Buttermilk Syrup

Of Gray-Summit-on-top-of-pancakes-cooked-in-bacon-grease-fame.

Warning: Do not try to substitute homemade (i.e. lemon juice and milk) buttermilk for the real deal. Not nearly as tasty.

Warning Part Deux: Use a large pot. Adding the baking soda makes it fizz up for a minute.

1/2 C Butter
1 1/2 C Sugar
3/4 C Buttermilk
2 T Corn Syrup
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 tsp. Vanilla

Melt butter over medium heat. Add buttermilk, sugar, syrup and baking soda. Cook for 7 minutes.  Remove from heat and add vanilla. Store in fridge. To reheat, place glass jar of syrup in a water bath on medium low heat until warm.

America's Test Kitchen Pizza Sauce

Ingredients:

28 oz can whole tomatoes, drained
1 T extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp red wine vinegar (makes such a difference!)

Process in food processor and let sit in the fridge at least an hour.

America's Test Kitchen Authentic Pizza Dough

Having served a mission for my church in Italy, I think I know a good pizza crust when I see one. This is the closest I've come to Italian Pizza Bliss, and it's time to share.

The only bummer is, you have to have a food processor with a dough hook to make this dough.  But it just might be worth the effort to buy one ... Fortunately for me, my dear friend (and evidently an excellent cook) Audrey got a new one for her birthday and gave me her old one a few years ago. Cuisinart. It's still kicking!

And, for the flavor to be delizioso, it MUST sit in the fridge at least overnight.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 C Bread Flour (all purpose won't do, you need the higher gluten content, get a 50 lb bag at Costco. Once you make this pizza, you will find yourself going through it faster than you thought.)

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp yeast

1 1/3 C ice water

1 1/2 tsp table salt

1 T vegetable oil

Instructions:

Put your flour, sugar and yeast in the food processor and process until mixed.  Let the machine run while you pour the ice water (cubes removed) through the feed tube. Process until incorporated, about 20 seconds.

Let sit for 10 minutes.

Add salt and vegetable oil. Process for 30-60 seconds until dough looks satiny and clear.

Put a little vegetable oil on the counter and work the dough into a ball (less than a minute kneading). Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 24 hours and up to 3 days.

Next day, divide the dough in half and shape into little balls. Place on a greased baking sheet, cover with greased plastic wrap and let dough relax for an hour.

Now, ATK recommends using a pizza stone. I am pizza stone challenged and always set something on fire when attempting to transfer my pizza from slip to stone, so I use a vented pizza pan (a circle with little holes in the bottom). A pizza screen is even better, but they don't sell those at Target.

What I CAN do is preheat an oven! And you need a hot oven to make this work.  Like 500 degrees hot.  Give it at least 20 minutes to get up there.

Back to the dough.

Flour the counter well and both sides of the dough ball.

Pat ball into a nice 8 inch circle with your fingers. Stretch the ball with your fingers (NO ROLLING PIN. You will destroy the marvelous air bubbles that come with stretch dough rather than rolling it) Stretch with fingers into a 12 inch disc. The center will be thinner.

Place dough onto pan, screen, or cornmealed pizza slip.  Sauce and top and then back for 10-12 minutes, rotating the pizza half way through.

Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting. (If you can).

Recipe for ATK pizza sauce (FANTASTIC!) to follow.

Audrey's Corn Chowder

There are never any leftovers with this soup. It's great for a cold day and really easy.

Ingredients:

1 lb Jimmy Dean Lean Pork Sausage

4 C yukon gold, diced small

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp pepper

2 C water

1 can creamed corn (1/2 of it) or 2 C of frozen (and increase milk)

1 can evaporated milk

thicken with chicken broth and flour if needed

brown and drain sausage, add potatoes, salt and water. Cook until potatoes are tender. Add spices, corn, evaporated milk and cook until thickened. You will need to thicken it. You may want to add cayenne.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Gingerbread

My mom made this a few years ago and I loved it. "They" say that it's not a health food, but you would never know because of the ginger flavor. Good for the stomach! The gingerbread is kind of like a cakey brownie. Go ahead and bake it the full time even if it looks done. The middle will be doughy if you don't.

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup boiling water
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, Beaten

Directions

1. Mix the brown sugar and the shortening together until creamy. Add the baking soda to the boiling water and add the water to the molasses. Combine the molasses mixture to the creamed mixture.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the spices to the flour. Sift the flour into the molasses mixture. Add the beaten eggs to the batter and stir well. The batter will be quite thin.
3. Pour batter into a large baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Asparagus and Sausage Strata

For the last few years I have brought this to our ward Christmas breakfast. I am always asked for the recipe, so being that our Christmas breakfast is tomorrow morning, I thought I'd post early. Be warned, this is a make the day ahead recipe.

Ingredients:

12 slices rustic white bread
1/2 C milk
1 lb fresh asparagus broken into pieces (you can substitute frozen, but it's not as crisp)
8 oz button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 oni0n, diced
1 lb. sausage (Jimmy Dean's Hot N Spicy)
1/2 lb. grated cheddar
8 large eggs
1 C buttermilk or sour cream
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper
dash of Worcestershire
dash of Tabasco


Instructions:
Cube bread into 1/2 inch pieces. Toss with milk in large bowl and set aside.

Brown sausage and drain.

In the same pan, saute mushrooms and onions for about 3 minutes. Turn off heat and add asparagus and sausage back to the pan.

In a separate bowl, blend eggs, sour cream/buttermilk, and seasonings.

Using a 9x13 greased pan (I use Pam) layer the strata as follows:

1/2 the bread cubes
1/2 the sausage/vegetable mixture
1/2 cheese
1/2 bread cubes
1/2 sausage/vegetables
1/2 cheese

Pour the egg mixture over it all, covering it completely. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Remove from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for an hour before baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-1 hour until inserted knife comes out clean.

Bran Muffins

POST RAISIN BRAN MUFFINS

5 c. flour 3 c. sugar (I use 1 1/2-2 c.) 5 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt, optional 7 c. Post Raisin Bran Also add 1 extra cup of raisins if you like alot of raisins Mix all dry ingredients together and mix it well. Then add 1 quart buttermilk, 1 cup liquid oil and 4 eggs (or use Second Nature or Egg Beaters). Mix well and bake as many as you wish. Keep rest in a covered bowl in refrigerator. Will keep up to 6 weeks. Do Not Stir Again. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes. I literally copied and pasted this from another website. But my kids love these. We've started using plan bran flakes because they didn't love the raisins.