiful golden color with red and green flecks. I just used the pepper jelly recipe on the pectin package.  I swear it's the hottest goodness you have ever tasted. 

 Mom still had a ton of peppers at her house so she made aji chombo sauce (Panamanian hot sauce) basically just aji chombo (habanero) peppers chopped up, vinegar, mustard, chopped garlic, chopped onion, and salt and pepper put into a bottle to sit in the fridge.  Very, very, hot so be wary.

Nutty Cupcakes

Nutcracker is in full swing this week.   

Performances are this weekend (10th and 11th.)

We had the cast party for Ballet Arkansas and the kids this past Saturday.

 Mom, Emily and I made 11 dozen cupcakes!  

Set up in Studio (can't see the royal mice very well but they are peeking out!)

Snowflakes and Flowers

   We tried to do something from each scene in the Nutcracker.  Ended up with Gumdrops for Land of Sweets, Flowers, Snow, Dragon (from Chinese Tea because Max is in the dragon this year,) Soldiers, and some fondant mice and royal mice.

Fondant Snowflakes with Sprinkle Snow

Fondant Flowers with Sugar snow

Soldiers, Nutcracker, Flowers, Dragon

Dragon's Head (by Emily)

Soldier with Blue Disco Dust

Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo with White Rice on the Food Network

I made this recipe last night with some okra and peppers from my mom's garden.
*The recipe doesn't call for okra, but I like it and had it. Also I am allergic to celery and left
that out.   The sausage I used was a turkey andouille.  I short-cutted and used a rotisserie chicken to save a bit of time. Was delicious!
Sorry, no picture...

Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo with White Rice on the Food Network

My first attempt at gumbo and not the last!

Homemade Marinara

Some good friends of mine have a tomato farm and raise phenomenal heirloom tomatoes.  

They were cleaning out their hothouses and gave me some of the spoils...

Yay!

I peeled and seeded the tomatoes last night and made some homemade marinara sauce.

To peel tomatoes:

1. Bring a big pot of water to a boil
2. Have a bowl of ice water handy.
3. Drop tomatoes in boiling water for about 10 seconds, then plunge in the ice water. 
4. Take core out with paring knife and then slip off skins.  
5. Slice tomatoes in half and squeeze out seeds (or just slide them out with your finger, I don't mind some seeds.

For Sauce:

1. Slice a few onions very thin.  (I used two onions for the amount of tomatoes I had, maybe 15 lbs?)
2. Sautee onions and garlic (I used 5 cloves) in olive oil until translucent. 
3. Add chopped fresh basil, oregano, pepper, bayleaf (whatever spices you will use.)
4. Chop tomatoes in blender or food processor and add to pot.  I save some and chop them to add texture. 
5. Cook and add red wine, salt, pepper to taste.

*Mine was still runny after cooking last night so I think I'll let it cook down more today and then taste again for spices.
Will be good on some homemade pasta!