Baked Carrots

If you're using the oven to cook your main dish, why not add this vegetable dish alongside it?  It takes just a minute to put together, with only 4 ingredients!  Toss in a couple of baked potatoes and the whole dinner can cook at the same time--that's my kind of meal.  These carrots cook up nice and sweet, with just a little spice from the mustard.

BAKED CARROTS

1 1/2 cups peeled baby carrots (or regular carrots, peeled and cut into 2- to 3-inch lengths and no more than 1/2 inch wide)
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1 TBL brown sugar

Spread baby carrots into a casserole dish in a single layer.  Combine orange juice and mustard powder.  Pour over carrots.  Sprinkle brown sugar over the top and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until carrots are done.

Granma's Rolls: A Tutorial

My paternal grandmother was famous for her home-baked rolls. Despite arthritis in her hands, she would bake huge batches of these for special occasions. Granma did the whole thing by hand--no stand mixer for her! (For that matter, I don't think she owned measuring cups or spoons, either.) My cousins and I all try to duplicate these rolls; this is as close as I can manage to get. Here's how to make a batch of approximately 30 rolls.

Get the recipe, with photos and nutrition information, at Cook and Count!

Caramel Filled Snickerdoodles

Finally got around to trying the Caramel-Filled Snickerdoodle recipe I found over at The Baker Chick!  Oh, these are good.  Better than good, in fact.  They are an absolutely decadent treat.

They're a pretty big cookie, and I have the feeling that I made them even bigger than I was supposed to, because I only got 40 cookies out of a batch that should have made 4 dozen.

Here's how to make them:

Caramel Filled Snickerdoodles
Print Recipe
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cinnamon-sugar mix
caramels, unwrapped

Cream together butter, shortening and sugar with a stand mixer.  Add eggs.  Mix flour, cream of tartar, baking soda & salt together in another bowl and add to butter mixture.  Mix on low speed until a soft dough forms.

Pinch off pieces of dough about 1 TBL in size.  Flatten 2 pieces and top one with a caramel.  Then squeeze the 2 pieces together until the caramel is completely covered.  Shape into a ball.

Dip into the cinnamon-sugar and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or Silpat.

Space cookies apart on cookie sheet to allow for spreading as the cookies bake.

Bake in preheated 400-degree oven.  After 5 minutes, rotate the cookie sheet to allow for even baking.  Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Here's what they look like after baking:

Enjoy!

Home Cooking Beats the Dining Halls

Guess who's signing up for Cooking Lessons with Mom this summer?  My very own college student, who has announced that next year he intends to abandon dorm life for an on-campus apartment.  (Given the neighborhood in which he attends school, an off-campus apartment complete with slumlord is the other option, and my husband and I won't hear of that possibility.)

He pretty much admitted that he knew I'd keep him in spaghetti sauce with meatballs.  Now I know what to do with all those containers that seem to multiply in the cabinets when I'm not looking!

I know that he can make a mean Pork Roll and Egg sandwich, not to mention French Toast.  He's got Breakfast For Dinner covered.

And I think this is going to be a time when I really start figuring out how to turn some of his favorite meals into easy-to-make "dinner kits" that can be kept in the freezer.  I've done this already with Beef & Noodle Skillet Dinner.  There's no reason Beef Paysanne couldn't be made the same way.

Meanwhile, I'm looking for deals on a rice cooker and some other essentials.  Got any suggestions for things I should add to his "Kitchen Essentials" box?

The only drawback here is that if I teach him how to make all his favorite foods, he'll visit even less often than he does now.   Hmmm...I'll have to make sure to ration out that spaghetti sauce.  He'll run out eventually, and he knows better than to buy Ragu.

Healthy Wheat Bread (for Beginners)

This is an original recipe.  The challenge:  to make a healthy bread without too much added sugar.  This bread can be made on the dough cycle in a bread machine (just add ingredients in the order recommended by the manufacturer.  Often, it's liquid first, then dry, with yeast on top.)   Directions below are for hand mixing or mixing with a stand mixer using a dough hook.  Baking directions will be the same regardless of whether the dough is hand mixed, done in a mixer or in a bread machine.

Makes 2 loaves.  I have not yet worked this recipe out for a single loaf.  Just cutting each ingredient in half doesn't always work.

Get the recipe and nutrition information for this bread at Cook and Count!

All-in-together Dinner

I love to cook.  It's the cleaning up afterward that gets to me.  And when you've got somewhere to go after dinner, the last thing you want when you get home is a pile of dirty pots and pans waiting for your attention.  With a little planning ahead, you can get a dinner together that not only requires little cleanup, but all cooks in the oven at the same temperature.

Last week I made Maple-Mustard Chicken Thighs, Roasted Potatoes, and Colie's Roasted Carrots recipe.  I lined all my pans with foil so I wouldn't have messy dishes to wash later.  Here's the BEFORE:

And AFTER:

Tonight I've got Tandoori Chicken, Roasted Old Bay Potatoes and those delicious Roasted Carrots again!  (I did find that the roasted carrots, if you're using baby carrots, take longer than the 20 minutes listed in the recipe.  I'm putting them in at the same time as everything else tonight.)

Roasted potatoes in general are fairly flexible.  If your main dish cooks anywhere between 400 and 450 degrees, you can do roasted potatoes alongside.  Just adjust baking time accordingly.

The best part?  Dinner is cooking right now, and I'm sitting here in the living room.  All the dishes from dinner prep are done.  When dinner's over, we'll load the dishwasher and walk out of the kitchen with no more work waiting for us!

Don't forget to enter my Church Cookbook Giveaway through Thursday, November 17!

Giveaway: My Favorite Church Cookbook

My name is Barb and I'm a cookbook addict.  My kitchen cookbook shelf is more than full, and the collection has spilled over into the dining room as well.

When it comes to cookbooks, there's nothing like a church or community cookbook to give you an idea of the flavor of a neighborhood.  So when our parish decided to reprint our wildly popular "Casey Collection" cookbook, I purchased an extra copy to give away to one lucky Mom's Fridge reader.

In this cookbook you'll find several of my recipes--all of which are also on the blog.  There are also some Polish specialties like Golabki (yum), Pierogi (yum), and Babka (yum)!  You'd expect nothing less from a cookbook originally published in St. Casimir Church.  Not into Polish food?  No problem; there are also recipes for Anise Toast, Cuban bread, and all sorts of other delicious favorites.

Would you like to WIN this cookbook?  Here's how to enter:

1.  Mandatory entry:  Leave a comment on this post with the title of YOUR favorite cookbook!
2.  "Like" Mom's Fridge on Facebook, and leave a separate comment here telling me you did so.
3.  Subscribe to the Mom's Fridge RSS feed (or "follow" the blog), and leave a separate comment here telling me you did so.

This contest closes at 11:59 PM EST on Thursday, November 17.  One set of entries per person; USA readers only.

UPDATE:  Contest closed.  And the winner is....

Peg at Just Plain Insane!  Congratulations!

Secret Recipe Club: Cinnamon Roll Muffins

There's nothing like homemade cinnamon rolls--but they take about 4 hours, start to finish, and unless you want to wake up at three in the morning to start breakfast, there's no easy way to get them done before lunchtime.  Not that there's anything wrong with cinnamon rolls for lunch, or any time of the day, but sometimes you want them for breakfast.

That's why I had to try the Cinnamon Roll Muffin recipe that I found at The Baker Chick's blog.   Audra has collected a big bunch of appetizing recipes for everything from breads to cakes to cookies, but these muffins definitely caught my eye.  I was assigned this blog as part of the Secret Recipe Club, which is a wonderful way to visit new-to-you blogs and try new-to-you recipes!

Here's the recipe as I made it:

MUFFINS
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
3 cups flour plus more for dusting

FILLING
2 tbsp. butter, room temperature
2/3 cups brown sugar
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

ICING
1 cup powdered sugar
2 to 3 TBL milk or cream

Preheat oven to 375° F. Measure the brown sugar, baking soda, salt, vanilla and egg into a mixing bowl. Add the buttermilk. Mix together with a fork. Add the flour. Stir until thoroughly combined with a large spoon - do not overmix! Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or two. Roll the dough into a 12-inch by 24-inch rectangle.

Mix filling ingredients in a small bowl.  Using an offset spatula, spread filling over the dough.  Roll the dough into a log and stretch slightly. Cut into two-inch pieces and put the pieces into muffin tins lined with cupcake papers. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes, and then remove from the muffin tins.

Mix icing, adding milk a little at a time to the powdered sugar until it reaches drizzling consistency.  Drizzle with icing (if using) when cool.

Makes 12 to 18 muffins.

Changes I Made:  The only change was that I mixed the filling instead of buttering the dough and sprinkling cinnamon-sugar separately.

My Bad:  I'm pretty sure I overworked this dough, as the results were a little tough.  Next time I'll go with a bit of a lighter touch.  Pay attention to the part that says "Do not overmix!"

Survey SAYS:  I couldn't resist tasting these when they were still hot...oh my, they were good!  You could add some finely chopped nuts to the filling if you like, and they really don't even need the icing.  These are a nice sweet breakfast treat.  Save this recipe for the next snow day and you'll be your family's hero!

On the Menu: October 31 - November 12, 2011

Chili Honey Chicken

Here's the almost-two-week dinner plan for early November.

Mon 31:  French bread pizza

Tues 1:  BBQ pork chops in the slow cooker, mac & cheese, broccoli

Wed 2:  Caesar crumb chicken, rice, mixed vegetables

Thurs 3:  Spaghetti

Fri 4:  Pizza

Sat 5:  Chili Honey Chicken, rice, broccoli

Sun 6:  Beef enchiladas (using shredded beef frozen from last week's French Dip), Alfredo noodles, green peas with pearl onions

Mon 7:  Chicken piccata bites, orzo, mixed vegetables

Tues 8:  Pot roast in the slow cooker, potatoes, green beans

Wed 9:  Beef & noodle skillet dinner, corn

Thurs 10:  Spaghetti

Fri 11:  Flounder, potatoes, broccoli

Sat 12:  Chicken pot pie (possibly an "inside-out" version served over biscuits)