Mandy and Jace

This week’s plan is going to involve a lot of cooking, but I hope in the long run it will be for the best. I’m going to try to make double of each meal then freeze half for later. I would like to have a decent stock pile of meals that we can easily pull out of the freezer for when we are too tired to cook. I am beyond tired of fast food. I’ve gotten to the point where I can actually feel what it does to my body and I really don’t like it. So hopefully if we have plenty of food handy at home we won’t be tempted to drive through for dinner. Here’s this weeks plan.

Tonight: meatball sandwiches
Tuesday: chicken spaghetti
Wednesday: chicken and pineapple quesadillas
Thursday: take out after practice
Friday: date night

Happy eating!

I made these back at Thanksgiving and they were a huge hit. They are soft and buttery and so tasty.

Just like any other yeast bread recipe though, patience is required in the baking process. They need several hours to rise and they need a lot of attention. I promise your patience will be rewarded. If you want to just make the dough and not bake the rolls yet that is perfectly fine. Just refrigerate the dough for up to two days and bake them whenever you want to. I always take an afternoon and bake all the rolls then wrap them up really well and freeze them. Then whenever we need bread for a meal I just pull them out a couple hours ahead of time and pop them in the oven for a couple of minutes before serving to warm them through. You’d never know they were in the freezer.

Yeast Rolls
adapted from The Pioneer Woman
4 cups milk (I used 2% and it worked fine)
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
9 cups of flour
4 1/2 tsp dry active yeast or 2 packages
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 scant teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons salt

Pour 4 cups of milk into a large pot. Add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of vegetable oil and stir to combine. Turn on the burner to medium and warm until little bubbles start to appear around the edge of the pot. Do not let it come to a boil. Turn off the burner.

Leave the pot on the stove and let it cool. Hot water kills yeast so we need it to come to lukewarm. It took mine about 45 minutes or so to cool off.

When it is cool add in 4 cups of flour and 4 1/2 tsp of yeast. Stir to combine. Add another 4 cups of flour and stir to combine. Place the pot in your oven (TURNED OFF) to stay warm and let it sit covered with a towel for an hour. It should double in size, if it doesn’t look like it has risen enough let it sit for another 30 minutes. When you are happy with how it has risen add another cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until combined.

If you are not ready to bake the rolls then put the pot of dough in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. When you are ready pull it out of the refrigerator a couple of hours before you use it so it can come back to room temperature.

If you are ready to bake now, spray 3 sheet pans with non-stick spray. Form the rolls by pulling small portions of the dough out and forming them into about egg sized balls. Fill the sheet pans and let them sit covered with a towel for an hour to rise.

After an hour bake in a 400 degree oven for 18-20 minutes.

Throw them in a basket and serve or wrap them in plastic wrap and foil and freeze.

I’ve been sitting here trying to come up with something to write for a couple of hours now. I have actually written several posts then deleted them because I can’t go on without bringing something to light that has been on my mind. I just read a tweet that the dead/missing toll in Japan after the horrible earthquake and tsunami is at 20,000 (probably more than that by the time you read this). Each one of those people had a family, friends, a LIFE. Each person had a story to tell. Here I am about to complain about how I don’t know what to cook or how I don’t feel like cleaning house or going to work and there are 20,000 people in Japan who will never get that chance again. They will never get another opportunity to eat a meal, go to their home or work. They will never get another chance to hug their loved ones. So, I am going to sit here and count my many blessings that I don’t deserve and then go hug my family and friends, because life is so uncertain and I am definitely not promised tomorrow. Little things like meals mean a lot more to me too. I will definitely appreciate the little things like food and water so much more. I am also going to do some research on ways I can help. As much as I would love to I can’t go and give out food and water and bandage wounds, but surely I can do something.

Here’s this weeks plan.
Tonight: sauteed chicken with a cream sauce and rice
Tuesday: Jace’s work dinner
Wednesday: on-the-go burritos
Thursday: take out after practice
Friday: date night

Happy eating.

We first discovered these delicious potato cakes at one of our favorite restaurants here in town called The Garlic Press. They beautifully place these beside a juicy steak and perfectly cooked vegetables. We have been trying to recreate these for a long time now and just couldn’t seem to get them quite right. I think after lots of tweaks and changes we finally have a killer recipe.

One really cool thing about these cakes is they use leftover mashed potatoes. We always have leftover mashed potatoes and I really hate to throw them away, but they just really aren’t that tasty reheated. However, when you bread and fry them they are as good as fresh. Of course almost anything breaded and fried is great but that’s a different post.

For obvious high calorie reasons I don’t make these very often, but when we do splurge it is well worth it. I really don’t have measurements for this recipe because it really depends on how much leftover mashed potatoes you have and how many cakes you want to end up with.

Potato Cakes

leftover cold mashed potatoes
grated raw potato
chopped chives
a couple of eggs, beaten
panko bread crumbs
garlic salt
salt and pepper
oil for frying

Pour your oil into your frying pan until it is about 1/3 of the way up the pan. Heat on medium high heat.

To prepare your frying ingredients beat a couple of eggs and add some salt and garlic salt. Also pour some Panko bread crumbs into a plate and mix with some salt.

In a bowl combine your mashed potatoes with some of the grated potato and some chopped chives. I made eight potato cakes and it took 1/2 a potato. If you plan on making more depending on how much mashed potatoes you have leftover you may use a whole potato. Shape into small cakes or patties making sure they come together tightly.

One at a time drop your potato cake into the beaten eggs, remove and place them into the Panko bread crumbs. Coat the entire potato cake with the bread crumbs and place into hot oil.

Cook until both sides are golden brown and remove onto a plate with paper towels to soak up the extra oil.

Salt the cakes and enjoy.