Cinnamon Roll Type of Day

It has been one of those days . . . you know what I am talking about.  It all started with an email from a woman I know who (for some unGodly reason) has decided to annoy the heck out of me for the last 3 days.  And has been extremely difficult and all this is over buying 10 bars of soap - long, long, long story.  But trying to make arrangements for her to come over to pick up the STUPID bars of soap has been like pulling teeth.  And this morning's message was that she decided NOT to come but would send her husband instead - WHATEVER!!!!!  (AND then he shows up 45 minutes early - oh well!)

So I decided it was a Cinnamon Roll type of day.  Chocolate just won't cut it here.  Chocolate does not make the house smell oh so DELICIOUS and WONDERFUL!!!  Yes, cinnamon rolls are what the doctor ordered!!!

And, yes, they tasted OH SO GOOD!!  Somedays only cinnamon rolls will do.

Baked Eggplant and Cheese or Melanzana alla Parmigiana

I saw this beautiful eggplant in the grocery store yesterday and it was calling my name.  Well, it wasn't actually calling my name but it caught my attention and I knew I had to buy it.  When I got home and I had this beautiful eggplant staring at me on the kitchen counter and it seemed to say "well . . . so what are you going to do with me?"  As fate would have it, I still had Betty Torre's book out, The Complete Beginner's Guide to Everyday Italian Cooking and what do I find . . . an eggplant recipe (and the Angels sang!!)

It is a super easy recipe.  I did do a few substitutions because I didn't feel like running back to the grocery store!  I will note these with **

Ingredients
1 medium to large eggplant peeled and cut in 1/4 inch thick and round slices

Sauce
17 ounce can Italian plumb tomatoes, undrained ** didn't have those so I substituted Italian style tomatoes
1 garlic clove minced
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp basil

Eggplant
1/2 to 3/4 c flour
3 large eggs, beaten
1 T parsley ** I was out of parsley, so I omitted this
3 T parmesan cheese
olive oil for frying

1 lb mozzeralla cheese
1.4 cup parmesan cheese

Directions

Slice eggplant and put in a colander

Crush the tomatoes by gently squeezing them with your fingers.  Place  in a sauce pan with the garlic and seasonings.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

While the sauce is cooking, fry the eggplant. Heat 1/2 inch of Olive Oil in a large skillet.  Beat the eggs with the parsley and cheese.   Rinse and dry the eggplant slices thoroughly.  Dip the slices in the flour first and then into the egg mixture.  Fry a few pieces at a time until golden brown.  Drain on a paper towel.

To put the dish together, put a little bit of the sauce in the bottom of a baking dish or casserolle dish.  put the fried eggplant slices in a single layer on top, pour a little sauce on top of the eggplant.  Sprinkle with the mozzeralla and then the parmesan cheese.  Repeat this, ending with the cheeses.

Bake in a hot 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

As a variation, you can use zucchini in place of the eggplant.

VERDICT

Oh yes, this was good!!  Both my husband and I loved it!!  Would be good with a salad and maybe some french bread - you know what I am talking about, don't you  - a glass of wine - sounding good!!!  I digress . . . this is another keeper recipe!!

Shrimp with Tomatoes, Onions,and Peppers or Gamberi con Pomodori, Cipolle e Peperoni

I am on an Italian kick lately because we had another Italian dinner last night.  I wasn't too sure about the recipe because she didn't use any spices other than salt and pepper.  I was half tempted to throw in some oregano or even a little bit of parsley but thought I would try it just as the author wrote it.  If I didn't like it, adjustments could be made the second time around.

The recipe comes the Betty L. Torre's book, The Complete Beginner's Guide to Everyday Italian Cooking.  It was a very easy meal to prepare, the most work you did is chopping all the veggies!!  Oh yes, I forgot, removing the shells off the shrimps - LOL!!

Ingredients:

1 pound shrimp - either fresh or frozen (if frozen, let it thaw out)

2 T olive oil

2 medium onions, coarsely chopped  (I used red onions since that is all I had)

2 medium green peppers, cored, seeded and chopped (my husband doesn't like green peppers - so I used the red peppers instead).

3 tomatoes or 1/2 cup tomato sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Remove the shell from the tails of all the shrimp.

Heat the olive oil in a medium size pan.

Saute the onions and peppers, stirring occasionally, until done - roughly about 10 minutes.  Looks kind of pretty with the red peppers and red onions  and smells oh so lovely!!

Add the tomatoes or tomato sauce to the onion/pepper mixture and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally

Add the shrimp.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes.

I served this over rice - ah yes - oh so good!!!

VERDICT:

This was very good.  Both my husband and I loved it.  As I said above, I was pleasantly surprised because she didn't use any spices and I was afraid this might be too bland.  But, it was really good.  Definitely a keeper recipe.  Very easy to make and not that expensive.  I bought the frozen medium size shrimp at our local Krogers.  It was $9.99 for 1 pound.  

Entire Recipe:

Shrimp with Tomatoes, Onions and Peppers

Ingredients:

1 pound shrimp - either fresh or frozen (if frozen, let it thaw out)

2 T olive oil

2 medium onions, coarsely chopped

2 medium green peppers, cored, seeded and chopped

3 tomatoes or 1/2 cup tomato sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Remove the shell from the tails of all the shrimp.

Heat the olive oil in a medium size pan.

Saute the onions and peppers, stirring occasionally, until done - roughly about 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes or tomato sauce to the onion/pepper mixture and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the shrimp.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Meat and Potato Pie or Torta di Carne e Patate

Last night we ate Italian.  I completely forgot I had this book The Complete Beginner's Guide to Everyday Italian Cooking by Betty L Torre.  It is an old book, published back in 1975.  I think I found this on eBay and, as it always does, life got in the way, and I forgot all about this book until yesterday when I happened to be going through my various cookbooks trying to decide what on earth to have for dinner - viola!!  I opened it up and, oh my!! the recipes!!  Looks like we will be eating Italian the next couple of days!!

I picked this recipe mainly because I had all the ingredients - good reason don't you think!!  Thankfully, no wild dash to the grocery store!!  It is very easy - the hardiest part is peeling and cutting the potatoes!  

Ingredients 

6 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered (I used "new potatoes" because that is all I had)

Water to cover the potatoes

pinch of salt

1 lb of ground beef

1/3 cup bread crumbs

1 T grated parmesan cheese

pepper to taste

3 T butter

1/2 cup milk

salt to taste

2 T parmesan cheese

3 T bread crumbs

1 T minced parsley

Directions:

Bring salted water to a boil, add potatoes, cover pot and cook until potatoes are tender - roughly 20 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the pie filling.  In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, bread crumbs, cheese and pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.

When the potatoes are cooked, drain in a colander.  Mash the potatoes with the milk, butter and salt.  

Rub a 9 inch pie pan with olive oil and coat the pie pan with half of the mashed potatoes..  Add the meat filling and spread it over the mashed potato "pie crust."  

Cover the meat mixture with the remaining mashed potatoes. (I was a little skeptical about the meat actually being cooked - but it does!)

Sprinkle the top with the parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and parsley. 

Bake in a preheated over at 350 for 45 to 50 minutes until the top is lightly browned.

VERDICT:

It was good.  The one thing I didn't like, it was greasy.  I think next time I will cook the ground beef before adding it to the pie.  Also, it needed "something" - a spice (oregano would be good), maybe some onions or a green pepper - something to give the meat just a tab bit more flavor.  It is a keeper recipe but needs a few adjustments.

Entire Recipe

Meat and Potato Pie

Ingredients 

6 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered (I used "new potatoes" because that is all I had)

Water to cover the potatoes

pinch of salt

1 lb of ground beef

1/3 cup bread crumbs

1 T grated parmesan cheese

pepper to taste

3 T butter

1/2 cup milk

salt to taste

2 T parmesan cheese

3 T bread crumbs

1 T minced parsley

Directions:

Bring salted water to a boil, add potatoes, cover pot and cook until potatoes are tender - roughly 20 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the pie filling.  In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, bread crumbs, cheese and pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.

When the potatoes are cooked, drain in a colander.  Mash the potatoes with the milk, butter and salt.  

Rub a 9 inch pie pan with olive oil and coat the pie pan with half of the mashed potatoes..  Add the meat filling and spread it over the mashed potato "pie crust."  Cover the meat mixture with the remaining mashed potatoes.

Sprinkle the top with the parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and parsley.  Bake in a preheated over at 350 for 45 to 50 minutes until the top is lightly browned.

Cinnamon "Ears" or Korvapuustit

Translation - Finland cinnamon rolls!  But you press your two thumbs in the middle of the roll to make the roll look like ears (OK- whatever!).  It sounded interesting and it was another snowy weekend in Ohio without nothing else to do.  So why not - let's make cinnamon ears!!

I found this recipe in the book The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas.  It is can be an expensive recipe if you want to add the cardamon ($12 to $15 a jar!!) but that is optional.

Ingredients

Dough
2 pkgs or 4 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast
1 c warm water (105 to 115F)
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 slightly beaten eggs
1 tsp ground cardamon (optional) - I had some, so I did use it.
4 1/2 to 5 cups all purpose flour

Filling
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 T ground cinnamon

Glaze

1 slightly beaten egg
2 T milk
pearl sugar or crushed sugar cubes

In a large bowl, stir the yeast into the warm water and let stand for 5 minutes until dissolved.

Add the melted butter, sugar, eggs, cardamon (if using)

and 4 1/2 cups of flour until dough is smooth).  Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.

 Since I was making this today, I only kept it in the refrigerator for a little over 2 hours.

You will notice very little rise.  The cold refrigerator prevents the dough from rising too much.

Sprinkle a countertop with flour and divide the dough into 2 parts.  Roll each piece into a 12 x 24 inch rectangle.  Spread with the melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.

Roll up, starting along the 24 inch side.

Cut each roll diagonally into 12 pieces.  With your two thumbs, press down the middle of the side of each roll. In doing so, the two edges will be forced upward and should resembled an ear (well, mine didn't look like an ear - oh well, some you win and some you don't!)

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place the "ears" on the baking sheets.

Let rise until "puffy."  I wasn't quite sure what she meant by "puffy" but I let these guys "rise" for 45 minutes and I guess they looked "puffy."

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Brush the rolls with the glaze and sprinkle with the pearl sugar and crushed sugar cubes.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes (** mine were NOT ready by 10 minutes so I baked another 4 or 5 minutes).

VERDICT:

These were good NOT great.  I loved the dough - really great. BUT the glaze did nothing for the roll.  They really needed to be iced.   As for the "ear" shape - mine never ever looked like "ears."  The indentations I made prior to the risings, were lost when they baked.  My husband wasn't too impressed by the rolls and thought they needed icing or something else.  If I make these again, I will definitely ice them.

Entire Recipe:

Cinnamon Ears

Ingredients

Dough
2 pkgs or 4 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast
1 c warm water (105 to 115F)
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 slightly beaten eggs
1 tsp ground cardamon (optional) - I had some, so I did use it.
4 1/2 to 5 cups all purpose flour

Filling
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 T ground cinnamon

Glaze
1 slightly beaten egg
2 T milk
pearl sugar or crushed sugar cubes

In a large bowl, stir the yeast into the warm water and let stand for 5 minutes until dissolved.

Add the melted butter, sugar, eggs, cardamon (if using) and 4 1/2 cups of flour until dough is smooth).  Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.  Since I was making this today, I only kept it in the refrigerator for a little over 2 hours.

You will notice very little rise.  The cold refrigerator prevents the dough from rising too much.

Sprinkle a countertop with flour and divide the dough into 2 parts.  Roll each piece into a 12 x 24 inch rectangle.  Spread with the melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.  Roll up, starting along the 24 inch side.

Cut each roll diagonally into 12 pieces.  With your two thumbs, press down the middle of the side of each roll. In doing so, the two edges will be forced upward and should resembled an ear (well, mine didn't look like an ear - oh well, some you win and some you don't!)

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place the "ears" on the baking sheets.

Let rise until "puffy."  I wasn't quite sure what she meant by "puffy" but I let these guys "rise" for 45 minutes and I guess they looked "puffy."

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Brush the rolls with the glaze and sprinkle with the pearl sugar and crushed sugar cubes.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes (** mine were NOT ready by 10 minutes so I baked another 4 or 5 minutes).

My Mother-in-Law's Gingerbread Recipe

Many thanks to my sister-in-law, Susan, who came through for me and found my mother-in-law's gingerbread recipe!!  This is the BEST gingerbread recipe I have ever had!!  And my husband loves this so i am going to make this for him today as part of his Valentine present.  I will post the pictures later on today.

Doris Emmich's Gingerbread

Ingredients

3 Eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup Wesson oil

1 cup molasses

1 tsp ginger 

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg or 1/2 t cloves (your choice)

1 cup boiling water

2 tsp baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix the eggs, sugar, oil, molasses and spices together until completely combine.

Add baking soda to 1 cup boiling water.  It will foam - this is fun if you have kids around!

Add the soda water to the mixture.

Add the flour and pour into an ungreased 9 x 13 baking dish. (This will seem really runny!

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out dry.

Cool on a baking rack.

Note:  My mother-in-law would sometimes frost this with cream cheese frosting or just dust this with powdered sugar and put whipped cream on each piece.

Entire Recipe:

Doris Emmich's Gingerbread

Ingredients

3 Eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup Wesson oil

1 cup molasses

1 tsp ginger 

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg or 1/2 t cloves (your choice)

1 cup boiling water

2 tsp baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix the eggs, sugar, oil, molasses and spices together until completely combine.

Add baking soda to 1 cup boiling water.  It will foam.

Add the soda water to the mixture.

Add the flour and pour into an ungreased 9 x 13 baking dish.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out dry.

Cool on a baking rack.

Martha Stewart's Gingerbread

My mother-in-law has the best gingerbread recipe and, of course, I can't find it.  Hopefully, one of my sister-in-laws has it.  So I figured if anyone had a good gingerbread recipe, it had to be Martha!!

For this recipe, you might have to run to the grocery store because you are going to need to buy molasses and dark brown sugar.

Ingredients:
8 T (1 stick) of unsalted butter - it needs to be unsalted
1 cup water
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 cup unsulfured molasses
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting finished cake

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Spray with Pam or something similar.

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan and add baking soda — it will foam up!   Kind of cool!!

Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in butter until melted. Whisk in dark brown sugar and molasses 

Mixture is usually just lukewarm by now, but if it still feels quite hot to the touch, set it aside to 10 to 15 minutes to cool further before using.  After it cooled down, I poured this into a larger mixing bowl.

Place flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt and baking powder in a fine-mesh strainer or sifter so that you can sift them over the wet ones in a minute.

Whisk in eggs until just combined. Sift dry ingredients over wet, then stir the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 

Transfer cake to a wire rack and let cool completely. 

Once fully cool, cut around cake to make sure no parts are sticking to the side and invert cake out onto a rack, then onto a serving plate. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and cut into squares.  (If I remember correctly, my mother-in-law's recipe, you iced it with cream cheese icing - boy, does that sound good!!)

Serve with whipped cream - YUM!!

VERDICT:

My husband loved it!  I thought it was good, but not like my mother-in-law's recipe.  Hopefully, one of my sister-in-laws will come through for me and I will post her recipe.  The cake was very moist and spongy.  As I said, my husband loved it.  So for the time being, this is a keeper recipe.

Entire Recipe:

Martha Stewart's Gingerbread

Ingredients:

8 T (1 stick) of unsalted butter - it needs to be unsalted

1 cup water

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar

1 cup unsulfured molasses

2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

2 tsp baking powder

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Spray with Pam or something similar

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan and add baking soda — it will foam up!   Kind of cool!! Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in butter until melted. Mixture is usually just lukewarm by now, but if it still feels quite hot to the touch, set it aside to 10 to 15 minutes to cool further before using.  After it cooled down, I poured this into a larger mixing bowl.

Place flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt and baking powder in a fine-mesh strainer or sifter so that you can sift them over the wet ones in a minute.

Whisk in eggs until just combined. Sift dry ingredients over wet, then stir the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Once fully cool, cut around cake to make sure no parts are sticking to the side and invert cake out onto a rack, then onto a serving plate. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and cut into squares.  (If I remember correctly, my mother-in-law's recipe, you iced it with cream cheese icing - boy, does that sound good!!)

Serve with whipped cream - YUM!!

Scandinavian Dark Rye Bread

The search continues for a good homemade rye bread.  I loved the Swedish Rye Bread that I made last week, but my husband wasn't a big fan.  Well, you can't pleased them all!!  So the search continues!!  I stumbled upon this recipe on the Internet on Beatrice Ojakangas website and thought I would give it a try.   Fortunately I had all the ingredients!!  It was your typical dreary wintry day in Ohio and I was still recovering from pneumonia - perfect day to stay inside and make bread!!


SCANDINAVIAN DARK RYE BREAD

Ingredients
2 envelopes or 4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup dark molasses
3 tablespoons melted butter (I used unsalted butter)
2 tablespoons caraway seeds, optional
2 cups rye flour or cracked wheat
3 to 4 cups unbleached bread flour

Directions:

In a large bowl, stir yeast into warm water; let stand 5 minutes to soften.

Stir in molasses, butter, and caraway seeds if used. Stir in rye flour or cracked wheat. (Your house will smell OH so nice!!!)

Let stand 10 minutes. Adding 1 cup of flour at a time, beat in enough to make a stiff dough.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board. Cover with a dry cloth let stand 15 minutes.

Wash and grease the bowl; set aside. Grease two 9 by 5-inch loaf pans; set aside.

Knead dough on a lightly floured board about 10 minutes, adding a bit more flour as necessary. Place in the greased bowl and turn to grease all sides.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Punch down dough and divide in half.

Shape each half into a loaf. Place loaves, seam-side down in prepared pans. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk or until loaves fill the pans, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush tops of loaves with water and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean and dry. Turn out of pans; cool on a rack.

Makes 2 loaves

VERDICT:

My husband loved the bread.  I only baked them 40 minutes.  I think they needed the extra 5 minutes.  But, other than that, they were good.  This is definitely a keeper recipe.  Beatrice said this was Danish pumperknickel - no, not even close!  But it is a good homemade rye bread.  

Here is the complete recipe:

SCANDINAVIAN DARK RYE BREAD by Beatrice Ojakangas

Ingredients

2 envelopes  or 4 1/2  tsps active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/2 cup dark molasses

3 tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons caraway seeds, optional

2 cups rye flour or cracked wheat

3 to 4 cups unbleached bread flour

Directions:

In a large bowl, stir yeast into warm water; let stand 5 minutes to soften. 

Stir in molasses, butter,and caraway seeds if used. 

Stir in rye flour or cracked wheat. Let stand 10 minutes. 

Adding 1 cup of flour at a time, beat in enough to make a stiff dough. 

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board. Cover with a dry cloth let stand 15 minutes. 

Wash and grease the bowl; set aside. Grease two 9 by 5-inch loaf pans; set aside. 

Knead dough on a lightly floured board about 10 minutes, adding a bit more flour as necessary. 

Place in the greased bowl and turn to grease all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours. 

Punch down dough and divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf. Place loaves, seam-side down in prepared pans. 

Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk or until loaves fill the pans, about 1 hour. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush tops of loaves with water and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean and dry. 

Turn out of pans; cool on a rack. 

Makes 2 loaves