“Breakfast Roll” Fiascoby Angie

Tue
26 Jan 2010
4:01 pm
2

www cookbookSorry this post won’t be quite as exciting as the last one, but it has a happy ending as well!

My dad gave me this super cool new cookbook for Christmas called “The World Wide Ward Cookbook” and I had picked out a wassail recipe (since this morning would be cold and rainy) and a recipe for “Breakfast Rolls” that I wanted to try, as each of us in the RS Presidency was bringing treats to our Visiting Teaching Interviews today. The process for the rolls is much like cinnamon rolls, but instead of spreading butter, cinnamon, and sugar on before rolling them up, you spread cream cheese, ham, onion, cheese, etc. Instead of topping them with glaze or frosting, you brush with butter and sprinkle on poppy or sesame seeds.

My husband tries regularly to convince me that having guests over is not the time for a try-me-night. Somehow, I keep making the same mistake. Neon Sign Here: GREAT STRESS ATTENDS THE PROCEEDINGS when unknown recipes are tried on people you like very much but don’t know as well as your family. The wassail was great, but I had serious problems with the rolls:

1. Rather than a recipe for roll dough, it just said, “prepare a batch of your favorite yeast roll dough.” Well, my favorite rolls are my mom’s light and fluffy Sunday Dinner Rolls, and they have yeast in them… but they didn’t work. At all.

2. I decided to make the dough in the bread machine ahead of time, like I always try to do because I’m super lazy (and, in my defense, it has never before failed me). Unfortunately, it came out of the machine closer to a batter.

3. No matter how much I floured my table, hands, rolling pin, and the dough itself, it stuck to everything. When I thought I had things rolled out perfectly and spread and sprinkled everything on and tried to roll it up, it was stuck fast to the table again. With a spatula and lots more flour, I finally had everything rolled… but it oozed itself into a long, flat-ish loaf instead of a rolled up log.

4. As I sliced it up (achieving long ovals rather than lovely little rounds), each “roll” fell to pieces, stuck to everything it touched, and globbed itself into a lump of ingredients on the sheet pan.

5. Rather than rising, they settled into comfortable, gooey little puddles.

I think Heavenly Father was sustaining me because I would generally, at this point, have been in tears with frustration. I was up at 6:30 and fighting with these “rolls” until after 8am, I didn’t feel great, and I had other things to take care of before leaving at 8:45. Somehow, I held it together and decided that I didn’t care what they looked like and if they were just awful, I could live with that. I could always throw them out, and the presidency and first couple of sisters would be the only ones to know that, as much as I love cooking, I can’t BAKE my way around any kitchen in existence.

Amazingly, incredibly, absolutely flabbergastingly, they were a hit. They were light and fluffy like my mom’s rolls, and they were savory and cheesey and buttery. You would never know by looking at them that they had ever resembled a roll, but every single person who tasted them said they were great and they were almost all eaten up by the time we were done at noon. I re-christened them “Breakfast Biscuits,” and will definitely be making them again (without trying to roll them). Give me a few days and I’ll post my revised recipe on Sugar & Spice.

Thanksgiving at Our Homeby Angie

Sun
30 Nov 2008
10:11 am
0

This was our first year to host Thanksgiving in our own home, with family coming into town to join us! Roger & Kathy flew in with Dallyn (whose Phantom touring company has brought him to San Fran this month) on Tuesday. Jon drove over from Emeryville and spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with us. It was so much fun! With only six of us (all adults), we tried to keep things simple. I think we had it pretty easy, cooking-wise.

What did we serve? Why, turkey, of course! We actually “salted” our turkey instead of brining it, and it was fantastic! We also had stuffing (but not stuffed into the turkey), and fantastic gravy.   Then there were mashed sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, rolls & jam, salad, and – for dessert – pecan pie and cranberry pudding. Yum – I’m getting hungry again just writing about it all! Our table was beautiful because my friend Joleen Mills let us borrow her Fall decorations and china table settings, and Kathy and I bought fresh cut flowers for the centerpiece.

With Dallyn and “Grandma Hoffman” in the same house, we had lots of family-wide video conferences with the Bayles family.  Kathy and I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday cooking.  Also, while Jim was really sick last week, we discovered a new X-box game that hooked us both: “A Kingdom for Keflings.” This was a big hit with our visiting relatives, so someone was playing it at almost any given time throughout the weekend.  On Thanksgiving – our last evening all together – we had family prayer together, and talked about the many blessings our family has to be grateful for.  We all expressed gratitude for our families and the Gospel during these troubled times, as well as for the secure jobs we each have right now.  It’s been a wonderful season of Thanksgiving!

Try-Me-Night: Last-Minute Lasagnaby Angie

Sat
6 Sep 2008
8:09 pm
1

This recipe was great!  I kind of thought it wouldn’t really turn out like lasagna, but it actually worked great and was really easy!  I used home-made tomato sauce with meat instead of bottled spaghetti sauce, and it was delicious.  You can also switch up the flavors with the type of ravioli you buy, which I might try in the future.  Ours wasn’t quite as healthy because I dispensed with the spinach, since Jim doesn’t like it. In any case, this is definitely a keeper:  tasty, super easy, and very nice presentation.

Try-Me-Night: Split Pea Soupby Angie

Mon
25 Aug 2008
9:08 pm
0

Since Jim received the calling of Ward Mission Leader, we’ve been feeding the missionaries almost every week.  We asked them if there was anything special they’d like us to make – something they miss from home, or haven’t had in a long time.  Elder Howard asked us to make his mom’s split pea soup.  He gave us his home phone number and I called Kathy Howard in College Station, Texas, to get her recipe.  It was great to talk to her, and she was very pleased to hear about her son and help us make something special for him.

Sadly, we found out less than a week later that Elder Howard was going to be transferred to Antioch!  Still, we managed to have the Elders over for his dinner the evening before transfers, and it turned out great!  He said it was wonderful, and just like his mom’s!  It was super easy, too, so for anyone who likes this soup, it’s definitly a recipe you should try.

Welcoming in the Olympics!by Angie

Tue
5 Aug 2008
8:08 pm
2

Our Relief Society enrichment activity this month was an International pot-luck in honor of the 2008 Summer Olympics.  We each brought a foreign dish to share as well as the recipe to share; the recipes will be compiled into a cookbook so all the sisters in the ward can have a copy.  There were lots of delicious things to eat!  I made Hungarian Ham Stack, and it was a real hit.  Everyone was amazed at all the layers, and they were even more impressed to learn that my husband made the palacsintas (crepes – sort of) for me to layer with the ham sauce to make the dish!  The recipe is on the ‘Try-Me Night” page if you want to see it.

We played some games as well: for one, we each guessed how many countries were participating in the olympics this year.  I guessed 184, but it was actually over 200 hundred, and someone else guessed almost exactly right.  For another game, Irene Sanchez had color-copied sheets with pictures of various national flags.  We teamed up to see which pair of sisters could lable all of the flags (accurately) first.  And guess what – Karrie Harrison & I won!  There were flags from Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Italy, Iraq, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and more.  It was very exciting!

So, here’s an international flag trivia question for our readers:  Which is the only national flag that is neither square nor rectangular???

Try-Me-Night: Red Hot Tomato Pepper Soupby Angie

Tue
22 Jul 2008
12:07 pm
0

I’m rather proud of this recipe, because I made it up 🙂  Almost all of the ingredients can be found at our Costco, so we also affectionately call it “Costco soup.”  It has become a favorite of ours – certainly more interesting than plain old tomato soup.  It’s easy, so it’s a great meal to throw together on a chilly evening, or after a long day.  It is also very spicy, so if you want to turn down the heat, just add one sausage instead of two, or cool your bowl down with a dallop of sour cream.

The red pepper & tomato soup I get from Costco isn’t always consistent in its… well, consistency. I think that’s because it’s organic. Anyway, if I happen to get a thicker batch, I thin it out with a little milk or chicken broth. Jim likes to stir in some goldfish crackers, and warm bread is tasty alongside, too.  Hope you like it as much as we do!

Try-Me Night: Chimichangasby Angie

Mon
21 Apr 2008
11:04 am
4

our schnazzy new deep-fryerWe recently purchased deep-fryer and have started experimenting with it almost every Friday (which we have now dubbed “Fry-day”). Chimichangas seemed pretty ambitious to me, but they turned out to be a huge success! We didn’t follow a particular recipe – I just looked at a few different ones for ideas and then came up with my own plan. Jim and Jon were a little leery of this – they really wanted us to do some “Proof of Concept” tests in advance to make sure things would come out right (because we were going to make them while my parents were in town visiting). Well, we never made time for early tests, so we just launched in on Friday. Luckily, they were delicious, and very easy! We decided that they would be even better with a hot, spicy sauce of some kind on top, so we’ll try adding that next time. This is definitely a meal we’ll make again!