CARAMEL ROLLS

Now these Caramel Rolls have always been a hit and I am sure they will be at your house also.  Only requirement…follow the directions!

Ingredients:
One – Five loaf package of Frozen White Bread Dough: Now here is where you can mess up. Don’t buy a cheap brand and check the label…it must be fresh. Buy the good brand when it is on sale and throw it in the freezer. Around these parts we have dough made by Rhodes. You can experiment and maybe you have a store brand you like but for your first batch…if you have it…get Rhodes.
2 Cups of Brown Sugar: NOT Dark Brown sugar…regular brown sugar.
2 Sticks of Butter: Yes, it has to be butter. If you think you can get by with margarine, you might as well quit right now. It must be butter and two sticks equals 1 Cup.
2 Cups of New York Vanilla Ice Cream: OK…you better be buying a good ice cream. Do not buy cheap ice cream, it is too full of air and not enough milk fat (cream) in it to make good Caramel Sauce. I use New York Vanilla because it has a wonderful Vanilla taste. If you just can’t get that, add 1 tsp. of Vanilla after you have melted all the other ingredients.

Additional items:

1/4 Cup of Regular Sugar
1 teaspoon of Cinnamon
 Baking Spray for pans and top of rolls.
2 – 9 x 13 baking pans. Do not use Air Bake Pans…they just don’t cook as well.
1 pair of Kitchen Shears

The first thing you should do is fill up the sink up with hot soapy water. I always tell people to do this before you start baking or cooking a meal. Your mess will be cleaned up before you are actually done baking. Just a really good habit to get into. Yes, I have a dishwasher but this is just faster.



I have a plastic pan in my sink so I don't have to fill it all the way up.
It saves on water and sewer!

Next put the 2 Cups of Brown Sugar, 2 Sticks of Butter and 2 Cups of Ice Cream in a kettle and let it all melt completely. All it has to do is be a smooth sauce. You do not have to cook or boil this, just be sure all the sugar is liquefied into the ice cream and butter. It takes just a couple minutes and be sure to stir occasionally. Set this aside.

Mix the 1/4 Cup of Sugar and 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.

Spray your pans well with the Baking Spray.

Next start cutting up the bread dough into a pan. You will need a kitchen shears for this. I am NOT talking about anything but a Kitchen Shears. Everyone should have one and you should covet it as much as you would any sewing shears. You do not use it for anything BUT food! It does not touch anything else. No one else but you or someone you designate to be cook is to touch it. Children under 25 cannot even look at it. You also wash it completely after each use, dry it and hide it again. Or if you do not have one, cut small 1/2 inch pieces on a cutting board with a knife but that might take awhile. I suggest you run to the nearest store and get one. You will love having it anyway!

You just snip snip snip the dough into the pan. Shears are good for herbs, cutting candy or fruit for decorations...lots of things!  Well worth it!  OK...I digress.....

You will be using 2 loaves per pan. You will cut up one loaf of dough into small half inch chunks into one half of the pan and then turn the pan around and use another loaf of dough and cut into the other half of the pan like shown below.

Do this to both pans.  It is just a way to keep it even.

After you have the dough in both pans, spray the tops of the dough with a little of the Baking Spray. Sprinkle each pan with half of the Sugar Mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double. This doesn’t really take long. Probably at the most an hour sometimes just half an hour.

Here is the cinnamon sprinkled over the dough.

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Don’t forget to take the plastic wrap off of the pans. Now pour the caramel sauce over the dough dividing it up between the two pans.
Put both pans in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. If your oven runs hotter than most, you might want to try 20 minutes. The tops must be a nice brown color when they are done. I like 25 minutes it is perfect for my oven so you may have to wing this part of it. If they are not completely done they will fall in the middle when the rolls cool.

While they are cooking, wash up all your utensils. Also prepare some pans for dumping them onto. I like to line the metal tops of my baking pans with a large piece of tin foil. Not everyone has metal tops that came with their 9 x 13 pans so you can also use just a cookie sheet. I like to use the tin foil because when I set the pan and foil on top of the pan I am going to flip I kind of pull the tin foil down around the bottom pan. Then I grab both pans together tightly and flip the whole thing over and the rolls plop out of the baking pan and onto the cookie sheet. I also pull the side of the foil up around the rolls. That way I can loosely put a sheet of tin foil over the top while it cools. Not too tight, you want the warm air to escape but I do not want a fly or any other insect to get in there!



Ooey Gooey Sensation!



I pull the foil up around the rolls.





Loosly cover with foil.





Once they are cool, cut each pan into 12 rolls or 6 large rolls per pan.

Suggestion:  If you really want to really WOW someone, put chopped pecans on the bottom of the pan before you put in the dough and then use Butter Pecan Ice Cream in your caramel sauce instead of the New York Vanilla.  When you flip them over on the pan the nuts will be on the top and they are a very buttery nutty roll. 

Last Loaf of Dough

You may be wondering why there is an extra loaf of dough left.  Well, they always came in a package of 5 loaves.  I use the extra dough for a homemade pizza.  Just pull it to flatten it out into a large cookie sheet making a little lip to hold the sauce.  Add some pizza sauce, all the toppings you want, add a ton of mozzarella cheese and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes.  Watch it closely.  I highly recommend precooked meats only. (hamb. sausage, chicken..etc.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

1 loaf of frozen bread dough. thawed

1 cup of cooked chicken chunks, I prefer white meat

1 jar of Garlic Alfredo Pasta Sauce

1 Can of sliced Olives

1 jar of pimentos- chopped, I use about 1/2  of the jar

1 - 8 oz. package of Mozzarella

Spread out the dough in a pizza pan or cookie sheet.  You have to use your hands for this.  Make a lip to hold the sauce.  Spread the Alfredo Sauce over the dough.  You might not need it all.  Use as much as you like. Sprinkle the chicken all over the pizza, top with olives and pimentos and sprinkle the cheese over the top.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.  Check it often. 
 These are not a diet foods but you will be happy and will be tootin' gluten for 24 hours.

MOM, HOW DO I MAKE A POT ROAST?

Oh, I can't tell you what sweet music it was to my ears when one of my daughters asked for advice. Yeah, I pretty much fall all over myself when they do.

This is the same daughter that called me from college and asked, "Mom, how do I fry an egg?"

Well, don't get me wrong on this, you have to know her. She is a great cook now but it was never an interest while she lived at home. She usually had her nose in a book. She can now make a Kolachy that puts any baker to shame. For some reason she just didn't want to learn to cook. Oh, I tried...at least the youngest daughter wanted to learn all the ethnic foods from her German/Norwegian background and thanks to Daddy, Czechoslovakian background. She even knows how to make Lefsa and just about everything in between, but my older one...well, she had to learn on her own time.

Well, her time has come! ON TO THE POT ROAST!

First of all, wash that roast. I don't know how many of you take a roast out of a package and plop it into a pan...but coming from a farm and watching how butchering is done...believe me...wash that roast! Wash pork chops, chicken, turkey, whatever meat you use. I haven't figured out how to wash hamburger yet, but if I ever do...I will let you know!

OK...Roast is clean.........Spray that pan! The greatest invention of the last century was Pam cooking spray and all the other cheaper brands that work just the same.

OK..pan is sprayed......now plop that roast in the pan.

Fill the pan up with water until about to the top of the roast but not over it. You don't want to boil it! Maybe a half inch below top of roast.

OK...now pour a packet of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix over the top of the roast. For you newbies, that is a dry mix that is in a box, by the soups in the grocery store. This is all the spices you will need. Do Not Add salt and pepper!!

OK...cover it, if you don't have a cover, use foil then throw it in the oven and cook at 350 degrees. I don't preheat my oven when I am cooking meat or a hotdish...that is a waste of energy...just do that for cakes and breads. Just throw it in there and start the oven.

I can't really say how long to cook it because it will depend on how big of a roast you have. I would say a 2 pound roast would be about 2 hours BUT....a 4 pound roast will not be 4 hours!!! No way!....let's just say about after the initial 2 hours, start adding 20 minutes per pound. Oh, just wing it on the first time around...you will get used to it. Believe me...you will make this roast over and over again.

OK...About an hour before the roast is done, add carrots, potatoes and onions. Well, I would add more onions because we like onions. I never fry a pound of hamburger without putting in a whole onion. It does not matter what I am making...you need an onion! AND...Please, don't just peel that onion and put it in there...wash the darn thing! You don't know where it's been! Same with any of the other vegetables, wash, peel, wash. OK...by now you know I am a fanatic when it comes to food preparation. Again, growing up on a farm...I know what we used for fertilizer and it was not pretty and you do not put it in your mouth! Wash it all! AND that goes for anything else you buy. I use soap and water to wash melons before I cut them otherwise you are embedding possible feces into your melon. You do not want to feed feces to anyone!

WOW...I got off topic....Here are some more recipes.

Pork Roast....see all the above BUT uses Lipton's Garlic and Herb Soup Mix. Similar baking time.

Baked Chicken....see all above BUT use Lipton's Garlic and Herb Soup Mix.
Bake at 325 Degrees for about 1 1/2 hours

Fudgy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

A good nutritious muffin! Yeah, right! How bad can it be, it has oatmeal and applesauce in it. Lil' Miss Frugal served these to me while we sat and admired her Bookcase Quilt.



INGREDIENTS Makes 12 muffins

1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting
DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line muffin cups with paper bake cups. In small bowl, stir together applesauce and oats; set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until well blended. Add applesauce mixture; blend well.

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and cinnamon, if desired. Add to butter mixture, blending well. Stir in mini chocolate chips.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with batter. (ice cream scoop works awesome!)

Bake 22-26 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle muffin tops with confectioners' sugar, if desired. Serve warm.

EASTER VEGGIE TRAY

Here is an idea for your Easter table. It's a little bread bunny! When I made this I used frozen bread dough, made little round balls for feet and hands. Bigger dough balls for head and body. I made a rope of dough and folded it in half to make the ears. I used 2 raisins for the eyes and 2 sliced almonds for the teeth. I cut out the tummy and we filled that with dip when we were ready to serve.

Mealtime came and needless to say, they started to eat the little guy's arms and legs off! Next someone grabbed an ear and someone swore they seen the bunny's nose twitching and the next thing I knew, his nose was gone...leaving teeth and eyeballs, oh, all right, raisins and almonds...but still! It ended up like a feeding frenzy and by the time the meal was over he looked like road kill. But you know what, rabbit ears are very tasty dipped in vegetable dip.