Easy All Purpose Dough

This is quick and easy dough, and if you are in the mood for pizza here is my homemade pizza recipe, or my ever to delicious pepperoni bread. But you may want to use this dough for some great snacks like garlic rolls, breadsticks, and what about that oh so famous fried dough. The kind you buy at your local county fairs, you know the one with sugar all over it.

Here is what you need:

2 packages of active dry yeast

2-1/4 cups of warm water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar (optional) I don’t use the sugar, you may prefer to use it

3 tbsp of Crisco or oil (I sometimes use light olive oil)

5 to 6 cups of all-purpose flour

Here is all you need to do:

1. In a measuring cup add the yeast to the warm water. Let this stand until you see some bubbles.
2. In a large bowl or your KitchenAid mixing bowl add the flour, salt, and oil
3. Make a well in the flour and pour in the warm water and yeast.
4. Now start to mix, or place your dough hook and turn on your stand mixer
5. You want to mix until the dough is nice and smooth and not too sticky.
6. Cover and let the dough rise for 1 hour or more.
7. After the dough rises, punch it down and divide it up for whatever you are making.

I get three nice 12” or 14” pizzas from this recipe depending on the thickness of your pizza.

Flour salt and oil in my KitchenAid  mixing bowl

Two pizzas out of the oven

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy 

KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Qt. Stand Mixer with Pouring Shield - Imperial BlackBaking Sheet Set, 3-Piece Cookie Sheet Set with Silicone Handles, Steel Baking Pans Set, Durable Baking Sheets for Oven, BPA Free Cookie Sheets for Baking Nonstick Set, Sheet Pan - Black Baking PanGorilla Grip Large Pizza Cutter Wheel, 9 Inch, Sharp Stainless Steel Blade, Rust Resistant, Comfort Handle, Thumb Guard Protection, Slice Thick or Thin Pizzas, Pie Crust, Pastries in Seconds, Gray

 

Mummy Dogs a Halloween Favorite

Halloween is right around the corner, so I thought I should share a fun food to make with the kids. Halloween mummy dogs are also great if you are planning a party this year for Halloween.

You need a couple of things like a package of hot dogs, and a roll of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, I used the butter flake ones.

Here are your simple ingredients one package of your favorite hot dogs and a roll of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls.

Unwrap the crescent rolls as you know they look something like a triangle.

Now all you have to do is cut them into strips, and then wrap them around the hot like you are wrapping a mummy. Oh, so you never wrapped a mummy before? Just go ahead and start wrapping, make sure you leave some room at the top to add a little hat. The kids have so much fun wrapping these and waiting to add the mustard eyes.

Oh, I almost forgot, after they are wrapped, place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Now you and the kids can enjoy your creation, these will really be a big hit at your Halloween party.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy.

Don't forget your Halloween Party Supplies

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Halloween Paper Plates/Spider and Web on Orange Paper PlatePaper Cups/Halloween Paper CupHalloween Party HatHalloween Paper Plates/Owl with Witch's Hat and Br Paper PlateHalloween Napkin/Owl with Witch's Hat and Broom NapkinPaper Cups/Halloween Paper CupHalloween Party HatPaper Cups/Halloween Paper Cup

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Caramel Cup Cookies

With the holidays soon approaching I thought that I should share one of my favorite cookies, of course, you certainly don’t have to wait for the Holiday season to make these.

 Caramel cup cookies are a sure thing any time of year; they are a perfect fit for any gathering or party.

They are not that difficult to make, so you don’t have to be a pastry chef to make these. We can now use these Kraft Caramel Bits, so you don't have to take the plastic wrap off of the caramels what great idea.

Let’s start off by making the pastry dough:

Here is what you need:

• 1 (8oz. package) cream cheese
• 1/2 lb. butter (2 sticks)
• 3 cups flour

1. Combine all of the above ingredients in a large mixing bowl
2. You can use a hand mixer, your KitchenAid Stand Mixer, or mix it by hand. Mix until you have a nice smooth dough.
3. Pinch off small portions of the dough and roll into a 1-inch ball. 
4. Then set them into a mini muffin pan and gently flatten.
5. We have a great little tool called the mini tart shaper to press the dough and form the cups
6. Bake these at 350 degrees for about 12 to 15 minutes, and then set them aside to cool.

This dough is really easy to work with. This mini tart shaper makes it easy to form the cups. I always make the pastry cups first and while they cool I melt the caramel.

Now for the Filling:

• 1 lb. caramels, we use Kraft (don’t forget to unwrap the caramels)
• 1/2 cup of Carnation evaporated milk.

1. Add the caramels and milk to a double boiler and melt over medium heat, or you could use your microwave.
2. Add the caramel filling to the pastry cups and let cool.

At this point there are some options:

• You can sprinkle some coarse salt over the caramel to make a salted caramel cup.
• Top them off with some whipped cream
• You could also make a light frosting

This year I decided to change it up a bit. I made half salted caramel and the other half I left plain so we could add some whipped cream on top later. Or, just enjoy these plain. If you would like to make a frosting for them the recipe is below.

What you need to make the Frosting:

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup of shortening
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Beat all of the above ingredients together until you have nice creamy frosting.
2. Add the frosting using a pastry pouch.

This should yield about 48 cookies, and that’s enough for me. We need to make a second batch for everybody else.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my recipe.

Wilton Perfect Results Premium Non-Stick Mini Muffin Pan & Mini Cupcake Pan, 24-Cavity, SteelFox Run Tart Tamper, Wood

 

Have you heard of Yummly?

I just signed up with this amazing recipe site, and I couldn’t be happier. I am so impressed with Yummly that I wanted to share it you all you.

This is a powerful recipe site that has been around since 2010, maybe you already know about it, and all they can do. With this site you can find and store recipes that you and your whole family will love.

Yummly has a powerful search tool that enables you to find whatever type of recipe you are looking for. You can search for a specific cooking technique, special diets, nutrition, recipes with specific ingredients, and much much more.

You can personalize your recipes into collections by your preferences and store them just for whenever you need them. You can use the Yummly App while you’re shopping to pick all of the ingredients for that favorite recipe.

Honestly I don’t know everything about the site, as I just got started, but I sure plan to learn fast.

Visit the Yummly home page here

                       or

You can visit my Yummly Publishers page here  

You really don’t have to have a recipe blog to join Yummly, just join and take a look at all they have to offer. Start a collection of your favorite recipes. You can even tell them your preferences and they will find and recommend recipes for you.

I have added the yum button to all of my pages so feel free to yum away.

What are you waiting for start now and enjoy.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes

Here is another one where you don’t have to turn on the oven. It’s still grilling season so why not get all you can get out of it before the weather turns on us.

My daughter prepared these sweet potatoes and I grilled them for a great side dish for the evening. Apparently sweet potatoes are one of the healthiest foods that you can eat, Loaded with vitamin “A”. I’m not any kind of expert on the health benefits of sweet potatoes I just know that I do enjoy them.

What you need:

2 or 3 sweet potatoes

Olive oil

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Sugar (optional)

How to do this:

• Peel and slice the sweet potatoes ¼” or ½ thick
• Brush both sides lightly with olive oil
• Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over one side
• Sugar is optional; you can add some if you like. We did not use sugar

I set the grill on the medium setting and grilled on each side for about 2 minutes. Then I moved them to the upper rack of the grill, closed the lid, and cooked until the sweet potatoes were tender. I would say about 15 minutes.

Sweet Potatoes on the grill

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy

Hamilton Beach 25360 Indoor Flavor/Searing GrillBlackstone 36 inch Outdoor Cooking Gas Grill Griddle StationChar-Broil Classic 360 2-Burner Gas Grill

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Grilled Italian Sausage Sandwiches

The other night my wife and my daughter took a trip out of town, and I knew they were going to have a late lunch. That left me wondering what I was going to have for dinner when I got home from work.

I had two Italian sausage links in the freezer; I took them out so they would be ready when I got home. I decided to fire up the grill for my sausage links, I set the grill to medium heat.

While the links were grilling I sliced up some red and green bell peppers, along with some onions and then just for some extra flavor I added some diced up garlic.

My Sliced peppers and onions with the garlic

I simmered these in my cast iron skillet covered, on medium heat on the stove. My wife picked up a couple of sausage rolls for me before she left so I was all set for my Italian sausage sandwiches. 

Simmered over medium heat until tender

These are the kind of sausage sandwiches you love to buy when you go to the county fairs. There is always a vendor selling delicious sausage with peppers and onions. So just in case you missed the county fair with that favorite vendor, you can give this a try. These were quick and easy to make and Oh so good.

What you need:

2 Italian sausage links

½ of each red and green bell pepper sliced in strips

½ onions sliced

1 clove of garlic diced

2 nice sausage rolls

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy

Hamilton Beach 25360 Indoor Flavor/Searing GrillChar-Broil Performance TRU Infrared 500 3-Burner Cabinet Gas Grill

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Crock Pot Country Ribs

My wife picked up a package of country ribs the other day, and I had all intentions of cooking these on the grill.

When I got home from work the house was filled with the smell of those country ribs cooking all day in the Slow Cooker. She decided to make them a Crock pot meal, and I’m so glad she did.

No real recipe here just put your ribs in the slow cooker add a couple of bottles of your favorite barbecue sauce and set it to the low setting. These cooked for about four hours on the low setting and they were fall off the bone delicious.

Served with sautéed vegetables and rice this made a nice meal for the both of us. The vegetables were simple, cut green and yellow peppers into slices, slice up an onion, and then add some spinach.

Drizzle olive oil into a 10” pan then add the cut up vegetables and sauté over medium heat until the veggies are tender. This turned out to be a great side dish to go along with these country ribs.

As always Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed :) 

Calphalon Classic Hard-Anodized Nonstick Frying Pan Set, 8-Inch and 10-Inch Frying PansHamilton Beach 6-Quart Slow Cooker with 3 Cooking Settings, Dishwasher-Safe Stoneware Crock & Glass Lid, Silver (33665)