Monkey Bread

My grandma made this for us one time long long ago. It was amazing, and yet in the subsequent 25 years I have never made it or had it again. I think this is the recipe but all I remember is that she used pre-made biscuits and found the recipe in the newspaper.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes prep, 35 minutes cooking

Ingredients:

3 (12 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough

1 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup packed brown sugar

Directions:
Type directions here

1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9 or 10 inch tube/Bundt® pan.

2: Mix white sugar and cinnamon in a plastic bag. Cut biscuits into quarters. Shake 6 to 8 biscuit pieces in the sugar cinnamon mix. Arrange pieces in the bottom of the prepared pan. Continue until all biscuits are coated and placed in pan.

3: In a small saucepan, melt the margarine with the brown sugar over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute. Pour over the biscuits.

4: Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate. Do not cut! The bread just pulls apart

Source: allrecipies.com
Servings: 8? I remember it went fast.

Helen Ryan's white bread

My mom (Cory's grandma and Maddy's great- grandma used to make amazing bread! I used to love to watch as the flab under her arm would swing back and forth while she stirred the heavy dough. She never measured anything, so one of my sisters followed one day as she made it and measured the ingredients as she added them. When she was through kneading it, she would say "Get it nice and smooth, then pat it like a baby's bottom." The potato water she used was the water she used to cook potatoes in. We had potatoes with dinner every night (like all good Irishmen!) so she always had potato water. Don't salt the potatoes when you cook them if you are going to use the water for bread. 

Preparation Time: A long time!!!!

Ingredients:
4 cups potato water
1/3 cup shortening (Crisco or lard)
1/3 cup sugar
2 pkgs. dry yeast or 3 small cakes fresh yeast ( Mom always used fresh)
1 Tablespoon salt
flour

Directions:
Dissolve the yeast in 1 cup of luke warm potato water. Add salt, sugar, and shortening to the other 3 cups of hot potato water. Stir until luke warm. Add yeast and stir. Add 1 cup of flour at a time and mix with a large spoon until it forms a soft ball. Put on a floured board and add flour and knead until it is smooth and elastic. (Like a baby's bottom.) Use a wooden rolling pin and beat and turn dough. The more kneading, the lighter the bread will be. Place in a greased bowl and butter the top of the dough. Set it over a pan with 1 cup hot water in bottom of pan. Cover with a cloth. Let rise until double in bulk. Punch down. Let rise again, then make into rolls or loaves. Let rise until doubled. Bake in 400 degree oven for 35-40 minutes for loaves or 30 minutes for rolls.

Source: Submitted in loving memory of my mom.
Servings: 4 loaves but you can cut it down.

Bread Maker Cheese Bread

Works great for "hole in ones"!!

Ingredients:
1 pkg yeast
3 C bread flour
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 T sugar
1 C Buttermilk (room temp)
¼ C warm water
1 C grated cheddar cheese

Directions:
Press start

Apricot Scones

Maddy's favorite.  It is written for high altitude, but I may have low altitude/humid directions by the end of the week.

Preparation Time: 15 to prepare, 15 to bake

Ingredients:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup brown or raw sugar (sucanat)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 stick very cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup milk or cream (the more fat the tastier)
1 egg
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 apricots, cut into small pieces

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients together.  Use a pastry blender to cut in butter.  The butter should be pea-sized when finished.  In another bowl whisk together egg, milk or cream, and vanilla.  Fold wet ingredients and apricot into dry ingredients.  Try not to overwork the dough.  I like the texture final texture to be such that the dough is so dry it is just barely able to stay together.  You may even have some dry crumbes in the bottom of the bowl.

Flatten the dough into one or two circles that are about 1 to 1.5 inches thick.  If using one circle, cut into 8 pieces.  For two circles, I cut each into 6 pieces.  Lay on to a parchment paper covered pan and bake at 425 for 10-30 minutes.  This varies greatly depending on how wet your dough is.

Source: Mostly me
Servings: 8-12 scones

Dakota bread

A yummy whole wheat bread.

Ingredients: 3 cups warm water
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup shortening melted
1 Tablespoon salt
5 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup pumpkin seed
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds

Directions:
Dissolve yeast in the warm water with honey. Add other ingredients. Knead until smooth. let rise until double. Shape into round loaves on a cookie sheet. Let rise until double. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Source: I developed this recipe after tasting the Dakota bread at Great Harvest. Their Dakota bread has mullet seeds in it, but I didn't like them when I used them. After many loaves of trial bread, this is the one I like best.

Servings: Makes 2 loaves.

Suggested Reading - Whole Grains

The new food pyramid suggests that half of all grains we consume be whole grains.  Why? and How?

Mayo Clinic explains why whole grains are better:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/whole-grains/NU00204

My favorite whole wheat, I use it in everything and can't tell the difference from white flour:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/king-arthur-white-whole-wheat-flour-5-lb

And, for the more adventurous, a discussion on sprouting grains and on soaking grains:
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/01/why-sprout.html
http://nourishedkitchen.com/soaking-grains-nuts-legumes/

Nourishing Traditions is an excellent book if you want to take this concept a bit further.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
4-6 chicken breast halves
4-6 pieces Swiss cheese
4-6 pieces thin ham slices
1 can mushroom soup
16 oz. sour cream
1/2 pkg. sliced mushrooms

1/2 package Pepperidge Farm fine fine seasoned stuffing
1/2 stick butter

Directions:
Place ham slices in a 9x13 pan. Top with chicken breasts, then put Swiss cheese on top of that. Spread mushrooms on top. Mix sour cream and soup, then pour over the top. Combine seasoned stuffing with melted butter. Sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 degrees for one and a half hours. If it starts to brown too much, cover it with foil the last half hour.

Source: My recipe box
Servings: 4-6

Salsa Chicken

scores high on "results vs. effort" . Chicken crock pot recipes never seem to work out for me, except for this one.

Preparation Time: about 10 minutes

Ingredients:

boneless chicken breasts, cut in half (about 2 lbs)

1 1/2 cups of your favorite salsa (not one jar)

1 tsp cumin

pinch of chili powder

3 tbsp fresh lime juice

Directions:
spray cookware with cooking spray. place breasts in cookware. cover with salsa. cook on HIGH for 3-3.5 hours

stir in cumin, chili powder, lime juice and cook for additional 15 minutes before serving

Source: Not your mother's slow cooker cookbook, Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann
Servings: 6-8