Spoon Rolls

My wonderful cousin, Jane, gave me this recipe. This is a great recipe because the dough will keep for several days in and airtight container in the fridge. You can take out enough to make a few rolls for dinner each night. Just imagine having fresh rolls each evening for a week. Yum!

SPOON ROLLS

1 pkg. dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1 1/2 sticks melted margarine or butter
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
4 cups self-rising flour

Place yeast in two cups warm water and mix until yeast dissolves. Melt butter and cream with sugar in a large bowl; add beaten egg. Pour in dissolved years mixture. Add flour and stir until mixed well. The batter will be a little lumpy. Place in an airtight bowl in the refrigerator. To bake, drop by spoonfuls onto into well-greased muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees about 20 minutes. This dough will keep for a few days in an airtight container in the fridge.

Orange Rolls

My oldest sister, Janice, gave me this recipe. They sound delicious, don't they?

ORANGE ROLLS

1 Tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon salt
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix with other ingredients until it forms a ball. Let it rise for two hours. Divide into four parts. Roll each part out to 1/4 inch thick and cut into triangles.

Zest of one orange
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup butter

Mix the orange zest and sugar. Melt butter. Dip each rectangle into melted butter and then into the orange/sugar mix and roll up from the wide end first. Let rise. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes.

Breakfast Muffins

This is my mother's recipe, and these are quick and delicious!

BREAKFAST MUFFINS1 egg
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoons melted shortening (or vegetable oil)
2 cups sifted self-rising flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts OR 1 cup blueberries

Beat the egg. Add milk, shortening and sugar. Add the flour. Stir only until moistened. Fold in nuts or blueberries, if desired. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 cull. Bake in hot oven (400 degrees) until lightly browned.

Best Ever Oatmeal Muffins

This is a recipe from my sister, Joan of Daddy's Roses. I haven't had them in a long time, but I remember them being absolutely delicious. When I make them, however, I always leave out the raisins. I just don't like raisins in cooked dishes. If you also don't care for raisins in muffins, you could substitute chopped dates or dried cranberries for a good option.

BEST EVER OATMEAL MUFFINS

1 cup quick cooking oats (uncooked)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Combine oats and buttermilk. Let stand for one hour. Add egg, sugar and oil, stirring well. Combine other ingredients and add to the oats mixture. Stir just until moistened. Baked in greased muffin pans for 18 minutes at 400 degrees. Contains 120 calories each if you make 12 muffins (80 calories each if you make 18).

Oatmeal Apple Muffins

Yesterday my granddaughter told me about a going-away party her first grade class had for a student who is moving to Thailand (the family serves as missionaries) over spring break. She said that they had oatmeal muffins for treats during the party.

Have you ever heard someone mention a food, and suddenly you just REALLY start craving that food? That's how I felt about oatmeal muffin. Up to that point I hadn't thought about oatmeal muffins, but after she mentioned them, I knew I wanted to make some. I immediately started looking for recipes. Here's one I found that included ingredients I already had on hand. As soon as I got home, the grandgirls and I made a batch. I really liked them. They were moist, lightly sweet with a crunchy outside.

When my daughter came to pick up the girls, she tasted one and commented, "These taste healthy." You can make of that what you want. They ARE healthy. They're sweetened with honey, the flour is whole wheat, they have skim milk, old fashioned oatmeal and two cups of fresh grated apples.

The recipe makes a dozen muffins - and between the six of us (RT, me, daughter, son-in-law, grandgirls) we ate them all yesterday. I plan to make these again and freeze them individually and grab one to eat for breakfast on my way to school on mornings when I'm running late.

Oatmeal Apple Muffins

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup skim milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
2 cups shredded apples

Combine the flour, oatmeal, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl mix the milk, oil, honey and shredded apple. Combine the ingredients and mix well. Spoon into muffin tins that have been sprayed with PAM - or you can use cupcake papers. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Yield: one dozen large muffins. Calories: approx. 190 per muffin with 5 grams fat.

Southern Cornbread Dressing

My mother, Ruthlace, makes the best dressing I’ve ever eaten. I’ve always loved my mother’s cornbread dressing at Thanksgiving and Christmas. There just isn’t any other dressing that can compare to it. Here’s her recipe.

Cornbread Dressing

2 1/2 cups crumbled cornbread

1 cup dry bread crumbs (use stale rolls or loaf bread)

4 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup drippings (from cooking the turkey) or margarine

1 small onion, chopped fine

2 stalks celery, chopped fine

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground sage

1/4 tsp. pepper

4 eggs, slightly beaten

Combine ingredients. Add a little more broth or water to make a thin mixture. Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees or until it is set.

Angel Biscuits

Not long after RT and I first got married in 1969, someone gave me a recipe for Angel Biscuits. I used to make them all the time because once you make the dough, you can keep it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks - using some of the dough to make fresh biscuits whenever you’d like. They’re really closer to rolls than biscuits, and they’re delicious. They’re so good that my mother, Ruthlace, included the recipe in her book titled Recipes, Rhymes and Reflections. Here it is:

ANGEL BISCUITS

5 cups self-rising flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup shortening

3 pkgs. yeast (dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water)

2 cups buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients. Cut in shortening. Stir in yeast and buttermilk. Roll out and cut, as desired. Bake in a hot oven (400 degrees) Dough may be covered tightly and kept in the refrigerator for two weeks.

Monkey Bread

Here’s an easy recipe for Monkey Bread

MONKEY BREAD

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cans refrigerated biscuit dough

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat over to 350. Spray a small bundt pan with Pam. You can use a loaf pan or cake pan instead of the bundt pan, if you prefer.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a plastic food bag.

Separate the biscuits, and then cut each one into quarters. Place the biscuit pieces in the bag with the sugar and cinnamon. Shake to coat well. Then place the coated biscuit pieces in the pan.

Mix the brown sugar and melted butter. Pour over the biscuit pieces.

Bake for approx. 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Then invert onto a plate. Serve warm. You just pull apart however much you want to eat. Makes 6 servings.

This makes a great dish to take to a morning meeting.

Banana Bread (moist and delicious!)

When I was preparing dinner tonight, I noticed that the bananas I’d bought last week were still in the fruit tray - and decidedly over-ripe. I immediately thought, “Yea! I’ll make some banana bread!” So tomorrow afternoon, I will use the following recipe to make the best banana bread I’ve ever tasted. I got this recipe from my niece, Naomi.

Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup margarine

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour milk (add 1 tsp. white vinegar to fresh milk and let it stand 10 minutes)

1 tsp. baking soda

2 cups flour

4 mashed over ripe bananas

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup nuts or chocolate chips (optional)

Cream sugar and margarine. Then add eggs, milk, soda, flour and vanilla. Mix well. Add bananas and nuts. Pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans and let stand 20 minutes.

Bake at 325 for 50 minutes. Check doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center. If the toothpick comes out clean, the banana bread is done.

Options: You can use 1 1/2 cups applesauce instead of the bananas. You can also use crushed pineapple, crushed cranberries or almost any soft fruit.