Basic Cake Donuts

Red LOVES cake donuts.  I like all the wiz-bang gadgets on mine!  So...doing what any good wife would do....I made cake donuts!

I've made bagels before, they're slightly different and of course the consistency is quite drastic from the other.

These are fantastic, so simple and so good!

2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tblsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tblsps melted butter
1/2 cup of milk
1 beaten egg
1 quart of oil for frying

In a mixing bowl, sift sugar, flour, salt, nutmeg, baking powder together.  Add melted butter and stir until just combined.  Beat egg into the milk and mix.  Dough will be slightly sticky.

Heat oil to 350 degrees.

On a well floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut with round biscuit cutter and make small hole in the center of circle.  Drop donuts two at a time into the oil.  Fry for 2 minutes and let dry on paper towel lined plate.


Enjoy! :)
FOB Frahlich

Cinnamon Bread

Bread is so expensive!  I've been slacking a little on the bread making, and every time I make a fresh loaf I find myself asking why I even bother with the store bought stuff?  Cinnamon bread is one of those things that our family loves, but we go through it so quickly that I don't usually buy it!  Otherwise, I would find myself buying out the cinnamon bread every week at the store.  So instead, like a lot of things we keep around the house, I made a mass amount of it and froze it. 


I'm one of those odd ball people who own 5 loaf pans, so making bread is pretty simple for us.  With their being six of us though, its not really a lot. 

Especially when school is in session. 


Now I'm rambling....onto bread making!

1 cup of milk
1 stick of butter
2 1/2 tsps of active dry yeast
2 eggs
1/3 cup of sugar
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt

For the nice cinnamon swirl in the middle you'll need:
1/3 cup of sugar
4 tblsps of cinnamon

Melt butter with milk in a sauce pan over medium heat, make sure you don't boil! Cool milk and butter to where its warm enough to touch but not "I just burnt the Sh*t out of my finger!" hot.  Sprinkle the yeast of the top of the liquid and give it a gentle stir.  Allow it to sit for about 10 minutes.

Combine salt and flour.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix sugar and eggs until combined.  Pour in milk mixture and stir to combine.  Add half the flour and beat on medium speed until combined.  Add the other half and beat until combined. 

Now, depending on atmospheric conditions, yes its true, your dough may be more sticky than needed.  You can mix in 1/4 cup of flour at a time on low.  You never want to over mix dough.  Dough should be sticky, but not to the point of scraping it off your fingers. 

In a buttered bowl, toss the dough ball around to grease all sides and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hours.  Be patient with the dough.

Melt a couple tablespoons of butter.  Turn the risen dough out onto the work surface.  Roll into a rectangle and spread melted butter over the dough and generously coat the dough in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Starting at the end furthest from you, roll the dough toward you, horizontally, tightly. 

Place loaf in a heavily greased loaf pan, cover with a clean dish towel and let rise another two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 40 minutes. 

Savor the way your house smells......

And try not to eat the whole thing......

Pear Frangipane

I bought a cookbook for my 25th birthday. Its about 600 pages and has all sorts of amazing pastries, tarts, custards and cakes that you won't find in your typical cookbook.  Last night was the last Sunday Red will have off for awhile, so I decided to roast a couple of chickens, make a potato casserole and this little custardy piece of heaven for dessert!  This is one of those desserts that will wow the inlaws and trick everyone into thinking you slaved to make something this awesome!

Here's what you'll need:

A food processor
tart pan with removeable bottom or a pie plate will do

For the pastry:
1 Cup of all purpose flour
1/4 tsp of salt
6 tblsp cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
2 tblsps (or a little more) of ice cold water

Frangipane:
6 Tblsp butter
2/3 Cup granulated sugar
3/4 Cup of ground almonds
2 tsps all purpose flour
1 tsp corn starch
1 egg
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
3 soft, ripe pears(I used bartlett) peeled, cut in half lengthwise, cored then thinly sliced

For the pastry, place flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor.  Pulse to blend.  Add butter and pulse util  mixture resembles coarse meal.  Add ice water; pulse until ball barely forms.  Father into a ball; wrap with plastic wrap and refridgerate for 1 hour.

Preheat over to 375.

Roll out dough and place in tart or pie pan.  Bake crust for 20 minutes.  Let cool.

In food processor, place whole almonds and pulse until finely ground.  If you have more left over, store them in a container to put on ice cream later ;)

For Frangipane, place butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of a food processor; process until smooth.  Add almonds and blend.  Add flour, cornstarch, egg and egg white.  Process until smooth.  Add vanilla and almond extracts; blend well.

Spread frangipane in pastry.  Arrange pears in any design on the frangipane, lightly press pears into mixture.

 

 

Here it is right before going into the oven!  Your pears are going to "sink" a little, don't worry!  I also sprinkled some extra ground almonds on top before it went in!

 

 

Bake about 40 minutes, until frangipane is puffy and golden.

 

 

 

 

Enjoy! :)

 

FOB Frahlich

Sweet Garlic Glazed Chicken

Story of my life:  I was short on time the other night.  I didn't thaw anything out and our leftovers were all gone (and THAT is NOT the story of my life!).  So, I broke out my electric skillet.  If you don't have an electric skillet, your life isn't complete.  Its just that simple. 

So, I threw six frozen chicken breasts into the electric skillet, cranked it up to 400 and let them cook/thaw.  Then I did this......

 

 

Oh yes. 

 

Right before the chicken was cooked all the way through, I put a small saucepan on the stove with about 7 tablespoons of EVOO, 5 tablespoons of brown sugar and 5 cloves of fresh minced garlic.  I cooked this on medium heat until it got to a boil, whisking continuously, then glazed the chicken!  I put the lid back on the skillet for a few more minutes and this is what happened!

 

About to run out the door for our date night, I opted to throw some rice and broccoli in the steamer to serve with it!  Ahhhh-maaazzzziiinnnngggg!!!

 

The glaze would probably be pretty bombtastic if you put some freshly grated ginger in as well!  Maybe next time?

 

Enjoy :)

 

FOB Frahlich

Creamy Parsley Potatoes

This is a fantastic side dish, beats the dirt off of any boxed potato mix!  I have a big bottle or dried organic parsley that I keep on hand, but you're welcome to use fresh parsley as well!

7 medium russet potatoes
2 tblsp of butter, softened
1/2 cup of sour cream
1/4 cup of half and half--you could also use milk here
3 tblsps of dried parsley or finely chopped fresh
salt, to taste

Wash potatoes well, peel and slice into half dollar sized portions.  Add parsley, butter, sour cream, half and half and salt.  Stir until potatoes are coated well.  Place in a casserole dish with lid.  Cover and bake 375 for one hour or until potatoes are tender.

Banana Bread

This is such a great way to use up some bananas or when you find a bundle on major discount at the market! Make several loaves for the freezer!

2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup of melted butter
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 ripe mashed bananas

Mix all ingredients except bananas. Stir in mashed bananas. Add 1/2 cup if nuts and/or raisins if desired. Grease 2 loaf pans or one bundt pan. Bake until it passes the toothpick test at 350! Enjoy!!

Red's Favorite BBQ

This will be the shortest blog and quite possibly the easiest meal ever.

Pulled pork.

6lb pork shoulder
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce



In the crock pot, place fresh or frozen shoulder in crock, cover the top of the crock with foil, place lid on the crock and cook on high (if frozen) or low (if thawed) until bone separates from meat. Remove bone and shred pork. Add sauce! Devour.

Tortilla Soup

This is one of my favorite recipes! Its great in all seasons too!  Using mostly fresh ingredients its easy on the waistline as well.  I've been known to use chicken and steak in the soup too.  But you're always welcome to tweak it to your needs and desires!

Here's what you'll need:
4 poblano peppers
2 tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh cilantro
2 jalepenos diced
1 yellow or red onion, finely chopped
2 cups chicken, vegetable or beef stock
3 ears of corn
2 tblsps of EVOO
1 package of corn tortillas

 If you're able to fire your grill up, its actually better to use the grill.  If you're using the grill, leave the husks on the ears of corn, soak corn for 30 minutes and grill corn-in the husk-for about 25 minutes.  After they're cooked, remove husks and kernels.

Slice poblanos in half, cut off the tops and seed.  Place cut side down on the grill or broiler.  Cook until blackened and remove from broiler to cool.

In stock pot, heat oil on medium heat.  Add cilantro, jalepenos, onion and corn.  Cook until corn is slightly browned. Roughly chop poblano peppers and add to the pot.  Add tomatoes.  Cook for five minutes.  Add stock.  Cook on medium for 10 minutes then reduce to simmer.

Preheat oven to 400.  Stack tortillas, then with a pizza cutter, cut vertically making strips of the tortillas.  Place tortilla strips onto a cookie sheet and toss with some EVOO.  Bake for 5-10 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Serve tortilla strips in the soup, with shredded cheese and sour cream for garnish!

The soup freezes nicely, just remember to leave the tortilla strips out of the soup until you're ready to serve!

 

This was right before it went into the freezer!

 

Enjoy! :)

 

FOB Frahlich

Brownies

I've made brownies several different ways.  Sometimes with honey, coconut oil and whole wheat flour, sometimes with milk, sometimes with white sugar, sometimes with brown....it just really depends on the mood.  Each time it changes the texture and just slightly on the taste.  No matter what, they always turn out beatifully.

4 unsweetened squares of chocolate
3 eggs
1 cup of flour
2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 sticks of butter
1 tsp of vanilla


Melt butter and chocolate together on the stove or microwave.  Add all other ingredients;mix well.  In an 8x8 greased pan, add batter and bake to desired consistency. 

If you're like Red, you like the edges of your brownies well done!

Corn Souffle

.....or affectionately known in my family as, corn dish.  Simple, sweet and great for potlocks!

2 cans of creamed corn
1 box of jiffy cornbread mix
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
4 tblsps of onion flakes

Combine all ingredients in one bowl.  Pour the mixture into a greased casserole dish.  Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes or until edges are browned and center is cooked. 

Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon Syrup

Make these the night before for something scrumptious on a beautiful fall morning!  These are sure to hit the spot!

Pancakes:
3 cups of flour
4 1/2 Tblsp brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp all spice
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/3 cups of pumpkin puree
3 eggs
3 Tblsp coconut oil
3 Tblsp vinegar

Mix all ingredients well.  The mixture will be slightly lumpy. On a buttered griddle, ladel 1/4 cup per pancake mixture onto hot griddle.  Brown on both sides.  Yeilds 18 pancakes!

Cinnamon Syrup:
3 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar
6 Tblsp flour
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tsps vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan heat all ingredients to a boil.  Boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat.  Serve over pancakes!

Chicken and Dumplings

This recipe has been in my family for years.  Its a great comfort food.  Its something you can make for a large crowd.  Its easy on the budget and surprisingly easy to make.  It feeds our family of six for about three days! Here's what you'll need:

A very large stock pot
1 whole fryer chicken cut up
pepper to taste
salt to taste
1 cup of shortening
2 cups of flour
2 tsps of salt
1 cup of milk
2 beaten eggs
chicken bouillon cubes

For the stock, I do a plain broth.  You can add carrots, celery and/or onion if you wish.  But to me, then it seems more like a soup.  Place your cut up chicken in the large pot.  Cover with water.  Sprinkle in salt and pepper and add chicken bouillon cubes.  I typically use three and I go pretty heavy on it as it's a lot of water and chicken to season.  Bring to a boil and cook chicken all the way through.

While your chicken is cooking, start working on your dumplings.

In a large mixing bowl combine flour and salt; cut in shortening well.  Beat eggs and milk together and add to the flour mixture.  Mix well and turn dough out onto a floured surface.  Lightly knead the dough.  Dough will be sticky.  Roll dough out into a large rectangle about an 1/8 inch thick.  Then, with a pizza cutter, make several cuts vertically and horizontally.  This will give you around 200 one inch by one inch dumplings.  Transfer dumplings onto a plate and chill in the fridge for one hour.

 

After your chicken is thoroughly cooked, remove from pot and debone; discarding the bones and skin.  Let stock come to a boil.  Add meat back to the pot and season your stock again if need be.  Make sure stock is at a rolling boil and drop dumplings one by one into the pot.  Dropping dumplings all at once will result in one very large dumpling.  Dumplings will start to rise to the top of the water when they're cooked.  Reduce heat, simmer covered for 20 minutes.

 

 

 

 

This is what your pot should look like before the simmer.  Dumplings may "drop" further into the stock after 20 minutes. 

 

I wasn't able to get a "final" photo as these went pretty fast!!

 

Enjoy! :)

 

FOB Frahlich

 

Sunday Football Buffalo Chicken Dip

I'm a Packers fan, Red is a Browns fan. Good thing they're not I'm the same division! One thing we're both fans of...game day food!

In the crock pot cook up 4 chicken breasts. When cooked, drain water and shred finely. Add desired amount of Red Hot sauce, chopped bacon, ranch dressing and mix. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and cover until melted. Serve with chips! Yay football!

BBQ chicken quesadillas by Red

I made up some extra food to keep in the fridge the other day. One of the foods was a bowl of plain shredded chicken breasts. Yesterday, after Erik went down for his nap, Red and I were stuck with lunch ideas. When suddenly....the dream of BBQ chicken quesadillas came to mind!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that tortillas are a staple of ours. And this is why!

6 whole wheat soft shell tortillas
3 cups of shredded chicken breast
Some sweet baby rays BBQ sauce
Shredded provolone cheese

On a hot skillet, lay one tortilla on skillet, swirl some BBQ sauce around on the tortilla, sprinkle chicken and cheese and layer the top with another tortilla. After 2 minutes, flip and let cook for another 2 minutes. Cut into four triangles and be amazed!

Dinner rolls with cinnamon-honey butter

Hands down the best dinner roll that ever walked the face of the planet! It's also the easiest. If you're looking to wow your in laws on the next holiday then this is it!

1 cup of lukewarm water
2 tsp dry active yeast
1 egg
2 tblsp melted butter
3 1/2-4 cups of flour
1 tsp of salt
1/4 cup of honey

Place water in medium mixing bowl, sprinkle yeast on top and let stand for 5 minutes. Add egg, honey and salt; mix well. Stir in flour and knead with hands if need be to ensure everything is well incorporated.

Place dough in a buttered bowl, toss dough to butter all sides. Cover with a towel and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.

When dough has risen, roll into 12 balls and place on well greased cookie sheet. Let rise another 30 minutes. Bake at 350 for approximately 15 minutes.

For cinnamon-honey butter:

1 stick of room temperature butter
3 tsps of cinnamon
4 tsps of honey

Mix and mash adding more cinnamon or honey to taste!

Enjoy these amazing little wonders!

Cheeseburger Mac

This is super easy and budget friendly! It's great to make ahead of time, heat up in the morning and pack in the kids' thermoses for their lunch!

1 box of whole grain elbow macaroni
1/3 cup of chili sauce
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground mustard
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 lb ground round

In a large pot cook pasta accordingly. Brown ground beef in a skillet and set aside. Strain pasta, add chili sauce, ground mustard, pepper, cheese and beef. Mix well.

You could add finely shredded veggies in this as well. It's quick and beats the hell outta the boxed hamburger helper!

Cinnamon Rolls

This is hands down one of the best things I've ever made.  I love anything with cinnamon in it! Usually on Christmas mornings we have cinnamon rolls with our coffee and hot chocolate (recipe to follow for that as well!).  I have finally found a recipe that's quick, easy to follow and freezes beautifully!  This recipe makes between 40-50 rolls.

Dough:
1 quart of milk (whole or 2% is best)
1 cup of vegetable oil or butter
1 cup of sugar
2 packages of active dry yeast (1 package equals 2 1/4 tsps)
9 cups of flour
1 heaping teaspoon of baking powder
1 scant tsp baking soda
1 tblsp salt

Heat the milk, oil and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.  Be careful not to boil.  Set aside and cool to lukewarm.  Sprinkle yeast on top of the milk mixture and let sit for another minute.  Add 8 cups of the flour and salt.  Set aside in a warm place for one hour.  Add baking powder, baking soda and 1 cup of the flour, knead these ingredients well into the dough. 

Remove half of the dough from the bowl.  On a floured surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle.  About 30x10 inches.  Melt a stick of butter( you may need more, depending on how many logs you get out of your dough).  Mix desired amount of cinnamon and sugar together.  With a pastry brush, coat rolled dough with melted butter, sprinkle cinnamon sugar generously.  Starting with the end furthest from you, roll the dough up tightly, pinch seam closed and cut rolls about 1 1/2 inches apart. 

Place rolls in a buttered pie plate or baking dish.  Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes. 

 

Share the love with someone you know!

Chicken, veggie noodle crock

The crock pot is one of my favorite things! I make this on a Sunday night sometimes during the winter, reheat it in the morning and put it in thermos' for the kids to take in their lunches.  Its not the healthiest, but its budget friendly! And quick and easy!

In the crock, throw 3 chicken breasts and cook until the meat can be easily shredded.  Shred chicken, add one cup of water, a bag of noodles (your choice, but I use the old fashioned egg noodles), a bag of frozen mixed veggies and a can of cream of chicken.  Sprinkle in 2 tablespoons of ground pepper.  Continue cooking in crock pot on low until noodles are tender and everyone is happily married. 

Freezer Day: Breakfast bowls, burritos, corn dogs, nuggets!

This past week I've made myself crazy busy with stock piling food in the freezer.  Here at FOB Frahlich (FOB is Forward Operating Base for you civilian types), we take preparing for disasters seriously.  And getting three kids in school on time, with a one year old who doesn't like to sleep at night by myself is considered a disaster....or at least a recipe for one.  So, I decided that making a whole slew of meals for the freezer would lessen the burden of having to give the family a wholesome meal every night.  We're quite anti fast food and processed freezer food around here.  Although we do make exceptions sometimes. 

So for those of you who follow the blog, this has everything I've made so far in it.  I'm nowhere near finished.  But I'm happy with the progress thus far. 

God bless my husband, Red, for waking up with the kids when he's off work.  So to make his life a little easier in the morning, I made him some breakfast bowls.  You know the ones they sell at the store for like 4.99 each at the store?  Yeah you can make those for a lot less money, and most importantly, without all the crazy preservatives and who knows what else is in those things. 

So here's what I did for the breakfast bowls:
1 1/2 lbs of ground spicy mexican chorizo (of course you can use whatever sausage you want)
8 scrambled eggs
breakfast potatoes (4 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and cubed, fried in the skillet over some EVOO)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

After you've cooked all ingredients accordingly, get 4-6 freezer safe containers. They should be able to hold about a cup and a half (a couple of my containers were a little bigger, he'll probably get two servings out of those).  Start with the hashbrowns and layer from the bottom up.  Hashbrowns, eggs, sausage then sprinkle on the cheese.  You can take these directly from the freezer to the microwave OR take it out the night before, let it thaw and cook in a skillet.

Indvidual Beef, Bean and Cheese burritos:

2lbs of ground beef, the leaner the better

1 can of rotel tomatoes and chilis (or similar)

1 can of vegetarian refried beans

1 cup of cheddar cheese

15 8 inch flour tortillas

In a skillet, brown the ground beef.  Add rotel and and refried beans.  Cooked until beans are smooth.  Sprinkle in cheese and let melt into the mixture.  Spoon mixture into tortillas and roll the tortilla up.  Then wrap in foil. 

 

 

 

 

Chicken Nuggets is something else we seem to go through a lot of.  To make them a little healthier, we buy bulk skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut them into bite size/nugget sized pieces.  Its all pretty self explanatory--but I figured I would give you a basic batter recipe I use.

 

 

3 cups flour, I use whole wheat

4 tblsp ground black pepper

5 tbslp season salt

 

 

We recently made 120 nuggets.  I bagged them up in meal sized servings (based on how many each kid eats).  I dip the nuggets in an egg and milk bath, then batter them with the flour mixture and fry for about 4 minutes.  Dry them out on a paper towel lined plate. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mini Corn Dogs:

 

Guilty pleasure.  I love these! The breading isn't as thick.  Its more like a crust over the actual hot dog. 

 

 

Batter mix:

2 cups of corn meal

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tblsp black pepper

2 cups of flour

 

 

Cut your choice of hot dogs into thirds.  Dredge them in a bowl of plain flour, then egg and milk bath.  Roll the dogs in your cormeal mix.  Deep fry for 4 minutes.  Prepare to be amazed!

 

 

 

 

 

Other recipes I've posted that are freezer friendly:

 

http://sixdirtydishes.blogspot.com/2012/07/meatballs-and-bbq-sauce.html

 

http://sixdirtydishes.blogspot.com/2012/07/chicken-soup.html

 

http://sixdirtydishes.blogspot.com/2012/08/apple-dumplings.html

http://sixdirtydishes.blogspot.com/2012/07/french-toast-muffins.html

 

 

 

 

Chocolate Pecan Pie

This is probably my all time favorite pie! If not, its really close to coconut cream.  This is a big hit, especially with my Grandma In Law!  I made my own crust, but if you're not up for it, buy some crust!

Preheat oven to 350.

3 large eggs
3/4 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup sugar
2 tblsp butter melted
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

Beat eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla in medium bowl with wire whisk.  Stir in pecans. 

Place your crust in a lightly greased pie plate.  Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the crust, lightly press chips into the crust.  Pour egg mixture on top of the chocolate chips.  This will give you a nice layer of crust, chocolate then gooey filling!

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until set.  Cool completely in pan on cooling rack. 

Perfect for the holidays!

 

Egg Free Chocolate Cookies

A couple of weeks ago, Erik turned one year.  We had a big birthday party for him! Red's side of the family is HUGE and we have several friends who we are really close with.  A family that we have been friends with for years has a little boy that is HIGHLY allergic to eggs.  When I think about it, I don't know too many recipes that don't require eggs! Not wanting their little boy to feel left out by not being able to eat a piece of birthday cake, I dug out this recipe that I usually pull out around Christmas time for cookie trays.  I also have a Gingerbread Man recipe that is egg free that I'll eventually post! These are fantastic little chocolately gems!

Preheat oven to 400

1 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 tblsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups of flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp salt

Beat powdered sugar and butter at medium speed until creamy.  Add milk and vanilla, beating until blended.  Combine flour, cooca and salt.  Gradually add to butter mixture beating until blended. 

Shape dough into 1 inch balls, place 1 1/2 inches apart on lightly greased or parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Bake at 400 for 11-13 minutes or until tops of cookies just begin to crack.  Let cool on baking sheets for a couple minutes.  Move to cooling rack.  During the holidays I've been known to sprinkle the tops of these with powdered sugar as well!  Enjoy!