Fun with Yeast Dough

I'm on a new kick now, making things with yeast dough. It's a lot of fun for me and a bit of an arm workout when I get to kneed the dough. The dough smells so good while it's rising and even better while it's baking. I think I'm going to start making my own bread from now on. It's less expensive that way and I know exactly what's in it. I've looked up quite a lot of whole wheat bread recipes but I haven't found one that really caught my eye yet. If anyone has a recipe, I'd love to hear about it.

My first "fun with yeast dough" adventure was

making a meat roll. I got the idea from watching "Diners, Drive-In's, and Dives." It's basically the same idea as a cinnamon roll, only with pesto sauce, sausage and hamburger, and cheese. My sister, Melissa, and her husband, Michael, came over and we got to try the experiment together.

It was a little messy to make, but nothing that wasn't difficult to clean up. I found a cinnamon roll recipe for the dough and just replaced all the sweet

fillings for the savory ones. We decided th

at it would be really good with an extra sauce of some kind to go over the top. I was thinking a cheesy sauce, but I bet a tomato sauce would be really good too if you didn't want it as heavy.

The next adventure was making pretzels. This was insanely easy. I do believe there were only 4 ingredients for the dough. If found the recipe on allrecipes.com. I didn't attempt to do the cute twist that pretzels have. That took a bit too much thinking at 9 pm. They definitely need salt on top. Probably more than I put on there.

I tried to make a beer cheese sauce to go with the soft pretzels. That was a huge flop. I didn't follow a recipe. I just tried to wing it.

It didn't work. Next time, I'll be sure to look at a recipe to get some ideas before I try that one again. I do know that canned nacho cheese would have been great with the pretzels.

The last adventure took place last weekend. I made a oxtail stew and wanted fresh bread to go with it. I found the great recipe for egg bread in one of my cookbooks. And one of the great things about it was that I

had all the ingredients already. It came out nice and dense and moist. It looked pretty too :). I had to stop and think about braiding again. (I haven't braided in a long time).

It's really been a blast trying out these yeast dough recipes. It's neat to kinda do things the way they used to be done a long time ago. It also makes me appreciate the things I make more, because I put effort into it instead of just going to the store and buying a loaf of bread. It's fun thinking about what I could make with the ingredients I have in my pantry. It's awesome to realize how blessed by God we are to be able to enjoy our kitchen and the bounty He has given us.

A Couple of Weeknight Dinners

It's been a little while since I've been on here. Since that time I made a couple of easy weeknight dinners. One is great for a drizzly evening and the other is a great one for getting your spouse or children involved.

Last week we had a cold and wet night. As usual, I'm at working thinking of what to make for dinner. I've been in the mood for chicken but I don't want to bake a whole chicken. That's more a weekend kind of dinner for me. I also want to get some veggies in my system. Thinking, thinking.... Chicken and Dumpling Soup! Perfect for a night like this. And on top of that, it's EASY.

I did make a run to the store to pick up a whole chicken. I used half of the hen because there are only two of us at home. I've made chicken soup with the whole chicken before and it just ends up going to waste because there are way too many leftovers. I cut the bird in half and then cut off the leg, the thigh, and the wing. I removed the breast from the bones and put it all in my stock pot. I also put all the gizzards and the bones from that half in the pot as well. Bones and gizzards add really good flavor.

I added about three cups of water, enough to cover the chicken, along with one can of chicken broth. Tossed in some chicken granules, a little salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, a bay leaf, dried thyme, dried sage, and dried parsley. I don't know who much of those seasonings, but you can just eyeball it. If the flavor is not right after you taste it when the chicken is done cooking, just add some more of whatever works. Bring the soup to a boil and let her go until the chicken is almost done.

At this point, I added one stalk of chopped celery, one chopped onion (I used a yellow one), and one chopped carrot. Add these to the soup and continue to cook for about another ten minutes or so.

Once the chicken is done, remove from the soup along with the gizzards and any extra bones. Let it cool for a bit if you like. Remove the skin and the flesh from the bones and cut into bite size pieces. Add those back to the soup.

I then added probably about 3/4 of a cup to a cup each of frozen peas and green beans to the soup. Bring back up to a boil.

While the soup is coming back up to a boil, make your dumplings.

There is a great recipe on the side of the Bisquick box for dumplings. 2 cups of Bisquick and 3/4 cup of milk mixed together. I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried parsley to the mix. It will be sticky, like drop biscuit dough. Set it aside.

To thicken the soup, I put about three heaping tablespoons of flour in a bowl and mixed it with enough of the hot cooking liquid until it made a paste. Add that to the soup and stir until dissolved. The soup will thicken immediately.

Take large spoonfuls of the dumpling mixture and add them to the bubbling soup. They will float. Cook them uncovered for a few minutes and then cover them and cook for another few minutes. You can test the "doneness" of them simply by breaking one open. They should be the consistency of a biscuit.

Serve up the yummy, heart-warming supper in your favorite big bowl and be sure to be in your favorite pair of jammies too :).

The next one I made last night. I took out a pound of hamburger and again, thinking, "What am I going to make with this?" at work. I'm on a crunchy food kick right now. The last couple of times we've gone to a Mexican restaurant I've ordered taquitos. And guess what, I had a bunch of corn tortillas in my fridge :).

Taquitos it was! Now this is easy.

Brown your hamburger seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I decided to add cumin, chili powder, and a pinch of cayenne pepper along with a yellow onion finely chopped. When the hamburger was all done, I ran it through my food processor for a little bit to make sure it was nice and finely ground. Not mush, nice a small pieces of hamburger. Like you get at the Mexican restaurants.

I heated up some peanut oil in an 8 inch pan. About a half inch of oil. I decided to use the peanut oil because it has a very high smoke point and I had it. You can use veggie oil and it would work just fine. The one thing I did find out about the peanut oil was that it doesn't stink up the place like veggie oil does. Before you start frying your taquitos make sure the oil is hot enough. You can test this by putting a little bit of the hamburger mixture in the oil. If it bubbles and sizzles, it's ready.

Warm up your corn tortillas in the microwave, this makes them much easier to work with. Place a small amount of hamburger mix off center of the tortilla and roll nice and tight. Secure with a toothpick. Once you have a few of them made place them carefully in the hot oil, seam side down, and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Remove from the hot oil and let them drain on a cooling rack with paper towels under it. Salt them lightly immediately. You have to make these in batches, so you can keep them warm in your oven heated to "Warm".

Serve them with anything you like. I love guacamole, but we didn't have any. So I used sour cream, salsa, cheddar cheese, and cabbage.

Danny helped with these. He was in charge of rolling them up for me :). He did a very good job! Love you babe <3,

I hope you try these out and enjoy them :)