Omelet Braid

I made this by using a Pampered Chef recipe from the "All the Best" cookbook as my launching point. I changed the croissant dough for homemade pizza dough and I just made a simple egg/bacon/cheese stuffing. I brought it to a kid friendly brunch this morning and it was a hit for the grown-ups and kids alike.
-Amanda

Omelet Braid

Basic Pizza Dough (or crescent dough package)
8 eggs
1/4 cup Greek Yogurt or cream cheese
8 strips of bacon
1/2 cup shredded cheese
1 tbsp flour

Cook your bacon using your favorite method. (I laid it out on my Pampered Chef Stoneware Bar Pan and baked at 400 for 20 minutes, then chopped it.) While bacon is cooking, in a big bowl crack 7 eggs and the yolk of the 8th egg. Reserve the 1 egg white for later. Add yogurt to the eggs. Whisk to mix together. Add salt and pepper and 1 tbsp of flour. Last mix in chopped bacon. Roll pizza dough into a large rectangle. Every 1.5 inches cut a slice in the dough to almost the middle.

Lay egg mixture down the center of the dough. Then bring each section together over the egg mixture, twisting the sides together and laying it down over the eggs. Work your way down the length of the dough. Pinch off any dough that is too thick and discard. Brush the dough with the egg white. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Rice Pilaf

This is a very tasty and easy side dish. Side benefit? It hid a bunch of vegetables and my twins at it right up! I used it as a side dish with a fish packet. The sauce on the plate is from the juices in the fish packet, not the rice. To really hide the zucchini, peel it first, but a lot of the nutrients are found in the skin.
-Amanda

Rice Pilaf

1/2 cup orzo pasta
1/2 cup white rice
1 zucchini, grated
8-10 button mushrooms
1 clove garlic, minced
3 3/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter and olive oil in a medium pot. Add rice and orzo, stiring to coat and slightly brown. Add grated zucchini, mushrooms, garlic, salt & pepper. Cover with chicken stock and stir. Bring to a boil, cover the pot with a lid and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 15 minutes or until rice is tender.

Kofte and Yogurt Carrot Salad Part 2 of 2

Köfte are a Turkish dish, a kind of a mix between meatballs and hamburgers.  Every region has their own specialty which usually include slight different spices and shapes. Some are flat and round like hamburgers (but smaller) some are shaped like sausages, some are skewered and grilled.  They are very tasty and quick.  With these köftes I veered off the traditional recipe because I was trying to make it lighter but keep the savory flavor.  

-Jules

Köfte—Light

1 half pound of lean ground beef
5 carrots shredded (should be just about the same volume as the beef)
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 handful of parsley chopped
1  onion, chopped
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

The shredded carrots should be about the same volume as the meat.  You may have to adjust based on the size of your carrots.  Chop everything finely and kneed together (like meat loaf.)  I recommend then putting it in the fridge for an hour.  The tastes develop more if you let everything mingle and get friendly.  Then shape meat mix into small patties about the size of silver dollars and fairly thin. Pre heat a non stick skillet—you want  a little char.    If they stick use a little olive oil on the pan.  Cook up as many as you would like.   Serve with salad and bread. 

Homemade Hot Dog Buns

OMG. I will never buy store bought hot dog buns again. These homemade hot dog buns were so tasty!!! Plus every time I buy store bought hot dog buns, half the bag gets moldy. This recipe made 9 hot dog buns, but I was told they are easy to freeze, so I'll try that with the leftovers. Yeah right. I'll probably make some excuse to fill them up tomorrow. Like making my Chicken Cheddar Hoagies, which I've been craving anyway.

(I found this recipe all over the internet so not sure who to give credit too.)
Hot Dog Buns

1 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet or 1/4 ounce)
1/4 cup warm water (105-110F)
1 cup warm milk (105-110F)
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
3-3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 egg white (for egg wash)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar, yeast and warm water. Stir to dissolve and let set until bubbly, about 5 minutes. Add in milk, vegetable oil and salt. With the mixer on a low speed with the dough hook attached, gradually add the flour. Once 3 cups have been incorporated, add the remaining flour a tablespoon at a time until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 2-4 minutes, until smooth and supple. The dough should be soft, but not sticky. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, 1-1 1/2 hours.

Punch down the dough and make a log. Cut the log into three pieces. Cut each piece into three more pieces. With a rolling pin, roll out each piece at at time into a rectangle about the length that you want your hot dog bun to be. Fold the long sides of the rectangle in the middle overlapping. Round out the bottoms a bit and place on a cookie sheet. I used a stone cookie sheet (The Pampered Chef Large Bar Pan # 1445) and I sprinkled a bit of cornmeal on it so they dough wouldn't stick. Let the buns rise for 30-40 minutes covered with a towel. Brush the dough with egg whites and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I made the girls their first "real" hotdog by cutting the hotdog meat in half lengthwise and placing that in half of a bun.

Three Cheese Raviolis

I have a head of cabbage in the refridgerator that I really need to use. I bought it at the farmers market almost two weeks ago and it's staring back at me in the refridgerator. Cabbage is one of those foods that I do actually like, but only once in awhile. The thing is, I had just finished a head of cabbage a couple of days before purchasing this one at the farmers market. (I made Asian coleslaw, regular coleslaw and sauted cabbage with that one head.) These are enough cabbage dishes to last me a couple of months. I shouldn't have bought the one at the famers market except that it was such a pretty head of cabbage. Don't ask me. I'm weird that way. So today I spent brainstorming different dishes to use cabbage in to cook for dinner tonight. How I ended up making Three Cheese Raviolis is just part of my charm I think. There is no cabbage anywhere near this dish. Well unless you count that I served broccoli with it which is a distant cousin to cabbage.
-Amanda

Pasta:

2 1/2 cups of flour
3 eggs
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Mound the flour up on the counter top. Make a well in the center. Crack eggs in the well. Add the salt and the olive oil. With a fork whisk the eggs slowly incorporating the flour. When most of the flour has been incorporated start kneading with your hands. This is going to take a while but I figure you are burning off some of the calories you are about to eat. Keep kneading the dough until it becomes glossy and smooth. Form into a ball and seal in plastic wrap. Let rest for 1 hour, so it isn't too stretchy. Using a pasta machine roll out your pasta into thin sheets. (I only used 1/2 of my pasta, the rest I wrapped with foil and saved for tomorrow.) Fill with stuffing. Boil for 3-4 minutes.

While making the raviolis lay them out on a counter or cookie sheet that is lightly coated with cornmeal to prevent sticking.

Stuffing:

1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan
1 tsp italian seasoning & salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together and put in a pastry bag in order to squeeze out a small amount into your ravioli.

White Bean Chicken Chili

This recipe was posted on a message board I'm on by Amberly. She got it from Ame. I think everyone in my mom's group is trying out their variation of it! It is really good! I made the white beans from scratch a couple of weeks ago and froze them. So tonight I just pulled those out of the freezer and mixed them with the rest of the ingredients instead of using canned beans. (My beans had carrots, celery and a bit of bacon so it added a depth of flavor that is a bit different than canned.) But either would work fine. My twins ate this up and Izzie even asked for more!
-Amanda

White Bean Chicken Chili

about 32 oz chicken stock
3 cans white beans undrained (I use homemade dried beans that had been previously cooked)
5 cups cooked chicken
1 - 16oz jar salsa or homemade salsa
1 - 8oz block pepper jack (I used colby jack because it was what I had)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup tortilla chips (crushed), optional... makes chili thicker
 avacado to garnish

Place all ingredients in large pot over medium-high heat until cheese is melted. When chili is ready, add crushed chips, if using, and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken.

Two Cakes, One Success

I baked both of those cakes.  Only one was edible.  Sometimes that is how the game goes.  My future mother-in-law had a “gün,”  literally a “day.”  It refers to a tea party or women’s get together.  She asked me to make “American Pasta,” or “American Cake.”  She had a vanilla cake at a military base once and has been searching for it ever since.  The closest explanation was it was cake, vanilla and had frosting.  I thought it might be yellow birthday cake.  So that is what I made.   I searched for a great recipe, and found it.  She said it was a wonderful cake, though not what she had an American military base.  I suggested since I had been trying to match this described cake from her memory for a year now --her best bet would be to appreciate the memory as I have NO IDEA what she is talking about.  I have exhausted all the possibilities of cake I thought it could be tfrom the description.
This cake is billed as the “Best Birthday Cake.”  The author is correct.  The Smitten Kitchen is an awesome blog.  She does amazing things with food.  (Hint: Check out her oatmeal raisin cookies.)
To achieve the mess on the left only use 2 cups of flour because maybe you were drinking wine while baking—not recommended.  To achieve the height on the right, use the right amount of flour.  In Turkey they do not sell buttermilk, so instead of adding vinegar to milk (“my normal substitute) I used Kefir, and the cake turned out great)

-Jules

Yellow Layer Cake

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken (or kefir)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.
Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. (Smitten Kitchen recommended this and I found it to work like a charm.  No weird bubbles. Bake until gold and a tooth pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Turn upside down onto rack cool complete. 
Makes two 9 inch layers