Cinnamon Rolls

PW’s Cinnamon Rolls

January 1, The Winter Classic, Pittsburgh Penquins (best hockey team in the world!!!) vs. a red team (I forget). We had plans to meet another couple for dinner so I decided to nap a bit later in the afternoon. WHAT?!? Gestating is tiring business, naps are required. Anyway, after I woke up and got ready our plans changed.

CRAP! Now I’m wide awake during a hockey game, something I try never to be. Now I’m cranky because I need to find something to do and quickly. Then I realized that after Monday I might have to give up carbs and sugar and everything else amazingly good so I figure I’ll go out with a bang and make the Pioneer Womans (PW) Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Coffee Icing. Best. Decision. Ever.

Of course I didn’t start them until 8pm and they required 2 hrs of rise time and the recipe makes 6 pans so I didn’t finish until after midnight. Still the best decision ever.

PW always has the most AMAZING pictures of her rolls and everyone who tries them raves about them but I held off on making them because it makes 6 trays! WTF would I do with all those rolls! Then I learned they FREEEZE! At any point in the process, which was all I needed to hear!

Oh and clearly, loosing weight was not one of my New Years Resolutions, it never is so just smile over the amount of butter used. Butter makes the world go ’round.

INGREDIENTS

ROLLS

• 1 Quart Milk
• 1 Cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 2 Packages Active Dry Yeast
• 8 Cups (Plus 1 Cup separated for a total of 9) All Purpose Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 Tablespoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• Plenty of Melted Butter (like 5 sticks, for real, it’s 6 pans of rolls, shush and just do it)
• 2 Cups Sugar
• Tons of Cinnamon

ICING

• 1 Bag Powdered Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Maple Flavoring (I couldn’t find so I used 3 tablespoons maple syrup)
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1/4 Cup Melted Butter
• 1/4 Cup Brewed Coffee
• 1/8 tsp Salt

DIRECTIONS

• Mix the milk, oil and sugar in a pan, heat until just before boiling
• Cool for an hour, until warm, not hot. I needed to speed this process up so I lidded up the pan and moved it outside for 20 minutes.
• Once warm, sprinkle in both packages yeast, let sit for one minute
• Mix in 8 cups flour, it’s really gooey. I gave my wooden spoon a spritz of PAM to help with sticking
• Cover and let rise for 1 hour
• After rising, add additional cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mix well. It will still be really gooey and sticky.
• GENEROUSLY, seriously GENEROUSLY flour your rolling surface and take half the dough and roll into a rectangle.
• Drizzle with 1/2-1 cup melted butter (just go for the cup at this point)
• Sprinkle with 1 cup sugar and cinnamon to taste
• Beginning with the long edge furthest from you begin to roll tightly. Pinch to seal
• Slice into 1 inch pieces
• Drizzle a tablespoon of melted butter in the bottom of 6 foil pans and arrange rolls in each tin
• Repeat w/ second half of dough
• Allow to rise for 20-30 minutes
• Bake at 375 for 18 minutes

ICING

• Mix all ingredients until smooth.
• Pour over warm rolls, don’t be stingy

Cover iced rolls with plastic & foil and freeze until needed.

I have two big meanie head dogs and an alarm system don’t come near my freezer!

Stop by The Growing Gibsons

Gooey Chocolate Butter Cookies

Paula Deens Chocolate Butter Cookies

On Sunday we had a few family members over for a bit of pre-holiday visitation. We opted for  pot-luck appetizer kind of food and everyone brought something. I was not in charge of dessert but could not resist making these cookies as an extra treat. They were so easy and any cookie with “gooey” in the title is sure to be a win.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
• Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat Oven to 350
• Beat cream cheese and butter together
• Once smooth beat in vanilla & Egg
• Mix in cake mix. The batter will be thick, it will want to eat your beaters up and climb up them, it will stick to everything do the best you can with a hard spatula to help combine everything
• Chill in fridge 2 hrs
• Roll tablespoon size balls in powdered sugar and place on ungreased cookie tray 2 inches apart
• Bake 12 minutes
• Cool completely and dust with additional powdered sugar.

Freezer Meals

Are you done with me today? I know 5 (maybe 6) posts is a lot for one day. I’m sorry. They all go together though!!

Before we got pregnant and I was doing tons of reading and chatting with other ladies about all things newborn and what not. Many of them suggested stocking our freezer full of meals that we could just throw in the oven and not worry about any prep or clean up. I thought they were genius. Such a simple idea but it hadn’t dawned on me at all.

I started looking for different things to try and the best ways to freeze and how long things would keep. I came up surprisingly empty on the details. I live for details. I want specifics, I struggled to find them.

Then I happened upon The Illustrated Quick Cook, LOVE. Filled with recipes for saving time, freezing, saving money, tips, tricks the whole 9. I read through it twice already. Yes, I read a cook book. I’m cool like that!

Then one of our friends was nearing the end of her pregnancy and I found the perfect test subjects. One afternoon I made 4 complete 8 serving meals in 2 hours. Kept 4 servings for us and 4 servings for them. It was a perfect experiment!

CLICK HERE to see the meals that we have made and enjoyed.

If I make one freezer meal a week until Riley shows her beautiful face I will have nearly 3-4 weeks of meals saved up and ready to go! Thats a tall order for a procrastinator like myself so I will surprise both myself and all who know me if this actually happens.

What freezes?

Food	Packaging	Storage Life	Defrost & Reheat
Soups & Stocks	Freezer bags. Liquids will expand, so you need room for this. You can also freeze in ice cube trays and once frozen transfer to zip top bags	Soups 3 months Stocks 6 monts	Thaw Overnight in the refrigerator then reheat in a pan on the stove until hot
Sauces & Gravies If recipe called for egg or cream leave out and add before serving	Freezer bags. Liquids will expand, so you need room for this. You can also freeze in ice cube trays and once frozen transfer to zip top bags	Up to 3 months	Thaw Overnight in the refrigerator then reheat in a pan on the stove until hot
Stews and Casseroles Remember to choose lean cuts of mean because foods with high fat will go bad after a couple months freezing	Freezer bags or foil containers or even tupperware with tight lids. Be sure to cover meat with liquid	Up to 3 months	Thaw Overnight in the refrigerator then reheat in a pan on the stove until hot. Should not be reheated more than once
Pies and Pastries Pastry can be frozen cooked or uncooked	Uncooked – Freeze in blocks layered with wax paper then wrapped in plastic. Cooked – shells and pies should be double wrapped in plastic	Uncooked – 3 months.             Cooked – 6 months	Uncooked – tart shells and pastries can be cooked frozen @ 400 for 15 min       Cooked – thaw overnight and reheated @ 350 for 30 minutes

What doesn’t Freeze?

• Cream Cheese, Cottage cheese and cream. They separate and become watery (a.k.a. gross)
• Mayonnaise & Hollandaise sauce will freeze but fall apart at defrosting time
• Fatty Foods get fattier and turn rancid
• Cucumber, lettuce, celery and tomatoes will turn to water when defrosting

Things to remember

1. Use colored bags or boxes to help distinguish what is what in your freezer
2. LABEL! What is it? When did you make it? How many servings? How do you reheat it?
3. First in first out. Make sure that you are using in the order you froze so that everything gets used in time
4. Freeze in portions. We won’t eat 8 servings at once so I’ll divide it in half and we’ll each get a dinner and lunch out of one portion.
5. Air tight is key in keeping out the freezer burn.
6. Don’t leave food on the counter to defrost, always overnight in the fridge. The counter is a quick way to pick up something unpleasant.

 



Pork with Fennel and Mustartd

Pork w/ Fennel

From: The Illustrated Quick Cook

INGREDIENTS

• 6 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 Lg Onions, sliced
• 3 Fennel bulbs, sliced
• 2.5 lb Lean Pork cut into cubes (I used boneless pork chops)
• 8 Garlic cloves, chopped
• 2/3 Cup Dry White wine
• 2 Tbsp whole/coarse grain mustard
• 1 tsp Paprika
• Handful flat parsley, chopped
• 1 Tbsp Sage leaves, chopped
• 1 Tbsp Rosemary leaves, chopped
• 2 Tbsp Flour
• 3 Cup Milk

DIRECTIONS

• Heat oil and add onions & fennel cook for 5 minutes
• Add pork and cook 5 minutes
• Add garlic, wine and mustard. Bring to boil and allow to bubble for 3 minutes
• Stir in paprika, parsley, sage and rosemary.
• Whisk in flour
• Add in milk
• Bring to a boil then simmer for 5 minutes
• Let cool and transfer to freezer safe container
• Stores 3 months
• Defrost in fridge overnight the microwave on high for 2 minutes, stir and microwave 2 minutes more.

Beef and Parsnip Stew

Beef and Parsnip Stew

From: The Illustrated Quick Cook

These pictures are not doing anything justice. I guess that’s what I get for taking phone pictures of a cook book in flourescent lighting.

This meal requires a dish that can go from stove top to oven. I didn’t have one so I started in a LARGE skillet then transferred to a casserole dish for baking. Work with what you have!

INGREDIENTS

• 3 Tbls Olive Oil
• 2 Onions, finely chopped
• Handful Fresh Thyme
• 4 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2.5 lb Beef stew cubes
• 4 Large Carrots, rough chopped
• 5 Parsnips, rough chopped
• 3 Cup Beef Stock
• 1 Tbls Butter
• 14 oz Button Mushrooms

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350
• Heat oil & add onions to cook for 6-8 minutes
• Stir in thyme, garlic &  season w/ salt and pepper
• Add steak and cook 10 min until browned
• Add carrots and parsnips
• Pour in stock.
• Bring to boil, reduce to simmer cover and put in oven for 1 hour
• With 10 minutes left to baking heat butter in small frying pan, add mushrooms and cook for 5-8 minutes
• Add to the stew and bake another 30 minutes
• Let cool completely before transferring to freezer safe container
• Good for 3 months
• To serve: Defrost in fridge overnight, transfer to large casserole and bake @ 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Hearty Minestrone Soup

The cookbook pic!

 

From: The Illustrated Quick Cook

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Tbls Olive Oil
• 2 Onions, finely chopped
• 3 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
• 4 Celery Ribs, finely chopped
• 4 Carrots, finely chopped
• 9 oz pancetta, cut in small cubes
• Handful Flat Parsley, finely chopped
• Handful Fresh Sage, finely chopped
• 2 Tbls Tomato Paste
• 1 Can Chopped Tomatoes (28 oz)
• 2 Can cannelloni beans (14 oz each) rinsed and drained well
• 2 Cup Chicken Broth
• 10 oz Frozen Green Beans
• 8 oz Frozen Peas
• 10 oz Small pasta shapes

DIRECTIONS

• Use a pot large enough to hold everything.
• Heat the oil
• Add onions cook 6-8 min
• Add garlic, celery and carrots cook 10 minutes
• Add pancetta, cook 5 minutes or until brown
• Add herbs, tomato paste & canned beans. Season w/ salt and pepper
• Add stock, bring to a boil then cover w/ lid and simmer for 35 minutes
• Add Green beans and peas cook for additional 5 minutes
• Let cool completely before transferring to freezer safe container
• Freezes 3 months
• To serve, defrost overnight in fridge then transfer to large sauce pan. Add pasta and simmer until pasta is cooked to your liking. Top with parmesan.

Few things to add with this one. See all that ‘finely chopped’ stuff? The Pampered Chef Food Chopper is a MUST have. We flew through the prep and had this simmering away in minimal time, with all of our fingers in tact.

What are cannelloni beans? They are white beans in cans, quite popular. Sound it out while looking at the canned beans section you will find them! The recipe actually called for borlotti or cranberry beans, but my small town food store didn’t carry them. So I went with what I knew to have neutral flavor with enough meat to hold up to a soup.

Also, frozen peas and green beans don’t come in 8 or 10 oz so I got the closest I could and used the whole bag. It’s ok. It just made the soup chunkier with nutritious goods like veggies!

 

Sweet Corn Chowder

The cookbooks picture

From: The Illustrated Quick Cook

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Tbls Olive Oil
• 2 Onions, finely chopped
• 6-8 Medium Potatoes, cut bite-size chunk
• 2 12oz Cans of Corn
• 5 Cups Hot Vegetable Stock
• Handful Flat Parsley, chopped
• 4 Tbls Heavy Cream (only at serving time)

DIRECTIONS

• Heat oil in saucepan. Use a pot large enough to hold all of the ingredients.
• Add onions and cook for 6-8 minutes until soft. Season w/ salt and pepper
• Add potatoes and cook on low for 5 minutes
• Add corn
• Add all stock, bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes until potatoes are fork tender
• Cool completely before transferring to freezer safe containers.
• Good for 3 months
• To serve, defrost in fridge overnight. Heat in saucepan until hot. Stir in cream.

Serves 8

Football Brownies

Football Brownies

I have been a major slacker in the kitchen. I’m quite a dainty eater at the moment so I haven’t been cooking much at all. Hopefully this is all going to change in the next few weeks as the holidays are upon us.

So I’ve got this gorgeous friend, Christa, who luckily gets to be family too since she’s married to my fabulous cousin together they have 2 heartbreakingly handsome boys. She made these fabulous brownies for her oldests football banquet and has been lovely enough to share here. Enjoy!

Rachel has only been asking me to do this for a year or so.  Finally I have something cute and worth sharing.  I hope you enjoy:

 My family lives and breathes sports of all kinds.  We play, watch, cheer, and even party around sports – whether it be youth sports, amateur sports, or even professional – WWE – you name it.  My boys (7 and 2) do not play with toys, instead they favor anything with a ball, bat, stick, glove, hoop or bases.  Who knows what Santa will bring this year?  Not many families can say that the whole family unit loves sports.  Some members pretend to watch, pretend to be interested, or downright let other know that they loathe sports (accchhheemmmm…Rachel).  We however cannot get enough of them. 

We can often be found on the weekends at youth or high school sporting events, running around in our backyard, or of course one of our favorite things to do is entertain friends and family around lots of beer, food and one of our favorite teams.  Which one you might ask, well the Philadelphia Phillies or the Pittsburgh Steelers….yes, I did say Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  Many people ask how this happened…the condensed version can best be explained in one word: COMPROMISE.  Before I married the man of my dreams we only had to settle one major debate: we would NOT live in a divided household.  Some people compromise on religions before marrying , determining what faith and beliefs they will teach their children.  Nope, not the McCusker’s we compromise on sports teams.  My Dad raised me a Philly girl…Phillies, Eagles, 76ers.  My husband on the other hand has familial ties to Pittsburgh…Steelers, Pirates, Penguins.  So after a fair amount of debate it was decided; Phillies (because the Pirates blow – always have and probably always will), Steelers (because the Eagles have broken my heart way too many times over the years), Penguins (Too many greats to even start naming names – even though I have to admit that from time to time I do root for the Flyers whenever I catch a game), and there was no debate that “as for me and mine” we’ll cheer for Penn State.

Our oldest son Gavin is seven, and of course inherited his mothers athletic abilities, ok, and SOME of his fathers.  He plays football, basketball, ice hockey and baseball….whew.  How do we keep up with him?  I have no idea.  This past fall was Gavin’s first tackle football season.  His team was incredible.  I am not saying that to brag, but to tell you that his team of seven and eight year olds, learned a complete offense and defense and ran plays that high school teams utilize.  It was incredible.  They went undefeated, pretty much crushing every team they played.  One coach came up to ours and stated, “I’ve been coaching Knee Hi Football for over 10 years, and your team, by far, is the best team I’ve ever seen!”  The season finally wrapped up on Halloween weekend.  Don’t think the Mac’s have been twiddling their thumbs though, Hockey already started way back in September, so we’re already underway.   

To conclude the football season, we have been planning a HUGE BASH for the boys.  Everyone is so proud of them.  We rented the community center in our town so that all “cheerleaders” of the boys could attend.  We have over 60 people coming!  There will be decorations, a slide show, the boys will be receiving huge trophies and “undefeated” t-shirts.  It’s guaranteed to be a ton of fun.    We opted for pot luck as this would be the easiest way to feed the masses.  We are ordering $100 worth of pizza (provided by the league), and then everything else will be provided by the players families.  So what did I sign up to bring?  BROWNIES!  I decided on this for three reasons; 1 – quick, 2 – Easy, 3 – Cheap.  That was the plan at least….then I “kicked it up a notch!”

Football Brownies

INGREDIENTS

•  1 Box of Duncan Hines Brownie Mix (family size)
• Ingredients per box (water, oil, eggs)
• 1 Container Duncan Hines Chocolate icing
• 1 Bag Nestle Milk Chocolate Mini Chocolate Chips
• 1 Easy Decorator – piping bag and tip – (twist cap and ready to ice)
• 1 emptied soup can – bent into an oval
• Large Bar Pan (Pampered Chef of course, is there any other kind?)

DIRECTIONS

• To make the football brownies. 
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Spray Large bar pan with cooking spray (most P Chef cookware does not need to be pre sprayed but since the footballs need cut out of the pan, it just increases the ease). 
• Mix brownie batter as specified on box – adding oil, water and eggs. 
• Once blended together fold in ½ bag of mini chocolate chips. 
• Once combined pour batter into greased bar pan. 
• Cook for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out “almost” clean.  You do not want to overcook the brownies as they will become rock hard on the bar pan. 
• Once done baking, let cool overnight.  This seemed to work better. 
•  Use the emptied soup can as a cookie cutter to cut out the desired shape. 
• You may need a sharp knife as well, to carefully pry the brownie shape out of the can. 
• Place cut brownie on decorative plate and ice with chocolate icing. 
•  Once all brownies are iced, take the piping bag and pipe the following design:
• )  +++  (   For a football
  ) (  For a Baseball
  ) (  and add a horizontal line for a basketball.  

These will be great for any type of football party or Super Bowl party.  I box probably makes about 20 footballs.  Could also be done with baseballs, basketballs, etc.  Just all in all a fun, quick and easy idea – and of course remember the team colors for the decorative icing.  Food coloring for vanilla icing could also achieve the desired look of your team.  Gavin saw the finished product this morning before heading to the bus and he thought it was awesome.  Not only did they look cute, but I saved all the scrap brownies for the boys to mix in with vanilla ice cream for the rest of the week. 

While I haven’t been cooking I have been updating a bit at thegrowinggibsons.blogspot.com Today I have a sneak peak at my neuorsis over chair rails and paint.

Pretty In Pink Strawberry Cupcakes

Strawberry Cupcakes

I got this recipe and this picture from QuickandSimple.com. I had to use their picture because my piping skills are a work in progress and well I just didn’t take pictures of them.

On Saturday Ms. Michelle and I had Mrs. Reginas nearest and dearest over for a little celebration before little baby Allison arrives. Since there were 8 of us we decided to have a luncheon with Panini’s, salad and the best gossip instead of embarrassing everyone with lame shower games. Kind of an adult tea party. Seriously, who wants to guess the melted candy out of a diaper, gross. Personally I had a great time, I hope everyone else did too!

For dessert I made these Strawberry cupcakes. I was a bit leery of them and unsure of how they were going to turn out. I have never had so many people compliment cupcakes before. I was a bit surprised. So much so that even I tried one and enjoyed it. (I don’t like cake)

This is going to definitely be my go-to cupcake, especially for girly baby showers.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (I used the beautiful Betty)
• 1 Can Cream Cheese Icing
• 3/4 C. Milk
• 3/4 C. Oil
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Packet Strawberry Gelatin (3 oz)
• 1 C. Strawberries Chopped w/ Juice
• 1/2 C. Strawberries Sliced for Garnish (optional)
• Red Food Coloring (To make the icing pink!)

DIRECTIONS

• Forget the mixing instructions on the back of the box. Use the measurements above.
• Mix cake mix, oil, eggs, milk, chopped strawberries and gelatin in a large bowl and combine with mixer. Scrape down the sides as necessary. Do not over mix, should not take longer than 2 minutes to combine.
• Scoop batter into 24 lined cupcake cup filling it 3/4 full
• Bake according to time and temp on the cake box. Usually 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Start checking them at 20 minutes.
• Mix the red food coloring with the icing until you get your desired color of pink!
• Allow the cupcakes to cool at least 30 minutes before icing.

 This did not take up nearly enough of my day.

Feel free to stop by TheGrowingGibsons.blogspot.com if you are interested in my ever growing midsection. I updated this week but since pregnancy is much more anticlimactic than anticipated its not edge of the seat thrilling.

Pasta & Chicken w/ Peanut Sauce

Adapted from Cooking Light July 2002

I love peanut sauce. I’m way to scared to order it out so I decided to make it at home one night. I had to adapt a few things since I was at my small corner store and they didn’t have many items. Including a carrot, which I found interesting even for them.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Cups Chicken Broth, divided
• 2 Cans Chinese Vegetables (I use LaChoy Fancy Mixed)
• 1/3 Cup Peanut Butter (I used a bit more than that and chunky instead of chopping peanuts)
• 1/2 Tbls Dry Powdered Ginger
• 1 Tbls Soy Sauce
• Crushed Red Pepper Flakes to taste
• 1 Clove Garlic Minced
• 1 Lb Skinless Chicken Breast
• 1 Lb Spagetti Pasta Noodles

DIRECTIONS

• Simmer chicken in 1 2/3 cup broth until done. Let stand to cool and chop into bite size pieces
• Cook Pasta according to package (salt the water very well)
• Combine 1/3 c broth, peanut butter, soy, ginger, veggies, honey, garlic and red pepper in a sauce pan and heat through, should not boil or simmer, it just needs to be warmed
• Combine chicken & pasta top with sauce and toss to combine.

PS. There some very boring updates over at The Growing Gibsons