Tackling Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

These are so soft and delicious.  They are not low-calorie, but they are a yummy treat.

If you have a Kitchen-Aid mixer with the dough hook attachment, they work lovely.  If not, you can use a food processor to combine everything together.  You'll need to knead (haha!) the dough if you are using the food processor.  Only don't knead with flour, use vegetable oil. 

Cinnamon Roll Dough (adapted from What's Cooking America)

1 cup milk

1/4 cup hot water

1/2 cup melted butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

5 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon dry active yeast

In the mixing bowl on your Kitchen-Aid or the bowl on your food processor, mix milk, water, butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar.   Now add flour, salt and yeast.  Mix until a ball forms.  In the Kitchen-Aid, keep mixing for about 2-3 minutes.  Remove the dough ball from your food processor bowl and pour onto an oiled surface.  Knead for about 2-3 minutes.  Roll the mixture onto an oiled surface, press into a 15 x 24 rectangle.

Cinnamon Roll Filling

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup melted butter

In a bowl,  combine brown sugar and cinnamon.  I usually rub the mixture through my fingers to make sure it's completely combined.  It will feel like dry sand.  Pour melted butter over the cinnamon roll dough rectangle and then sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture evenly over it.  Spread it to the edges, making sure it soaks up the melted butter.  Roll up the dough and then slice into equal portions.  I make 12 rolls.  Cut the dough log in half.  Then cut each half into half.  You should have 4 smaller logs.  Now slice those into 3 equal slices. You can freeze them at this point.

If you want to bake them, place into a baking dish, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1-1.5 hours.

Bake at 350 degrees F for only 10 minutes.   

(after they have risen, before baking)

Cinnamon Roll Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

In a bowl, mix and stir everything together until smooth and creamy.  Immediately spread onto each cinnamon bun hot out of the oven.  

These are so yummy!

I made some Caramel Apple Sticky Buns for the bakery a few weeks ago.  They were a huge hit.  So yummy and soft and sticky and good and delicious and well, I could go on...

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns:

1/2 cup butter

1-1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tablespoon corn syrup

1 apple, finely diced*

Melt butter in skillet, add brown sugar.  Bring to a boil add corn syrup and apples.  Cook for another minute or two, stirring to coat the apples and making sure everything is melting nicely.

Line a 9" cake pan with tin foil and then place a 9" circle of parchment in the bottom.  Then pour the caramel apple mixture into the bottom.  Arrange cinnamon rolls over the apple mixture and allow rolls to rise for an hour or so.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  When you press on the center of the rolls, it should sink a little.  That's good.  

Flip them onto a serving plate and then peel the tin foil away and parchment circle.

*I've also made these with pears.  

They are so yummy and gooey!

In the Kitchen: How to Freeze Oven Fried Potatoes

This is my favorite oven cheese fries.  They are low calorie and yummy to boot!  The only problem?  They take a good while to bake off.  So I experimented with the recipe to make it freezer friendly.  

Here's what I did:

Wash your taters

Cut them into wedges

Cover them in water

Dry them off before you put them into the seasoning bag.

Give them a shake in the bag

Arrange the taters on a tin foil lined baking sheet (I always make sure they are situated so that the skin of the potato is on the foil.  It keeps them from sticking so bad to the foil.)

Bake them at 425 degrees F for 20 minutes.  You're only partial cooking these.

Cool and then flash freeze on sheet pan.

Remove from the pan and baggie them up.

To eat them, preheat oven to 425 degrees F and bake for 20 minutes until done.  (I sprayed a little non-stick cooking spray over the tops to help with the browning.)

They were so good!  

This works for me.  I hope you'll give this a try.

Enjoy!

In the Kitchen: How to Freeze Rice

When I'm thinking of our monthly meal plan, I try to remember to put a few "kits" together in the freezer for quick lunches and suppers.  Having those "kit" components in the freezer, can result in a delicious meal literally in minutes.  One of the components I try to have on hand is pre-cooked rice.  We recently transitioned from white rice to brown rice.  Brown rice is supposed to be healthier for you.  Only thing is, brown rice takes 45 minutes to cook on the stove top.  And spending 45 minutes working on supper is not my ideal situation.  I love to cook, but some days I just don't have the time.  My go-to rice meals are Chicken Fried Rice, Stacy's Southwestern Chicken and Rice and Fiesta Salad. 

So how do you freeze pre-cooked rice?  This is how I do it:

Wash and rinse some of the starch off the brown rice in warm water.  

Look at how milky the water is...

Bring water to a boil and add the rice...

Cover with lid and cook for 45 minutes (DO NOT OPEN THE LID)...

After the timer goes off, turn the stove off and let the rice continue to steam for another 5 minutes.

Fluff with a fork and spread onto a cookie sheet to cool slightly...

Label the freezer storage baggies and fill with rice (I usually  fill the bags with 1-1/2 cups of rice, three 1/2 cup servings)

Squeeze all the air out of the bags and pop into the freezer.

To reheat:

Slightly open the zipper top about 1" to allow steam to escape

Microwave for 2-3 minutes until hot and steamy...

Ta da!  You have rice ready in 2-3 minutes on those busy day!

This works for me.

Have you tried freezing rice before?  What recipes do you use it in?

Enjoy!

Don't forget to check out my new eCookbook Sweet Creations Volume 1 "Basic Southern Cakes"!  It's only $2.99!

This post has been linked to:
Works for me Wednesday at We are THAT Family
Kitchen Tip Tuesday at Finding Joy in My Kitchen

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Kitchen Must-Haves

I love being in my kitchen.  I guess if you've been following me for a while, you already know this.  Over the years I've accumulated quite a few kitchen gadgets.  But there are a few I use nearly every single day.  

So I'm going to share them with you:

1.  Global Knife.  My husband bought this for me a few years ago for our anniversary.  I love it!  It's super sharp and cuts through potatoes like a hot knife through butter.

2.  Le Creuset Pot.  This was another anniversary gift.  It's useful for soups, collards, mashed potatoes, chili...  I bought a smaller Martha Stewart version from Macy's a few years ago. 

3.  Cast Iron Skillet. Every Southern kitchen must have a cast iron skillet.  Perfect for frying taters or baking the perfect cornbread.

4.  Cutting board.  I used to have a wooden chopping block, but it fell apart.  Now I stick with the plastic ones so I can bleach them and disinfect them in the dishwasher.

 

5.  Food Processor.  A few years ago I purchased a Food Network brand processor.  It was my first one and I can't believe it took me so long to purchase one!  I love it and use it for chopping vegetables, grating cheese, making biscuits and scones...so many uses.  If you don't have one, make sure you check the cup size.  A larger capacity allows you more options for using it.  I think mine is 11 cup capacity. 

 

6.  Magic Bullet.  My Momma gave us one of these and it is perfect for blending smoothies, cocktails, purees, salsa.  I could go on, it's definitely one of my favorites!

 

7.  Vegetable Peeler  I have two of these.  They are huge time savers when it comes to peeling apples, potatoes and carrots.  I like the swivel head.  I think I got them at Walmart for $1. 

 

8.  Box Grater Grating cheese, carrots, zucchini, apples, potatoes...so useful!

 

9.  Measuring Spoons and Measuring Cups

 

10.  Pyrex Casserole Dishes.  Pyrex is wonderful!  Did you know you can freeze a casserole in the dish and place them straight into the oven without them cracking or breaking?  Love these things!  The large measuring cups are great for mixing up muffin batter and even baking cakes.  

These are my favorite things in the kitchen.  What about you?   
Do you have a favorite kitchen must-have?

Enjoy!

Tackling My Kitchen Corner

I have a corner in my kitchen.  

Do you?

It's a corner cabinet and corner counter.

It's the perfect place to put things.  Any. Thing.  All.  Things.

I've been trying to clean up the clutter little by little.  I've already cleaned up and organized our laundry closet and our deep freezer.  Now I just need to maintain those areas.  

While our oldest was here, we also went through the foyer coat closet and cleaned it out.  We donated coats, sweaters, maternity clothes, shoes, boots and baby toys.  I didn't take before-and-after photos, but trust me when I say I literally had to push the door to close it.  And you should know me well enough by now, that I don't exaggerate.  Unfortunately, I'm a sentimental clutter-bug.  I truly hate throwing things in the trash, that's why I donated everything I could.  And the best part about the donating was Goodwill put a donation box in the Food Lion parking lot in Newnan, so while we were shopping last week, we dropped everything in there.  

Now back to the chaos of my corner.

See how crazy it can get?  And this is good.  Last week my husband went through all the pharmacy receipts and payroll stubs I had piled up behind the white phone charging station.  I also had 3 cookbooks and a 2" 3-ring binder full of recipes in that corner.  But I put all of them on the book shelf.  It's their "home".

I always tell my kids, "if it doesn't have a 'home', it needs to get donated or trashed."  

Now it's time for me to practice what I preach!

I pulled everything out of the cabinet and put it on the counter.  When I was younger, I used to clean apartments for income.  Out of habit, I was checking for any signs of bugs or mice.  Thankfully, there were none.  Phew!  What a relief! 

Then I sorted through the open bags.  I threw away old pretzels, stale chips and Chex Mix, hard-as-rocks gummy candy and expired dried apricots.  If you're cleaning out your cupboards or pantry, don't forget to clip out the Box Tops for Education.  I had 3 in there! 

I put back bread, cereal, the good chips and dried fruit.  

(In case you are wondering what that sticker says on my shelf, is says "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels".  I thought it might help me remember not to munch and snack on junk.)

Then I tackled the counter and it looks so much better!

Maybe I'll tackle my bedroom next week.  But no one sees it, but me and Kevin...

Enjoy!

This post has been linked to:

• Tackle it Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom
• Decluttering Challenge at Mom's Plan
• 11th Heaven's Homemaker Mondays
• Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family
• A Slob Comes Clean End of Year