Homemade Egg Rolls

While the photos for this post are pulled from my Xanga archives, Egg Rolls were made in my home today.  I thought you'd like to see how it's done and share in my recipe for these tasty treats.

In the above photo you see many of the ingredients: slaw mix, onion, garlic, ginger root (on the cutting board in the foreground) soy sauce and egg roll wrappers.  Today I also included some frozen chopped oriental vegetables and red and yellow bell peppers that I'd diced. 

Cook slaw mix, vegetables, garlic and ginger over low heat until tender.  I don't add water but do add about 1 tbsp olive oil and then clamp on the lid and steam cook. When tender add about 2 tbsps soy sauce. Allow to cool.

Separate egg roll wrappers and lay about 2-3 tbsps of cabbage mix on the diagonal of the wrapper.

Roll the first corner up over the vegetable mix, then tuck in the corners like this:

and continue to roll away from you until you have a neat little packet.

Place on a greased cookie sheet and brush with oil.  Bake at 400F for about 20 minutes until lightly browned and crisp.  The end photo here shows a batch I made without the oil and baked on parchment.  They were good, but the ones brushed with oil have less tendency to break open and have a light crisp texture. 

1 bag of slaw mix generally will make about 20 egg rolls.  These freeze well after baking and may be reheated in the microwave for 1-2 minutes depending on the wattage of your microwave.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

My friend who introduced me to this dish, insists that it is a salad...and in the South, she's probably right because that gives us an excuse to go on and eat dessert, too!  This recipe is not mine, but was found on this site:  http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/Judys-Strawberry-Pretzel-Salad/Detail.aspx  My friend always makes this dessert, urhm, I mean salad, in a 13 X 9 inch pan.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
• 4 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (6 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Mix together the pretzels, 4 1/2 tablespoons sugar and melted butter. Press into the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Set aside to cool completely.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the sugar and cream cheese until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spread evenly over the cooled crust. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together the gelatin mix and boiling water. Mix in frozen strawberries, and stir until thawed. Pour over cream cheese mixture in pan. Refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 1 hour.

Old Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings

I didn't take a photo of my chicken and dumplings the other day and I've no idea why.  Here's how I made them. 

I boiled together 3 thighs and 2 breasts in enough water to cover them.  I added in carrot, celery leaves and onion (about 1 whole, but in my case I used a bag of onion cast-offs from my freezer).  DO NOT SALT.  This will make the broth cloudy.  You can add whole peppercorns and a bay leaf however.  Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes or longer until chicken is tender. 

Let cool.  Remove chicken and strain broth to remove onions, etc.

Heat broth in big Dutch oven.  It should be at least 1/2 pan full.  Add water if necessary to bring to that level.  Salt and pepper to taste. 

Strip chicken of skin and bone and pull into nice chunks.  I like to pull the chicken apart rather than cut it, because really chicken and dumplings is a rustic old fashioned dish.  Put chicken meat back into broth. 

Mix dumplings as follows:
Dumplings:
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup water
2 small eggs
3 cups flour (all purpose; if you do use self rising leave out salt)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well blended and formed into a dough ball.  Remove and place on a flat floured surface.  Roll out as thinly as you can.  1/16 inch gives a more noodle like feel to the dumplings.  I personally like them just a little thicker about 1/8 inch.

I used my pizza cutter to cut the dough into long strips about 1 inch wide and then across the strips into about 3 inch lengths.

Be sure that broth is up to a slow boil.  Begin to drop dumplings in a few at a time.  Do not worry about piling them up on one another.  Don't rush and hurry with this.  Just be methodical about it.  I lay strips over my forearm and then move to the pot and drop them in one at a time, then move back to the board and pick up my strips.  When all the dumplings are in the pan, put the lid on and turn heat down to low.  This should keep the broth at about a good simmering point.  Do NOT lift the lid to look.  Walk away for 20 minutes then look all you'd like.

Gently stir.  The dumplings should be plump and the broth will be slightly thickened.  Add 1 cup evaporated milk and if you'd like sprinkle over parsley and stir gently again. 

Serve in deep soup bowls right away, or refrigerate and heat the next day over very low heat or in crock pot.  The broth will now be more like a gravy than broth.  I prefer the fresh dumplings in the milky broth myself, but that is not traditional for my family.  They prefer them less liquid.

Rhonda's Grandpa's Bread

I'm going to put this down just as I did it.  Rhonda's page has a number of suggestions for substitutions and variations.  In fact, I suggest you read her blog period because it's loaded with lots of good ideas for using what you have at home to make all sorts of wonderful things!

2 cups warm water
1 package yeast
1 t salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
about 6 cups of flour

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water.  Add salt, then pour into mixing bowl.  Add oil and most of the flour.  (If you are experienced with breadmaking then you'll know that all of the flour isn't always necessary.  Even though it was a very wet day, I needed only 5 1/2 cups flour.  I reserved the extra 1/2 cup).

 Mix well, then knead until you have a smooth dough. I let my mixer do all the work for me.  When the dough came together forming a ball and all the flour was incorporated, I stopped beating.

Let dough rise in an oiled bowl, covered with a clean kitchen towel, until at least double in size.

Punch down. Dump out onto a floured surface (using that reserved flour) and knead lightly. Shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans and cover.

Let rise again, until at least double. Remove cover.

Bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes.

Rhonda's site with her photos and instructions:
http://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/search?q=grandpa%27s+bread

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Aren't these biscuits just beautiful?  They were so tender we could barely split them to butter them.

When I began cooking years ago, Mama and Granny used bread 'bowls' to make their biscuits.  Mama's was an old tin bowl (I'd give my eye teeth to have it but she's still using it) and Granny used a wooden dough board (I have one of those above my cabinets).  They kept flour in these bowls and when they wanted to make biscuits they eyeballed it and added more flour if they thought it necessary.  Then they made a well in the middle of the flour and put in shortening or lard, and then buttermilk and they squished the shortening between their fingers until it flecked the buttermilk. 

When they judged the shortening and buttermilk was properly mixed they began to gently scoop a little flour from the sides of the well into the wet mixture, turning the bowl as they worked until they had formed a dough.  When the dough had the right feel to it, they'd pinch off a golf ball sized bit of dough and gently pat it in floured hands until they'd formed a perfectly smooth little biscuit.  Into the pan it went and they began to form the next one.  It was an awesome process to watch, truly it was.

It was also not easy to master... My first biscuits looked like horned toads.  They were absolutely inedible.  I tried several times and my family teased me unmercifully about my ugly rocks.

Then one day I discovered a recipe in a Better Homes and Gardens book for Biscuits Supreme.  Perfect biscuits were mine at last.  Not my mother's, nor Granny's, method of biscuit making but they were light and fluffy and delicious.  My family was in awe.  My biscuits were requested day after day.  It is that same recipe I use to this day.

Years and years ago I found a recipe to use up leftover Sweet Potatoes in that old fashioned cookbook I love so much, The Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook.  I loved that I had another way to use up sweet potatoes. 

This recipe is a combination of the two recipes.  The biscuits are tender, have a lovely golden orange color and a slightly earthy taste.  I think I'd like to try this recipe sometime as a cinnamon roll.  I can just imagine the flavors would combine very nicely.  Tonight I didn't mash my sweet potatoes as the recipe says to do.  Instead I dumped in whole peeled baked sweet potatoes and there were some larger flecks of sweet potato through out the dough.  The biscuits were definitely golden, but I've used other varieties of sweet potatoes and the biscuits were more pumpkin orange in color, so note the color can vary.

Penny's Sweet Potato Biscuits
2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsps baking powder
2 tbsps sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sweet potato
1 cup milk

Sift dry ingredients together.  Add shortening to the dry ingredients.  Cut in until resembles coarse crumbs ( I've been using my electric mixer for this step.  It works beautifully). 

Mix mashed sweet potato and milk.  Add to the shortening/flour mixture.  Blend until a soft dough forms.  Turn out onto surface with an additional 1/2 cup flour spread on it.  Knead dough at least ten times.  Add a little more flour if necessary.  Dough should be smooth and feel similar to the meaty portions of your palm in tenderness.

Pat dough to 3/4 inch thickness.  I prefer a more or less circular shape and then I cut circles (using an 8 ounce tomato sauce can that I've removed top and bottom from) but you could form into rectangle and cut into squares if you wish. 

Place in ungreased baking pan.  I used a 13 X 9 pan which gave softer sides.  For crusty sides use a cookie sheet instead and allow space between the biscuits.

Bake at 425F for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

My recipe made 15 nice sized biscuits tonight.   

Pancake Syrup - Homemade Tightwad Gazette

I've tried other recipes for pancake syrup and passed up using this one from The Tightwad Gazette because it called for a few more ingredients than others.  Let me just say that I'm sorry I bothered.  The other syrups were very watery and lacked body and flavor.  This recipe delivers all of the above and then some.  It's a lovely deep color, tastes wonderful and has a nice body once it's been refrigerated.  I made up only 1/2 a recipe but next time I'll make up the full batch.  It's become my 'Go To' recipe for pancake syrup.

Pancake Syrup

3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups water
3 Tbsps molasses (this adds a little more flavor but you can substitute corn syrup if you'd prefer)
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp butter flavoring (optional)
1 tsp maple extract

Combine all in a deep saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves (about three minutes should do it).  Turn off burner, leave pot on burner until bubbling stops.  Bottle in sterilized pint jar.

Chocolate Syrup - Homemade Tightwad Gazette recipe

My kids loved chocolate milk...Okay, I confess, I loved chocolate milk, too...But even on sale the bottles of Hershey's chocolate syrup were expensive.  I grew up on Hershey's and frankly that's the only one that tasted good to me, so it's the only one I'd buy.  We loved it over ice cream, one of the kids would sneakily apply it to pancakes on occasion, we'd have chocolate milk and hot cocoa...and when it was gone it would be many weeks and sometimes months before we could purchase it again.  It just wasn't on our regular shopping list you see, because for us it was strictly a luxury item.  Funny how sometimes even when the money isn't so tight we'll keep certain items on that back list as 'luxury' isn't it?

I came across this recipe in Tightwad Gazette years ago.  To me, it's better than Hershey's syrup. I love that I know exactly what goes into the syrup, none of those odd, unpronounceable ingredients. I've had an old Hershey's syrup bottle for years now and once cooled, I pour this syrup into that bottle.  It costs less than half the price of a bottle of Hershey's to make up this recipe. 

Chocolate Syrup

1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix cocoa, water, sugar in a deep saucepan.  Stir to combine.  Heat over medium low heat, stirring occasionally until syrup comes to a rolling boil.  Lower heat and stir constantly.  Do not walk away as this will boil over.  Boil for 3 minutes until all sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Add vanilla and salt and allow to cool unless putting in a sterilized glass jar (1 pint size).  Store in refrigerator.