Scones

I haven't made scones in a long time. I saw some Double Cream at the grocery store and grabbed some, thinking it was a great time to make scones. I have been running around and so busy trying to stay afloat that I just haven't slowed down to enjoy simple things. Always in motion, trying to get the next thing done on my list. It's s simple but these scones gave me a breather. Making them. Enjoying them with a cup of tea, in an actual teacup, with a book. Simple. None of that will negate all I have on my plate right now, but it gave me a good respite. 

Three Ingredient Buttermilk Biscuits

 

This was my first time using this recipe. It's from the White Lily Flour website. They were yummy though and tender. They also rose well. They were just a little too salty for me. I will try unsalted butter next time. If that doesn't help, I will go back to my other recipe. That recipe is HERE.

Yorkshire Pudding (Sous Vide Bone-in Rib Roast)

Yorkshire Pudding. I have made these before. I haven't updated though that I love the combination of both ghee and drippings the most in these. They are so flavorful and I wouldn't make them any other way. You can, however, use either or as far as ghee and fat drippings. But both make such a great combination. 

I am also including my sous vide method for a bone-in rib roast (Prime Rib depending on the grade you have purchased.) It really is a foolproof method to cook the roast to get it cooked to your likeness all the way through.

Glazed Pork Belly

What can I say about this pork? It has a similar profile to Khai Palow and it is so flavorful and good. It is great in Coconut Pandan Rolls, Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, or dinner rolls, also great for Spring Rolls. You can slice it and put it in Ramen bowls. It is so good.  You don't have to use pork belly, this glaze can be used on tofu also. It's one of the best things I've made during sheltering in place. So very good.

Coconut Pandan Bread

Coconut and Pandan are one of my favorite baked good flavors. Coconut Pandan sponge cake is one of my top 3 favorite cakes. If you haven't had Pandan the aroma is sweet and floral like vanilla but it doesn't taste like vanilla at all. Pandan is used in many Southeast Asian desserts like you see vanilla used in the US. I use a Pandan extract for this recipe, you can find Pandan leaves in some Asian markets, I have some that I keep in the freezer. You can make your own extract with it. 

Potato and Cheese Pierogi

 Pierogi time. I decided to make some Pierogi with the kids. These are savory ones with a simple potato and cheese filling. I know that some Pierogi have a sweet filling. I have never tried the sweet ones. I've only had potato and cheese ones,  some with potato, cheese, and jalapeno, and I think spinach, potato, and cheese. These are essentially dumplings that are boiled then pan fried in butter. I serve them with sour cream, sometimes with sour cream, caramelized onion, and chopped bacon on top. Right now we're sheltering in place so ingredients are minimal.

Coconut Pandan Popovers

Coconut Pandan Popovers

I know, I'm on a Pandan kick lately. I can't help it, it's like the vanilla of Southeast Asia. These popovers are so yummy and the custard like center is so yum.  They are a fusion of Southeast Asian flavors and the American Popover which is almost like a Yorkshire pudding. It's a perfect fusion of flavors, texture, and culture.
We like these Coconut Pandan Popovers plain, drizzled with sweetened condensed milk, or with butter- plain, strawberry, or honey. I've made them for breakfast, brunch, a snack, to have with tea. I'm not even sure when people eat sweet popovers. We have no rules here apparently. I hope you'll try these though. They are so good

Butter Croissants

I use a combination of recipes and techniques from America's Test Kitchen and King Arthur Flour sites to make my croissants. It's a long processes but it's actually methodical and relaxing in many ways. You can find the recipes online. Here are some pictures of the process to show what I do.

Sopapillas

Sopapillas

Sopapillas are a New Mexican food that is much like Fry Bread. They are hollow because they puff up when fried. Almost like a roll in other parts of the country, they are served as such. They are served with meals, sometimes they are stuffed with taco meat, beans, etc. For a sweet treat they can be drizzled with honey. You can fill them with ice cream and top with chocolate sauce.
I spell sopapilla with out the "i" after the first a, that's just how I grew up seeing it spelled. Though I have seen it spelled sopaipillas. They are not strictly New Mexican, you find them in both Mexican and Spanish cuisines. But I grew up eating them in New Mexico.

BEST Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns

These bun are so very good. Every time I make them I wonder why I don't make them more often. Probably because my waistline would expand. We use these buns for pulled pork, hamburgers, French Dip, breakfast sandwiches, etc. You can shape them for sub sandwiches, chili dogs/hot dogs and sausages also.
The recipe can be found here. The dough for these can be made in a bread machine, in a mixer, or by hand.

Coconut Pandan Waffles

Coconut Pandan Waffles are found in several Southeast Asian cuisines. They are eaten plain and aren't really a breakfast food but more as a snack or dessert. They are very easy to make. I am the only one in my family who likes the shredded coconut in them, which is traditional and how I've had them. It's not a big deal though, I just make plain ones and stir in coconut for the last couple of waffles.

Coconut Pandan Crepes

Coconut Pandan crepes

 Coconut Pandan Crepes, these lovely fragrant crepes. You can fill them with anything you like. Keep them tropical themed with coconut, mango, papaya, and other flavors from South East Asia. I used strawberries and bananas in the pictures. I'm on a pandan flavor kick. It's a bit floral, aromatic, fragrant. It's lovely, especially with coconut. I made a cake with it for Christmas so good, I've made that cake again just a couple weeks ago. I'll try to get that recipe up before next year (wink). It looks like this.

 Pandan or screwpine leaves, also known as pandan goes well with coconut many desserts are paired with these flavors. In Lao,  and also in Thai the leaves are called Bai teoy. They look almost like a tall grass. Fresh leaves are hard to find, but can be ordered. Sometimes you can find them frozen but it's not as flavorful. I have not personally tried the dried leaves yet. I opt for the ever easy gel flavoring. You can also buy a canned extract. If you use the canned, the remaining portion can be frozen in an ice cube tray since it isn't shelf stable. For these crepes I use pandan extract/gel. The extracts do have coloring in them. They are thicker like a paste, the bottles of essence I hear have less flavor. So I stick with the extract. You can find them both at Asian markets. You can also find many pandan flavored desserts in Asian markets.

Cranberry Orange Sweet Rolls

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you are having a blessed New Year. We had a wonderfully low key Christmas. We stayed home and played games and cooked. Just our immediate family. After Christmas we did have family visit through the New Year. There wasn't any snow and it's been unusually warm on and off here. It's been in the seventies and it's February. Too crazy. Have you all gotten much snow? I'm hoping we'll get at least one good storm.

Look at this ooey gooey filling.

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Cranberry season is upon us! I don't know what it is about cranberries. I only make a handful of things with them but I really like them. I don't now if it's the tart berry flavor, that they are good in both savory and sweet applications, or that the color just screams "HOLIDAY SEASON APPROACHING" Whatever the case I smile when I see them, and I always grab an extra bag of cranberries for the freezer for the rest of the year for that bright flavor they give.

I also love seeing them on a tree at Christmas, it's so pretty. They aren't the easiest to string but I think it's worth it, here's our tree from last year. Very simple.

Irish Beef Stew and Irish Soda Bread

Irish Beef Stew and Irish Soda bread.

Is it stew weather yet? I dropped my laptop this past summer and I have a whole folder of things and recipes to blog. Lost somewhere. They can be recovered and I suspect will be when there's time. Eek. I'm debating scheduling this for the fall. It's June 16th right now, so.. maybe September/October? Or, whenever I actually finish the post? Gives me time to test the recipe several ways and update right?

Good news, my smart husband recovered my files, fixed the laptop, and all should be well in that area. So let's talk stew.

French Dip, Baby Dip. Pressure Cooker/Slow Cooker

We've had these French Dip sandwiches several times over the course of about two months. They are so easy to make and we all, aside from Pixie, really enjoy them. Pixie prefers to eat every component but the onions separate. I am not even sure if I can call that a win or not. These sandwiches are not medium rare/rare beef sliced and served with Au Jus. That's a whole other post that you can use this here beef for. Making the Au Jus from any pan drippings, but like I said, that's a whole other post. This sandwich has a slow cooked, all day tender, juicy beef. I top the beef with caramelized onions, and gooey cheese after I slather butter and horseradish mayonnaise sauce on the crusty rolls.
DROOOLLL...

The beef for these sandwiches can be made in a pressure cooker, I use an Instant Pot so the directions are for that brand electric pressure cooker. You can also make them in a slow cooker, I have done both. You know, for educational purposes.

Use your favorite beef stock or bone broth for this, I make my own with beef bones, vegetables, 2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaf. I cook it on MANUAL, HIGH, 240 minutes. I freeze it in ice cube trays and in 2 cup portions. Find more Freezer Tips here.

Strawberry Banana Pancakes

Remember these great Banana Greek Yogurt Pancakes? The pancakes above are the exact same batter with some strawberries thrown in. I think along with blueberries you'd have a great Fourth of July

Banana Greek Yogurt Pancakes

These pancakes are very simple. The recipe came about when I was trying to use up two old bananas and some plain Greek yogurt. Usually those items go into a smoothie, or into the freezer for a smoothie later on, but it was a cool, cloudy, rainy morning. I wanted something warm. These pancakes were a big hit.

Pancake recipes are pretty simple and forgiving. You could add an extra banana and use half the amount of yogurt if you wanted. Add some nuts for banana nut pancakes. Or add some pulsed rolled oats and add a little more milk. 

I'll be adding this to my rotation of pancakes, and "what to do with ripe bananas" list. They are very good, sweet, just enough banana flavoring- add more if you loooove bananas, and tart from the yogurt. 

(Blue)Berry Sweet Rolls

Hello everyone! I haven't blogged in awhile. We've just been busy with life and spending much needed time with family. God has been so good and so faithful to us during this season of our lives. In mid April my dear cousin went home to be with the Lord. While we have been so comforted knowing that we will see her again we miss her dearly and know that her young children and husband miss her even more so. Please keep them in your prayers if you think of us! There's so much I could write about and tell you, but I'll save that for another post. For now I'll hold the memories and moments that God has carried us through close to my heart.

I think I mentioned on Facebook that  I have a fajita salad recipe/post coming up soon. I'll have that up probably next week. Until then, you must try these Blueberry Sweet Rolls. I have the blue in parenthesis because you can you any berry you like!

Blueberry Sweet Roll.

Flour Tortillas

Bust out your rolling pin and lard because we bout to make some tortillas. GOOD ones. I'm sorry, I've tried butter, I've tried oil, I've even thought about bacon grease. But there's a simple fact for me. I don't make good tortillas without lard. There. I said it. Lard, lard, lard! See how beautiful those are, okay aside for the picture quality that is because, that picture sucks. But the tortillas are soft, and flakey. Sorry folks. That flakey goodness comes from the lard. Or it comes from lard for people like me who are not good at making tortillas with oil or butter. You can find lard at the grocery store, or you can most certainly render your own ask your butcher! I HAVE had success with using part lard part butter, more on that below.