Experiment of the Week: Homemade Bagels

After a nice day of digging for fun new things to make for our family. My oldest and I went to youtube and found a humorous video: How to make bagels in 5 minutes. Nevertheless we knew it wasn't going to take five minutes, but it peeked our interested to try this recipe out.

We modified this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 3 cups bread flour [small amount for flouring the board]
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 3 quarts boiling water
• 3 tablespoons white sugar [also can add molasses at this step instead of sugar]
• 1 tablespoon cornmeal [we omitted this step as we found they were a nicer flavor/texture]
• 1 egg white
• Ms. Dash
• Sesame Seeds
• Caraway Seeds [this really makes the flavoring of this bagel]

Directions

1. Place water, salt, sugar, flour and yeast in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting. [We did this by hand since we did a triple batch.]
2. When cycle is complete, let dough rest on a lightly floured surface. Meanwhile, in a large pot bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Stir in 3 tablespoons of sugar.
3. Cut dough into 9 equal pieces, and roll each piece into a small ball. Flatten balls. Poke a hole in the middle of each with your thumb. Twirl the dough on your finger or thumb to enlarge the hole, and to even out the dough around the hole. Cover bagels with a clean cloth, and let rest for 10 minutes. [We didn't use this method, but to each there own. We rolled them into a hot dog style, and pressed the end, and wrapped it around firmly.]
4. Sprinkle an ungreased baking sheet with cornmeal. Carefully transfer bagels to boiling water. Boil for 1 minute, turning half way through. Drain briefly on clean towel. Arrange boiled bagels on baking sheet. Glaze tops with egg white, and sprinkle with your choice of toppings.
5. Bake in a preheated 375 degree F (190 degrees C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until well browned.[20 for convection oven. Other oven times my vary.]

Linked up with Jam Hands really great recipe sharing site!

Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

I just can't remember who used to make these either my Great Grandma, or my Mom, but I have been craving them by the dozens!!! Not sure if it is some sort of hormonal thing, or more comfort haha. I found the recipe and the kiddos and I made these up in no time flat!

recipe via Food Network

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 cups oatmeal
• Waxed paper

Directions

In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Let boil for 1 minute then add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal. On a sheet of waxed paper, drop mixture by the teaspoonfuls, until cooled and hardened.

Homemade Chicken Basil Sundried Tomato Sausage

On the extreme ways to save more and more money with the evergrowing cost of well everything I decided to make some sausage for the first time. Since we found chicken on sale for $1.69lb boneless skinless I figured to try to make the sausage we buy at the Italian market. At the market it is $3.99lb sadly. With hubby's high blood pressure the salt content is a serious determining factor.

After grinding the chicken, we added a bunch of basil [some from the reserve we had in the freezer, and half of another bunch say $1. for the basil.] The sundried tomatoes were from a jar I canned up in October. [.50]. Taste , and savings were the most important. The taste was okay...flavors were excellent, but needed a bit more fat content as it was pretty dry. So cost for about 22lb of sausage is as follows:

Chicken $28.42
Basil $1.00
Sundried tomato .50
Casing $4.00
misc spices .50
Total for 22lbs of sausage: $34.42/ $1.56lb

Since the flavor was amazing I will certainly do this again. The butcher at the market was fabulous so I will grab some more chicken fat, or mix in a bit of thigh since that is even cheaper.

UPDATE:


Tried to make a couple different sausages, but the fat is so important, and I think my seasonings are just not enough. Anyone ever made homemade hot dogs? These just tasted like hamburger in casing to us. OHHH and don't use pork picnic to make any sort of sausage it is terrible and clogs up my grinder like nobodies business!

Experiment..Poke Cake

Hello fellow savers! These next few weeks will stay away from the store trying to save some bucks. If there is a deal I can't help please forgive me and take my coupons lol.

This cake turned out much better than I expected, and I WILL be making it again. It was so moist, flavorful, and I am not a cake person..ask anyone who knows me! The colors were phenomenal! It balanced out the nice day we had yesterday. Thanks to my family who played games with us till 5am *cough*, my Dad for all the work he did with dinner, my darling hubby for staying late/early even though he wanted to be home hours before, my kiddos for rocking, and Jazzipoo for helping me with the dishes!

How was your 4th? Hope it was a safe one!

Fourth of July cake experiment.

Happy official fourth of July! This was a concept from a poke cake inspired by my sister, and Taste of Home. Since I have never done a cake like this I decided to go with the look of a firework. Using a small spoon I saturated the cake with the colors. Will post the end result after we cut it haha.

Have a blessed day, stay safe!

Mint Truffles

Made these for a special someone's birthday! They were a HUGE hit! Now they were thinking on selling them lol. I doctored them from a recipe I forget where I found it even.

1 pk grasshopper cookies
2 pk andes chocolate mint chips
1/2 pk oreo [used target brand]
1 pk softened cream cheese

Crumble the cookies. I tried the processor and it just didn't do a great job lol. A hammer and zippy worked well! Mix grasshopper cookies and cream cheese. Roll into ball form, and let them chill in the fridge for a bit while you are melting cream cheese and pulverizing the oreos ;). Melt chips in microwave for seconds check them they burn easy. Dip the chilled cookie/cream cheese balls into melted chocolate. Roll in oreos. Chill again [a minute is good.]then repeat dipping into melted chocolate and rolling into cookie crumbs. We did this about 3 times to make it a nice texture. BEWARE....they are addictive and may cause intense happiness that will make a plastered smile on your face.

In the Kitchen this Week-- Homemade Hoagie rolls

For whatever reason I have been craving a BLT like nobodies business. Our usual route is buying hoagie rolls at Aldi's for $1.99. Since we have been making bread I just have a problem spending money on bread anymore. So I took this recipe I modified and made these hoagie rolls.

4 c flour [unbleached wheat/bread mix is what I used.]
2 eggs
1 c warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/4 c oil [canola]
pinch of salt
1/2 c sugar

Pretty sure that is all of it. Sometimes I add flax seed, etc to dress it up. After a few minutes in the bread machine and fifteen minutes or so of kneading it was separated in six pieces for a good sized hoagie roll. After about 1.5hrs of rising stuck them in the oven at 350 [convection] for fifteen minutes. Again it may vary for your oven. Let me tell you they were delicious! Not only were they hearty, but they tasted better than the Aldi's hoagie rolls. That and the cost was surely under the $1.99 cost. Next on the mission for the month....hot dog, hamburger buns!

From the Kitchen this Week

Seeing as we have been living in the doctor's office lately I decided to give up some thanks. The doctor, and his staff have been phenominal. Really no words to express my gratitude for all they have done for our family. So when I get weepy I have a tendeceny to follow it up in the kitchen. That is just what I did. I found a killer recipe for Cinnabon rolls, and went to work.

They take a bit of time, but hey what I did was made a double batch [one for the office, one for home] then stuck ours in the freezer. In the bread machine I let it mix well, then I went to work rolling away.

After a bit of rolling I added the butter, sugar, cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice. Nothing like pumpkin pie spice I am wacky for it! After it was in a pretty roll, then cut it up [about 14-16 rolls I got, but they said 12 per recipe].

After baking at 400 for 10-12 mins tada

Made an icing for it that was killer. You can find the recipe here.

What awesome goodies came from your kitchen this week?!?!?

In the Kitchen this Week 2/8

Hope this reaches you and yours for a fabulouso week! We are having a better week, and lo and behold I have been in the kitchen. My second favorite place no doubt! A wonderful friend of mine gave me some lemons, yes those are indeed lemons! I have never seen lemons bigger than my hand before so of course my mind was reeling with uses for these big beauties. Since I have been on an orange kick lately. [Too many researches on healthy eating I think LOL] With the 10lbs of oranges from our Aldi's trip last week 
I used five oranges. Yep just five oranges, one of those pretty lemons [too much I found out later], 3.5lbs sugar, water, six mason jars later we it orange marmalade. Now since I am a beginner at this canning stuff sometimes our kitchen is like a testing zone. After I tasted my supposed perfect jam I notice that huge lemon made the jam pucker your lips up like a pucker fish. So another 1.5lbs sugar, and more water I adjusted this once botched jam. I added the rinds because the flavor is out of this world.

The lesson I took with me is don't use monster lemons in your jam, and taste, taste, taste...which is my fatal flaw when cooking. Today we had our marmalade on toast and it was tasty! What is going on in your kitchen this week? Any pointers for a canning newbie?

Oh also canned a lovely tomato chutney if you will it is just very different concoction that my DH adores. Well off and away...the kitchen is calling. ;)

Tofu Jerky

Most of my family has added their opinions on my newest Tofu experiment which comes at you from all directions. Most of the responses end in laughter, but I have them thinking. I have left the seed so to speak. Now I can rant and rave all I want about healthier eating, but tonight I ate a lovely Skinny Bar and to be honest not feeling so skinny. All in all this tofu was something I knew I could get DH to try. So here is the low down..



All day I heard this "Man that smells good", "Is it done yet I want to try it." After the eight hours of loving this tofu got did it pass the test?

 

Straight from the oven, and I mean straight still steaming DH began to chow. This is as if another revelation in this household. My husband thinking this was meat! [Just like the Splenda I have been mixing in the sugar for years? The sugar-free candy I used to pass off as the real thing.] Oh yes this was looking good. So all in all this recipe looks great. I need a bit of tweaking with the recipe because to me it needs a bit more oomph. Teriyaki flavor is a serious possibility. For now I am going to let this get a bit less sticky and try it again. Also I have a convection oven and I am not sure I needed those 8hrs I could be wrong.

Anyone have any tofu recipes that have made their family in awe?

To Sarah....still as yet that is some killer looking tofu jerky. I will save some for ya. Maybe can it? ;)

In the Kitchen this Week

With DH still home I find that much of my day is either cooking, or the usual more cleaning. [I still have no idea how the floors dirty themselves daily lol.] So here is a look at some of the happenings of the kitchen this week.

A wee bit of canning this week as I found a couple daikon in the produce market to pickle.

Felt the urge to use up a bit or oranges that were on there last leg. What better way than Chocolate Cheesecake?

The next recipe I will add a bit more info in the next post, but had some tofu which I haven't found a recipe that our family adores. This jerky recipe was interesting. I modified it to our taste, and a bit of different ingredients and voila!

Make anything different this week you want to share?

Eggplant Burger

So while we watched a bit of Food Network we watched Best of Burgers. In the effort of getting everyone on the LESS MEAT track the eggplant burger seemed like the perfect idea! Eggplant, burger, I must be in heaven! After cubing the eggplant I sauteed it in a frying pan. In the food processor I grated the garlic while the eggplant was getting soft. After it was cooked down I added it to the processor with the garlic, cheddar cheese, and bread crumbs [the first batch I ever made!!] on pulse I looked for a thicker consistency.

First I tried the George Forman grill. That was a bust because of the grates. Do they have a griddle top for a George Forman? I went back to the frying pan and added a bit of canola oil. Since this was my first time doing anything like this I know next time I will make them a bit smaller. They were monsters! 3lbs of eggplant made 7 seriously monster burgers.

To top it off some strawberries were hitting their last leg, and we turned them into a refreshing strawberry vinaigrette for the spinach apple hazelnut salad my oldest concocted. It was fabulous I promise you! So here is the ending result of our eggplant burgers, with lovely salad. We will make them again as they are so tasty I kid you not. My oldest detest eggplant, but he choose the eggplant burger over the turkey burger! Shocker! Happy day enjoy the rest of your weekend with those you love!

 

Never too young to learn savings...

Well Happy Sunday to you and yours! Yesterday after our visit to the local produce market with my youngest we picked up some lovely wares. After we both decided to share a lovely orange we sat at the table and spoke about how everything in life God has given us has a purpose. Even that orange peel. So lo and behold today I made a carrot cake just because...sometimes we all need a little carrot cake!

So it goes show that even that orange peel had a purpose. I grated it and used it to make the delicious cream cheese frosting. Also when in the hospital they had a medical show [yes in the hospital a medical show...like you don't get scared enough being there!!!] it showed how the outside of the orange is the best nutrients as well as cleansing power for your body. Also great for indigestion, and heartburn! Who would have thought! Every day I take something for heartburn and haven't drank orange juice in the longest time.

Well in the end we all have a purpose even an orange peel. Happy day spend it with those you love. xoxo

More Thrifty Ways to Meet Ends Meet! Homemade Hot Cocoa.

Well I am on a mission to make more things and end the processed food in this house. Not that some of these items aren't processed, but I just am tired of spending an arm and a leg on hot cocoa during the winter months. Nothing is more soothing to us than a cup of steaming cocoa when old man winter rears his head. So I found this killer recipe I shared once before, but will again hot cocoa recipe. Still as yet I am trying to figure if this is a better deal than the packaged hot cocoa. We have huge mugs, and tend to use 1.5 packets of the packaged one. The homemade version we use 3 heaping T. My total cost for all the ingredients for a double batch [4 qts of mix] was $9.52. I figured I would need a slew of dried milk, but hey it will come in use for breadmaking, hurricanes, etc.

After testing the packet kind we used 5T compared to the 3T in the homemade version. The homemade version had a nice rich flavor as well. This 4qt mix will make 85 cups of homemade hot cocoa and .11 per serving. The packet version was .25 per serving which isn't much more, but I think I will stick to the homemade version because it is versatile. I am sure as well that I can get down the ingredient cost because I didn't have much in q's for the nesquik at the time.

I know this is an unusual test, but hey in life all of it is a gamble...sometimes we just need to humor ourselves! For now I will stick my $11.90 in my pocket and run off to make some hot cocoa it sure is cold tonight! Bless you and yours.

Trial and Error Canning part 1

Well, well, well. Here I go again trying to find more corners to cut on this daily mission to make ends meet. Canning. We purchased a pressure canner a bit ago, but I had yet to try it out. Truly I was nervous as a jitterbug! We have a bit of a garden and I just can't see to waste a thing. On top of that we have an amazing produce market that dundundun....has a mark down rack!!!! So I can find a bunch of beans for a buck, etc. So why not take advantage of the produce market finds when I find them right?!!?!?

I am not sure what is with my body, but sometimes I crave bean salad. Weird, but I adore it! It is hard to find wax beans here, and since I am getting more mature I have found my adoration for vegetables.

Here is the clincher. I need your help...I am sure I messed up somewhere this first time. I blanched the wax beans when I found them on sale and tossed them in the freezer. After a couple of weeks I found the rest of the fixings for this salad. After thawing out the wax beans they felt weird. Can you freeze beans like that? Do you have any tips for canning?

Any help is appreciated I adore to hear your comments!

Here is my first batch of bean salad [I think I added too much liquid too...], and a jar of pickles easy enough.