Becka's blog

I tried a couple of new recipes recently that I had found on the internet. The first was pulled pork from a recipe I found on the Southern Plate website. I had never made pulled pork before, but we love barbecue, so I thought I would give it a try. It turned out delicious! I served it on the pretzel rolls I wrote about in my last post. I had a pork roast in the freezer which was smaller than the one in the original recipe, so I cut back on the recipe and found it still made quite a bit. If you like pork I would encourage you to try this easy and good recipe.

The second new recipe was for these peach cupcakes:

I had seen a photo of these on Pinterest and was intrigued by them. The woman who posted the original recipe also has similar recipes for blueberry and strawberry cupcakes. The cupcakes use fresh peaches and freeze dried peaches and are really moist and flavorful. I found the dried peaches at Target. I also saw the freeze dried blueberries and strawberries at Trader Joes and hope to try those variations some time. I think these cupcakes would be lovely made into little mini cupcakes for a shower or tea.

How about you--have you tried any new recipes recently?

Becka

Years ago when we visited Germany we had some delicious pretzel rolls from one of the many excellent bakeries there. We had them here in the states once when we were visiting a restaurant in Findlay, Ohio, where my niece Dena worked at the time. The pretzel rolls were a choice of the breads you could choose for sandwiches. I have seen them recently at Trader Joe's here in town.

When we were visiting Megan this summer she planned for us to make pretzel rolls one day. We had both seen the recipe on the Tasty Kitchen website, but she had gotten around to trying it before I did. I made them again this week and wanted to share the recipe here. Making these rolls is similar to making bagels. You make the dough, let it rise, shape it, let it rise again and then simmer the rolls briefly in a bath of water and baking soda.

After this you brush them with beaten egg, sprinkle with coarse salt and then bake them. This gives them their pretzel-like appearance and taste.

Pretzel Rolls

4 cups bread flour (approximately)
2 tsps. sugar
1 Tbsp. yeast
2 tsps. salt
4 Tbsps. butter, melted
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
1/4 cup baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
Coarse salt for sprinkling on top

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Add the warm water and the melted butter. Mix with dough hook adding additional flour if necessary to make a soft dough. Set aside in a warm place to rise for one hour.

Line two baking pans with parchment paper. Spray with pan spray. (I did not do this and had trouble with one pan sticking.) Punch down the dough and turn out onto a floured surface. Cut the dough into 18 pieces and shape each piece into a smooth round ball. Place on the sheets, cover, (I use waxed paper) and let rise for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime preheat oven to 425 degrees and place two quarts of water in a large kettle and then bring this to a boil. When the dough has risen sufficiently add the 1/4 baking soda to the boiling water and reduce the temperature to a simmer. Carefully add the rolls to the water a few at a time and let them "poach" for about 30 seconds on each side, turning once. Remove the rolls from the water with a slotted spoon and place back on the baking sheets. Brush with the beaten egg and then cut a cross in the center of each roll. Sprinkle with the coarse salt. Bake for about 20 mins. or until well browned. Enjoy your delicious pretzel rolls!

Becka

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post these pictures from our trip to Ohio and Michigan. It probably seems like old news now that school is starting up. I have been grappling with some computer issues that I am trying to learn, so I have been choosing to post things with fewer pictures. Hopefully eventually I will get the hang of this program.

The week after I retired we headed up to Ohio and Michigan. It had been over a year since we were last able to make the trip. Our first stop was to spend the night with Rob's sister Deb and her husband Dan. As per usual they treated us royally and we wished we could have stayed even longer. They are both great fishers and for supper Dan prepared some delicous fish which were caught in Lake Erie. I think he's as good a cook as he is a fisherman.

We also got to see their neighbor, Virginia, who is one of my faithful readers. She had been sick for a while shortly before our visit, so I hope she is feeling much better by now.

We always enjoy sitting out on Deb and Dan's patio while we are visiting with them and enjoy watching the hummingbirds which frequent the trumpet vine in the yard near the patio. We found out on this visit that Deb has been hiding some of her talents from us all these years. She showed us these corn hole boards that she had painted recently.

I mentioned in a previous post that we were able to spend the day with Rob's mom on her birthday and all of us took her out to lunch at one of her favorite places, Cracker Barrel. Here's a picture of Rob, his mom, and his sister, Deb:

After our visits in Ohio we continued on to Michigan. Drew was eagerly awaiting our arrival:

We were thrilled to find out that he is going to be a big brother and are greatly anticipating that event.

During the days we visited with Meg, Jim, and Drew we visited a number of our favorite places, including some thrift stores and Randazzo's:

Here are a couple of shots inside of this lovely market:

We did visit a new place however. Megan found tickets to an animal safari in Port Clinton, Ohio for a very good price on Groupon. We drove down there one day and all of us had a very good time. There is an area with some animals in enclosures, a playground, picnic area, pony ride, and a pig race!

The walking zoo had many animals including these llamas and a kangaroo.

Here's Drew on the pony ride:

Here's an action shot of the pig race:

After eating our picnic lunch, touring this area, and watching a pig race we headed to the drive through part of the safari. The animals were quite tame and we enjoyed getting a close up view of many of them.

We had some carrots for Drew to feed to the animals and we were all amused when Drew started taking a bite out of each of the carrots before passing them out the window. That's one way to get your kids to eat vegetables.

Megan and Drew came back home with us for a week after our visit up there and on the way back we stopped in to visit my Aunt Nana in Ohio and were also able to see her brother, my Uncle Don who we hadn't seen for many many years. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos that day.

So, as you can see we had a very busy and very blessed trip.

Becka

Have you ever made crepes? I was inspired to learn to make them after we were served them in a variety of ways in France. The batter is basically a very egg-y and thin pancake batter. It is imperative that you make the batter at least an hour ahead of time and then refrigerate it before trying to cook the crepes, to prevent them from tearing. Some recipes are also formulated for Wondra flour, which is an instant flour often used for gravies. It does not lump as easily as regular flour. The recipe I am posting today calls for regular, all purpose flour. Crepes are extremely versatile and can be used very simply by filling with jam or cheese or in more elaborate presentations. You can find whole cookbooks on crepe cookery which will give you many ideas for shaping and folding them. I have seen them shaped into little cups by placing them on an inverted muffin tin and then baked and filled. They can be filled with a ricotta filling and used as manicotti. They are also great filled with leftover ground ham or chopped chicken and some chopped vegetables such as broccoli and mushrooms moistened with a little cream of chicken soup. Just roll the filled crepes, place in a baking dish and top with the rest of the can of soup diluted with a little milk. Bake in a 350 degree oven to warm them.

Here's the recipe for the crepe batter:

Crepe Batter

3 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups of flour
2 cups plus 2 Tbsps. milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Refrigerate for at least one hour. Heat pan and grease pan before the first crepe. (I usually run a stick of margarine or butter over the surface of the pan very quickly just for the first crepe.) Often the first crepe will stick or tear, but they improve as you go along. If your pan is old you may need to re-grease every couple of crepes. I find it helpful to use a small measuring cup to pour the batter into the pan. As you pour, tilt the pan to help spread the batter evenly--or use a neat little tool if you can find someone to make one for you! This recipe makes about 20 crepes.

I carried back a crepe pan from France one time in my suitcase, but you can also use a small curved non-stick skillet with great success.

Crepes cook very quickly so be sure to have your area set up efficiently before you begin.

On the streets in France you will see vendors making and selling large sweet crepes. They use a special wooden tool for spreading the crepe batter on the griddle. Rob made me a little tool of my own for crepe making using dowels from the hardware store!

Here are some finished crepes:

Here is one of my favorite crepe filling ideas:

Cream Cheese Filled Crepes

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
12 oz. whipped topping
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup powdered sugar
small box instant vanilla pudding

Mix the pudding with milk. Let set a few minutes. Beat cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and whipped topping then combine with the pudding. Spoon into cooled crepes. Roll up and then refrigerate in a covered container (such as Tupperware.) Separate the layers with waxed paper. Top with cherry or blueberry pie filling or chocolate sauce and nuts. These freeze well. Thaw in refrigerator before serving.

Becka

Before I moved to South Carolina my only exposure to figs had been in Fig Newtons. One of our former neighbors had a large, beautiful fig tree that produced abundantly and she offered us some figs. I tried a few recipes using them, including one for fig jam. The jam was good but called for quite a few figs.

Fast forward a few years. We moved into our present home seven years ago and Rob has worked very hard "taming the land" and beautifying the yard by planting lots of flowers, some trees, and several varieties of berries. A couple of years ago he planted a fig tree. This year was the first year that we got more than a handful of figs from the tree. It is still immature so we were able to harvest a small bowlful every few days. Fortunately I was able to find a delicious way to use them. I found this recipe for Spicy Orange Fig Jam on the Simply Recipes website. It is a great recipe for using just a small amount of fruit and you make the jam in the microwave, so it is quick and easy. I would like to try this technique using other fruits in the future. Since there are just two of us here for most meals small batches of jam are just perfect!

If you have time I think you might enjoy checking out the Simply Recipes website. I have tried several of the recipes there and haven't been disappointed. The directions are clear and there's a picture of every recipe.

Becka