Niki

No Milk Pancakes

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“Can we have pancakes this morning?” my children asked. “Sure”, I said. Off I went to the kitchen in search of the ingredients. Opened the refrigerator and there was NO MILK! I thought, “How had I missed that? Oh well. I promised to make pancakes,they can drink juice with them.” But, I still didn’t have one of the necessary ingredients to make the pancakes with …MILK! So, I found this recipe online and they were great. No milk required! Yay for me!

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 TBSP. oil or butter or margarine
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder
2 TBSP. sugar
2 cups water
2 eggs

Mix wet ingredients together. Mix dry ingredients together in seperate bowl. Combine the two bowls and stir. Get all of the lumps mixed in good. No lumps! Let batter rest for 5 minutes. And cook up some yummy pancakes…to heck with the milk!

 

Spinach Salad

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After all of the holiday treats I have been eating, I thought I probably should throw in a salad..or 3! This spinach salad was served at our Relief Society Enrichment Night (women’s group at church) with lasagna and garlic buttered french bread. It was really delicous! I changed the recipe to fit our likes and thought I’d share it with ya’ll! The recipe calls for oil, but was substituted with water! So refreshing!

SALAD:
1 pkg. of spinach
1 pkg of iceburg garden salad
1 small red onion, 1tsp grated for dressing and slice the rest
1/2 lb. any white cheese
1/2 lb. bacon crumbled

DRESSING:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vinegar
1/2 cup oil OR 1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. grated red onion
1/2 tsp. dry mustard

Dump all of the salad packages into a huge bowl. Slice red onion over top and sprinkle cheese and bacon over top. Toss with dressing..really well!

Real Banana Muffins

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I guess its the “purist” in me that loves these Banana Muffins, because they taste like bananas! Don’t get me wrong, I like the traditional banana bread. But, this,…its just so great! The muffins are moist, and the flavor of the banana is awesome! These would be great to serve for breakfast over the holiday vacation!
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas, 2 mashed & one chunked
1-1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs until light and fluffy. Stir in 2 mashed bananas and mix well. Add flour and baking soda, stirring enough to moisten. Stir in 1 chunked banana. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees. Start watching at 25 minute mark and check with toothpick to see if its done.

Recipe adapted from Stephanie Daniels

Butter Crescent Rolls

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Look at this picture…what else do I have to say?

1 -1/2 cups of milk
3/4 cup +1 TBSP sugar
1 egg
1 TBSP salt
2 TBSP yeast
2 cups of warm water
about 9-10 cups of flour
at least 1 cup of butter

Scald 1-1/2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup of butter, in a microwave safe bowl, for about 2 minutes. Cutting the butter into pieces helps it melt faster. There will probably be some little cubes of butter still floating in the hot mixture, they will melt.

Add yeast to this hot mixture, but it will be too hot to just dump the yeast straight in (it would kill it). To cool it down add 1 egg and 1 TBSP of salt, and leave it to cool for a couple of minutes. OR just let it cool for a while as the yeast mixture rises! Meanwhile, in a measuring cup dissolve 2 TBSP of yeast in 2 cups of warm water and 1 TBSP of sugar. Let it sit for a couple of minutes until it is bubbly. You can stir in 1-2 cups of flour to the milk/butter mixture to cool it down further. Make sure your milk mixture is just warm, not boiling and add the yeast mixture!

Using a fork or wooden spoon, gradually stir in 9-10 cups of flour. Remember to fluff your flour. Either sift it or take a whisk through it to lighten it, that way its not so dense when you go to scoop and measure. I would recommend only adding 2 cups at time and stirring in between. These rolls turn out so much better when they are mixed by hand. AT the end the dough will be dense and sticky, and may be hard to stir, you can use your hands to incorporate the rest of the flour if needed. Be sure not to add too much flour. Then smooth the dough out and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave it in a warm place and let it rise.

Cover your working space with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Dump your dough out and divide it into 4 balls. Try to make them even, but they don’t have to be perfect. Using one ball of dough at a time: roll the dough into a circle on a floured counter. Once it is rolled out spread the top with soft butter from edge to edge. You will use about 2 TBSP per circle of dough.

Cut the dough into quarters using a pizza cutter. Then cut each quarter into 3 pieces. You should end up with 12 triangles from each circle of dough. Roll each triangle starting with the wide end. Tuck the tail of the triangle under the roll and place it on the buttered cookie sheet. You will make 3 rows, with 8 rolls per row. This will give you 24 rolls per pan. Two balls of dough will fill 1 pan. You will get a total of 48 rolls.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the pans of rolls in a warm to let them rise. DON’T let them rise to long or get to big..they will dry out in the baking! (This is key to this roll recipe!) Once they are touching and full in size, cook (one pan at a time) in the oven till they are golden brown. About 10-15 minutes. Keep a close eye on your first pan to get the right time for the second.

While they are still hot and fresh out of the oven run a stick of butter over the tops of the rolls for a delicious buttery glaze.

recipe : howdoesshe.com

Christmas Spirit

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I am so excited that my turn to share a message with you falls on the first Sunday of December! We love Christmas! This time of the year is, with out a doubt, the most demanding for our family. My husband is a District Manager for a retail company and this requires him to travel a lot, and around Christmas his schedule gets worse! It can be exhuasting for him, and us, because we miss him. Things like this and other demands this time of year can, if you let them, really make you lose the “Christmas Spirit”. We don’t want that to happen! So, when we are together we try to make it count.

We love our families and naturally want to give them everything we can. But, the most important thing we can give, is our time and to teach our children about Christ. “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Ne. 25:26).

This year, let’s not get bogged down with shopping and going and coming. Let’s remember the real reason for this Christmas season…our Savior’s birth. Merry Christmas!

Cookie Cake

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Who doesn’t love to see a giant chocolate chip cookie sitting on the table in front of them!? Everyone loves a giant cookie! Try this, it’s this is really delicious!

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
2/4 cup brown sugar
1 (8oz) package cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking oda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease two 12 inch pizza pans. (or just grease one and plan to save half of the dough for later.)

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar, until smooth. Beat in the cream cheese, then the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Divide the dough in half and press each half onto a prepared pizza pan.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden at the edges. Cool completely in pans. Cut into wedges like a pizza and serve. Don’t forget the frosting! Chocolate and or buttercream.

allrecipes.com

Fried Rice

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This is my fried rice recipe. It is still a work in progress. But, I thought I’d share it now since it was especially yummy this go round. I think the trick was cooking my rice in beef broth. We love this stuff. Its easy and filling!

3 cups rice, cooked and cooled
1-2 cups of beef broth

3-4 slices of bacon
1 Tbsp. garlic, minced
2-3 Tbsp. onion, chopped fine
1/3 c. carrots, chopped into pea size pieces
1/3 c. frozen peas
1/2 cup ham, chopped pea size pieces
(or package of chopped ham for salads and use half)
1-2 eggs, (your preference)
low sodium soy sauce, to taste
1-2 scallions, chopped
salt
pepper
garlic powder
onion powder

Cook rice according to directions of package. BUT, use beef broth for part (or all) of the liquid when cooking the rice. Set aside, and leave the lid off of the pot. You want the rice to cool! You could even dump it into a baking dish and spread it out so it cools quicker.

Prepare all ingredients and have them ready to add to the pan.

Cook bacon in a BIG pan. Remove the bacon and set aside. Lower temperature and add the garlic and onion. Saute. Then add the rice to the pan. (if you need to, add a bit of extra bacon grease so it doesn’t stick) Stir the rice, incorporating the garlic and onion. Add in the carrots, peas, and ham. Stir. Push all ingredients to one side of the pan, making room to scramble your egg. Add egg to the space provided and stir quickly. When done, stir all the rice mixture together. Add some salt, pepper to taste and stir. Add in a sprinkling of garlic powder, and onion powder and stir. (just sprinkle them over the top…but easy! not too much!) Also, add in some soy sauce to taste. You can continue to stir this in the pan on low until the carrots and peas are to your liking. We like them with a bite to them. Serve with a bit of scallions on top! Delicous!

This is even better as leftovers!

Niki’s Beans and Dawgs

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This is one of my kids favorite meals. And mine too… because its super easy.

2 packages of all beef Hotdogs
8 slices of bacon, cut in 1/2
2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 -2 cans of baked beans (depends on how many people you are feeding)
1-2 cans stewed tomatoes, pour into dish and cut them in small pieces
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
molasses
1/2 c brown sugar
Pepper
kosher salt

Mix together all ingredients and pour into a baking dish. Season to taste, sweeter or saltier. Cut bacon strips in half. Wrap a half piece of bacon around a hotdog and place ontop of beans. Continue with all bacon and dawgs.

Sprinkle with kosher salt and bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes …or until desired crispiness of bacon and dawgs are reached.

Cheesy Bread Sticks

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These are just plain good! This is the same dough as used in my taco pizza that I posted a few weeks back. They are perfect!

1 tsp. active dry yeast
1-1/2 cup warm water
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/3 cups of olive oil
1 cup monterey jack cheese, grated
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
a good marinara sauce, optional

Mix yeast with warm water and set aside for 8-10 minutes. mix flour, salt, and olive oil in a mixing bowl. With speed on low, drizzle in yeast/water mixture. Allow to mix until totally combined. Cover bowl with a towel and set bowl in a warm, draft free place. Allow to rise for 1-2 hours.
Place overn rack in the bottom position of oven. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Remove half of the pizza dough from teh bowl. (save remaining dough or make more bread sticks!) With hands, spread pizza dough on an oiled baking sheet, making sure its relatively thin.
Sprinkle grated cheeses over the dough and bake for 9-12 minutes. Serve with or without marinara sauce.

Coconut Cookies

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Here is a cookie recipe that I baked up this week, for a care package I sent home to my Dad for his birthday! He loves coconut pie, and so do I. These cookies taste just like a coconut pie!! They are super easy to make and delicous! Enjoy!

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/3 cups flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg
and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in the flour mixture, then mix in the coconut.
Drop by heaping teaspoon fulls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 3″ apart.
Bake for about 9 minutes and check them. They need to be lightly toasted. I cooked my batch of cookies for about 13 minutes. Take them out of the oven and let them set up on the baking sheet/stone for about 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire racks and cool.