Some new favorite recipes

Don't worry, I'll get back to posting pictures of the boys eventually, but I hope in the meantime you're enjoying a couple different kinds of glimpses into our life.

I've tried a couple new recipes lately that I couldn't resist sharing. (Click on the name for a link to the recipe)

Brown Bag Burritos
These have become an instant staple in our house and a big time favorite of Dave's. It makes 20 burritos that you wrap individually and keep in the freezer. Just pull them out and microwave for a minute or two and you have an instant meal! I look forward to experimenting with the filling, too.

Pizza in less than 30 minutes

I was a little skeptical because I'd never heard of pizza dough that didn't have to rise, but this turned out great. Even Charlie got in the act and helped me knead the dough and top the pizza. It's a thick and bread-like dough, and seriously, how can you beat it being ready in less than 30 minutes?

Maple Glazed Walnuts

These are super easy to make, and a relatively guilt-free snack (except when I eat the whole batch in one day).

Let me know if you give any of them a try! You won't be sorry.

Pumpkin turnovers

A couple weeks ago I made my Grandma Hochhalter's pumpkin turnovers. They were always one of my personal faves when we'd visit her. This was my first time making them, and they tasted just like I remembered. Yummy, yummy!

I'm hosting my family for Christmas, so this week I plan on making Kuchen again to make sure my freezer is stocked up for the visitors.


Pumpkin filling:
1 16 oz. can pumpkin
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ c. sugar
½ tsp. cloves
½ tsp. allspice
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
(or 2 ½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice)

Mix 2 c. flour, ½ c. Crisco, ½ c. sugar, pinch of salt until crumbly (like pie dough). Add ½ c. cream and enough milk to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth (add flour if it’s too sticky). Divide into pieces about the size of a golf ball or a little larger. Roll dough as thin as you like. Place 2 T. pumpkin filling on dough. Fold half over and seal edges with fork or fingers. Place on sprayed cookie sheet and bake at 375° until brown. Cool and enjoy.

Yield: 12-14 turnovers.

I had to double the dough for the crust to have enough for all the filling.

Peanut Butter Whole Wheat Waffles

I managed to make these this morning even with Dave being out of town, so I felt compelled to share the recipe. I like that it doesn't bother with sifting, or combining wet and dry ingredients separately, you just dump it all in the bowl and mix. And I like that I already had everything on hand, so no grocery store run. They're not overly peanut-buttery, just a hint of the PB flavor. They were actually some of the fluffliest waffles I think I've had. And since it was just me and Charlie eating them, we have the leftovers stocked up in the freezer. Charlie loves waffles for breakfast, so it will be nice to feed him some homemade ones for a while.

Whole-Wheat Peanut Butter Waffles
2 1/4 c. whole wheat flour (I replaced 1 c. with regular flour because I was afraid all whole wheat might make them a little tough, but I bet it would have been fine)
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 T. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/4 c. whole milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 tsp. salt

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all ingredients. Preheat waffle iron, then spray with cooking spray. Pour batter into waffle iron and cook until golden brown, approximately 3-5 minutes depending on your iron.

Yummy, yummy!

Super Easy Salsa Verde

I am excited to have inherited a vegetable garden with our new house. I'm hopeful that I will be able to continue it, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying the harvest planted by the previous owner. The jalapeno plant is doing really well, so I decided to make some homemade salsa. I found this recipe from Tyler Florence on the Food Network and really like it (especially how easy it is):

Roasted Tomatillo Chile Salsa
1 pound tomatillos
1 large white onion, peeled and quartered
4 garlic cloves
2 jalapenos
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cilantro
1/2 lime

Preheat oven to 400. On a baking tray, roast tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapenos for 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices from the tray to a food processor. Add the cumin, salt, cilantro and lime juice and pulse mixture until well combined but still chunky.

Remember, the heat is controlled by the seeds and the ribs from the jalapenos, so you can control the heat by removing some of them.

My next attempt will be making pesto from all the basil that's growing.

Recipes

As requested, here are the recipes for my Grandma Hochhalter's dumplings and kuchen. The kuchen recipe from Grandma said to use frozen sweet roll dough, so the dough in the recipe below is from a kuchen recipe my mom sent me from the newspaper.

Dumplings
Thaw frozen bread dough or frozen dinner rolls (approx. 2 hours at room temperature). Pinch dough off in pieces about the size of large walnuts, tuck edges under to shape dumplings. Dip one end into flour. Place on cookie sheet to rise (about 1-2 hours depending on how cold your dough was). Spray skillet (electric or regular) with Pam. Add 1 c. water, ½ tsp. salt, 2 T. Crisco, some diced onion or dry onion flakes. Bring to a rolling boil. Place dumplings into pan. Cover and cook at medium heat (320° in electric) for 30 minutes. Listen for doneness. You can hear it sizzle when liquid is gone and dumplings begin to fry for the crunchy bottom. Remove cover, prick with fork and serve.

I love her comment: "Listen for doneness." Sure sign of a handed down recipe. Next time I'll add a little more salt or onion because they didn't have as much flavor as I remembered. Also, mine needed to cook a little longer to get the nice crispy bottom.


Kuchen
For the dough:
1 qt. whole milk
1 c. plus 2 tsp. sugar, divided
3 eggs at room temperature
4 tsp. salt
1 c corn oil
10 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional as needed
2 pkg. dry yeast
1/2 c. water (105 to 115 degrees)

In a medium saucepan, bring milk just to the boiling point over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent it from burning. The milk will not come to a rolling boil; it gently bubbles around the edges. Remove from heat, stir in 1 cup of sugar and cool until lukewarm.
In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, salt and corn oil. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooled milk and the egg mixture. Add the flour and mix well. Flour should still be a bit warm from the milk, but not hot. In a measuring cup or coffee cup, dissolve the yeast and 2 teaspoons sugar in the water. When the yeast mixture doubles in volume, add it to the flour in the mixing bowl and stir together. Continue adding flour until the dough can be kneaded without sticking to your hands.
To knead, leave the dough in the bowl and pull a bit from the edge and then push it into the middle of the bowl, turning the bowl as you do this. Knead for approximately 10 minutes. Dough should be soft, uniform and elastic. Form a ball and place in the bottom of the bowl. Cover and place in a warm spot until doubled, about 2 hours.
For filling: Cook non-instant vanilla pudding according to directions on box. Amount depends on number of kuchen. Add a little sugar before cooking if you like it sweeter.
Punch down and cut off a piece of dough about the size of a fist. Roll out on a floured surface about 1/4 inch thick, large enough to fit into an 8- or 9-inch pie tin with the dough going up the sides of the tin. Prick edges with a fork.
Top with fruit (canned, fresh or frozen, thawed). Top fruit with 1 to 1 1/2 cups custard. Sprinkle with sugar and a little cinnamon. Bake a 350-375 degrees until crust is brown and custard is set, about 20-25 minutes.

Grandma's traditional flavors: peach, apple, cottage cheese (mix with the custard and sprinkle with raisins)...Help me Hochhalters, am I forgetting any? I tried white chocolate chips and banana slices, but the bananas floated to the top and turned an ugly kind of brown, but tasted yummy. I was able to use one can of apple pie filling over about 3 kuchens, and I cut the apple pieces a little smaller. This recipes makes 10-12 kuchen so make sure you have plenty of pie tins handy! I think two family-size packs of pudding should do the trick.

Another Hochhalter fave...

Kuchen!

Since I had success with Grandma's dumplings, I thought I'd try another of her staples. Kuchen is a traditional German pastry, with a sweet, bread-like crust filled with custard and fruit. Sounds good, doesn't it? And while I cheated by using frozen bread dough for the dumplings, I made the kuchen dough from scratch, totally by hand. There is a real feeling of accomplishment looking at dough that you kneaded yourself. I made Grandma's traditional flavors of apple and cottage cheese, and then tried a white chocolate banana flavor, too. They turned out pretty well, but I definitely learned a few things to do differently next time. Although, they weren't exactly easy, so "next time" might be quite a while! (But don't worry Dad, Mom, and Sue, there are plenty in the freezer for you to have when you're here over Easter.)

I'm really excited to have had success with these recipes so I can keep the traditions going.

Mmm...Dumplings

These dumplings were a staple that my Grandma Hochhalter made for us pretty much every time we visited. The best part is the crispy bottom. These are so good that it was the one meal that the meat (usually a roast) was considered the side dish. She would have pans and pans of them cooking in the kitchen to feed us all.

So last night I made them for the first time. I had Grandma's recipe and her old electric skillet that had made thousands of dumplings, so I figured the odds were in my favor for them to turn out. And I think it was a pretty successful attempt. I didn't get them quite as crispy on the bottom as Grandma (and Aunt Carol) did, but that was mainly because I was running out of time because I was leaving. But otherwise the texture was dead on. I can't wait to make them again.