Braided Bread with a Touch of Rye

I found this recipe on my friend's blog, Recipe Shoebox. It looked so good! I was the first to leave a comment, and I couldn't wait to try it out myself. Well, it took me over a month to finally give it a shot (and now another 4 months to blog about it), and it turned out better than I could have expected. I brought it to my family's Sunday dinner, and everyone loved it. We still tease my nephew about eating nearly an entire loaf by himself. It was that good!

Yields 2 loaves.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs. yeast
• 1-1/4 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)
• 1/4 cup soft butter (not melted)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 pkg. (2.9-oz.) vanilla pudding mix NOTE: Don't use sugar free varieties of vanilla pudding mixes. (I did use an instant mix though, and it worked just fine.)
• 3-4 cups flour (I used mostly all purpose flour mixed with some rye. This was a few months ago, but I think I used closer to a 3:1 ratio for the white to rye flours)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add softened butter, salt, and dry pudding mix. Stir until dissolved. Gradually add flour to right consistency.

2. Knead dough 12 times (or 2 minutes in mixer). Divide dough into 6 equal portions and roll out into a long shape. Braid 3 together for a loaf. Place on greased cookie sheet. Let rise 2 hours (or until doubled).

3. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Braided Rye Bread

Enjoy!

Peppery Squash Soup

I made this squash soup a couple weeks ago. I thought it was delicious and subsequently, it was my lunch throughout the week. Maybe even longer. While I did scour the Internet for some soup recipes, I ultimately came up with this recipe on my own - pulling from a few different recipes (sources for which I can no longer remember) I had found online. I mostly threw in a little of this and a little of that, so the measurements listed below are largely guesses but should suffice as a starting off point.

Peppery Squash Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 med Delicata squash
• 1 med Acorn squash
• 2 T Olive oil, separated
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 sm onion, chopped
• 4 oz cream cheese - this is the only ingredient I actually measured
• 4 tsp bouillon - I used a vegetable based, but chicken based would probably also be good
• 4 cups water
• 1 T Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions
1. Cut squash in half. Brush with 1T oil; season with salt and pepper. Cook until fork tender (roast, boil, microwave, whatevs). I'm lazy and impatient, so I chose the microwave method. Mash cooked squash with a fork.

2. In large pot, heat oil. Sautee garlic and onion. Add cream cheese. Cook and stir until cheese is completely melted. Add cooked squash to the big pot. Add the bouillon and water. Season with Mrs. Dash and cayenne pepper. Simmer for at least 20 minutes.

3. Blend soup in a blender, using an immersion blender, or in a food processor. I don't have any of those, but I do have a Magic Bullet. I used all 6 blender cups to get all the soup blended. Return to pot and simmer until hot again (or longer to let the flavors continue to meld).

Peppery Squash Soup with Cheez-Its®

Especially delicious served with Cheez-It® or Goldfish® brand crackers.

Golden Nugget Muffins

It's a beautiful fall morning this morning. Only in the 40s when I took Sallie out for her morning walk. Brr... (although I still wore flip flops). I thought, "This would be a perfect morning for cocoa and muffins for breakfast." As you might remember, I have an abundance of squash, so I set about finding a muffin recipe using squash.

I found something that would work on allrecipes.com. I made a few changes, and these turned out so tasty!

Ingredients:

• 1 small golden nugget squash
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ cup white sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp allspice
• ¼ tsp cardamom
• (Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cardamom could be replaced with 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice)
• ¾ cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 T butter, melted

Directions:

1. Wash squash. Prick with a fork and microwave for 60 secs. Remove from microwave, cut in half crosswise, and remove seeds. Place both halves in a microwave safe dish, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 6 minutes or until fork tender. Puree squash in a food processor. This should yield probably around 1 cup of squash puree, though I didn't actually measure it.

2. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line muffin tin with cupcake liner or spray with cooking spray.

3. While squash is cooking, whisk together dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, spices).

4. In a heavy duty mixer (KitchenAid®), stir the milk, egg, and butter. Stir in the pureed squash. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until just moistened.

5. Spoon into prepared muffin tin, filling cups about ½ full. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from muffin tin and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy with a cup of hot cocoa for a pleasant start to a cool fall day.

Gnocchi with Squash and Tomatoes

We've received a lot of different types of squash in our CSA, so look forward to some yummy squash recipes coming your way. Last night, I had some yellow squash to use up, so I threw together this quick and easy recipe.

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• Tri-colored gnocchi
• 1 T olive oil
• 1/2 medium yellow squash, sliced
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• salt/pepper to taste
• 1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup red pasta sauce
• grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Prepare gnocchi according to package directions

2. Heat oil in small skillet; sautee squash with garlic and salt/pepper.

3. Add tomatoes.

4. Add pasta sauce.

5. Pour sauce mixture over gnocchi, sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Enjoy with a nice glass of Riesling.

Crockpot Potato Soup

I love, love, love potato soup! I always have. I remember making it once as a teenager; it was delicious. This, unfortunately, is not that recipe. I found this recipe at Recipe Shoebox. I made a few minor changes and modified it to a slow cooker.

Click here for nutritional facts.

Click here for printable version.

Ingredients:

• 4 large potatoes
• 5 1/2 cups water
• 6 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1/4 c dried, minced onions
• 9 baby carrots, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 T parsley
• 1 T coarse Kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour

Directions:

Peel and prep potatoes. I've made this soup with diced potatoes. Jeff has complained about the potato chunks being too big, so this time, I prepped the potatoes julienne-style using my Pro Chopper Plus that I got for my birthday last year. I love this little kitchen gadget!

Anyway, combine all but the last three ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or until veggies are tender.

Stir in milk.

Prepare a roux with the butter and flour. Add a bit of the hot liquid from the soup. Stir until thick and smooth.

Add roux mixture to the crockpot, while stirring briskly.

Cook for an additional 30 - 45 minutes.

I just found this in my drafts. Seems all ready to go except for a picture of the actual soup. So my apologies, but I'll just post this now and maybe next time I make it, I'll update this post.

Cream of Broccoli soup

This is not going to be some fantastic, gotta try recipe.

I'm trying to be very conservative in my lunches (read: living like a poor college student), so I bought some condensed soups for those days when I have no leftovers from the night before and no time in the morning to pack anything else for lunch.

So, today, I threw a can of Cream of Broccoli soup into my purse as I rushed out the door to catch my bus.

Around 12:30, I was starving.

I grabbed that can of soup -- super excited for my delicious lunch -- only to read the label that clearly states MIX WITH 1 CAN OF MILK.

Milk?? Drats.
No milk here at work.

No credit card.
No cash.
Meant no run to the convenience store for a little jug of milk.

By now, I was super starving.

Guess I'll just make it with water and hope it's not too disgusting.

And then *epiphany* I'll just add some powdered coffee creamer to it to make it all creamy.

Is it the best tasting soup ever? Definitely not.

Points for creativity? You tell me.

At least I'm no longer starving.
At least there was some plain creamer in the cupboards and not Hazelnut flavored.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This past Thursday was a rather cool summer evening, so I decided to bake some cookies. I found a recipe for peanut butter cookies and decided to make it my own by adding a little oatmeal and chocolate chips, because honestly, don't those two ingredients make all cookies a little better? Okay, maybe not, but it certainly didn't hurt this recipe.

I brought a couple dozen into work the next day, and everyone said how good they were. When I got home from work, Jeff couldn't help but rave a bit about these delicious cookies!

This recipe is modified from a recipe found in my KitchenAid mixer recipe book.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• ¾ cup creamy peanut butter
• ½ cup shortening
• 1 ¼ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 3 T milk
• 1 T vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ tsp salt
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. 

Cream together peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla until well blended. Add egg, mixing until well blended. 

Combine flour, salt, and soda in a separate bowl. Gradually add dry ingredients to peanut butter mixture. Stir in oatmeal and chocolate chips.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Flatten slightly with a fork in a crisscross pattern.

Bake for 7-8 minutes or until set and lightly browned. 

Yields 3 dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies