Monday, December 21, 2009

Amish Friendship Bread

I actually posted about this on my blog, but wanted to share the recipe here also.

Amish Friendship Bread Recipe
This is the original recipe, not to be confused with a starter

Ingredients:

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110°F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk (110°F)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.

2. In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk.

3. Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle, or the day you receive the starter.

For the next 10 days handle starter according to the instructions above for Amish Friendship Bread.


Amish Friendship Bread Recipe-which will make your starters
Day 1 - receive the starter

Day 2 - stir

Day 3 - stir

Day 4 - stir

Day 5 - Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk.

Day 6 - stir

Day 7 - stir

Day 8 - stir

Day 9 - stir

Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 containers, with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and the following recipe for baking the bread.

After removing the 3 cups of batter, combine the remaining cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter with the following ingredients in a large bowl:

2/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Using a fork beat by hand until well blended. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nuts (optional).

Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with sugar instead of flour.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour (individual oven temperatures vary). Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans. Makes two loaves of Amish Friendship Bread.

Once you have your starters completed, pass some along to share the love. Or in this case, loaves...

Friday, December 18, 2009

World's Best Chicken Salad



For those of you who are interested, I do not do chicken salad. It's just - gross - is the best word that comes to mind. And those weird people who put things in it like grapes and pecans? Double ick.

So imagine my suprise when one of the ladies from our church brought me chicken salad - with grapes - while I was out of work on maternity leave. I loved her chicken salad, grapes and all. And then I found out that someone else had a recipe. And I would link to her blog, but apparently I am not an "invited reader." Hmph.

Moving on!

This chicken salad recipe was simple enough - except that someone told me to use dill seed instead of dill weed. Good thing I called her to double check the recipe first.
So here it is. If you google it, you might find something like "Chicken Salad with Dill." Since I'm not much for chicken salad, I will dub this what I thought when I tasted the first bite:

World's Best* Chicken Salad Recipe
*Best is a matter of personal opinion-this one being Miranda's*

4 ridiculously large chicken breasts (or 6 regular sized)
1/2 lb red seedless grapes, washed and cut in half
2 stalks of celery, cut into small pieces
2 tbsp. dill weed
1 1/2-2 cups of mayonnaise
1/4-1/2 cup mustard
Craisins **I only used 1/2 a 6 oz. bag**
Chicken Rub (I used McCormick)

I patted all four chicken breasts thoroughly with the chicken rub and then put them in a gallon sized ziploc bag in the fridge overnight.

Then I baked them in a greased 13x9 inch pan for about 30-45 minutes, depending on how long it takes to cook the chicken thoroughly. While the chicken is cooking I cut up the grapes, celery, craisins, and mixed it with the dill weed. Then I added the mustard and mayonnaise. When the chicken was cooked through, I cut it all into bite sized pieces and stirred everything really well.

I will tell you that the mayo/mustard combination is a matter of preference. You could use more mayo and totally leave out the mustard if you don't like it. But I didn't even measure mine (I know, shocking, right?) I just used it until I thought I had enough.

My sister and I taste tested it on Ritz crackers and thought it deserved a spot on the cooking blog.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Watergate Cake with Cover-Up Frosting


Photo courtesy of Wendolonia blog

Okay so we just got a brand spankin' new Dell computer as a Christmas gift to ourselves, and in transferring files from the old computer to the new one I found some blogs like Wendolonia that I haven't been to in a while.

If you need a new and unique way to keep your kids interested in lunch, check out some of her crafty bento lunch ideas!

Anyway, I was browsing through old posts on her blogs and I came across this one which she calls a "Pistachio Pudding Cake". I wanted to use my camera to take pictures but apparently the battery has died on me. I had everything I needed but the club soda and pistachio pudding mix, so off to the store I went in the cold rain last night!

Moving right along...if you have no clue as to what Watergate is or who Richard Nixon was and why he resigned as president, you might want to get your history lesson so you can understand the name behind this cake recipe.

Here is the recipe from Wendolonia's blog:

**I will caution you that if you google it, you may find white cake mix instead of yellow, and ginger ale instead of club soda. I used the recipe from Wendolonia's blog for my cake.**

Watergate Cake with Cover Up Frosting
One box yellow cake mix
one box instant pistachio pudding mix
3 large eggs
1 cup club soda
1 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 baking dish.Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Mix wet ingredients with eggs, blending with a whisk. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix with whisk.
Pour into pan and bake for 35-45 minutes (you will discover from Wendolonia's blog that she burned the bottom of her cake, but her oven also runs hot.) I did my cake for 45 minutes.

For the frosting, you will need:
Two packages of Dream Whip (they come two to a box!!)
one box instant pistachio pudding mix
1 1/2 cups cold milk

Mix milk and dream whip until thickened. Add pudding mix and blend well. Spread frosting on top of cooled cake. Enjoy!

My thoughts: I absolutely love cakes that are very simple, like Mrs. Karen's chocolate cake that I will post sometime soon, but cakes that add pudding mix for some reason are just super moist. And it doesn't take a genius, even someone who doesn't bake, to put together a cake with these simple and easy steps.
When I finally got a chance to taste the cake, the frosting reminds me of Watergate Salad which I can not stand! I just don't like the combination of cool whip, nuts, and pineapple. I would be okay with pineapple in this frosting, and it might give it a unique flavor if you added it to this frosting and cake mixture. But it is just as good made according to the recipe! It might be a good cake for summer BBQs and pool parties. But those are just my thoughts!