Parker House Rolls

Makes 3 dozen

• 1/2 cup melted (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more melted butter for brushing bowl
• 1 1/2 cups warm (115 degrees) milk
• 2 (1/4-ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 6 to 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

Directions

1. Brush a large bowl with butter; set aside. In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast over 1/4 cup milk. Let stand until soft, about 5 minutes. In another large bowl, combine butter, sugar, salt, remaining 1 1/4 cups milk, and egg. Whisk to combine. Whisk in yeast mixture.


2. Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour, 1 cup at a time, until you have a soft dough. Turn dough out onto a floured work surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, 5 to 10 minutes. Place in prepared bowl, turning to coat with butter. Cover with plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.


3. Punch down dough. Cut into 2 pieces. Invert bowl over dough, and let rest for 10 minutes. Working with one piece at a time, on a lightly floured surface, roll into a 12-inch square, about 1/3-inch thick. Cut into six 2-by-12-inch strips. Cut each strip into three 4-by-2-inch rectangles.


4. Brush rectangles with butter. Using the handle of a butter knife, crease rectangles slightly off center. Fold at crease. Arrange in rows, slightly overlapping, on buttered baking sheet, with shorter side facing down. Allow at least 1/4-inch of space between rows. Cover and let stand until doubled in bulk, 20 to 30 minutes.


5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush rolls with melted butter. Transfer to oven and bake until golden, about 17 minutes, if baking a single strip, about 25 minutes if baking 3 strips at a time (1/4 sheet pan). Remove from oven and brush once more with melted butter.


6. For freezing: shape rolls; arrange in same manner on parchment lined baking sheet. Transfer to freezer until frozen. Transfer to freezer bags. When ready to bake remove from freezer, arrange on buttered baking sheets. Cover with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place until defrosted, and doubled in bulk about 2 1/2 hours. Cook according to step 5, above.

Orange Cranberry Sauce

Growing up I never really cared for the gelatinous canned looking mass of supposed "cranberry sauce" that was sitting on the table during Thanksgiving. It did not taste anything like the jello it looked like.

But as I got older I thought I'd try some cranberry sauces, but homemade. My first homemade cranberry sauce was a bitter disaster. Blech. The Food Network recipes weren't completely working for me and I could never get it sweet enough. It seemed like a waste of sugar to me.

So I tossed the idea out the window.

Then a few Thanksgivings back I saw a recipe I think from Paula Dean that used canned whole cranberry sauce. At first I was amazed that canned cranberry sauce could have the berries in them too! LOL

So I tried the recipe and we fell in love with cranberry sauce for the first time ever!

I've tweaked it and modified it to our likings but it really is a great addition to the Thanksgiving table, when it tastes good.

Semi-Homemade Cranberry Sauce

*For best results make one day a head so it can marinate.*

1 can Whole Cranberry Sauce.
1 Large Orange (seedless preferablely)
¼ C finely chopped Walnuts *optional*
1 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp ground clove


In a bowl empty the can of cranberry sauce. Break up with a fork.

Cut the orange in half. Take one half of the orange and squeeze all of the juice you can from it into the cranberry sauce. Take the other half and cut off all of the rind. Don't peel it because you want to get to all of the juice pouches you can. Once the rind is cut off chop the orange into small pieces and add to the cranberry sauce mix.

Add the finely chopped walnuts, cinnamon, ground cloves, and the pinch of ginger. (You can add more or less of the spices you want to taste)

Mix together well.

Cover and chill for 6-12 hours (18-24 hours is best) so the sauce can marinate and absorbe all of the flavors.

Remove from fridge and either let it reach room temp or serve chilled with your Thanksgiving dinner.

Yummy!

Delicious Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls

Dough

2.5 c. warm water
2 TBS. Sugar
2 TBS. Yeast
2 tsp. salt
5 TBS. butter or margarine
6.5 c. flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix water, sugar and yeast, let rise 15 min. (I usually put it in a stainless steel bowl and put in on the center of the stove, because it's getting warm and it helps it rise faster). In a large bowl mix flour, butter, and salt. Then add yeast mixture, and knead until dough is soft. I usually add about 2 TBS. of olive oil to the bowl, or you can use any other kind of oil, this helps it from ticking to the bowl. Let it rise in a warm area until really light.

This is a GREAT basic dough for bread, pizza crust, cinnamon rolls or dinner rolls.

Bake for 15-20 min.at 400º for crusts & rolls

For Bread bake for 30 min. at 350º degrees.

Cinnamon Roll Fillings

1C Brown Sugar
5Tbsp Cinnamon
1 stick butter

Remove the margarine from the refrigerator once you've started the dough cycle and allow it to reach room temperature. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon.

After the dough cycle has completed, roll and stretch the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a 15" by 24" (38 cm by 61 cm) rectangle.

Mark off 1" along the 24" edge of the dough, closest to you. You will not spread any Margarine or Sugar-Cinnamon mixture on this edge so that you can seal the roll. Spread the softened Margarine over the dough with a rubber spatula and then evenly distribute the Sugar and Cinnamon mixture. Be careful to leave your 1" edge clean. As a final step, use your rolling pin to lightly roll the Sugar and Cinnamon mixture.

Starting at the far edge of the dough, roll it up tightly. Begin at the far edge and roll up the dough toward the 1" clean edge. The clean 1" edge is used to seal the finished roll. Trim the left and right ends of the roll. The result will be a 24" roll. Trim off the left and right ends of the roll so that you have a flush end at each end of the roll. Then mark the roll every 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm). Cut the roll into 1 1/2" long portions. This may be done with a knife, as they do at the store. However we've found it easier to use dental floss. (We use cinnamon flavored dental floss just for dramatic effect!) Cut the roll by placing the thread under the roll at your mark, crisscross over and pull it to cut. You should get 15 rolls.

Line your baking pans with parchment paper. Place 5 rolls into 8" square baking pans 1" apart. (One roll in each corner, and one in the center.) Cover with a lint free cloth and let rise in a warm, draft free place until almost double, approximately 1 hour. After rising, rolls should be touching each other and the sides of the pan. This is important for best results. This gives the resulting rolls the soft, moist outer edge that most people prefer.

After rising, bake in a convection oven at 310°F for 15 minutes. If you are using a conventional oven, bake at 335°F for 20 minutes. The resulting rolls should be only lightly browned. We bake only one 8 inch square pan of rolls at a time to obtain uniform results.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4oz Cream Cheese - room temp
1 stick butter - room temp
1¾C Confectioners Sugar
1tsp Vanilla (preferably Alcohol Free)
1/8 tsp lemon flavoring (preferably Alcohol Free)

in a bowl cream together cream cheese and butter for 6 mins. Add 1 Cup of the powdered sugar and mix for another minute. Add the remaining sugar and again min for 1 minute. Lastly add the flavorings and again mix for 1 minute.

Transfer the finished frosting to a convenient covered container and refrigerate it. Once the rolls are finished baking, frost them while they're still very warm and serve them immediately. Yum, yum!

Our Family's Rich Hot Chocolate Mix

Last year I found these wonderful tupperware like bins at Wal-Mart, and while I wish they were twice the size, they do well for most of my bulk foods; like Oatmeal, sugar, flour, rice, and more. This bin holds about 15-20 lbs of sugar or flour and this recipe pretty much fills this bin. But it is worth it in the end

BEST Hot Chocolate Mix
40.7oz/2.54lbs Can of Nesquick - (72 serving can)

58oz/2lbs Swiss Miss Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix in a can

22oz/1.6lbs Non Dairy Powdered Creamer

16oz Hershey's Baking Cocoa - Natural Unsweetened

2 - 11.5oz pkg Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

Mix together in a large bin (I also have used a 3gal bucket), until well blended and incorporated. You do this by sealing the lid and then rocking the bin back and forth and side to side until you can no longer see the layers. I usually do this in front of the TV for a good 20 minutes or so.










*Yes I know *well* is misspelled as *will*.Deal with it. :D*

We mix this together at the beginning of the season and - YUM! We just love this!

Once mixed
¼ Cup scoop for 8oz. of liquids (hot water or milk)
½ Cup scoop for 16oz of liquids




Okay! So, once you have the mix set this is how you make a mug of Hot Cocoa. In our house we have HUGE mugs and normal mugs. I'll show you how to prepare both.



In either mug, fill 3/4 full of water and microwave on HIGH for a good 3-4 minutes. You want the water as hot as you can get it to help melt the chocolate bits.


*I actually no longer add the Hershey Syrup, it is just optional now.*
In the normal mug add about 1½ scoops of the Hot Cocoa Mix, you of course can add more or less to it.

In the HUGE mug we use between 3-4 scoops depending on the chocolate mood I am in. Normally it's 4 scoops, which is, yes, 1C of the mix. - mind you the mug is 4 times the size of the smaller mug.

Now mix well, making sure the chocolate bits are melted as well as possible.

Then add in some Chocolate Syrup, to taste. It's not measured out so add as much or as little as you'd like. This is to help sweeten the bitterness of the baking cocoa and the bittersweet chocolate bits.



Now add in the milk to top off the mug, and stir again. This adds to the richness, and the creaminess as well as helps to cool it off enough to get to drinking! If you want it warmer then you can always microwave it again for another 30seconds to 1 minute.

I KNOW this is NOT a cheap mixture to make. I certainly wasn't going for cost effectiveness when I set out to make this mix. I was going for a perfectly rich and tantalizing mug of cocoa. It is one of my favorite winter drinks and those childhood packets never did anything for me. It always took at least 2-3 to get the richness I was looking for.

Even still a bin like this can last about 2-3 months, unless it's been really cold out.

Check out how to use this mix for an EXCELLENT Starbucks copycat Double Chocolately Chip Frappe!!