 Fresh baked rolls at a dinner party make a big difference but I never seem to have enough time to make them along with all of the other dinner preparations. These yeast rolls are the perfect solution to that problem. I make the dough the day before I want to serve them and cold proof them overnight in the refrigerator. They turn out light and fluffy and delicious every time.  Best American Dinner Rolls ¾ cup whole milk 2 eggs 6 Tablespoons butter, melted 2 ¼ teaspoons yeast 6 Tablespoons sugar 3 cups flour 1 ½ teaspoons salt
Grease 2 nine inch round cake pans. Pat dough into a 12x10 inch rectangle. Roll up like a cylinder and divide into 16 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and arrange in cake pans. (1 in the center and 7 around the edges.) I made 4 batches of rolls at once so I put mine on cookie sheets instead of cake pans.
Cover pans with plastic wrap and cover wrap with foil. Refrigerate 24 – 48 hours. To Bake: Remove rolls 6-7 hours before baking. Remove foil but leave plastic wrap. Let rise. Brush with melted butter before baking. Bake 14-18 minutes at 400. Cool in pans for 3 minutes.  I am such a sucker for freshly baked bread. These are really good yeast rolls and I love the fact that I can get them ready a day in advance and bake and serve them warm on the day of a party. These rolls also freeze really well so make a double batch and freeze some for later.
Ciao!
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 Need a great lunch box treat? My kids really like these Special K bars in their lunch and they're a nice change from Rice Crispy Treats.  Special K Bars 6 cups Special K cereal 1 cup chocolate chips 1 ½ cup peanut butter 1 cup butterscotch chips 1 cup corn syrup 1/2 cup sugar
Spread into a greased 9x13 pan.
Slice into squares. 
 My daughter came home from school last week and told me that she had to research an idiom and turn it into a project. Guess what she chose as her idiom? - A piece of cake! (I'm so proud.) She researched the history and the origins of "a piece of cake" and then we got to work - baking a cake of course. My daughter wanted to make a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. (Again - so proud) We used a recipe from my Cuisine At Home magazine and divided it in half to make a 2 layer 6 inch cake.  Chocolate Cake (Makes a 2 layer 8 inch cake) 3 cups flour 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup cocoa 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups hot water 3/4 cup vegetable oil 2 Tablespoons white vinegar 1 Tablespoon instant coffee granules 1 Tablespoon vanilla
Add to dry ingredients and whisk until just combined.
Chocolate cake is not complete without the chocolate frosting so we made a batch of chocolate icing to finish off our cake. Chocolate Icing 1 stick butter 1 1/2 cups sugar pinch of salt 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder 1 1/4 cups whipping cream 1/4 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules 2 teaspoons vanilla
Cool to room temperature (2-3 hours) and then frost the cake.   I have a new favorite chocolate cake and icing recipe. This cake and was sooooo good. 
Ciao!
 Those of you who have follow my blog regularly already know that I don't like to make large quantities of food. I would much rather take my time making a smaller portion - extra something special. Due to the nature of my job as a chef, sometimes I just can't escape mass food production. This weekend I am coordinating 3 meals and 2 snacks for 40 men. (120 meals and 80 snacks over 2 days.) My approach to feeding men is quite different than the strategies that I use to feed women. A chicken salad croissant with fresh fruit just isn't going to cut it for these guys. I decided instead to make some big trays of lasagna to fill the bellies of these hungry men. I like to make lasagna because I can make it a day or two in advance. I have my own take on lasagna that I call lasagna ruffles. It's essentially the same ingredients as traditional lasagna but the presentation is much more elegant.  Spinach Stuffed Lasagna Ruffles 16 ounces lasagna noodles 2 cups mozzarella 8 ounces cream cheese 1 ½ teaspoons Italian Season. 10 ounces spinach, drained ¼ teaspoon salt 1 ½ cups Parmesan cheese 32 ounces spaghetti sauce 15 ounces ricotta cheese
Beat cream cheese until smooth. Stir in spinach, 2/3 cup Parmesan, ricotta, mozzarella, Italian seasoning and salt.
When I arrive at the venue this weekend, all I have to do is pop these pans of lasagna into the oven for 30 minutes at 350. While the ruffles cook, I'll set out some fresh bread, a green salad and 5 dozen black bottom cupcakes. Sounds like a good dinner to me.
Ciao! I hear people use phrases like "don't bother", "it's not worth it" and "that's too much trouble" all time and it makes me wonder whether people think that anything is worth the "trouble" anymore. Maybe it's just me but I feel like I'm being pulled in so many different directions lately that I find myself constantly making decisions about which things in my life are important enough to devote myself to and which things are not. There are some things that I just can't "bother" with right now and other things are quite simply - worth the trouble. One of the things that has required a lot of my time and energy lately is my son's wrestling team. This group of boys and coaches are definitely worth devoting some of my time to. In a nutshell - they're "worth it."  There are some meals that are also worth a little extra trouble. Cooking a Boston Butt on the Big Green Egg for 9 hours is not for the faint of heart but if you have the perseverance to see it through, the results are definitely worth the time that you put into it. This is not a quick and easy meal that's thrown together in 30 minutes. Smoking a pork shoulder requires a tremendous amount of patience and stamina. It took me several tries to get my Boston Butt to cook properly on the Big Green Egg so don't get discouraged if yours doesn't turn out exactly the way you intended on the first try. I actually had to throw away my first Boston Butt because I wasn't able to regulate the temperature of the Egg. After my first failed attempt and about a half dozen other tries at this recipe, I've finally have it almost perfected.  Boston Butt Dry Rub Injection Marinade 4 teaspoons seasoned salt 1/3 cup apple juice 2 teaspoons brown sugar 1/3 cup white grape juice 1 ½ teaspoons sugar ¼ cup sugar 1 ½ teaspoons paprika 1 ½ Tablespoons salt ¼ teaspoon garlic powder ¼ teaspoon pepper 1/8 teaspoon dry mustard 6-8 pound pork shoulder (Boston Butt) 1/8 teaspoon cumin 1/16 teaspoon ginger
Put the pork in a disposable aluminum pan and put it on top of the Big Green Egg grate. Set the temperature to 250 and cook for about 9 hours. I photographed my pork every couple of hours so you could see how it looked as it cooked.
Once the pork is cool, I either pull it apart with my hands or with 2 forks.  This makes really good pulled pork sandwiches. My family likes to drizzle a little barbecue sauce over their pork and eat it on a whole wheat bun as a sandwich. We ate some of the pulled pork for dinner but the majority of it went to school to feed the wrestling coaches this week. They are more than deserving of this meal.
Cooking a Boston Butt requires a lot of patience but it's totally "worth the effort." Ciao! |
