Homemade Sandwich Buns

Homemade Sandwich Buns

1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon honey
1/4 cup butter
1 egg, room temperature
4 1/2 cups flour 
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon salt

Keep in mind this is homemade bread so it's going to take some time.  This is not a quick bread - so allow time to avoid frustration.  Take your time to make sure they are tasty.  Why spend time doing it just to rush and make them suck!?

Heat milk, water, honey, and butter until butter is melted on low.  Check the temperature or allow to cool a bit. Carefully beat the egg and add slowly to this mix.  You always want to add the egg to the mix because if you do it the other way around it will instantly cook the egg...also why you want to cool it slightly depending on how hot you melted it all at.

Mix 2 cups of flour, yeast and salt in large bowl. (I swapped out one cup of flour for whole wheat and used white for the remainder) Add milk mix.  Stir in the remainder of the flour 1/2 cup at a time.  Beat well after each addition.  4 1/2 cups is the amount you'll add and then you'll have extra to add while kneading.  Just so you know....

When dough pulls together in a soft ball turn it out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.  Set the timer for 5 minutes and knead away adding flour as necessary to get it to be non-sticky.  You can also use a mixing hook on your fancy dancy machine if you have such a device.

Divide the dough into 12-16 parts.  Shape (light kneading) into smooth balls.  Flatten slightly and place on a baking sheet.

You, of course, have a warm spot all ready for your bread, right? Right! You did this right!??  Phew...good job - you now cover your bread and put in this warm spot.  Let rise to about double - 40 minutes or so.  

After buns have risen, brush tops with beaten egg for a shiny glaze.  At this point you can add poppy seed, sesame seed, minced onion, salt, etc.

Bake at 400 (you of course preheated the oven cuz you are a master cook) for 10-12 minutes

Soft, and yummy - warm in your tummy!

Pecan Pie Cookies

Pecan Pie Cookies

Cookie:
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 cup softened butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder

Filling:
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine first 4 cookie ingredients in large bowl.  Beat until creamy.  Add flour and baking powder and beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls.  Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Make indentations in each with thumb, rotating your thumb to hollow out the indentation slightly.  Or make it easy on yourself and just pick up the ball and create a hollow in it (it doesn't have to be so complicated!)

Combine filling ingredients in small bowl.  Fill each cookie with 1 rounded teaspoon of filling.  Bake for 8-12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool for at least one minute before removing.

I ended up using 1/2 cup of whipping cream as I messed up so they were a bit flat and ran a bit but they were still tasty.  Super easy and tasty and it's like mini pecan pies with no karo syrup.  HELLO!

Tummy...prepare to be happy!

Roast Turkey

Juicy Roast Turkey

Step 1: Plan ahead.  Recipe starts with a thawed turkey!
Step 2: Ready your fridge!  You'll need to put the turkey in a 5 gallon pail and then in the fridge overnight so you may just want to plan ahead by finding the pail, cleaning as necessary, and removing shelves and such from the fridge.  I don't recommend putting the turkey outside in the cold overnight - but hey, that's your call; maybe you want to encourage coons and cats to hang out and provide the cold wildlife with a free meal.  But, that might just put you behind in your turkey preparation...I'm just saying....
Step 3: Get going on making ice.  You'll need quite a bit.  Or cheat and go buy some. Lazy.

14-16 pound turkey

Brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 gallon veggie stock (modify as necessary)
1 Tbsp black peppercorns
1 1/2 tsp allspice berries
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

Aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
rosemary
sage

Other important items:
canola oil
emptied fridge
5 gallon bucket

Combine vegetable stock (I used 4of those concentrated chicken stock tubs and added water to make around a gallon of stock), brown sugar, salt, berries, pepper, and ginger in stockpot and heat until it boils and your sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat. Cool. Put in fridge if you aren't ready to proceed yet.  I did not have a big enough stockpot so I simply did this step two times until it was all done.  I put this in the bucket let it cool slightly and moved on.  The recipe assumes you are doing this part a day or two ahead - I did it the day before.  Your choice.

Day or night before you want to eat - combine the above brine mix with your heavily iced water.  Place your thawed turkey in this bucket. Of course you have removed the innards cuz that would be silly not to.  It says to put the turkey in breast side down and weigh it down if necessary.  Since my bucket sits vertically (horizontal 5 gallon buckets??? Where do you people shop?) I simply put the bird in so it's legs were sticking out of the brine.  Make sure it's fully immersed (if not, ha ha).  Refrigerate overnight.  Technically the recipe also says it should be covered and you should turn it once half way through.  I say just leave forget it cuz it's fully immersed - why would you need to turn it? and let it sit overnight in the cleaned out fridge.

The following day....
Preheat oven to 500.  Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water.  Discard the brine.  Place bird on your roasting rack in a half sheet pan. Pat dry with towels.

Combine apple, onion, cinnamon, and 1 cup water in microwave safe bowl and micro for 5 full minutes.  Add the rosemary and sage and place into turkey cavity.  Tuck wings underneath (no idea) and coat skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast on lowest oven level at 500 for 30 minutes.  Insert probe thermometer into thickest part of breast and reduce heat to 350.  Assuming you have an oven safe probe leave it in and set alarm for 161 degrees.  Should you not have a fancy dancy thermometer - best not to leave it in the oven as it will simply melt (not that I have any experience with this). 14-16 pound bird should take about 2 - 2.5 hours.  20 minutes per pound rule assumes you are roasting at a lower heat thus needing a longer amount of time, I'd guess. Watch that thermometer...or quickly call someone to bring you one should you have melted yours.  Once pulled from oven, let it rest loosely covering it with foil for 15 minutes.

Carve. Enjoy!  Juicyness worth the effort.  Plus it's kinda fun and you feel like a famous chef!