Cinn-fully Delicious Cinnamon Rolls

This recipe came from one of my mom's cousins. The dough makes outta this world cinnamon rolls and also some stinkin' good dinner rolls. Depending on the size of cinnamon rolls you like, this recipe will make anywhere from 15 - 20 rolls.

Cinn-fully Delicious Cinnamon Rolls

2 cups milk
2 eggs
¼ cup butter
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages yeast
½ cup sugar
6 cups flour

Melt milk and butter in microwave, together, until very warm…about 1 ½ minutes. Set aside. In mixing bowl, with dough hook attachment, combine 2 cups of flour, salt, yeast and sugar. Set mixer speed on low and add milk/butter mixture. Add eggs one at a time. Mix well. Add remaining 4 cups of flour and mix until well blended. Place mixed dough on floured counter and knead until smooth…adding more flour as you go to keep dough from sticking. Grease a large bowl and place kneaded dough in bowl. Spray dough with a shot of Pam. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled…about 30 minutes.

Turn risen dough onto floured surface and cut in half. Roll each piece of dough out to a 9x13 rectangle. Spread dough with softened butter then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and brown sugar. Roll up from the 9” end and cut into 1” – 1 ½ “sections. Place in greased baking dish. Repeat with second half of dough. Let rolls rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Bake rolls in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown on top. Spread with frosting.

Frosting:

½ stick butter
1 bag of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Milk

Whip butter in mixing bowl. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Add milk to achieve spreading consistency. Spread frosting on warm rolls.

Here's what you need to make these little bites of heavenly goodness

Frosting ingredients.....

Frosting...all ready to spread on the warm cinnies...

First rise....this one in the bowl

Ready to be rolled up....

Rollin', rollin, rollin....keep them cinnies rollin'.....

Second rise...this time in the pan...

All baked....ready for the sweetness....

First round of frosting...wait for it to dry then add the rest...

Our pan of frosted goodness

Drooling much?

Candy Bar Brownies

Brownies!!!!!!!!!!!! What’s better than a chocolaty, gooey, warm brownie? Well, I’ll tell you. A brownie made with Symphony Bars!!! I found out about this recipe about 10 years ago from a grocery store cashier of all people and WAY before a certain southern Food Network star made them on her show. I’ve been making brownies this way ever since. You just can’t beat it.

Candy Bar Brownies

1 22-ounce Brownie Mix – (plus ingredients) OR your favorite recipe. Personally, I’ve never found a homemade brownie recipe that I like more than a mix. If it’s out there, someone send it to me and I’ll post it on here.

3 6.8-ounce Hershey Symphony Bars – Milk chocolate or my favorite…the ones with almonds and toffee bits. The Symphony Bars are the best…nice and creamy.

Make the brownie mix according to the package directions for CAKE-LIKE brownies. This is an important step because the chocolate bars make the brownies extra mushy and adding the extra egg to the mix, helps eliminate that. But...they still come out moist.
Pour half of the brownie batter in the bottom of a greased 9x13 inch pan. Unwrap chocolate bars and lay on top of the batter. You may have to trim off some of the chocolate bars to make them fit in the pan. Now you have a little snack while you finish preparing the brownies. Pour remaining brownie batter on top of the chocolate bars and spread to cover.

Bake according to package directions…baking a little on the longer side. With the extra chocolate it may take a little longer. Bake until the top no longer jiggles. Cool completely before slicing. Then indulge in this little bit of chocolate heaven.

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Here's whatcha need...plus the ingredients for the brownie mix

Half the brownie mix in the pan with the chocolate bars on top..

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All baked.....

Mmmmmm.....chocolate

Village Chicken

If you’ve ever been to Macaroni Grill and had their Penne Rustica, then you might like my version of it. Super simple to make and great for leftovers, too!

Village Chicken

5 chicken breasts – grilled then sliced ½” thick
1 14-ounce can petite diced tomatoes - undrained
½ cup heavy cream
1- 2 cups chicken stock
½ onion – chopped
1 clove garlic – finely chopped
Olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon red chili flakes (or less for less heat)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 cups uncooked penne pasta – cooked and drained
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese - divided
2 cups bread crumbs
4 tablespoons butter – melted

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. I also use Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. A staple in my kitchen. Grill chicken. (I use my Foreman on this step but you can grill them outside or in a grill pan.) Let chicken sit for about 10 minutes before slicing.

In a large hot skillet, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add salt, pepper, chili flakes and oregano. Add tomatoes and heavy cream and 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese. Add chicken stock and heat through. Add sliced chicken and pasta then mix well. You can leave this in the skillet or transfer it to a 9x13 pan.

In a small bowl, mix 2 cups bread crumbs with ½ cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese and melted butter. Sprinkle over chicken/pasta mixture and bake for about 20 – 30 minutes until bread crumbs are crispy and mixture is heated through. Serve with warm French bread.

** You can substitute some shrimp for a chicken breast or two if you want a mixture. Still delicious!

Great dish for a crowd !!!

Basic Scones

I had a lovely friend ask me for a scone recipe the other day. I sent her this one and have been thinking about them ever since. So this morning I decided to make them and then thought..."hey, I'm going to post these!" They were so good that I think I'll start talking with an English accent so I can enjoy the whole experience. Pip, pip cheerio and all that rot.

Basic Scones

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar (I like to use vanilla sugar)
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
3/4 cup cream
1 egg
Handful dried currants or dried cranberries

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix well. Cut in butter and shortening. In a separate bowl, combine cream with beaten egg then add to dry ingredients. Stir in fruit. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Roll dough out to ½” thick and cut into biscuit size rounds. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (At this point, I like to brush some heavy cream on the scones and then sprinkle with vanilla sugar…but that’s optional.) Bake for 15 minutes or until brown. Serve with clotted cream. And tea, tea with jam, jam and bread. Makes 10 - 12 scones.

Before......

...after!

Grilled Flank Steak Sammies with Caramelized Onions and Provolone Cheese

These sammies are pretty stinkin’ good. I came up with this a few years ago and my family…being the wonderful guinea pigs they are….gave them a big “thumbs up”. Do guinea pigs have thumbs? No matter….the fam loved them…so here they are for YOU.

Grilled Flank Steak Sammies with Caramelized Onions and Provolone Cheese

1 – 1.5 pound flank steak – grilled (I just use my grill pan on the stove and season the steak with salt, pepper and Lawry’s Seasoning Salt)
1 large sweet onion – sliced thin and caramelized with a little Olive Oil (do this first…it takes a little time.)
1 loaf sliced yummy bread. (I went to the “designer” section of the store and found mine but you can use whatever good bread you like.)
Sliced Provolone cheese
Mayo for the sammies
Green or red peppers – sliced and grilled (optional)

Grill the flank steak until desired doneness is achieved. We like ours with a tiny bit of pink. Let meat rest for about 10 minutes before slicing. Slice thin-ish.

Heat a grill pan, Panini press or if you have a Foreman Grill, that works great, too. Assemble sammies with sliced meat, caramelized onions and cheese on two slices of bread spread with mayo. Spread the outside of the bread with a little butter, then grill until toasted and cheese is melty.

Slice in half and eat up!

Everything you need for a great sandwich

Caramelizing the onions.....yum!

Would ya look at this?? Tasty!!

Cream Puff Cake

Who doesn’t love cream puffs? I think cream puffs are fairly simple to make, but a little time consuming. So this recipe gives you the exact same taste of a cream puff but with a lot less work. Cut them into smallish pieces….they’re rich!!

Cream Puff Cake

Pate a choux pastry (or cream puff dough):
1 cup water
½ cup butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and butter to a boil over medium heat. Add flour all at once and turn heat to low. Stir with a wooden spoon until mixture comes together and pulls away from the sides of pan. Remove from heat and add eggs one at a time, stirring well after each egg. Press dough in the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of an ungreased 9x13 pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove and cool completely.

Cream filling:

1 8-ounce container of Cool Whip
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 large package instant vanilla pudding
2 cups whole milk

Mix pudding and whole milk together. Add Cool Whip and sweetened condensed milk to pudding mixture and mix well with a whisk.

Heat 1 cup hot fudge topping. (I prefer Mrs. Richardson’s) Drizzle half of the fudge topping over baked dough.

Pour cream filling over dough and fudge topping. Let set in fridge for about 20 minutes then drizzle with the other half of the fudge topping. Let set for several hours and top with whipped cream. Garnish with chocolate shavings, if desired.

All the goodies.....

Pate a choux ready for baking....just smush it in the pan.

All baked and puffed up....

The filling in with chocolate drizzle.....

A dollop of whipped cream makes this dreamy!