Get Crafty and WIN Stitching for the Kitchen!

Bacon, Shrimp, Spinach Mini Pizzas

Bacon, Shrimp, Spinach Mini Pizzas

Ingredients                                                           

Prepared Pizza Crust (I made ours home made)

  divided into 8 pieces---

4 pieces bacon (cut into little pieces)

2 hand fulls Shrimp (cut up into small pieces)

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves sliced thinly

3c aprox fresh spinach

sour cream

cheese

ranch dressing

Preheat oven to 400

Clean spinach and take off the stems

Fry bacon until brown and crisp--set aside.

Using the bacon grease saute shrimp, onion and garlic--set aside

Saute spinach so that it is only wilted looking

Arrange all ingredients on mini pizzas

Cook pizzas for 10-15 min

   

Fiesta Bubble Bread---Gooseberry Patch video

Ingredients 
1/2c butter melted
1 1/2c shredded Mexican blend cheese
1/4c shredded mozzarella  cheese
10oz jar slices jalapeno peppers drained
1tsp dried parsley
2 12oz tubes refrigerator biscuits, cut into quarters

July's Ingredient is Garlic (posting 1 of July's ingredient)

One of my favorite recipes with garlic is Honey Garlic Chicken--so along with other experiments in the kitchen this is one of my goals is to find the best Honey Garlic Chicken recipe.


So far this month: 
1) I boiled garlic gloves with my potatoes when making potato salad---it gave a very delicate garlic taste that went well with the salad 
2) Tried a couple different Honey Garlic Chicken recipes
3) Perfected Chicken Cashew Stir Fry
4) Added it to my hash browns (potatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, salt, black pepper) and that was very nice--yummy yummy
5) Made pizza sauce 
6) Created a spinach/garlic/shrimp mini pizzas, that I loved---Dan didn't like the spinach
7) Found out when adding garlic to a pan to add it with your last ingredient so it doesn't burn and so you can get optimal flavor


Images: http://webmalayalee.com/portals/2010/12/19/garlic-can-reduce-risk-of-arthritis/

Ingredient of the month

I've decide to choose every month one ingredient to spot light. It will be an ingredient that I will study and play around with in my kitchen and than periodically report on what I've found as well as what recipes I've tried and invented.

Split Pea Soup

2c split peas (dry)
1 1/2c ham
2 medium/large carrots
2 stalks celery
1c onion
9c water (as the soup cooks, check periodically to make sure there is enough liquid, you don't want to let it dry out, because it will burn)
2tsp salt (probably will need to add more just for taste)
2tsp garlic powder
1 bay leaf
black pepper to taste

Add ingredients to crock pot and cook for 8 hours slow.

Soup is done when the split peas are nice and smooth.

To serve you can add some Franks Hot Sauce

Nutritional information about split peas
http://www.livestrong.com/article/344927-are-split-peas-healthy/

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2521/2

Soft Wheat Rolls for Hamburgers or Sandwiches

The other day my husband requested home made hamburger rolls-----

So I looked through all my recipe books and found nothing (these are just some of my favorites)

Finally I looked on the internet and found a recipe that I adjusted to our diet

This recipe is a keeper!!!

my husband loved the rolls

The original recipe called for white and wheat flour----We don't use processed white flour any more in our cooking, but just plain wheat can be a bit too bitter for my taste so I used a combination of Wheat Flour (home ground) and Oat Flour (home ground)

This is our grinder---it's a Vita-Mix that is used quite a bit in our house for multi uses

Right side is the wheat and left side is oatmeal

Oatmeal before and after grinding it

Wheat before and after grinding it

Closer look at the Vita-Mix---makes flour, smoothies, soups...

Food storage Oats

Food storage Wheat

Other ingredients; yeast, egg, water, organic sugar, Himalayan salt, shortening

The dough came out to nice

Finished rolls--Hamburger rolls

This one didn't come out too well--I'm not so sure what happened to it???

Nice and fluffy

They look like artisan rolls

I could tell it was a hit when there was a half of a roll eaten on the cooling rack, before they even could totally cool

The Recipe

The original recipe that I found was at

http://www.food.com/recipe/whole-wheat-hamburger-and-hot-dog-buns-bread-machine-169916

I used this recipe as a spring board to experiment with the ingredients I wanted to use----I really like the reviews for this recipe---but I changed the ingredients to suite our taste and they came out so nice and tasty--they're a favorite for our family now

Where I live is very high in altitude so besides changing a couple of ingredients I had to place the ingredients into the bread machine differently too

                                                                     

1 cup warm water (I used warm water because the yeast doesn't grow as fast in the high climates)

3 teaspoons yeast

1/4 cup sugar (I used organic sugar)

1 egg                                                                                     

Allowed these ingredients to sit together for about 15 min so the yeast could start to work (due to high altitude) 

2 1/4c Wheat flour                                                                                                                    
3/4c Oat Flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup sugar

Their Directions:

1 Place all ingredients in bread pan, select Dough setting, and press Start. 

2 When dough has risen enough, the machine will beep. Remove bread pan, and turn out dough onto a floured counter-top  Gently roll and shape the dough into a 12-inch rope.

3 With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces for hamburger buns or 12 pieces for hot dog buns.

4 Grease a baking sheet. Roll pieces of dough into balls and flatten for hamburger buns or shape into 6-inch rolls for hot dog buns. Place on prepared baking sheet. Cover and let rise in warm oven 10 to 15 minutes until almost doubled.

5 Preheat oven to 400°F Bake 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown (be careful mine cook pretty fast). Remove from oven and cool on racks. When ready to use, split buns horizontally. These will keep in plastic bag in the freezer for 3 to 4 weeks.

My comment on their directions; step 4 you don't need to grease non stick pans