Family BBQ

We had Family Home Evening at my parents house tonight.  Burgers, Potato
Salad, and lots of desserts!


I made this hamburger bun recipe:

Light Brioche Burger Buns
Adapted from Comme Ça restaurant in Los Angeles, via the New York Times
Go! Make these! What are you waiting for?
Makes 8 4 to 5-inch burger buns
3 tablespoons warm milk
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Sesame seeds (optional)
1. In a glass measuring cup, combine one cup warm water, the milk, yeast and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about five minutes. Meanwhile, beat one egg.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flours with salt. Add butter and rub into flour between your fingers, making crumbs. Using a dough scraper, stir in yeast mixture and beaten egg until a dough forms. Scrape dough onto clean, well-floured counter and knead, scooping dough up, slapping it on counter and turning it, until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes. The dough will be on the sticky side so it can be a bit messy, but keep in mind that the more flour you knead in, the tougher the buns will get. Try to leave them tackier than you would a round loaf.
3. Shape dough into a ball and return it to bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, one to two hours. (In my freaky, warm apartment this only took an hour.)
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using dough scraper, divide dough into 8 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange two to three inches apart on baking sheet. Cover loosely with a piece of plastic wrap lightly coated in nonstick spray and let buns rise in a warm place for one to two hours. (Again, this only took one hour in my apartment and I suspect, you’ll also only need an hour for a second rise.)
5. Set a large shallow pan of water on oven floor. Preheat oven to 400 degrees with rack in center. Beat remaining egg with one tablespoon water and brush some on top of buns. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if using. Bake, turning sheet halfway through baking, until tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.


And tried out this ice cream:
Quick Coconut Ice Cream with Roasted Cherries

makes 1 quart

For roasted cherries
1 pound Bing cherries
2 tablespoons sugar

For coconut ice cream
One 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 cup cream
One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
Pinch salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Heat the oven to 450°F. Toss the cherries with the sugar and spread them out in one layer on a large baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes, stirring several times, and watching to make sure the sugar and juices don't burn. Remove from the oven and let cool. Pit the cherries and set them aside.

Whisk together the ice cream ingredients in a large bowl. Make sure the sweetened condensed milk has been thoroughly mixed into the cream.

Put the ice cream mix in your ice cream maker and freeze according to instructions. When the ice cream is the texture of soft-serve, scrape it out and fold in the roasted pitted cherries. Transfer to a bowl or container and cover the ice cream with plastic wrap so that the plastic wrap is in full contact with the surface of the ice cream. Freeze for another 2 hours, or until firm.

Tip: Chill the separate ingredients (coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk) for an hour in the refrigerator before mixing everything together. This will help the mix be colder and therefore freeze faster when you put it in the ice cream maker.

All I can say isYum!

Shelf Reliance

Last night I hosted a party for Shelf Reliance.  It was fun to get to try several of their products - and think that you can have some yummy variety in your food storage (sometimes I think my food storage is all just beans and wheat . . . . ).  If you haven't looked at their stuff, you might want to check it out.  Even host your own party - they have oodles of host benefits!

Dutch Oven: Chicken & Rice

One of my favorite things about camping is the food.  Whether it's cooked over the fire, in the hot coals, or in a dutch oven.  It's always good.  This past weekend I went to the cabin with my girl friends.  We dined on such delicacies as hot dogs, s'mores, banana boats, pancakes & bacon & eggs, and we busted out the dutch oven for some Chicken & Rice.  It was tasty.

4+ cups Chicken Stock
1/2 cube Butter
1 1/2 cups Rice
Chopped Onion, Bell Pepper, Celery
3 Chicken Breasts, cut into chunks and seasoned generously with poultry seasoning
2 cans of Biscuits

Combine the stock, butter, rice and veggies in the pre-heated dutch oven.  Lay chicken on top.  Cook for 1 1/2 hours with 10 coals on bottom and 12 coals on top.  When rice is tender, and chicken is done, layer the top with biscuits.  Replace lid - putting more coals on top - and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy while sitting around the campfire!

Granola

My mom used to make Granola all of the time - hence the nickname, Nola Granola.

Here's her recipe.  It's super easy, and super tasty!

8 cups Regular Oats
1 cup Sesame Seeds
1 cup Sunflower Seeds
1 cup Unsweetened Coconut
1 cup Raw Nuts
1 cup Powdered Milk
dash of Salt

1 cup Canola Oil
1 cup Honey
1 TBSP Vanilla

Warm the oil and honey in a little pan on the stove.  Add vanilla.  Mix everything together well and put on cookie sheets in the oven and bake at 180 for 2 hours.  I generally use 3 jelly roll pans for this batch.

Goes great with a scoop of vanilla yogurt or with milk.  Oh, and some fresh fruit.

Homemade Ice Cream

This weekend we had our Annual Homemade Ice Cream Party.  Success!  We had a blast, and the storm and mosquitoes held off for most of it . . . .  the mosquitoes came in at the end and we had to end our bean bag tournament early.  Dang - we were gonna win too  ;)  The worst part about the evening is that my camera sat on the counter the whole time without being touched.  I had it ready, and completely forgot!!  Bummer.  Here are the flavors we had this year:

I made:

Vanilla

and Hazelnut Chocolate

We also had:

Raspberry

Pina Colada***

Apple Pie

and more Vanilla

I haven't decided on a favorite yet, but the hazelnut chocolate was sooo good.  So was that Pina Colada.  Oh, and that Raspberry.  Hmmmmm.

The new addition this year was toppings and waffle cones.  I ordered some cones from our local candy shop, then ordered some waffle cone bowls from Amazon.  For toppings we had: crushed oreo's, crushed mint oreo's, m&m's, marshmallows, sprinkles, almonds, chocolate sauce, toffee bits, whipped cream in a can, coconut, and I think that's all.  The kids especially loved the topping table.

The new verdict is that it needs to come around more than once a year.  Maybe we could pull another one off before the fall weather comes.  And I could take pictures.  We'll see.

***This is a link to a coconut ice cream that Lanae made.  She did a batch for 16 people and added a small can of crushed pineapple at the end of the freezing to make it coconut-pineapple.  She also only used 1/2 of the coconut it called for, and put it in the blender with the cream and the cream of coconut.***