Whole Wheat Rolls Recipe

On Friday night, Nemo came to town bringing a bit less snow that we originally expected. It was still a good 6 inches or so, but not the 18 we could have gotten. I have cousins in Connecticut who had closer to 30 inches. I’m glad we didn’t get anywhere near that. We have a rather long driveway and a few years back our snow blower died and I’ve been shoveling every year since.

 

What you can’t tell from these pictures is just how big the area at the top of the driveway is for the cars. We fit 3 cars across and have an area for backing up to turn around. I think that is probably more square footage than the rest of the driveway. It certainly takes longer. You have to walk the snow over the the side to dump it.

Since I was going to be outside shoveling, my wife made hot cocoa for me during a break I took and also when I finished. She even puts little marshmallows in it. Because I was working so hard, she also planned a nice hearty dinner. There are a couple of meals she makes that I really look forward to and this was one of them – meatloaf with Betty Crocker’s  Butter & Herb Mashed Potatoes.

But, as if the smell of meatloaf in the house wasn’t enough, she went a step further. She made homemade whole wheat rolls to go along with dinner. They seemed pretty simple to make but do take some time to rise. They didn’t rise much during the first rise period, but the really did double during the second. Linda didn’t notice how many rolls it was supposed to make so she had 9 large rolls instead of 12 smaller ones. They cooked up quite large and nicely golden brown.

 

We think that because they were so large they came out just a little doughy in the middle, so we probably should have lightly covered them and given them a little more time. Still, they came out really delicious. There is nothing like a nice hot fresh buttered roll to go along with meatloaf. I was quite full then I was done.

 

My wife puts a lot of love into her cooking and it really shows. She has a bunch of wheat flour left over and plans on making a few more treats. I can’t wait. For now, if you want to make some whole wheat rolls yourself, here is the recipe.

 

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 egg
• 2 to 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• Canola oil, optional

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, sugar, yeast and salt; set aside.
2. In a large saucepan, heat milk, water and butter to 120°-130° add to dry ingredients; beat just until moistened.
3. Add egg; beat until smooth. Stir in enough all-purpose flour to form a soft dough.
4. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.
5. Place in a greased bowl; turn once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
6. Punch dough down; shape into 12 balls. Place in a greased 9-in. square baking pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Brush tops with oil if desired.
7. Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cover loosely with foil if top browns too quickly. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool. Yield: 1 dozen.

via Whole Wheat Rolls Recipe | Taste of Home Recipes.

My Belated Christmas Post

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Not that I haven’t eaten any new or interesting foods. I’m going to start at Christmas and then fill in the gaps later. Hopefully, I won’t let things go for so long again.

This Christmas, my family actually celebrated early. We have three kids who all have significant others and have to do the typical holiday sharing routine. This year we got them all together on Christmas Eve day and had our big meal and gift exchange then.

On the 23rd, we had some of the kids over and had a nice meal together. My oldest and her fiancee were in from Nashville and since we don’t see them often, we wanted to enjoy a family meal. We decided to show them a few of the new recipes that I’ve learned to like. We had Southwestern Salmon, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, rice pilaf, white rice, and some steak.

 

Erin and Jared both really enjoyed the salmon. I expected that since they love salmon. However, they said they weren’t fans of Brussels Sprouts. Well, they loved mine. They didn’t roast theirs so they had a whole different taste and texture. I need to remember to send them the recipe so they can make them down in Nashville.

The next day (Christmas Eve) we had everyone together. My wife was up around 6 AM starting all the food. We had roast turkey (which we didn’t brine this time), rib roast, mashed potatoes, red potatoes, peas, green beans, and rolls.

 

I skipped the rib roast as it is a little too fatty for me and I love turkey. I think there was another side, but I didn’t have that either. It was a great meal that everyone enjoyed thoroughly.

We also made up some treats for later. My wife and I baked brownies, snickerdoodles, and the more traditional Christmas cookies. I love snickerdoodles and have ever since I was young and my mom made them for us. We made them from a Krusteaz mix, but they were delicious.

After dinner we opened gifts. Later, we all played a game of Cards Against Humanity and continued to make a dent in the treat plate. I cleaned up – both the treats and in the game.

We didn’t have all our kids together for long, but it was the most fun we have ever had during the holidays.

 

Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes

Fall has arrived. With it comes the fall meals like pot roast and meatloaf. Usually, I do most of the cooking at our house, because my wife got tired of the restrictions that I put on so many meals. However, she does still make a few dishes that I really enjoy. Pot roast is one of them, and meatloaf is another. She cooks in the same way I do, which means she doesn’t measure things out either.

She starts with approximately 1 lb of ground beef. I think we typically get the 85% lean ground beef. Then she adds an egg, some half-n-half, bread crumbs, and the Instant Gourmet seasoning she used on the pot roast. She turns the oven on 350 and then sets a timer for 30 minutes. When the timer goes off we check the meatloaf to see how much more time it looks like it needs. Usually it’s just another 15 minutes. While we waited, I prepared a batch of Betty Crocker Butter and Herb Mashed Potatoes. I don’t boil the water/mix until the meatloaf comes out since it cooks so quickly.

Her meatloaf is delicious. It’s a nice hearty meal that really hits the spot on a chilly evening. The potatoes are great too. I’m not usually a fan of mashed potatoes, perhaps due to the uneven texture. With instant potatoes that’s not a problem. They also have a nice buttery taste. I think I ate half of the potatoes myself. Linda only had a little bit. The only thing I don’t care for about the potatoes is that they don’t reheat well. I can have leftover meatloaf another day, but I need to make up another pouch of instant potatoes to go with it.

I got a little adventurous and even put a little gravy on both the meatloaf and potatoes. I don’t usually do that.

Duh! It is Celery Root

So I tried the Root Vegetable Mash recipe I found. When preparing it a few things struck me. First, it is a much harder vegetable than sweet potato. Second, it smells like celery. When the vegetables were boiling there was the unmistakable smell of celery – a smell I dislike. Then suddenly I realized “Duh! It is celery root!”. That was one strike against the dish already since smell is closely tied to taste.

It took a little longer than 20 minutes to cook. Perhaps I didn’t cut them up small enough. After about 30 minutes they were ready to mash. I broke out our potato masher and got to work.

When I was done, it didn’t look very appetizing. I’ve already mentioned how the way food looks can affect a fussy eater. This was strike two.

Since my goal is to find new foods I’ll eat, I gave it a try anyway. While it certainly wasn’t in “The Stroganoff Column“, I definitely didn’t care for it. I decided to try to make the best of a bad situation and looked around for something to punch it up a bit. I sectioned off the mash into separate portions to try a few things

First, I tried adding a little chili powder. I figured if it worked for sweet potato fries it might work here too. Sadly, it didn’t. Next, I tried one of my favorite ingredients, cinnamon. That didn’t help either. Finally, I decided to try brown sugar – partially because I have a sweet tooth and partially because I remember some kind of dish my wife would make with sweet potatoes, brown sugar, and marshmallows. That was a little better, but I think I would have had to spoon a lot of it in to make it good enough to finish.

So in conclusion, I’m going to have to pass on this dish. I’ll need to find another way to prepare celeriac in the future. Any ideas?