Mennonite Monday - Salad Dressing

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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I'm not going to lie, I had no plan for Mennonite Monday this week.  Last week was a busy week, so I didn't take the time to plan out my Mennonite Monday recipe, so I chose this one because I had all the ingredients on hand and it was something I could quickly make at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday evening.  However, I have very glad I chose to make the Salad Dressing recipe (pg 128Y).  I have been looking for a sweet savory salad dressing all summer, and this was exactly what I was wanting.  

Salad Dressing

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup salad oil

1/4 cup vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Shake and store in refrigerator. 

 Sugar and oil 

 vinegar

 Salt

 Pepper

 Mixing

 Unfortunately my lettuce was getting a little old, so this may not be the most appetizing, but trust me it is a nice dressing to use when you need a little bit of a change.  

  

Mennonite Monday - Cherry Rolls

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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This week I made Cherry Rolls (pg 24W) because it was the poll winner last week.  I was a little nervous about making these because I have never attempted baking at this level and I'm not very good at rolling out dough. It either sticks to the rolling pin or the table or I use to much flour and it gets tough.  With that said I was a little skeptical going in, and I told Mike there was a chance that he could take cherry rolls to coffee if they turned out, but I wasn't making any promises.  Luckily, they turned out very well for my first try and he was able to take them to coffee.   

Cherry Rolls

2 Package Dry Yeast 

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup warm water

1/3 cup butter

1 tsp salt

1 cup milk (scalded) 

2 eggs, well beaten

3 1/2 cups flour

Soften yeast in warm water for 5 minutes.  Combine sugar, butter, salt and milk in large bowl.  Cool to lukewarm.  Stir in eggs and dissolved yeast.  Blend in  1 1/2 cups flour.  Beat well.  Stir in 1 cup flour.  Add sufficient flour to knead keeping dough as soft as possible.  Let rise until doubled in bulk.  Punch down and let dough rest 10 minutes.  to shape, roll dough into rectangle.  Spread with melted butter and sugar, fold in half, cut into narrow strips and twist from both ends then turn into a round roll.  Let rise, then bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes (until light brown).  Remove from oven and top (while hot) with cherry pie filling (pineapple or blueberries are also good).  Drizzle with frosting. 

 My yeast set for more than 5 minutes because it took a while to scald the milk and get everything ready, so by the time I was ready to use the yeast it had grown significantly. 

 Mixing the ingredients went pretty easy so, I don't have pictures of that, but it isn't anything out of the norm. 

 Half way through adding the flour. 

 I added flour until the dough started to form a ball, but wasn't extremely thick. 

 The dough was very soft and this was the point when I thought the rolls would be a flop because I kind of shook the bowl after the dough had rose and it just deflated down, which didn't look like good sign.  I went ahead and used the dough and it turned out fine, so maybe it was suppose to be that way.

 The dough rolled out surprisingly well. 

 Adding butter

 Adding the sugar.

 I cut my strips about 1 1/2 inches thick with a knife, which seemed to be a good size. 

  I tried a few larger and a few smaller strips and in the end they all worked the same.

For some reason the server rejected the rest of my photos from making this recipe, so I will end with the final product. I will keep trying to work with the pictures and upload them, but you will just have to wing it until then if you try this recipe.   

Before - Bedroom Edition

Mike and I have been doing some home improvement projects lately. To keep you in suspense I'm going to break down the work by rooms.  First I will be showing the before pictures and the after pictures will follow as the rooms are complete.

Here are the before pictures of our downstairs guest bedroom.

It was pretty much a box, with bright blue carpet. The door frame to the right led to a bathroom.

This is the other end of the room.  It really wasn't a nice place to stay... sorry friends who have had to stay in this room, but now it is much much better. After pictures will follow next week, so stay tuned.

 

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Mennonite Monday - Mulberry Muffins

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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 After picking mulberries with Jodi in June, I have been thinking about the different ways I can use mulberries in recipes.  I came across a recipe for mulberry muffins (pg 33W) and I knew I needed to try it.  I was very impressed with these muffins.  They mixed together easily and tasted really good.  

Mulberry Muffins

2 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 Tbl sugar

3 Tbl melted butter

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 cup mulberries

Measure flour and reserve 3 Tbl to dust berries.  To remaining flour add baking powder, salt and sugar.  Add beaten egg and melted butter to milk and combine with dry ingredients. Fold in berries.  Drop by spoonful into greased muffin tins.  Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.  Yields: 12-15 muffins. 

 Dry ingredients.

 Egg, baking powder, salt and sugar. 

Adding the dry ingredients.

 Mulberries with flour. 

 Mixing in mulberries. 

 Batter.

 I filled the muffin tins 3/4 full. 

 They were golden brown after 25 minutes. 

Eating warm muffins with butter is the best.

NEXT WEEK: Cherry Rolls (wish me luck they are going to test my cooking ability)

Check your Garden Everyday

I have to relearn this rule of thumb every year about this time.  I think I can leave the garden alone for a few days and low and behold...

I have a 15 inch cucumber.  My zucchini were mammoth. Way to big to do anything with.    I didn't get a picture, but the three zucchini that were on the plant sucked all the life out of it and now it is dead. So much for zucchini bread.

Mennonite Monday - Chicken Gumbo

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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Last week you voted for Chicken Gumbo (pg 149W) and this recipe turned out to be very good.  The best part is that you make it the night before and then leave it in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook it. I cut the recipe in half, so that is why my pictures will be a little different than the actual recipe.

Chicken Gumbo 

9 slices bread

4 cups cooked chicken

1/2 cup mayonnaise

4 eggs, beaten

1 tsp salt

9 slices cheese

1/4 cup melted butter

1 cup milk

1 cup chicken broth

2 cans cream of celery soup

Remove crust from bread and place bread in bottom of casserole.  Put chicken over bread.  Pour a mixture of eggs, milk, broth, mayonnaise and salt over chicken.  Then spread the soup undiluted over this and top with cheese slices.  Brown bread crusts in butter and sprinkle over the top.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Bake uncovered for 1 1/4 hour at 350 degrees.  Also good with turkey. 

 Four pieces of bread fit perfectly in a 9 x 9 pan. 

 Egg mixture.

 I cooked two chicken breasts for the recipe. 

 Pouring the egg/milk mixture. 

 I wasn't sure how to brown the bread crusts, so I put them on a baking sheet and poured the butter on top.  Then I put them in the oven until they were as brown as I wanted. 

 When I make this recipe again I will use a whole slice of bread to make bread crumbs in addition to the crust, because there weren't many bread crumbs. 

 Everything assembled and ready to go into the refrigerator overnight. 

The final product.  My cheese got a little long because I left it in the oven too long.