Homemade Baking Mix (Bisquick substitute)

I've loved discovering this recipe!  It's opened up a whole new world of baking- sausage balls, red lobster cheese biscuits.  I mean, we can occasionally find Bisquick but it's SOOO expensive I don't let myself buy it

Baking Mix

10 c. flour (can do half white/half wheat)

6 TBSP baking powder

1 1/2 TBSP salt

1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups vegetable shortening

2 cups powdered milk

Sift together first 5 ingredients three times.  With pastry cutter, cut in shortening to consistency of cornmeal.   Store in covered container at room temperature.  Use as substitute for Bisquick in recipes

Cranberry Bran Muffins

This is from a bran muffin recipe that's classic.  Been around a while.  But I've gradually changed it around a little to better suit our family and the ingredients we can get over here.  What I love about this recipe is that it makes almost 3 dozen muffins- much more practical for our family considering we can clear 1 dozen as a family in one sitting and the girls will maybe still be hungry!  Yeah, that whole thing about teenage boys eating you out of house and home, applies to girls too!!   Thing 2 that I love is that you make these in advance and keep the batter in the frig for up to a month, making them when it's convenient.  Helps with our crazy morning routine!

Cranberry Bran Muffins

i cup boiling water

1 cup All Bran

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup shortening or oil (I always use oil)

2 cups buttermilk (or 1 cup yogurt, i cup milk- that's what I do...)

2 cups oats

2 1/2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour (I use either all wheat flour or half white/half wheat depending on the consistency of the wheat flour I've found...)

1 cup craisins (I've been wanting to try chopped dried apricots also- seems like that would by yummy too)

Pour Bran into boiled water, soak, set aside and let cool.  Cream shortening or oil with sugar; add beaten eggs, buttermilk or yogurt and milk along with bran/water mixture.  Add bran flakes, soda, salt, beat well; fold in four.  Stir in craisins.  Keep in refrigerator at least overnight before baking.  It will keep up to a month.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  

Southern Veggies

Squash Justine

6-8 medium yellow squash

onion

butter

cheddar cheese

salt & pepper to taste

optional add-ons:  chopped red pepper and/or canned pimento, slivered almonds

Cook squash in boiling water 4-5 minutes and set aside.  Layer in baking dish: squash, slices of onion, cheddar cheese and butter, repeat layers, salt and pepper to taste.  Bake 400 degrees for 20 minutes

Fried Okra

sliced okra (a lot)

corn meal (some)

salt & pepper

Put okra in large bowl.  Moisten with small amount of ice water.  Toss with corn meal to coat.  Heat oil in skillet and fry okra in batches until golden.  Serve alongside fresh, sliced garden tomatoes.

PB & J Muffins

So as we're drawing near to the end of our time in the states and preparing to head back overseas, my cabinet has been getting more and more bear (actually it's completely bear now as we've moved out and are living with family but the above sentence applies to my life about three weeks ago when I made these muffins...).  Anyway, I was trying to get creative with the ingredients I had left and thought I remembered at some point in my life having PB & J Muffins.  Sure enough I looked on all recipes and found this recipe.  Disclaimer, these are VERY peanut buttery which for me, not a problem at all.  For my poor delusional husband who actually thinks that the words "too sweet" belong together in the English language, well these weren't is favorite.  And for my poor kids who are somehow managing to grow up under my roof and not like peanut butter, these weren't actually a favorite.  So, bottom line, yes, I am sharing a recipe that pretty much no one under my roof liked but me... Maybe not the best tactic but I thought these were so good and I want someone else out there in blog world to agree with me!  Anyway, here is the recipe as seen on the all recipes website...

Ingredients

CRISCO® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
2 cups PILLSBURY BEST® All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup JIF® Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3 cup CRISCO® Vegetable Oil
1/2 cup SMUCKER'S® Jam or preserves of your choice
1/4 cup sugar
Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray muffin pan with no-stick spray. Stir together flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Add milk, eggs, 2/3 cup sugar, peanut butter and oil to bowl. Combine ingredients on low speed of electric mixer, just until moistened. Do not over beat.
Fill prepared muffin cups evenly with half of the batter. Place 2 level teaspoons jam or preserves in the center of each muffin. Evenly divide remaining batter between muffin cups. Sprinkle with the 1/4 cup sugar. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool in pan 5 minutes.

Can someone agree with me on how yummy these are??

Here's the link where I found the recipe...

Best Banana Bread

So, some food just don't photograph nicely and I've decided banana bread is one of those.  It's just not very pretty, but it's SOOO yummy.  This is the banana bread recipe my mom has been making me forever that she put in the cookbook that my family made for me when I got married.  I love trying new recipes and there are so many out there especially for things like banana bread in all the cooking magazines and things, but I always end up coming back to this recipe- it's simply the best, hands down, no question.  And so very easy.  The only change I have made to the original recipe is that I sometimes add a tsp or two of cinnamon.  And for the bananas-when you have bananas that begin to brown just stick them in your freezer and you'll have a ready supply of over-ripe bananas . 


Banana Bread
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour (whole wheat works as well as white)
1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
5 TBSP sour cream (for you girls in the Middle East- labneh works great)
1 cup mashed  over-ripe bananas (2-3) 
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Mix all ingredients together by hand and put in greased loaf pan.  Bake 1 hour at 350.

Tornado Chicken and Mess-up rolls

I found this recipe on the Pioneer Woman's blog and it was amazing!  Click here for the full recipe.  I renamed it tornado chicken because in the middle of making it, all the tornado sirens went off and we spent about an hour in the bathtub covered with pillows.  Honestly, I was a little skeptical about serving it to the girls who aren't huge fans of mushrooms or olives but my pregnancy taste buds won out and I went ahead with it. However, thanks to the tornado, our power went out so we had to eat it in the dark so even they enjoyed it since they couldn't really see the mushrooms and olives...

I love finding quick and easy dinner roll recipes and I found one in a Southern Living that I hadn't tried.  However, in the craziness of trying to fix dinner before the tornado sirens went off, I completely messed up the recipe.  The original recipe is:

Cream Cheese Rolls
 1/2 cup butter
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup self rising flour
Cream butter and cream cheese, gradually add flour.  Put in mini muffin tins and bake at 400 for about 15 minutes.

Well, in my hurry, I creamed the butter and cream cheese and then added 2 cups of flour.  oops.   I didn't have anymore cream cheese so I coudn't just double the recipe.  So I looked in my frig and spotted sour cream and remembered that it is often in these quick dinner bread recipes.  I added about a cup of sour cream (until it got back to the right looking consistency), filled 12 regular muffin tins and baked like the original recipe called for- turned out very yummy!  Would probably also be good with shredded cheese or spices like basil added.

I didn't take any pics of these recipes, again, thanks to the craziness of the tornados but if you follow Pioneer Woman's recipe, she photographed it beautifully.

Quick and Easy Dinner Rolls

This recipe is not anything super special (great way to start, right?), but if you're wanting a quick and easy dinner roll to go with just about anything, this is it.  I usually add spices to the basic recipe depending on what we are having for the main dish.  Things like fresh basil or rosemary, garlic salt, parmesan..

Nice and Easy Rolls

2 cups self rising flour (add 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt per cup of all-purpose flour)

1/4 cup mayo (Kendra, Alex will never know...)

1 cup milk

Heat oven to 425.  Grease 12 muffin cups.  Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.  Stir just until moistened.  Divide into 12 equal portions in muffin cups.  Bake for 20 minute.