Perfect White Bread

I don't know about anyone else, but we go through bread like it's no body's business!! The hub takes 2 sandwiches to work every day, we have 3 kids who love sandwiches for lunch, and I just love bread. I cringe buying bread. The bread we buy is 2.50-2.98 a loaf.

I decided to try out baking our own bread. I tried a couple recipes, didn't like the bread. Then I tried THIS recipe. Holy yummm. I have made it twice this week, just to make sure the first time wasn't just by chance. I think it turned out even better the 2nd time. It is insanely easy. It is the perfect white bread recipe!

granny’s perfect white bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups warm water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup powdered milk
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Instant yeast
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 Tbsp salt
• 2.5 lbs Better for Bread flour {1/2 bag}

what to do

Mix water, sugar and yeast in Bosch mixer {for doubled recipe, Kitchen aid works fine for this recipe.} When bubbles start to form, add milk, oil, salt and flour. Once all flour is in, knead on high- 5 min with the dough attachment.

Let rise double. Spray pans generously. Punch down form 3 medium loaves or 2 large loaves. Let rise to 1/2″ above pan.

Bake at 400 degrees for 17-18 min. Butter tops, let cool in pans 5 mins then turn out to finish cooling completely.

The cute girl that posted the recipe has a wonderful post about her granny. This is her granny's bread recipe. {make sure to hop on over to her page to read about her granny}

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

This morning I took my little kiddo's to the farmer's market in our new neighborhood. Someone was selling a whole bag of Rhubarb for $1, so I of course had to buy it. I was planning on making a Rhubarb Crisp with them, but saw THESE muffins on Pinterest. I decided to try them out.

I totally enjoy them. I may have possibly eaten 2 so far... My kids thought they were cupcakes, and were a little disappointed at their first taste, but now they totally like them.

Super easy recipe. Will be making again.

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh strawberries
1/2 cup chopped fresh rhubarb

TOPPING:
6 small fresh strawberries, halved. **I actually did 1/4**
3 teaspoons sugar **I didn't measure. I just pinched and sprinkled**

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat egg, milk and oil until smooth. Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in strawberries and rhubarb. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Place a strawberry half, cut side down, on each. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 375° for 22-25 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm. Makes: 1 dozen.

Chocolate Eclair Dessert

I made this for dessert for our family, as well as the Orange Fluff, on Sunday. Again- 10 people, 20 thumbs up!
Soooooo easy.
Super good.

Chocolate Eclair Dessert

Ingredients:
3 packages of graham crackers, unbroken (as much as possible)
2 small instant French Vanilla puddings
3.5 cups cold milk 8-12oz cool whip
Chocolate frosting

Mix the pudding, milk, & cool whip.

Layer in a 9x13 pan-
Crackers (might have to break some to cover the bottom of the pan)
1/2 pudding mixture.
Crackers.
Rest of pudding mixture.
Crackers.
Top with chocolate frosting.

It's not the prettiest dessert, but it tastes fantastic.

Red Velvet Pancakes

I love me some Red Velvet Cake... Cupcakes... PANCAKES.
Include some chocolate chips & I'm sold.
This morning I wanted to make something fun for my daughters to eat for breakfast. Daddy was at drill, bummer dude, you missed out. (thank heavens for ziploc's & fridges, right?? heehee)
These were a hit, for the most part. They are very rich. YUMMMM. My 13mo almost at a whole one, but then she kept signing for "milk". I think she had her cup filled twice...

My 3 year old, she LOVED the first couple bites, but then did the same thing with asking for milk. They both ended up having cereal to finish up. BUT, an hour or so later, I spotted my 3 year old eating some from the fridge. So she really liked them, but I don't think she was use to this type of pancake.

I really liked them. I ate about 1.5 pancakes and I was done. Which is great, because I can usually pound down like 4 regular ones. I mean.... What?? Who does that... I also ended my meal with a big, tall, glass of milk. Totally worth it.

The original recipe is HERE

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1-1/2 cups buttermilk (I didn't have buttermilk, so I searched how I could do it- Put 1 tablespoon White Vinegar in a measuring cup. Add milk until it gets to the 1 cup mark. Let sit 5 minutes. Since I needed 1.5 cups, I did 1.5tablespoons vinegar, and filled the milk up to 1.5)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons red food coloring
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips (doesn’t matter what kind you use)

Directions
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, sour cream, food coloring and vanilla.
Add wet ingredients to dry, and mix just until combined.
Add chocolate chips and fold in batter.
Pour about 1/3 cup onto medium/high griddle and lightly brown on both sides.
Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and serve with maple syrup.

BAM. There you go.
You're welcome.

Cheesecake Dip

Merry Christmas Eve!!!
Today, our family decided to all get together and watch a movie at my parents house. I saw this on Pinterest, and thought this would be an excellent time to try it out.
Cherry Cheesecake Dip!
Super easy, super yummy!! It was kind of addicting to me.

The recipe was found HERE.

I was reading some of the comments, someone said that theirs was gritty. Mine was when I first made it, but I let it sit in the container overnight so all the "grittiness" dissolved. I guess. Ha.

Anyways.

 

Here is the recipe:

Mix Jello No-Bake Cheesecake mix with one container of Cool Whip.
Chill.
Top with a can of cherry pie filling.
Serve with graham crackers.

 

It didn't say how big of a Cool Whip to use. I used the smaller of the 2 available. When I took it out of the fridge, it was kind of stiff (in the picture the original one was super fluffy). Which that didn't bother me, I thought it looked great as it held the shape of the cool whip container.

All in all, it was a hit. I would totally make this again.

Pumpkin Better Than ... Cake

My husband's favorite cake is BTS cake. Mmmmmm. For his birthday & our anniversary, I always make it for him. When I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I wondered if this would be a huge hit as well!

 

This was super easy to make. It's major yummy! Definitely super sweet & rich, but that's how BTS cake is. The day after I made it, I wanted it for breakfast, naughty me. I was able to take 2 bites and then I was done. I guess I'm not as young as I feel... Ha!

Keeping this on our Yummy list.

Anyways, here is the recipe.

The recipe is from Something Swanky.

Ingredients

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 small can pumpkin puree
• 1 - 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 - 8 oz. tub cool whip
• 1/2 bag Heath Bits
• Caramel Sundae Sauce

Instructions

1. Mix together the cake mix and the pumpkin puree (DO NOT add the other ingredients on the cake mix box).
2. Pour batter into a well greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 350º according to the directions for a 9x13 cake on the cake mix box.
3. Let cool for about 10 minutes after baking. Using the bottom of a wooden spoon, poke holes all over the top of the cake.
4. Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the cake, filling the holes. **I actually put caramel over the top of the milk, yummmm** Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Spread the cool whip over top of cake. Sprinkle on the heath bits, and drizzle caramel over top (just to your liking). Refrigerate for 3-4 hours, or overnight (best).

Notes

DO NOT USE PUMPKIN PIE FILLING. YOU MUST USE PUMPKIN PUREE IF YOU WANT THE CAKE TO BAKE CORRECTLY. The cake mix + pumpkin puree version of pumpkin cake may not be for everyone. I like it just fine, especially when it's soaked in SCM and caramel. But if you're not sure about it, feel free to substitute your own pumpkin cake recipe as the cake base. DO NOT mix together the pumpkin, cake mix, and the other ingredients on the back of the cake mix box!!!! ONLY mix the cake mix and the pumpkin puree. You must let the sweetened condensed milk soak in all the way. Letting it sit overnight will yield best results. Use the bottom of a wooden mixing spoon to poke the holes in the cake-- it's just the right size.

Apple Pie Caramel Apples

Today, I attempted to make these beauties.

I have never made a caramel apple. But these looked FAB. I figured, what the heck.

THIS is where I got the recipe from.
Hers looks way better than mine. Don't judge.

Anyways- here is the recipe.

 

Apple Pie Caramel Apple
Ingredients:

1 bag Kraft caramels
4-5 large, tart apples (You can use red apples too but I like the contrast of the tart apple with the caramel)

1 bag white chocolate chips or white chocolate candy melts

cinnamon sugar

 

Directions:

1. Wash, scrub, and dry apples. This is important or your caramel won’t stick because of the coating stores put on apples.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt caramel according to package directions.

3. Put popsicle stick in the apple. Dip in melted caramel making sure to fully coat it. **I thought I had popsicle sticks, but I did not. I only had the sticks for like suckers & cake pops. I highly recommend popsicle sticks. They'll be easier to eat in the end**

4. Place on parchment or wax paper that has been sprayed with cooking spray. **Tried the sprayed wax paper. They still stuck, and a litttttttle bit of the paper ripped off. I used a mat for the chocolate layer, worked much better for me.**

5. Cool in the fridge until caramel is set up. If you want a thick caramel layer, add another layer of caramel here and let it set up again.

6. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second intervals. You can add a little shortening if the mixture is too thick.

7. Coat the apple with the chocolate.

8. Let it set up a little bit before sprinkling it with the cinnamon sugar mixture. **This is a must. Look at the back left apple. HA!** 

9. Cool completely in the fridge.

10. Cut into slices and serve.
Can be made up to one day ahead of time. Store in the refrigerator.

It took me 2.5 apples to finally figure it out. The chocolate part needs to be quick, my caramel melted if I took too long.
These were SUPER yummy! Totally keeping on our keep list.

 

YUMMY Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

WOW! I have not been on Blogger for waaaaay too long! It's all totally new and different. How fun!

I haven't been on Pinterest for a very long time either. Well, yesterday, I got an email saying that one of my pins that had only 15 pins, was repinned & repinned until it hit 112! I was kind of in shock. So, I decided that I should get back on this "A Date with Pinterest" thing. My husband misses all the yummy food I use to make. Of course, we don't miss the yucky. But the goodness makes up for the awfulness.

The other day I decided to make a super YUMMY chicken noodle soup from scratch. The canned stuff is kind of "meh" to me. My mom has been making this recipe forever. The noodle recipe is actually my Great-Great-Great-Grandma's recipe. In one of her books, she wrote in the column a little story about the noodles. She wrote, "I was down to my final 3 eggs and decided to make noodles with them to make them stretch further. I made the noodles, rolled them extra thin, and set them out to dry. Then the horse got at them. I would have killed that horse if we didn't need him so much!" Lol! So funny.

Ok, here we go! I don't really have a recipe, but in the end I will list everything you will need.

 

Yummy Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup!

So, I baked 3 small chicken breasts in the oven, just covered the tops with salt & pepper. You can use more or less chicken.
While the chicken was baking, I cut up some carrots, celery, and onion. And put those aside. I probably used 2 stalks of celery, 4 carrots, and half an onion
Then I put 10 cups of water on the stove to boil. I didn't have any chicken broth, but if i did, I would use like 6 cups broth, and 4 cups water. Since I didn't, I will be using 6 cubes of chicken bouillon.
While I was waiting for the water to boil. I made the noodles.

Here is my Great-Great-Great-Grandma's recipe :)
2C flour
3 Eggs
2tsp salt
1/4-1/2C water
Mix. Roll SUPER thin. They will grow when boiled, and I sometimes forget and have monster flour noodles, no good. Then cut into strips.

Once the water begins to boil, drop in the bouillon cubes to dissolve. After they're dissolved, add the noodles and then the veggies. After it boiled a while, my chicken finished, so I shredded it up, and dropped it in. Then turned down the heat a little.

In the end, I mix a little corn starch with COLD water until smooth, then slowly add it to the soup to thicken it up a little.
Add a little salt & pepper to taste.

BAM! Done.


It's pretty easy. And soooooooo yummy!!

Ready for a kicker?? People think we are CRAZY!! But we LOVE to serve this over some homemade, warm, fluffy mashed potatoes. I know, I know... I'm half Idahoian, I love my potatoes!! But really. Try it. You will be amazed. I swear. My sister in law thought we were nuts, then she tried it because that's how we all were eating it. Yup, she loved it.


Ingredient overview:
3 small chicken breasts
Celery
Carrots
Onion
10C Water & 6 cubes of Chicken Bouillon OR 4C Water & 6C Chicken Broth
Salt & Pepper
2C Flour
3 Eggs
2tsp Salt
1/4-1/2 Water