Cinnamon Bun Style Monkey Bread

Made a totally different version of monkey bread a couple of weeks ago. My mother-in-law and I had been out to the mall and picked up a pack of the mini Cinnabons. We were too full from lunch to eat any so we brought them home. For some reason, I have NO clue why, we didn't eat them the up. So I'm thinking before these things go bad, what the heck am I going to do with them? The first idea to pop into my head is to make monkey bread and incorporate the Cinnabons. :-) It turned out **awesome**! As if it wouldn't have?? lol 

Anyway, our 31st anniversary was Thursday, we went out to eat last night and were too full for dessert, so I said I would make my monkey bread for dessert tonight. Of course I don't have any mini Cinnabons on hand, but that's ok... Pillsbury makes Cinnamon Rolls with icing, which was the perfect substitution!


Cinnamon Bun Style Monkey Bread

• 3 cans Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls with icing (you can also switch out 1-2 cans with the Grands biscuits if you want, but who would do that??)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tsp. cinnamon (I used a combo of Mexican and Vietnamese)
• 2 sticks butter (prefer unsalted sweet cream)
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. In a 1-gallon zip lock bag, combine the white sugar and cinnamons. Shake a bit to mix it up some.
3. Open each of the cans of cinnamon rolls and put the icing aside. Cut the rolls into quarters. Keep the cut rolls from each can in separate batches (you'll see why shortly). Put the little containers of icing, without the lids, into the microwave for about 30 seconds. You want the consistency to remain thick, but pourable.
4. Place the first batch of roll pieces in the gallon bag, zip it closed, and shake, shake, shake it up. Place these pieces into your bundt pan evenly. If you have another pan you would prefer to use, make sure it holds at least as much as your bundt pan or it will overflow.
5. Now, take one of the little containers of icing and pour it evenly over the roll pieces. See? I told you there is a method to my madness...
6. Do the same thing with the next 2 layers.
7. Melt you butter in a saucepan over med-high heat. Make sure not to heat it too high or the butter will separate. When the butter is almost completely melted, add in the brown sugar. Stir constantly until the butter and sugar have melted and become one. You will know when this happens because the until they do become one, the butter will lay on top of the brown sugar.
8. Pour the butter/sugar mixture over top of the last layer of roll pieces. Don't worry if it pools since it will seep through the pieces while it bakes.
9. Bake for about 40 minutes. I usually start with 30 minutes, then do 5 and other 5 checking to make sure it's done. The top should be crunchy and brown. Remove from oven and let it cool.
10. I like to jiggle it around to keep it from sticking to the pan. Once it's cooled down, turn it over onto a plate. There may be some butter/brown sugar sauce that comes out when you're flipping it over. Just pour it evenly over the bread. You can see my sauce in the middle of the bread.
11. When ready to serve, heat quickly in microwave (15 seconds) and top with vanilla ice cream. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top of ice cream.

Try it, make it your own, and comment to let us know how yours turned out!

No Food, Just Laundry Detergent

It has been 3-4 years since I last bought laundry detergent. I decided that I wouldn't pay more than $5 per 100 oz and I think my expectations were just too high. I couldn't find laundry detergent even close to that price! So, I went scouring the internet for recipes and mostly they are the same. It seems that they pretty much just vary in their preparation.

Did you know that the suds *do not* have anything to do with how clean your clothes will be? I've never really put much thought into this, but it doesn't surprise me. Think about when we take a bath or shower. We're looking for lots of suds from our soap, bubble bath, shower gel, and even shampoo. It would make sense that we would associate suds with cleanliness. Not true when it comes to laundry. I can tell you that it's also not true with shampoo. I recently started using WEN by Chaz Dean and it is a sudsless hair shampoo that works wonderfully. But I digress... you be the judge. Try the soap and let me know what you think. The cost is ridiculously low. I paid less than $8 for the ingredients. The bar of soap is gone, but I still have tons of washing soda and borax left. Love this stuff!

Here ya go. My rendition of what I found on the internet.

Liquid Laundry Detergent

• 1 bar Fels-Naptha soap (find in the laundry soap isle, about $.97)
• 1 c. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (DO NOT confuse with baking soda)
• 1 c. 20-Mule Borax

1. Cut the soap into pieces (like paring an apple). You can also shred the soap is you have one of those shredders (I don't as we use a mandolin). Also, I've kept any kitchen tools that I used in my soap making process separate. If you want to substitute Fels for another kind of soap, be careful. Most soaps are too sudsy. In my internet searches, I found that Ivory or Zote were good substitutes.
2. Place soap pieces in a 4-quart saucepan, add 2 qts hot water, and melt on med-high heat; stir frequently until all soap pieces are melted.
3. Add washing soda and borax to soap mixture. Continue to stir frequently, but DO NOT let it boil. A low-rolling boil is okay, but not a fast/high boil as the mixture will boil over. Once the powders are all dissolved, remove from heat.
4. Have 3-1 gallon containers cleaned and ready to use. I saved 1 gallon Sunny D juice containers.
5. Stir mixture and pour 3 1/3 cups into each bottle. Immediately add 4 cups hot water to each bottle and shake vigorously. If it looks foamy, don't worry, it will all blend together perfectly.
6. After mix has cooled down a bit in each bottle, add 4 cups hot water and shake it up again. The mixture will be gelatinous and shaking it up will help to break the gel apart.
7. This is the last step. Let the mixture cool again. Add 3 cups hot water and shake it, shake it, shake it! There should be enough room at the top of the bottle for shaking up the mixture before use. Your house will smell divine for the entire day!

I've used the detergent for the last 2 weeks and like it so far. I use 1/2 cup per regular load of laundry, which I will probably reduce when doing delicates, baby clothes, or smaller loads. I was impressed that the laundry had very little smell; even my hubby's stinky kitchen clothes didn't smell stinky! :-)

Please leave comments and let me know what you think.

Sausage and Lentil Soup

OK, so I *love* Carrabba's sausage and lentil soup. We sometimes eat there based on if this is the soup of the day or not. I know, it's bad... but I *love* that darn soup!! I recently discovered that there are copy-cat recipes out on some food blogs or recipe websites. I found this recipe on Food.com. I changed it a bit, made it mine if you will. It turned out really really good! The only thing is that I think it's getting hotter/spicier as the days go by... We'll find out when we eat the the last of the leftovers in a few days. Did I mention how good this turned out? :-)

Sausage and Lentil Soup

Ingredients

• 2 lb mild Italian sausage
• 1 lg sweet onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped (yes, ONE stalk, not piece!!)
• 3 lg carrots, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1 small zucchini, chopped
• 2-32 oz box containers chicken stock (or homemade if you have it)
• 28 oz can organic diced tomatoes, do NOT drain
• 2 cups dry lentils
• 2-3 garlic cloves or 2 heaping teaspoons fresh garlic in olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/4 c Wondra, optional (this is a very fine flour which doesn't add a heavy flour taste to your finished soup)
• parmesan cheese or fresh grated parmesan reggiano

Directions

1. Soak lentils in 4 cups of water overnight. If you don't get to do this or forget, don't worry about it. Do not drain the water off the lentils as this will be added to the pot.
2. Brown sausage and drain off fat, if necessary. Mine was super lean so I didn't have any fat at all.
3. Add onions, garlic, salt & pepper; saute over med heat until onions are transparent, about 5 minutes.
4. Add remaining ingredients, EXCEPT for zucchini, and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 1/2 hours.
6. Add zucchini; bring to a boil for about 30 minutes to reduce liquid and thicken up soup. Sprinkle in Wondra and continue to boil, further thickening up the soup. Don't cook out all the liquid or you'll have stew instead of soup. You can also remove 1-2 cups of soup and puree it. When you add it back to the soup it will also help to thicken the consistency.
7. Serve with fresh or grated parmesan and bread. We had rosemary olive oil bread by LaBrea. YUM!

We've been having the leftovers over spaghetti so we're not eating the same thing every night. It's pretty good as the soup acts like a sauce. Did I mention it's getting hotter and spicier every time we eat it? I might try to figure out how to make a spaghetti pie with the leftovers... we'll see. I'll let you know. Sorry the pic is a bit blurry... I took it with my phone.



Enjoy!

Ham and Bean Soup

OK, so what do you do with tons of leftover ham?? Sunday we had the ham dinner that started all of this. Monday we had Ham, Swiss and Pasta Casserole. Tuesday... what to make... what to make... Soup would be good, but what kind of soup? Since I had a 15 bean mix in the pantry, I thought that would be a good place to start. Ha! Do you know how many ham and bean soup recipes there are on the 'net? I can tell you --> A LOT!! I chose a recipe that I could use up most of the veggies I had in the fridge, leave out the things I didn't have, and hopefully it would still be good. Guess what? It was! :-)

This recipe is adapted from a recipe I got on allrecipes.com called The Best Bean and Ham Soup by BenevolentEmpress.

Ham and Bean Soup


Serves 8-10

• 1 pkg 15-bean mixture, soaked overnight
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 ham bone
• 1 lb ham, chopped
• 1 T chopped garlic in olive oil (heaping T of fresh garlic is good too)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 med-lg carrots, chopped
• 3 parsnips, chopped
• 1 lg turnip, peeled & diced
• 1 box (32 oz) vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 boxes (48 oz) chicken broth
• 2 T Worcestershire sauce
• 2 T Dijon mustard (if you only have honey dijon, that's ok too)
• 1 T chili powder
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 T cracked pepper
• 1 T dried parsley
• 3 T lemon juice (can use ReaLemon)
• 1 tsp kosher salt (regular is fine too)
• freshly grated pecorino romano, optional

Directions

1. Place soaked beans in large pot filled with enough water to cover beans by about 1 inch. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Using same large pot on medium-high heat, saute onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add in all remaining ingredient; bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer for about 6 hours. Make sure you stir occasionally and add water or more chicken broth is liquid level gets too low. Mine only needed a pint of water added toward the end of cooking period.
4. Remove ham bone and bay leaves. Trim meat from ham bone and place in pot. Continue to simmer for another hour or so.

Super recipe! I hope you all enjoy it. There's nothing to the prep and it cooks itself!

Cheesy Goodness!

Between Christmas and New Years for the last couple of years, we have been having a ham dinner at our son and daughter-in-law's house. This past year brought a brand new baby into our lives. The newest member of our family (our first grandson) was born on December 30th, hence no ham dinner. I decided to made the ham dinner myself.

Geez, I haven't made a ham in I don't know how long. It's just not something we eat even once a year. After making it and sorting out the leftovers into future dinners, I'm not sure why we don't eat ham more frequently. It was delicious! I made a Smithfield Spiral Sliced Ham, corn casserole, and mashed potatoes. Can I say it? Yes! Total goodness!

This recipe is adapted from a recipe from the Smokestack Restaurant in Kansas City. I hope you like it!



Corn Casserole

Serves 6

• 4 slices bacon, fried and finely chopped
• 3 T unsalted butter
• heaping T chopped garlic in olive oil
• 1/4 c flour
• 1 1/2 c milk, 2% organic
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 1 oz cheddar cheese, cubed
• 1 c shredded Mexican blend cheese
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 1/2 lb frozen corn
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Heat crumbled bacon on medium heat in saucepan for 3 minutes; add butter and garlic, cook til fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Add flour, mix well for 1 minute.
4. Whisk in milk and bring to a boil; stir constantly while cooking until thickened for about 2 minutes.
5. Add cream cheese, cheddar cheese, Mexican blend shredded, and paprika; cook until smooth.
6. Remove from heat and stir in corn; season with salt & pepper.
7. Transfer mixture to a baking dish (approx 5x8) and bake until top is golden brown and bubbling, about 40 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Ham leftovers were plentiful so keep an eye out for more recipes!

Thankful for Thanksgiving!

OK y'all... here are my recipes from yesterday's Thanksgiving meal. Two of the recipes I made for the very first time and the other two I've been making for well over 20 years. They were so good!

Citrus and Herb Turkey (inspired by Lucinda Scala Quinn)

• 14 lb turkey
• 2 Tbsp coarse salt (guideline)
• 1 tsp black pepper (guideline)
• 1 onion, halved
• 2 oranges, halved
•  1 lemon, halved
• 1 Tbsp garlic in olive oil
•  6 sprigs thyme
•  6 sprigs sage
•  32 oz box chicken stock
•  olive oil (Athena is the best!)

Directions

1. Preheat conventional oven to 325. Make sure rack is positioned in the middle of the oven.
2. Season inside of turkey with half of the salt & pepper. Stuff turkey with onion, orange and lemons halves. Reserve 1/2 an orange for turkey stew that will be made the next day. Bunch herbs together, fold in half, and stuff into turkey as well. If turkey doesn't have plastic "trussing," take twine and tie up legs to keep turkey together.
3. Pat a good tablespoon or more of olive oil all over the top and sides of the turkey with your hand. Sprinkle with remaining salt & pepper. Cover turkey with foil, creating a tent so that the foil does not sit directly on top of the turkey.
4. Pour box of chicken stock (or homemade if you have it) into turkey pan. Place turkey on middle shelf in oven and cook for 2 hours. Check with meat thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh area as this is the last place that will finish cooking. Thermometer should read at least 145 degrees. Remove foil completely, turn oven up to 350 and brown skin for 30 minutes. Your thermometer will read 155 degrees in the thigh when the turkey is completely done. Remove to carving (cutting) board.
5. Let turkey rest for 20 minutes before carving as the juices need this time to redistribute throughout the meat. Carve and enjoy!

Fig & Pancetta Stuffing (inspired by Lucinda Scala Quinn)

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, plus a bit to spread into the baking dish
• 1 onion, chopped
•  8 oz pancetta, diced into 1/4" pieces
•  2 cups chicken stock
•  4 oz figs, coarsely chopped
•  2 oranges, zest and juice
•  2 Tbsp sage, finely chopped
•  14 slices whole wheat bread, toasted
•  3 large eggs, lightly beaten

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter 2 1/2 qt baking dish.
2. In medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add pancetta, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes. Add onions, continue stirring until pancetta begins to render fat and onions are translucent, about another 2 minutes.
3. Add chicken stock  and figs to mixture and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes.
4. When slightly cooled, add orange zest, juice, and sage to saucepan stirring to combine all ingredients. Using a very large bowl, tear toasted whole wheat into large pieces. Pour pancetta-fig mixture over bread mixing lightly followed by eggs. Stir well until everything is completely combined.
5. Transfer bread mixture to your baking dish, cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and finish off baking for another 15-20 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crispy.

Sweet Potato Casserole

• 3 cups mashed sweet potatoes OR 1 large & small can yams
• 1/2 cup sugar or Splenda
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk OR half and half (if you're out of milk or low)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (no imitation!!)

Directions

1. Preheat conventional oven to 350.
2. Place all ingredients in mixing bowl. Beat until well blended.
3. Pour mixture into 1 1/2 qt baking dish.
4. Optional ingredients: 1 cup coconut or 1/2 cup raisins

Topping

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped in handy chopper
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 stick butter, melted

Directions

1. In small bowl, mix ingredients together with a fork until combined. Add melted butter and stir together until crumbly.
2. Spread mixture over sweet potatoes covering entire surface area.
3. Place in oven, uncovered, for 35-40 minutes. Top will be crispy even though inside is not fully cooked. To determine when dish is fully cooked, if contents are too jiggly, add another 5 minutes. The very center can be slightly jiggly, but overall the dish should be set.

Molded Cranberry-Apple Salad

• 12 oz pkg cranberries, rinsed and patted dry
• 2 granny smith apples
• 3/4 cup sugar OR Splenda
• 2 small boxes sugar-free lemon jello
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1 can crushed pineapple

Directions

1. In food processor, shred cranberries. Core and peel apples. Place in food processor and shred as well. Remove mixture to medium bowl and add sugar. Let sit for 20-30 minutes to macerate.
2. Add jello to boiling water very slowly as not to create large lumps of jello mixture that won't dissolve. Once fully dissolved, add cold water and place in refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
3. Strain pineapple juice from can and set aside. Stir cranberry-apple mixture before adding crushed pineapple. Remove cooled jello from refrigerator and pour into 2 qt container. Add in fruit mixture making sure everything is nicely combined. If needed, add a little bit of the pineapple juice. Not too much though because you don't want the jello mold to be runny.
4. Cover and chill in refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours.
5. Serve in container or remove to a nice serving dish.

OK, these are my recipes. I made some changes to the original recipes that were inspired by one of my favorite cooks, Lucinda Scala Quinn. I will make additional changes to the stuffing recipe because I used 8 oz figs and it was way too much. It could have also used 1/2 lb or so of mushrooms, preferably wild or portabellas (baby). YUM! A bosc pear would have been nice in there too. The recipe called for black mission figs, but I couldn't get to the organic grocers to pick it up so I went with regular figs out of the produce department. I don't know how much of a difference that made, but I will be finding out because I plan on making this again with my adjustments.

When we got home last night from Thanksgiving dinner at the kids' house, I put my turkey bones, as well as everything that was stuffed inside (sans the herbs) into a large stock pot and started cooking it on low all night. This morning the temp was turned up to medium and it's been cooking all morning. Right now I'm going to turn off the stove and let the pot cool before I remove everything and strain it. I'd use out chinois, but Ed has taken it to work. :-) Once I work out the details for what I'm making, I'll post it tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy these recipes. Let me know if you have any questions. I did take video of me cooking, but I want to do some editing and "pretty" it up, so once I get through that, I'll let you know and put it on YouTube.

Happy cooking!

Pad Thai

I have been fiddling with this recipe for the last month or so. Last night I made it for the third time and in my humble opinion, it's turned out the best!! I get so darned excited when a recipe does what I want it to do. :-)

So... here's my rendition of Pad Thai that has been adapted from Lucinda Scala Quinn's recipe on Mad Hungry:

• 1/2 pkg (8 oz) medium width rice noodles

Soak noodles in hot tap water for 20 minutes. Check to see if they are softening up and if not, heat up water for a few minutes to get the noodles softer. Noodles should be ready at the same time the stir frying is done.

Sauce:

• 12 oz can tamarind juice
• 1 oz tamarind (optional)
• 1/3 c soy sauce - low sodium is fine
• 1/3 + 1 T palm sugar
• 1/2 c fish sauce
• 1/2 c water
• 2 tsp Sriracha

In a small saucepan, combine sauce ingredients above and bring to a boil, stirring frequently until sugar is dissolved. If you have seedless tamarind, add a bit of that to bump up the flavor. I have seedless tamarind that has seeds in it. Remove the seeds the best you can. If any are left, you can always strain the sauce when it's done before you add it to the wok.

Stir Fry:

• 1/2 c peanut oil (or safflower if you have it)
• 2 lg scallions, cut into 1" pieces, separate bulbs from the rest
• 1 T garlic in olive oil
• 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled & deveined (and/or chicken, if using both get 1/2 of each)
• 1 block firm tofu, sliced thin (if your grocer has fresh tofu, it would be 1 piece, otherwise it's about 1/2 a container)
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten

Heat oil in wok over medium-high heat. When little bubbles form or the oil shimmers, add scallion bulbs and stir for about 1 minute. Add garlic in olive oil, stirring frequently until the garlic is brown. Remove and place on a large plate that is lined with a paper towel. This will soak up any excess oil.

Raise heat to high and add in remaining scallions and shrimp. Stir constantly until shrimp are opaque, about 2-3 minutes. Remove and place with other ingredients on plate.

Add tofu to wok, heating through about another 2 minutes. Remove and place on plate.

At this point, there should be very little oil left in the wok, if there is too much (even a small puddle), pour some out. Add the eggs to the wok and stir constantly to keep them light and fluffy. As soon as they are set, but not dry (they should be a little wet looking), remove them to the plate.

Add the sauce to the wok and bring to a boil. Strain the noodles and cook in the sauce until heated through, just a couple of minutes. Return the items from the plate into the wok and stir to combine about 3 minutes. You want everything nicely combined and hot. Place pad thai into a dish and serve immediately with your garnish items. YUM!

**Note: Add about 1/2 the cilantro, mung beans, and peanuts and combine well. Heating the garnish ingredients with the mixture gives it a bit more flavor. It sure makes your house smell yummy!

Garnish:

• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• 1 bunch cilantro, remove leaves from stems
•  mung bean sprouts
• 1/2 c peanuts, processed in chopper
• Sriracha sauce

I'm sure I will fuss with this a bit more even though I totally love it! Just to see if I can make it even better. I took a movie of me doing this, but I need to edit it out some to make it shorter and you don't need to see food frying, right? If it doesn't turn out well and if I can't do anything with it, pictures it will be! At least until I can figure out how to edit and whatever else needs to be done so you all can see this!

I just had to share out dessert tonight as well. My Mom and I were in Sam's Club this afternoon and they were taste-testing this pie. It was too good! So, I bought it. For $10, you can't make it that cheap! It has Granny Smith apples, cranberries, and pecans. All together now... big Y-U-M-M-O!!!