Easy and versatile filled crescent rolls!

   In trying to decide "what's for supper", again...I saw a super simple idea on Pinterest (of course).  It was ham and cheese rolled up in refrigerated crescent dough and baked.  Looked great and so easy.  I have this King Arthur whole wheat pastry flour that I have been wanting to try in more recipes, so I decided I would complicate an easy recipe and make my own crescents!  But, this recipe is very easy and the rolls are delicious either whole wheat, white or half and half!

Here is all you need to gather.  Only 7 ingredients, easy peasy!

You start by pouring the warmed milk into the mixer bowl and sprinkle the yeast over the top.  Yeast loooves milk-lots of nutrients in there and it starts bubbling right away!  

The next step is add everything else! (Told you this was easy)  But, we are only adding 4 cups of flour at this point.  You can see the mound of flour with salt and sugar on your left, eggs on your right and butter in the middle.  Now beat it all together til it's smooth.

Then, start adding the remainder of the flour until a soft dough forms.  When the consistency feels right, knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic.  I do this in the mixer, but you can get your upper body exercise out of the way by doing it by hand!  The next step is to put it in a covered greased bowl to rise until doubled-probably about an hour.  You can use this time to sit down with a steaming latte and relax and dream about having grocery delivery available get caught up on housework and laundry, right?

 Here is the risen dough. Now dump onto floured counter.

Cut into thirds, roll out into about a 12 inch circle and cut into 8-12 (depending on how big you want them.  8 if you want sandwich size crescents) pie shaped wedges.  I use my pizza cutter for this.  I did take a picture of this step but, apparently it's lost somewhere in cyberspace.

Roll each of the wedges up starting with the wide end and tucking the point under and place on greased baking sheet.

Bake and enjoy!  I made these without the ham and cheese for the first 2 batches.  If you were adding any toppings, put them on the dough before rolling it into the crescent shape so they are rolled inside.  Add your toppings the thickest at the wide end and stop about 2/3 of the way down so the point can wrap around and seal.  Some of the toppings will be showing on the outside of the roll.
 Just imagine the toppings you can try:
Any type of lunchmeat
All kinds of cheeses
Nutella, folks!
Hershey kisses, mmmhmm.
Cream cheese-sweet or savory... 
Pizza fixin's
Let me know what you used!

 2 nutella's on left, 2 pepperoni with mozzarella on right (we dipped those in warmed pizza sauce) and 2 garden cream cheese ones in front.  All were delish!


Easy Crescent Rolls                                 Bake at 400 for 12-14 minutes
2 Cups warmed milk                                 Makes about 3 dozen
4 1/2 tsps Yeast (or two 1/4oz pkgs)

6 1/2 Cups flour- I used 4 C whole wheat pastry flour and 2 1/2 C white
1/4 Cup melted butter, let cool
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt


Warm your milk to about 110 degrees and pour it in your mixing bowl.
Sprinkle the yeast over the top of the milk and let it dissolve.
Add 4 cups of flour, melted butter, eggs, sugar and salt and mix until smooth.
Add in the rest of the flour until a soft dough forms.
Knead until smooth and elastic, either in the mixer or by hand.
Place in a greased bowl, spray the top of the dough with cooking spray and cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
Punch the dough down and cut it into thirds.
Roll each third into about a 12 inch circle and cut into wedges.  8-12 depending on the size of the rolls you want.
If you are adding toppings, put them on now.
Roll wedges beginning with the wide ends and place with pointed end down on greased baking sheets.
Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
Bake at 400 for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.
Brush with butter if desired.


Adapted from my church cookbook-aren't those always the best recipes?

Signs of Spring

We had such a beautiful March then April turned kind of rotten on us.  We are midway through the month and having a sprinkling of nice days now.  Today we had beautiful sunshine and it felt good to be outdoors.

My first trail run of the season.  It felt so good.  I have to get used to those hills again.  I walked on 3 of the uphills, so not too bad.

Always a sign of spring-Tulips.  But, it's tulip in this case.  Just 1 growing in our driveway turnaround, but beautiful it is!

And hopscotch...I instagramed this picture because it brought back memories of my childhood.  I loved to hopscotch.  Now I'm not even sure what the point of hopscotch is anymore.

Crockpot french dip

Last week I mentioned about the root beer roast I made.  I didn't like the way it tasted because I could taste the sweetness of the root beer when eating.  Today, I made a roast much the same way, but used a bottle of this delicious Johnny's French Dip au jus in place of the root beer and this meat was sooo tender and savory.  I had trouble stopping myself from shoveling it all down my throat!  I picked it up at Costco last time I was there. I don't have too many pictures to go with the post today because I was frantically trying to get it done while making breakfast and getting ready for work all at the same time and I had a little trouble getting out of bed this morning to start my day.  So, here it is...

Crockpot French Dip

 The mixing ratio is 1 part of this au jus to 2 parts water.  I used 1/2 cup with 1 cup water.  So mix that together, then pour about a tablespoon of oil into a pan and heat it up.  When the oil gets hot, add chopped onion or the flaked, dried kind if you haven't been to the grocery store in awhile like me and minced garlic and saute it.  Then add the roast that has been seasoned.  I sprinkle mine with pepper and placed it in the pan and seared both sides until nicely browned.  Remove the roast and put it in the crockpot.  Now pour the au jus/H2O mixture into the pan to deglaze it.

(Yeah, I know...no pictures of the roast anywhere even though that's what this post is all about!?!) 

Pour this over the roast now and cook on low all day long.  (Ugh, dirty crockpot pictures :0 )

Look at that, someone ran out of crockpot bags the meat is so tender it totally fell off the bone.
So, do y'all know about crockpot bags?  They are the absolute bomb!  They work like oven bags.  Plastic bags that don't melt.  Just line your crockpot with it, add all your ingredients in.  When you're done, remove what you want, bag up the rest and toss it in the garbage!  Voila, clean crockpot in front of you!  They are right by the oven bags, Reynold's slow cooker liners (I guess is the real name).
Getting back on track, I put the meat on a piece of bread, poured au jus over the top, wished I had made some mashed potatoes, remembered that I couldn't because I haven't been to the store yet, and absolutely chowed it down!  Looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!!

Refreshing fizz

Found a new favorite drink courtesy of Pinterest.  FIZZ  This is a combo of sparkling water, fruit, herbs, whatever sounds good to you!  I have been loving my La Croix Coconut sparkling water with pineapple juice.  I cut up a fresh pineapple then I put about 3/4 -1 cup of it in the blender til smooth.  Put it in a glass and pour about 1/2 the can of sparkling water over the top.  Add ice and straw.  Voila-refreshment in a glass!

I also picked some some Archer Farms mineral water from Target and have been adding a few drops of lemon essential oil and ice for another treat.  This is a great alternative to pop and other artificially flavored drinks!  Check out my link to nest of posies above, she has lots of fun, tasty ideas.

Best bread recipe, ever.

   This bread turns out the best of any I have ever tried.  Especially making it with whole wheat, it is light and soft not a heavy lump that many recipes make.  I realize this doesn't have much to do with pizza and pop, but I did eat it for supper with my rootbeer braised chuck roast tonight. That was a Pinterest find, sort of.  I saw one then combined it with a few recipes I googled and didn't really like it.  I could taste the sweetness of the rootbeer.  However, I think if I would have added BBQ sauce it would have been better.  
  Back to the recipe at hand...It doesn't take any longer than any other bread recipe necessarily, but it is more labor intensive which definitely pays off in the end!

                                                 Cast of Characters
Start by pouring the water in the mixing bowl and adding the sugar, oil and yeast to it.  

                 Now, wait 5 minutes to for the yeast to activate.

                                     Looks all bubbly like this.
Then add the whole wheat flour.

 Mix it around til it's just getting moist (you will still see lots of dry flour). Now, it's a 15 minute wait while the gluten gets going.  This is what makes the loaf lighter and fluffier.

 Here's the activated gluten.  Now, you pour in your salt and if you want to add any mix-ins such as ground flax, wheat bran, wheat germ, etc this is the time to do it.  

 Get that whisked around in there and add the white flour.  I usually add about 2/3 of it, stir it up and then add the remaining to decrease the flyaway flour.  I also use this method for that: throwing a dishtowel over the top of the mixer.  Hello!  I saw a friend doing this recently for whipping cream and I totally had a lightbulb go off!

...diminish the mess...

rest of the white flour

Now, mix until all combined and the dough is climbing up the dough hook.

                                                         like so.

Next, you will need:

 Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and dump your bread dough into it.  Also, spray the top of the dough.  

 Cover with a cute dishtowel and let rise for an hour. **Here's the labor intensive part** Every 10 minutes

 you will need to punch the dough down and then I spray my hands and dump the dough into my hands and knead it for about not quite a minute, then plop it back into the bowl, cover and repeat in another ten minutes until the hour is up.

 Now would be the time to look at the mess you've made and 

have a yummy strawberry and vanilla yogurt snack.

and wonder why there is a truck parked at the end of my driveway.  Then, finally get back and clean up the mess.

When the hour is up,lightly flour the counter and rolling pin and roll the first loaf out.  I make it about the width of the bread pan and roll the length until the thickness is uniform.  Then roll it up, pinch the seams and put it in the awaiting, already sprayed loaf pan.

When all your dough is used up, cover and let rise until the tops are well rounded.  Usually 30-45 minutes.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

 Bake until the tops are browned and the loaves sound hollow when tapped.  Usually 25 minutes in my oven.

Remove and enjoy!  Wish I could capture the wonderful aromas wafting about my house at this time.  I always have to cut a piece and smear it with butter and eat it while it's still hot.

Best Whole Wheat Bread                                      Bake at 400 for 25 minutes
5 cups warm water                                                Makes 5 medium loaves
3 Tbsp yeast
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
1 cup oil
2 Tbsp salt
6 cups whole wheat flour
6 cups white flour

Optional: I add in up to 1 cup total of the following
ground flax seed
wheat germ
wheat bran

Add sugar and oil to the warm water, sprinkle yeast over the top.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Add the whole wheat flour, mix lightly and let sit for 15 minutes.  Add the salt and optional mix ins, lightly mix.  Add 4 cups of white flour, mix that in that add the remaining 2 cups.

Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and pour the dough into it, spray the top of the dough also and cover and let rise for one hour, punching the dough down every 10 minutes.  When the hour is up, roll out your loaves, shape and put in pans.  Let rise until tops are well rounded and then bake.

Technology n me

I'm trying to figure out how to post from my phone.  I've been reading all the directions and ...surprise! My phone doesn't do it.  Or maybe I'm doing it wrong, again. 
All my pictures are on my phone, so I'm attempting the transfer from there to here...from here to there, funny things are everywhere...Umm, that randomly popped into my head and onto the page.
The moral of this story is that I am going to continue to work on the photo transfer and then maybe more regular posts will appear! So, bear with me and come back and visit soon.  Or maybe you have tips to help me??