Onion Rolls

So i was sitting there the other day thinking that I wanted hamburgers. That is about the best use of ground beef I know of. Plain hamburgers are great, fancy dressed up hamburgers are awesome too, but the best hamburger is any kind that you stuff in an onion roll. I had already been to the grocery store for the week and did not want to make another trip for a bag of onion rolls so I made some. Here's how...

6 1/2 C bread flour
1/3 C sugar
3 tsp (t) salt
3 packages active dry yeast
1/2 stick softened butter
2 cups hot tap water
2 Tablespoons onion powder
3 Tablespoons of dehydrated minced onion

Put minced onion in a bowl and cover with HOT water. Let set until the onion is re hydrated and drain.
Put 3 cups of flour, sugar, salt, onion powder, yeast and butter in a bowl. mix well. Make a well in the center and pour water in while stirring. add flour 1/2 cup at a time until it gets to hard to stir with a spoon. Turn onto a floured surface and work the rest of the flour into the dough. Knead for 10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, spray the top of dough with Pam and cover with plastic wrap. Put in oven and turn to 400 degrees for 1 minute and shut off. Let rise til doubled in bulk. Punch dough and divide into 2.5 ounce portions. Shape dough into balls. Roll the tops of them in the re hydrated minced onion and put on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 3" apart. Let rise again til almost doubled in size. Bake in a 390 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. The most important step of this recipe is to enjoy them with gusto!

*If you have a sweet Kitchenaid mixer like I do, I assume that you know how to make dough in it... Use it!
** These rolls are quite dense and large so if you plan on using them for a sandwich I would suggest slicing them twice. Once near the top and once near the bottom. The middle piece can be enjoyed by its self or saved for bread crumbs or croutons

Chicken Cordon Bleu Mac and Cheese

A while back, the wife had a big get together with some of the people that she grew up with, and as usual, I got rooked into cooking for the shindig. I decided to make goulash because its cheap and easy. She was in Terre Haute one day and I suggested that she go to Sams club to get the stuff for it. She came home with 12 pounds of elbow noodles, because they were cheap . That's way more than what we needed. I thought "What the hell are we going to do with all of these freakin noodles?" Well, being the creative person that I am, I knew that it wouldn't take too long to figure out something to make with them. We had home made mac and cheese til it came out of our ears and so much goulash that I don't care if I ever see it again. We had chili mac and tuna noodle casserole and I even thought about making something with chocolate and noodles... I was sitting at the computer looking for a different idea for supper one night and I saw a chicken cordon bleu recipe, one of my favorite ways to have chicken. Then it hit me, chicken cordon bleu mac and cheese. It took a few times for me to get it how I want it and I enjoyed all of the R and D that I did. It is a winner with everyone in the house and a few of the guys I work with.

You'll need
2.5-3 cups elbow macaroni 3 large chicken breasts, cubed
12 ounces diced ham
16 ounces grated swiss cheese
10 ounces grated muenster cheese
2 cups heavy cream
2 egg yolks (save the whites to fry for a breakfast sandwich or a meringue pie)
1 tsp minced garlic
Panko bread crumbs
enough black pepper to suit your taste buds

Boil the macaroni noodles to al dente, strain and set aside.
In a large nonstick pot, saute chicken breast cubes in butter and set aside. Then saute diced ham til starting to brown, 3-5 minutes. Add cream and bring to a boil. As soon as the cream begins to boil, turn heat to medium and add 3/4 of the cheeses, minced garlic and beaten egg yolks and stir vigorously til the cheese is melted. Add the boiled macaroni noodles to the cheese sauce and stir well. Put in a large casserole dish. Cover with remaining grated cheeses. Put chicken cubes on top and cover with panko bread crumbs.





Bake at 375 til bread crumbs are golden brown, about 45 minutes




As tempting as it is to dig right in as soon as it's out of the oven.... DON'T! It will have the same effect as napalm on your face. ENJOY

Give a man a loaf of bread, feed him for a day...

Let a man know you can bake bread and he'll show up any time you mention you have dough rising. When me, Mom and my little brother moved up here from Ga, we were pretty poor for a while. Mom worked as much as she could at a little gas station in Dana, In, making minimum wage and cleaned houses on the side. We didn't always have everything we wanted but never did without the things we needed. We always had food, shelter, clothing and more love than you could stuff in a 53' Trailmobile. Mom was and is still pretty thrifty. The old man says that she can squeeze a nickle and get 6 pennys and I believe every word of it. One of the things that she did to save a little bit of coin was making bread instead of buying it. That ruined me on store bought bread. After she got a better job, she had extra dough to spend but no time to make dough, so I had to settle for store bought. Nearly two decades later I have my own family and all the bills that go along with it and a pretty good job. I can afford to and usually do buy my bread from the store, but sometimes I sit there and think about how wonderful Mom's bread tasted and the smells that filled the house while it was rising and baking and I head to the kitchen. Today was one of those days. I decided on cinnamon raisin.




If you would like to try it for your self:
1/2 Cup of milk
4 Tbsp sugar,
2 Tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter (you can use margarine if you choose o_0)
2 packages of very active dry yeast
1 1/2 Cups warm water (105-110 degrees)
5-6 cups all purpose flour
1 cup raisins
2 Tbsp butter, melted
cinnamon and sugar to suit your tastebuds

Put first four ingredients in a small sauce pan and heat on medium, stirring with a whisk, just until the butter melts. Let cool to luke warm. Add Yeast and water to a warmed mixing bowl (I usually put a Tbsp of sugar in now, also) Stir to disolve and let sit for 3-5 minutes for yeast to activate. Add the milk mixture and raisins. Stir a few times. Add 1/2 C of flour and stir, repeating til it is too stiff to stir. Put the dough on a dusted counter and add remaining flour, 1/2C at a time til the dough a little sticky. You may not need all of the flour. Knead 8-10 minutes til smooth and stretchy and put it in a greased bowl, spray with pam and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise til doubled in bulk, about an hour. I'll put it in the oven, turn to 400 for 1 minute and shut it off. its almost as good as having a proofer. After rising, punch down and divide in half. On a floured counter, roll out into a rectangle. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Roll like a jelly roll, pinch seams on bottom and end and put in a loaf pan with the ends folded under.



Let rise again til doubled in bulk and the top of the loaf is starting to stick up over the sides of the loaf pan. Put in a 400 Degree oven for 30 minutes, cool immediately on a rack. Enjoy



PS, I use my kitchenaid stand mixed... Screw that hand kneading crap :-)