Alphabet Soup

It's almost amusing to talk about the snow day we had a couple of weeks ago, considering that the temperature the last few days has been in the 70's!  Crazy, I know.  But anyway, we had a snow day at the beginning of the month.  Well, honestly, it was more of a snow-covered-ice with sub-zero windchill day.  The schools closed.  My husband even stayed home from work!  So, of course I wanted to bake.  And bake I did! I was able to cross making challah bread off my learn-to-do list , which was awesome!  My loaf of bread certainly wouldn't win any beauty contests, but it definitely tasted good.  I used this recipe from Red Star Yeast  (which I love by the way!), and I would use it again.  I mixed it up in the bread machine, then shaped it by hand and baked it in the oven.  I must make challah bread more often!! I also tried the Baking Illustrated chocolate chip cookies via Brown Eyed Baker .  I don't know...

Back in March, I was blessed with a wonderful "Girls' Weekend" by my absolute best friend. She thought I needed a break before the baby made his arrival...and she was right!! Christi also wanted to tackle the Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls . See, we had given each other the Pioneer Woman cookbook for Christmas, and these cinnamon rolls were tempting both of us. However, the recipe makes a very large batch, and well...Christi wanted some backup before tackling them by herself. The morning started out with Starbucks. Actually, that's not true. The morning started out with a crazy trip to IHOP, which was conveniently located right by our hotel. Did I mention that I even got to stay in a hotel for my "mama needs a break" weekend? Good stuff, I'm tellin' ya! Anyway, I got the insane idea that we should run to IHOP for a quick breakfast before starting our baking day. Um, quick? Not so much. Oh well, we were having a great time no matter what!! Then w...

This is some addicting stuff. It's not the canned biscuit variety either, it uses a yeast bread dough. Totally worth it!! Confession -- D and I ate half of it over the course of about 15 minutes! Eek. And it makes a big pan. Sean would only take one bite. Kade loved it. Of course my little monkey would like monkey bread, lol!! It starts with this Martha Stewart Recipe . Then, I tried some of the tips found on this post at Angry Chicken . And made some of my own changes. Instead of mixing the nuts into the coating, I just drizzled some butter in the bottom of the bundt pan and put the nuts just in the bottom. Makes it easier if there are some non-nut-lovers in the household (you could also leave out the nuts completely). I did add 1/2 tsp cinnamon to the dough itself when mixing. Love cinnamon. And I used butter instead of shortening in the dough...just because I felt like it! I mixed the melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar for the coating, like Angry Chicken suggest...

Last week, the recipe that Sean chose for us to try was sloppy joes. This was funny to me, because I've made them several times in the past, and often he's refused to even try them, so I was skeptical. It was recipe from a Paula Deen kids cookbook, so let me just say it was so incredibly simple I'm not even going to post it!! Sean even declared it "delicious!" and I think he really meant it! However, I will tell you that when I went to the store I forgot to pick up any hamburger buns. Now, if I were "normal", I would have either 1) had D stop and pick some up on his way home, or 2) run to the store for some while Sean was at Tae Kwon Do. I've never claimed to be normal. Instead, I looked up a recipe to make my own. They were definitely delicious, and I may now be banned from ever buying them again...still trying to decide if that's a good thing or not, lol!! :) But before we get to the recipe, I'd like to tell you a bit about my new kitchen h...

First, my apologies for no TWD post yesterday. It's hard to make Cocoa Nana Bread when someone throws out your pefectly good, ripe bananas you were saving just for that recipe because "they looked nasty." Oh well, hop on over and check out what the other TWD Bakers did with this week's recipe, chosen by Steph of Obsessed with Baking ! Now, on to the bread!! I admit that while I own a bread machine, I don't make that much in it. I just prefer to be more hands-on with my breadmaking, literally. However, I do use it quite often to make cinnamon raisin bread. I found a recipe that works well, and everyone in our house loves it, especially the kids!! The recipe is from Fleischman's Bread World recipe site. I'm linking to it, because it has measurements for 1 lb, 1 1/2 lb, and 2 lb loaves on it. The only change I make is in the type of yeast I use, so I have to adjust the amount slightly. Oh, just a helpful hint. You know the little paddle thingy that goe...

Well, at least the best breadsticks I've ever made! Simple, easy, delicious. You can't go wrong with that! I found this recipe over at Our Best Bites , a blog I've recently discovered. The original recipe can be found here , and has been used for all sorts of things, including breadsticks , pizza, pizza rolls, and more. I love making yeast breads, and these were a definite hit in our house. The recipe calls for you to start by proofing your yeast, or adding your yeast to a mixture of sugar and water. I skipped this step, because I use instant yeast , which does not need to be proofed first. Instead, I mixed the yeast with 1-1/2 cups of the flour, the sugar and the salt, then added the warm water. I highly recommend checking the temperature of your water/liquid in yeast bread recipes with a digital thermometer if you have one. Having your liquid at the proper temperature is key to achieving a good result with your yeast bread recipe. After mixing all that together, I added ...