French Bread

I love making this loaf of bread. Few ingredients. Little time requirement. Great flavor (especially when you make it with the additional seasonings and butter/garlic salt for topping). Thanks to Diane Downing & Kristie Strahm for this addition to the NZC (New Zion Cookbook).

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 C flour
• 1 T sugar
• 1 t salt
• 1 1/4 C water, lukewarm
• 2 1/4 t yeast

Directions

1. Place ingredients in a breadmaker or mixer and knead.
2. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning dough to coat all sides with oil.
3. Let dough rise for 30-45 minutes.
4. Punch down and roll out dough into rectangle shape, then roll dough in a jelly roll shape.
5. Place dough on a baking sheet. Cut slits in top with a knife and let dough rise for 1 hour.
6. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.
7. Reduce oven to 375 and bake for 4-8 minutes.

Notes

• This recipe is often used as communion bread. For a special treat, Kristie adds 1 T Italian seasoning and 1 T rosemary to the lukewarm water. Mix the dough the same way. After it is baked, she brushes melted butter on top and sprinkles lightly with Lawry’s garlic salt.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

I find that lately I don’t like to leave baking recipes untweaked.  I altered this one from epicurious.com.  They call is “Spiced Pumpkin Bread”.  I call it “not good enough.”  The way the spices and the chocolate chips combine is like having Mexican hot chocolate.  They’re so good.  Below is my version of the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce (or you could use oil)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
• 3 cups all purpose flour (1 1/2 c. whole wheat, 1 1/2 c. white)
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• all the chocolate chips I had left in the bag

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Butter and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans or 24 muffin tins.
3. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend.
4. Mix in eggs and pumpkin.
5. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder.
6. Add chocolate chips.
7. Divide batter equally between prepared pans.
8. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean (approx. 70 minutes for bread, 25-30 minutes for muffins).
9. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes.
10. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves.
11. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.

Rempel Family Meatloaf

God bless the Rempels and their meatloaf. This stuff hits the spot on a chilly fall night! Double the recipe and deliver half as a mercy meal to a family who could use some extra help and loving.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup crushed buttery round crackers
• 3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons steak sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Stir the ground beef, crushed crackers, Cheddar cheese, and onion soup mix in a large bowl until well combined.
3. Whisk the eggs, ketchup, and steak sauce in a separate bowl until smooth.
4. Mix the eggs into the meat until evenly combined. (If the mixture seems too dry, add a little water.)
5. Press into a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
6. Bake in preheated oven until the meatloaf reaches 160 degrees F (71 degrees C) and is no longer pink in the center(approx. 45 to 60 minutes).

Potato Casserole

I love potatoes more than makes rational sense. This isn’t a lowfat menu option, but I think you could cut some corners and make it a bit healthier. I paired it with meatloaf and wasn’t worried about calories at the time. A few days later I reheated some casserole alongside scrambled eggs… oh my goodness, delicious. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 (30 ounce) package frozen hash brown potatoes
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 cup butter
• 3 cups crushed corn flakes

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Pour the hash browns into a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking dish.
3. In a large bowl, combine the cheese, sour cream and soup.
4. In a large skillet over medium heat, combine the onion with 1 stick butter and saute for 5 minutes. Add this to the soup mixture and spread this over the potatoes in the dish.
5. Next, arrange the crushed corn flakes over all in the dish.
6. Melt the remaining stick of butter and pour this evenly over the corn flakes.
7. Bake for 1 hour.

Apple Cookies

Ahhhh, my house smells like fall this morning! I altered this recipe from Allrecipes.com and came up with a delicious cookie. No need for icing, in my opinion—the apples, craisins and spices provide the perfect amount of sweetness.

Interestingly enough, I left out milk in the first round of baking. I think I may like the no-milk cookies a little better than the ones with milk.

Ingredients

• 1/4 C butter
• 1/4 C shortening
• 1.5 C brown sugar
• 2 C flour, sifted
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t ground cloves
• 1/2 t ground nutmeg
• 1 C apples, cored and finely diced
• 1 C craisins
• 1/4 C milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Then beat together butter, shortening and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in egg until thoroughly blended.
4. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.
5. Stir half of dry mixture into creamed mixture.
6. Stir in apples and craisins
7. Stir in remaining dry mixture and milk; mix well.
8. Drop tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets.
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes.