Buttery Rosemary Crescent Rolls

  A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Daren's family was together at his parent's house yesterday afternoon for lunch and everyone brought a dish to help out with the meal. I love to bake bread so I had offered to make that. 
  I wanted to make an herb-y type of bread for something different. I searched for awhile to find a recipe for what I had in mind and never did find exactly what I was looking for, but found a few that gave me some ideas to go by. I ended up making the Crescent Rolls that we served at our wedding and then just tweaked them to get the end results I was hoping for. 

Buttery Rosemary Crescent Rolls

 Yield: 24-32 rolls

 1 tbsp yeast

2 tbsp warm water

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp salt

2 cups warm milk

6 cups flour

3/4 cup butter, softened

Dissolve yeast  in warm water. Add milk, sugar, egg, salt and 3 cups flour. Mix well {I mixed them in my Kitchen-aid and it was great! } Add butter and rest of flour. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Divide dough in half. On a floured surface roll each piece into a 12" circle. Cut into 12 or 16 pie shaped wedges. Stretch the wedges a bit wider wider and longer. Roll up from the wide end. Lay on greased cookie sheet point side down. Let raise 1 hour. 

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with a little course salt and fresh or dried rosemary. Bake @ 350* for 15-20 minutes. Brush with more melted butter and let cool.

mmmm...fresh-from-the-oven bread

   Since this made 32 rolls and I was to fix for 30 or so people I thought I would probably need a little more.....so I baked a loaf of French Bread on Saturday night and then Sunday before we went to his parents I beat an egg and brushed it on top of the baked loaf of bread. I then layed some sprigs of fresh dill  across the top and brushed a little more egg wash over it to make sure they stuck. Bake @ 350* for about 5 minutes or until the egg wash is no longer runny. I was in a hurry and forgot to take pictures of the finished product :/ so the description will have to do this time.....It did look really pretty =)

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Enter His gates with thanksgiving

and His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His

name.

For the Lord is good and His love

endures forever;

His faithfulness continues through

all generations.

~ Psalm 100:4&5   

Blessings, =)

♥ Sheila  

Grilled Mac 'n Cheese

  Need a quick & easy supper idea? Thinking soup & grilled cheese, but you would like to change it up a bit? Then try this yummy comfort food grilled between two slices of bread! I had one of these when Daren & I were in Charleston, S.C. this summer. We had stopped at a cute little restaurant for lunch and they served a lot of fun things like this. I thought the sandwich was really great, just hadn't tried to make them yet...
  Since it was sorta rainy this evening & I didn't have lots of time to fix anything too fancy, I decided it would be a good time to make these. They were easy peasy and oh-so yummy! =) We were eating a gooey, melty, cheesy sandwich with homemade tomato soup in no time.

Grilled Mac 'n Cheese

Prepare the mac and cheese to suit your taste. I cooked & drained

the macaroni then added sharp cheddar cheese, a little Velveeta,

some milk, pepper & chili powder. Stir over low heat until 

the cheese is all melted.

I then spread a little mayo on

four slices of bread. Spoon the mac 'n cheese onto two slices of bread.

And since I'm a cheese lover I added some slices of

the sharp cheddar cheese on top of the macaroni.

Put a slice of bread on top

and place into a skillet that has had butter melted in it. Mash the sandwich

with something heavy while it is grilling on the first side. When

it has browned to suit you, flip and grill the other side to your specs.

Remove from the skillet slice in half and your ready for that 

first warm, cheesy bite. yummmm!

  I must say after eating this I was kinda wishing that I was back in Charleston...If you've never been there I would definitely say it should be on your list of places to go. Our stay there was much too short, and we're hoping to go back at some point. It really is an amazing place to visit!

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Praise be to the Lord, to God our

Savior, who 

daily bears our burdens.

~Psalm 68:19

Blessings,

♥ Sheila 

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

  Yes, I just love cupcakes...and when I saw these I knew that I had to make them! They were so cute! =)  I needed a snack to take to an apple butter boiling at my parents on Saturday and thought these would be perfect. I had to make a quick trip to the store that morning to get candy canes and then I got busy baking.

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

yield: 12 cupcakes

 1 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup milk

Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until smooth & creamy. Add eggs and vanilla beating until fluffy. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Mix in on low speed alternately with the milk; beginning and ending with the flour. Fill paper lined tins and bake @ 350* for 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
Topping:
2 cups 10x sugar
1/4 cup shortening
2 tbsp+2 tsp milk 
1 1/4 cup mini marshmallows
3 peppermint candy canes*
Beat sugar, shortening and milk until smooth. Spread on the cupcakes. Top with 8-9 marshmallows. With a serrated knife cut the unwrapped candy canes into 2" pieces. Unwrap and tuck a piece into each cupcake.

* I couldn't find regular size  candy canes so I just used mini ones. I cut off the curved part and crushed it up and sprinkled it over the icing before topping with the marshmallows. Gave them a bit of a mint flavor that was quite yummy =)

**I also made a recipe and a half because I wanted some to take to our church fellowship meal on Sunday. Hence the more that 12 cupcakes that you can see...

 

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I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For He has clothed me with garments
of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe 
of righteousness....
~ Isaiah 61:10a


Much love =)
♥ Sheila