POLENTA-HEY DID YOU KNOW THEY MAKE INSTANT?

 Italians rejoice! They were probably dancing in the streets and little old ladies dressed all in black were wending down the streets in a chorus line                                                          

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Hey did you know that they make instant polenta now?
 What? You may have known that, but since I live in the middle of nowhere I didn't know about this amazing development in Italian cuisine.

You maybe familiar with this dish as Cornmeal Mush, if you're Pennsylvania Dutch you may know this dish as scrapple. If you're a yuppie you may have eaten Polenta at a fancy restaurant.

However you know it, it's awesome. Polenta is alot like grits except it's made from corn meal. My Awesome Moms found the instant variety which I didn't even know existed!

It was so easy to make you just boiled water and added your polenta. Just follow the directions on the box.
Now here are some ideas-my great grandma often made it for lunch she added butter and freshly grated mozzarellla cheese yum.

My mom being always budget conscious  would make it for
dinner. The only way my Dad would eat it was with some fried
Italian Sausage and spaghetti sauce.
It was quite filling but I can't handle eating meat in my polenta.

This is what I am making after I ate a small bowl
with butter. I poured my cooked polenta into a butered loaf pan. If you've ever eaten at Bob Evans you may have had this dish.

Tomorrow morning Bear will be quite surprised-as he's never eaten this. (Not a wap like me) ..
So I let this polenta sit in the pan overnight., Tomorrow I will flip this pan into my cutting board, slice it and fry it in some butter with my eggs and sausage.

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HOMEMADE BREAD-DON'T FORGET THE CINNAMON

Ok this is not a recipe I took off pinterest.  When I was a kid our neighbor made this all the time-it was his grandmother's recipe. I traded a recipe that he wanted-but the kicker was this recipe came with no directions and few measurements-so you may want to experiment. This makes a good old fashioned bread that's not too dense and it's forgiving enough to experiment with. This will take a few hours to make-but it's not hard.

BRUCE'S BREAD
I use my Kitchen Aid of course.
You will need 5 lb flour-you'll probably use half but better to have more.
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Envelopes Yeast

Take your sugar and yeast put in a bowl.

1 1/4 C. Milk
1 1/4 C. Water
1/4 C. Margarine
Warm until marg starts melting.Add about 1/3 to your yeast mixture and let sit about 10 minutes til your mixture gets foamy and starts growing. While this is going on warm up your oven to about 180.

Add the rest of your liquid and dump about a cup of flour in. Either start mixing by hand or use your mixer. Add flour til it gets stiff-you can take out of the bowl anytime and start kneading by hand. Stop when you get tired-  really when your dough isn't sticky anymore it's good. Grease your bowl and flip your dough so it's greased on top.
Make sure your oven is off and stick your dough in-if it's really hot in there leave the door open a crack for a few minutes,  Or if you are baking something put your bowl on top of your stove and cover it with a clean dishtowel. Let rise 1 hour until double.
Grease 2 loaf pans at this time you can roll with cinnamon-or leave plain.. divide dough in 1/2 and add to each pan . Let rise another hour and then bake at 350 for 1/2 hour- easy right?

I usually make at least one roll of cinnamon bread-
4 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Cinnamon Mix your cinnamon &  Sugar together.
1/2 Stick melted Margarine
After your first rise divide dough in half-or  use the whole pan of dough roll into rectangle- not too thin.
Brush your melted margarine over it and sprinke with cinnamon sugar-as little or as much as you want.
Roll up and put in loaf pan let rise another hour and then bake.

Last 2 silces left-I didn't center my cinnamon very well did I?
Another awesome variation-add 1 Cup wheat bran or wheat flour in place or white flour. When I do this I will usually add a cup of home made apple butter.

BEST DAMN BROWNIES

OK I am talking about brownies again today-you can refer to spooky screwed up Brownies.  I have perfected brownies- I think.
The Recipe:
I double it -it makes it fudgier and moist & bake in a 9x9  350 for 45 minutes-watch closely test after about 30 minutes it should be raw in middle bake another 10-15 minutes and if still liquid reduce heat to 300 and bake another 5 minutes. Turn off oven and leave brownies in-check.
You won't have this problem if you don't double the recipe you can bake at 350 for 25 minutes..

1/2 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
Mix Well-you can bag this for later use so much cheaper than a mix.
Beat in
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Melted Margarine
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
Dam-it's that damn easy.
Pour into greased pan.
I usually spread chocolate chips over the batter, And when they're done baking and cool I melt chocolate chips and drizzle over my brownies. Then I melt white chocolate chips, drizzle then stick the whole shebang into the freezer til set then cut brownies & serve.
This week however, I had a bag of walnuts that someone grew & gave me. So I shelled my nuts and chopped them and then poured them over the top of my batter along with chocolate chips ad then took some salted peanuts chopped those up and swirled a little with a knife..Yum

PUMPKIN ROLLS WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Ok, this is the best Pumpkin Roll, I have ever had, and so easy! You will either need a 1/2 sheet pan or 2 9x16 baking pans, greased. You want to pour about 1/2 to at most 1 inch of batter in the pan.
Preheat oven to 350.

Recipe
3 Cups Canned Pumpkin (or fresh is good)
6 Eggs
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
13 Ounces Vegetable Oil

Beat well, 3-4 minutes.

Add 13 Ounces Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1Tablespoon Cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt-I never add this-why do we use so much salt?? Is it our tastebuds
Here is my secret ingredient 1 teaspoon Pumpkin Spice

Filling
3 Ounces Cream Cheese
2 Ounces Butter
2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Beat very well, til nice and flu

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Pour into you pans and bake for 25-30 minutes if baking a very thin cake cook for less time test same as any other cake.
Let cool about 10 minutes, loosen edges of cakes with a knife, carefully flip onto a tea towel let cool another few minutes, til cool.
Spread filling in a layer and roll slowly ..enjoy

A great alternative to a roll if you have alot of guests, or are making for a party would be to cut into small diamonds or squares and pipe some of your frosting onto the top with a pastry bag

THE BEST OATMEAL COOKIES

This recipe came off the side of the oatmeal container-with a few changes.
I love cookies when I was a kid there was a bakery in Harbor Beach MI called Reuters. If you ever were there, your mouth is probably watering at just the name. The donuts were incredible and all of our favorites. But going down the sidewalk what tapped you on the shoulder and lured you inside was the smell of cookies. Especially the oatmeal cookies-these were always my Dad's favorite he always loved old fashioned cookies-
In these cookies as in most butter makes all the difference.

1 1/2 Cups Butter
2 Cups Brown Sugar
1/2 Cups White Sugar
Beat Well
Add 3 eggs and 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
Beat Well
Add 6 Cups raw oatmeal- I like theOld fashioned rolled oats (I buy at the bulk food store)
2 Cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 Teaspoons Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg
Raisins Optional

Bake at 325 for about 12-15 minutes

CONFESSION-DREAM KITCHEN

I

I keep seeing pictures of the designer kitchens, you know the ones..Granite or marble counters, islands, those weird things hanging from the ceiling to hang pots on. Giant rooms with a fireplace, a fridge that's bigger than my car.

You know what, I love retro kitchens. I want a formica table gleaming with chrome, a pink stove, a chrome sunbeam toaster.  Kind of like the one above-but red, red with cherries on the dishtowels and curtains. That just seems cheery and homey to me-how about you?<script type="text/javascript"><!--
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THOSE DAMN BUTTONS/ USING EDIBLE GUM PASTE

All right here it is. I had a big order  of cupcakes, and I had to make some more of buttons. So here are the tools and the dough I use from Wilton-it's called Shape-N-Amaze.

I highly recommend using it, I got some mix for gum paste and made some at the same time that I got this pre-made colored shape=n=amaze. The home made dough would not take colors-I added a ton of gel colors and they were still pastel.

When I first started making buttons, I followed the directions included with the silicone mold-which called for coating mold in corn starch. I had better luck with no cornstarch and just popping right out of the mold. You will need to get a sheet of waxed paper and spread your buttons out and let  dry. Let dry at least a day they are totally tasty and will impress the heck out of people.

They look amazing on cookies, cupcakes,  cakes-ya know. The shape and amaze is very easy to work with, you just knead for a minute or two and shape. Press into your mold or sculpt, put om wax paper and let dry the shape n amaze is very glossy and will loose a lot of luster asit dries.