What's on the Menu?

Teryiaki Venison Kabobs

This was a super great recipe for using up my leftover Sunday deer roast! I cut up the roast chunks into chunks and let them marinade in teryiaki sauce for about half an hour. Then I put them onto skewers with pineapple and red peppers and grilled them for a few minutes. DELICIOUS!


Super Quick Breadsticks

So these breadsticks weren't my absolute favorite but for how fast they are made they were awesome! I'll definitely be using this recipe again. This recipe listed is for 12 breadsticks.
INGREDIENTS
2/3 cup warm water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2/3 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup oil
2 cups bread flour
1 2/3 teaspoons yeast

Directions:

1 Make dough using your favorite method- bread machine, mixer or by hand.
2 Roll out into a 10x12 inch rectangle.
3 Cut into strips about 3/4 inch wide.
4 Give each strip a twist and place on a greased cookie sheet.
5 Let rise for at least 20 minutes or more if you have time.
6 Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes.
7 Brush with butter and sprinkle with garlic salt and parmesan cheese.

Bacon Bowtie Pasta

Ingredients

• 1/2 (16-oz.) package bow tie pasta
• 1/2 pound bacon $
• 1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened $
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 2/3 cup milk $
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. 1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Keep warm.
2. 2. Cook bacon according to package directions; drain well, and crumble.
3. 3. Beat cream cheese, butter, and Italian seasoning in a medium-size microwave-safe bowl at low speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add milk, beating until mixture is smooth.
4. 4. Microwave cream cheese mixture at HIGH 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated, whisking every 30 seconds. Pour cream cheese mixture over warm pasta, tossing to coat. Top with crumbled bacon and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese.
5. Lightened Bacon Bow Tie Pasta: Substitute reduced-fat or turkey bacon, 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, and 2% reduced-fat milk. Proceed as directed

BBQ Pulled Venison

These turned out super yummy! I just put a venison roast in the crock pot with a little water, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and season all. I let it cook for about 8 hours on low, pulling it into chunks after about 6 hours. This made the meat really tender and easy to pull later. Then I dumped a bunch of bbq sauce on it and let it heat up. I toasted some yummy rolls I got from Smith's and viola! delicious meal I had to spend virtually not time on!

Blueberry Muffins

This recipe is compliments of the lovely Sister Whipple formerly from Marysville, OH. And they are so good!

Topping:
1/3 c sugar
1 1/2 t grated lemon zest

Muffins:
2 c fresh blueberries, picked over
1 1/8 c +1t sugar
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
2 large eggs
4 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 c butter milk (i used 1/2 c half and half and 1/2 c milk because I didn't have buttermilk and didn't want to run to the store)
2 1/2 t vanilla

1. For the topping: stir sugar and lemon zest together in a small bowl until combined, set aside.
2. For the muffins: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a standard muffin tin with vegetable oil spray (I actually used a JUMBO muffin pan) Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 t sugar to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing the berries with a spoon several times to stirring frequently, until the berries have broken down and the mixture is thickened and reduced to 1/4 c, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and cool to room temperature, about 10-15 minutes.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large 1 bowl. Whisk the remaining 1 1/8 c sugar and eggs together in a medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold the egg mixture and the remaining 1 c blueberries into the flour mixture until just moistened. The batter will be very lumpy with a few spots of dry flour. Do not over mix.
4. Divide batter evenly between prepared muffin cups. The batter should completely fill the cups and mound slightly. Spoon 1 t-1 T of the cooked berry mixture into the center of each mound of batter (I actually just mixed this in with the batter so my muffins were purple!!!) Using a chopstick or a skewer, gently swirl the berry filling into the batter using a figure eight motion. Sprinkle the the lemon sugar evenly over the muffins. (I didn't have lemon, so I just used sugar and it still turned out good. It is better with lemon though).
5. Bake until the muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17-19 minutes (about 5 minutes longer for a jumbo pan), rotating the muffin tin halfway through. Cool the muffins in the muffin tin for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and cool 5 more minutes before serving.

Yields 12 muffins or 6 jumbo muffins.

Bread Bowls

 this recipe makes super tiny bread bowls.  I originally cut it down to make 3 bread bowls (the recipe says it makes 8) but they were tiny, and if you read it it describes them as "tennis ball" size. So not what I want! So I doubled that. If you stay with the original recipe, it would probably be great for 2 normal sized bread bowls. A lot of the reviews on the website actually mention that they are smaller than expected. Guess that's what we get for not reading all the directions! ha! But by the time they were baking they turned out pretty big.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 tablespoon salt
2 cups hot water (not boiling)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 -5 cups flour
cornmeal (optional)

Directions:

1 Using a Bosch or Kitchen Aid mixer, put yeast, sugar, salt, hot water, and olive oil in the mixer.
2 Gradually add the flour until the dough has sufficiently scraped everything off the sides of the mixing bowl. Continue to mix on low for 8-10 minutes.
3 Remove and cover with plastic wrap - let the dough rise until doubles in size (about 30 minutes).
4 Grease 2 cookie sheets and sprinkle with corn meal.
5 Punch down the dough and make tennis ball-size dough balls (about 8-12, depending on how large you want your bread bowls).
6 Place on cookie sheet with no more than 6 to a cookie sheet (don't let them touch). Let them rise for another 30 minutes.
7 Bake each cookie sheet at 400 for 18 minutes.

In the breadbowls I put a stew I made. Wes says it's kindof like sloppy joe.

I used all my leftover ground hamburger from previous meals, a can of Hunt's meatloaf starter, a can of Hunt's chili starter, and a can of kidney beans as well as some garlic and cayanne pepper. I think corn in it could also be really good...hmm... I put a piece of swiss cheese on the bottom of the bowl before I put the stew in and then put shredded cheese on top. YUM!

Zucchini Brownies

Instead of the frosting on the top I put some milk chocolate chips and some semi sweet chocolate chips and let them melt and spread around and topped it with powdered sugar. and it turned out really good! My cousins, who are the pickiest eaters EVER loved these brownies even though they had zucchini in them. Once they found out what was in them, I didn't think they would want more...but they did!

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups shredded zucchini

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 
  
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup margarine
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies spring back when gently touched. To make the frosting, melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and margarine; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend together the confectioners' sugar, milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.

30 Minute Dinner Rolls

Like the quick breadsticks...not my favorite, but still good when you are in a rush.

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
• 1/3 cup oil
• 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3 1/2 cups flour (either bread flour or all-purpose will work) I used freshly ground wheat flour!! yum!

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the warm water, oil, yeast, and sugar. Allow the mixture to rest for 15 minutes.
3. Mix 2 cups of the flour, the salt, and the egg into the yeast mixture using a dough hook. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour 1/2 cup at a time.
4. Shape dough into 12 balls and place in a 9x13 pan. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
5. Bake for 10 minutes or until tops are just golden brown.

This makes 12 rolls, but I only made 6 and then turned the rest into cinnamon roll bites by putting small pieces into a bundt cake and putting melted butter, cinnamon and sugar on it. They were pretty good, but next time I will put a LOT more butter, cinnamon and sugar and not just put in on top and bottom but in between the bites too.

Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles
This was all Wesley's idea! So we found this recipe and it was AMAZING! super happy with how delicious and soft these turned out! Sorry I don't have a picture!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups white sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons white sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2.	Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3.	Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
4.	Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets. well, that's all for this week. stay tuned next week for steak fingers, ribollta (how to use leftover bread), dorito chicken casserole, and more! ps... how to make mac and cheese fun!