Spring Rolls - A NYE tradition

This seems to be the almost-tradition that Kent and I have for New Year's Eve - Spring/egg rolls! This is the recipe we first used for our Chinese Christmas back in probably 2001. It was on the back of the wrapper package and I thought I'd lost it today, so I decided I best put it up here so I'd always know where it is!  I'll include the meat options, but we usually make these vegetarian.

Spring Roll Recipe
4 oz. shrimp, shredded chicken or pork
3 oz. bean sprouts
3 oz. shredded carrots
4 oz bamboo shoots
4 oz. shredded cabbage
2 oz. shredded onions
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper
1/2 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. peanut butter
1 tsp. sesame oil

Mix together all ingredients and stir fry for approximately 15 minutes.

Mix 1 Tbs. flour with one egg white. Roll up filling with completely defrosted spring roll wrapper; seal end with paste.

Deep fry at 325° for 3-4 minutes.

Lavender! It's all about the Lavender!

At convention this year, I served Lavender Shortbread with coffee. In discussing lavender-scented recipes I also mentioned the Lavender Lemon Pound Cake I've made and was then quickly persuaded to post those recipes here! The links to the original recipes are posted, but for ease, here is the recipe without leaving! Hang out here and check out my other posts, too! You're always welcome! :)

Lavender Shortbread

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons teaspoons dried lavender flowers

zest of one lemon

1 cup butter, room temperature

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

course sugar, optional

In a food processor, gently blend powdered sugar, dried lavender, and lemon zest until lavender flowers and lemon are well incorporated. 

Add softened butter to the food processor and cream with the sugar. 

Add flour and salt and mix just to combine. 

Remove the dough from food processor and on a large piece of parchment or waxed paper, delicately form into an 8-inch log. 

Carefully roll the paper around dough to create a smooth log and chill far at least 4 hours or up to a few days. 

When ready to bake, heat oven to 375 degrees and slice chilled dough into 1/4-inch slices. 

Optional: roll or sprinkle in a course sanding sugar before placing in the oven. 

Bake for 13-15 minutes, then remove from oven and cool completely before serving.

Lavender Lemon Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup (6 ounces, weight) 2% Greek Yogurt 

1 Tbs. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 Tbs. dried lavender seeds

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease one 9x5 (or two 5.75x3 mini) loaf pan and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter. Gradually add the sugar and cream until light and fluffy, about 7 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each until fully incorporated.

Slowly add the dry ingredients, alternating with the Greek yogurt, to the creamed butter and sugar and mix just until incorporated. Add the lemon juice, vanilla extract and lemon zest and beat on low just until blended. Gently stir in the lavender seeds.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake for 30-35 minutes until the edges begin to brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 25 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool in the loaf pans for 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Cookies!

So, by now I think you have a pretty good idea that I like to bake! I tried two new recipes for convention.  I made the biscotti for our traditional French press coffee time at 2 pm during convention. The other cookies are for the general fund. I think they may be new favorites!

Oreo Biscotti

1 cup sugar

1⁄3 cup butter, melted

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups flour

1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder

1⁄4 teaspoon salt

16 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped

2 ounces semisweet chocolate or 2 ounces white chocolate, melted

Beat sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until blended.

Stir in flour, baking powder and salt.

Fold in chopped cookies.

Divide mixture in half.

With floured hands, shape each half into a 9x3-inch loaf on a lightly greased large baking sheet.

Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in the centers come out clean.

Remove from oven; cool for 10 minutes.

Cut each loaf diagonally into 15 (1/2-inch thick) slices.

Place slices, cut side up, on same baking sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes more on each side or until lightly toasted.

Drizzle tops with melted chocolate.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup pumpkin (we use Libby's canned pumpkin)

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup cinnamon chips

Cinnamon Sugar Topping:

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or parchment paper and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Set aside.

3. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla and mix until combined, about 3 minutes. Slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Stir in the cinnamon chips.

4. In a small bowl, mix together sugar and cinnamon. Shape dough into rounded tablespoons and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Lightly press down on the cookies with a spatula or the palm of your hand.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for two minutes. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

Campfire Biscuits

So, these were still a lot for these pans, but third time's a charm for great biscuits baked over the campfire! This is the recipe I used. Would be tempted to take it down yet a bit in size, because clearly my drop biscuits grew together, but still totally works to cut them into wedges and cover in sausage gravy or butter and jam!

Baking Powder Biscuits

2 c. flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. butter

1 Tbs. sugar

1 large egg

3/4 c. milk

Mix all the dry ingredients together prior to leaving for the camp trip! Cut butter into dry ingredients; mix milk and egg and add to butter/dry mixture.  Stir until combined and drop into greased foil pie pan. Grease another pie pan and invert over pan with biscuits. Wrap in 2 layers of foil and place over campfire. Turn about every 2 minutes and flip them about 5-7 times ("baking" for a total of 15-20 minutes). Allow to finish baking with foil on for a couple of minutes after. Sorry, but this is totally a fly by the seat of your pants experiment!  How they bake depends on the flame, the heat of your fire, how high your grate is from the flame... But this biscuit recipe is delicious!

Long overdue update!

Well, how to even begin this update! The last update was around Christmas time and the report then was that Tiana was still Down Under, Coda left us and I was in nursing school..  Those are all almost still true! School is out for the summer and in September I will begin my final quarter! Oh. My. Goodness!!!!  Where has time gone and why is it not finished yet?!  I look forward to this quarter although I'm also just about petrified! I will be on a floor of very complex patients, but the awesome thing is that many students get hired on at that hospital if they have had this unit as their senior clinical rotation! A ready-made job isn't such a bad deal!

Just before the quarter finished, Kent and I welcomed Lexa into our lives.  She's a joy and a handful and I hope she's on the way to filling the very big paw-prints her big brother left behind! Soon she and I will begin visiting a local skilled nursing facility for a few minutes a week (she's still too tiny to stay for long!) and bring smiles to the faces of the residents and staff there! Our volunteer time was requested when we went to visit our neighbor who was rehabbing there! I'm so excited because therapy animals are truly incredible in these places!  I'm super pleased that she shows no fear or aggression in the face of walkers, wheelchairs, "odd" gaits, or other medical devices!

So far this summer has been a hot one! We've done just a couple of hikes so far, and now with Lexa being so small, they have to be smaller ones so as not to injure her or damage the growth plates of her bones and joints! She does seem to prefer the trail to the sidewalk, though, so that is good!  Soon she'll have her first taste of camping, too!

I'll try to be better at updating as the summer rolls along!

It's always bread!

Yeah, I know! Just about any post now is about bread.  Actually, I do an update post next! Anyway, I found this bread recipe and really liked it!  The only problem is, it makes 3 loaves and there is NO way I can make it through 3 loaves when I barely get through 1 before it molds.  So, if you need 3 loaves, follow the link, but if you only want 1, here's the scaled down version in easy-to-find format!

Amish Soft Honey Whole Wheat Bread

1 c. warm water

1/3 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. yeast

1 egg, room temperature (can place in bowl of hot water while yeast sits!)

1/4 c. honey

1/4 c. butter, softened (original recipe calls for Crisco, but I don't ever use that stuff!)

2 tsp. salt

3-2/3 -4 c. whole wheat flour

Mix yeast, water and sugar; let stand 10 minutes until foamy. Add rest of ingredients together and knead for 6-10 minutes until smooth. I usually use my KitchenAid for the first 5-6 minutes and then do the rest by hand.  The more you knead, the more the inherent gluten is developed and the less need for any vital wheat gluten.  Let rise in warm place until about double in size.  Prepare loaf and place in greased loaf pan and allow to rise until double again.  Bake about 35 minutes at 375° or until the interior of the bread is 190°.

Amazing Potluck Taco Meat

After this New Year Union Meeting we had a taco salad potluck.  Because we'd been out of town I thought it would be great to have a slow-cooker option for the meat.  Found a winner!!  This would be great for a taco bar and or just to have done and then freeze in meal-sized packages!  Also, because Kent isn't a huge fan of the flavor of cumin, I changed the recipe I found so that there isn't so much of it and due to the base of people we thought we might have, I also made it not so spicy.

Super easy!

3 lbs ground beef, crumbled in greased slow-cooker crock
1/2-3/4 c. cholula hot sauce
1-2 Tbs. chili powder
1-2 Tbs. granulated garlic
1-2 Tbs. granulated onion
1-2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
salt (I omitted)
1/4 -1/4+2 Tbs. water

Mix hot sauce, spices and water, pour over beef, mix well, cook on high 3-4 hours.  Each hour, use a potato masher to mash and mix the beef.  Ok, so after 2 hours my meat looked fairly well done so I turned it down to low for the last 2 hours.  I also wasn't able to mix it that last time because we were in meeting, but it turned out just perfect!  I will make this again!