Danish Puff Pastry

Here I am again in "Bigredkitchen". I am celebrating my invitation the way our family often celebrates birthdays, Christmas and Easter - With a Danish Puff! My wish list for my birthday changed every year but I never changed my breakfast request. Danish Puff Please! Usually it was not decorated with nuts but was covered in the sprinkle color of my choice. My most frequent selection was the pastel variegated circles. Don't wait for a birthday to make this yummy treat. Everyday can be a celebration!

Danish Puff Pastry
For the crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
2 Tablespoons water
crumble real fine and pat into pizza pan as shown.

Topping:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup water
1 teaspoon almond flavoring (vanilla can be substituted)
1 cup flour
3 eggs
Mix butter and water in sauce pan. Bring to boil. Remove from heat and add flavoring. Beat in flour, and keep beating hard. Add eggs one at a time until mixture looks like the picture to the right.

Pour mixture over top of crust and take almost to edge.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Frost with recipe below, top with nuts or sprinkles, and CELEBRATE!
Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring
1 Tablespoon butter
3 Tablespoons milk.



Note- Another great post from my good friend Rindy. Thanks Rindy! Now I am off to make this delicious looking puff as soon as I get back from Whidbey!

Peanut Butter Sticks

My name is Rindy Robberstad and my dear friend Robin Sue has allowed me to be a guest in her Big Red Kitchen. Thank you! When she first asked me to guest blog I was at my parent's cabin in the Catskills. I have spent part of every summer on White Lake and have made many of my fondest memories in that wonderful place. Two things come to mind immediately when I think about our cabin - Jiffy Pop (the kind that looks like a tin foil space ship when done popping) and Peanut Butter Sticks! No summer up there would be complete without having had these two wonderful treats. As a child we would only spend about two weeks in the cabin so the grocery shopping consisted of the basics (ingredients for S'mores, Jiffy Pop, Bread, peanut butter, milk...) About day four, my brother and I would be sick of all the S'mores and asking my mom for another sweet treat - Peanut Butter Sticks! The recipe would emerge - (you know, the one that is so old your mother doesn't remember where it came from, who it came from, or when it appeared in her recipe box) and the memories would begin.

Here are the cast of players for this memory...


Peanut Butter Sticks
6 Slices of white bread
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup Wesson Oil
2/3 cup Graham cracker crumbs


Cut crust off bread and then cut bread into 5 sticks each.


Place on cookie sheet and bake at 250° for 30 minutes. This picture makes them look like little soldiers all lined up for battle - the battle of the bulge!!!!
(I double the recipe - so this is a double batch)


Mix peanut butter and oil over low heat. Dip each stick into peanut butter mixture.


Roll wet stick in graham cracker crumbs. Let cool and store in air tight container.


My kids love these dipped in jelly or honey. Kind of a twist on a PB and J. Most of all - I love knowing my kids are making memories of their own on White Lake!

Epilogue- It is with great pleasure to share my blog with my great friend, Rindy. We met about six years ago and started our Supper Club about four years ago. Time is flying. Rindy is probably the most creative and generous person I know. When I need a good idea, I call her. She is an amazing person with great faith in God and incredible strength. She was so happy to write a blog for me that she suddenly got inspired to start her own food blog. You can catch big slices of her life here at Kitchen Klique.

Cheddar Biscuits and Bunny Hutter

Sunday evening Himself and I went to Wolf Trap to see an Emmylou Harris concert. I was not a fan of her music, as I really have never listened to her before, until Sunday, and I have to say, I am a fan now. She has a great voice. It was a company event and it was decided that we would do a potluck style picnic. Once someone volunteered to bring fried chicken (homemade mind you and delicious, I would have shamelessly gone to KFC!) the menu fell quickly into place. I volunteered to bring the Cheddar Biscuits and Bunny Hutter and my coleslaw. Others brought pasta salad, potato salad, and taco salad as well as some fruit and cookies.

These little biscuits are real special. I used a heart-shaped cutter as I did not have a round one and everyone loved the happy hearts. I packaged the biscuits in pairs in waxed sandwich bags while still warm. Also individually packaged the Bunny Hutter with little spready spoons. We had so much fun we should have been arrested (that is an Emmylou quote.) Oh and what topped off the night was a full rainbow just as the sun was setting.

Cheddar Biscuits
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
4 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cream of tartar
2 t. sugar
1/2 cup chilled butter
2/3 cup half and half
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cream of tartar, and sugar; cut in small pieces of butter till mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add cream little by little; stir only till dough follows fork around bowl. Then blend in cheese until well mixed. Turn out on lightly floured surface; knead gently. Roll to 1/2 inch think and cut using a 2 inch biscuit cutter. Place on cookie sheets and bake at 450° for 10-11 minutes or until golden brown. Makes about 12 biscuits.

Note- On Sunday I 3 1/2 x the recipe for 45 biscuits. The key to light and flaky biscuits is to mix until they just come together, no more. These biscuits freeze well, raw or baked.


Bunny Hutter
one stick butter, softened
1/2 cup honey

In a small bowl mix butter and honey until well blended. Serve with biscuits. Refrigerate leftovers.

Aside- Himself and I are a bit leery of snakes lately, so as we walked to Wolf Trap, I kept making all kinds of noise from stomping my feet and clapping to calling "here snakey, snakey!" At one point we stepped into some tall grass and I yelled "snake" just to let those snakes know who's boss but Himself went straight up in the air thinking I saw a snake. It is hard to spook Himself but I pulled it off for the first time in 15 years!

Blueberry Muffins

We do not have blueberries in season here in VA yet so I have to get my berries at the grocery store for now. I miss NJ blueberries. When I was young we would go out to a farm in Medford to pick our own. After driving us out to the field on the back of a tractor, the farmer would provide us with a coffee can on a strap to put across one shoulder to hold all the berries. There were rows and rows of bushes to chose from and we had fun picking those berries but boy did it get hot and muggy. Then the state bird would attack and ruin our fun. Can you guess the Jersey State bird? Once we got home with our bounty mom would get to work with freezing, making jam, and these blueberry muffins. She also made a nice blueberry pie too. I like these muffins, very simple. I have jazzed them up in the past with crumble topping, glaze, or a sprinkling of pearl sugar just before baking. But today I made them simple for a nice Summerly breakfast.

Blueberry Muffins
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 cup half and half
1 t. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 375°. Cream sugar and butter together. Add vanilla then add eggs one at a time. Mix dry ingredients and add alternating with half and half. Crush 1/2 cup of blueberries and add to batter. To the rest of the blueberries toss with 2 T. flour to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin. Fold the floured berries to the batter. Spray muffin pan with Pam and fill each cup about half way. Bake 15 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Makes 18 muffins.

Note- These muffins freeze well.

Quick Crustless Quiche

Quick Crustless Quiche...Quick Crustless Quiche...

Say that fives times real fast. Bet you can't. This quiche is an old stand-by in our home. I have served it numerous times for dinner over the years. I have done many variations as well. It is truly quick and easy and great as breakfast or any other meal with a salad, nice bread and some fruit. The cheese makes a chewy (good chewy, not bad chewy) crust on the bottom while the butter and flour float to the top to make a super thin and delicate, crispy and golden coating. Most of the ingredients are always in my pantry or refrigerator making this a quick oven to table meal.

Quick Crustless Quiche
7-8 slices Muenster, Swiss, or Provolone Cheese
6 slices of crispy bacon, crumbled
4 eggs
2 T. dried minced onions
1/2 cup flour
2 T. Butter
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 c milk
Dash of Pepper

Line the bottom and sides of a greased 10 inch pie plate with cheese. Sprinkle with bacon. In a blender, blend the rest of the ingredients for one minute. Gently pour over bacon and bake in 350° oven for about 30 minutes or until golden and set. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Serves 6.

Note- The quiche in the picture is made with ham. You may also substitute sausage, kielbasa, or leftover vegetables in place of the bacon.

Oatmeal Cake

This cake is an old recipe from my mother-in-law, Marilou. She got it from her next door neighbor, June Johnson, in 1963. June got it from...I have no idea. I have been making this recipe for a few years now and it is a delicious way to use up leftover oatmeal. It is a very moist cake, almost gooey, nothing wrong with that. I made a big platter of it for my lady's group today, hope they like it. Here is the recipe just as Marilou typed it out in an email to me back in August 2002. I love hand written or typed recipes written in the way someone would talk, not all formal-like.

Oatmeal Cake
Oatmeal Cake 1963 from friend next door (June Johnson)
1 1/4 cups boiling water over 1 cup quick cooking oatmeal. Let stand 20 minutes. Or use 1 cup left-over oatmeal.

Cream together: 1 cube butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
Add: 2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Add oatmeal mixture and 1 1/3 cups flour, 1 tsp soda.
Bake 350 degree oven 30 minutes in 9x13 greased pan.

Top with topping and return to oven 10 minutes or
until brown.
Topping: 4 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut
4 tablespoons cream
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans are GREAT)

Enjoy. This is very moist cake, great with coffee and friends. I'm sure you could take alot of the fat out by substitution.

have a great week.
Mom


PS- I really like my mother-in-law! Aren't I a lucky person to be able to say that? She has been a great blessing to me over these last 15 years. A mentor, mother, and friend. Now go and call your mother-in-law and tell her you love her even if it might kill you. Then go and make this cake, it will make you feel good. Really.

Cheese Pretzels

"Eine Brezel bitte." I spent many afternoons strolling the scenic streets of Heidelberg no matter the weather and on those especially cold or damp days a warm pretzel did just the trick. I tried many treats on my adventures such as pastries, candies, cookies, brats, and donor kebabs but the one I turned to most was the pretzel, a big soft, salty twist of delight. Some are sold from carts parked on a corner, others from small kiosks near the train stop. There are many varieties like cheese with bacon, pizza pretzels which are smeared with sauce and topped with cheese, or just the plain old buttered pretzels-you got it, a pretzel sliced open and filled with slabs of chilled butter. My favorite was always the Käsebrezel or cheese pretzel, a wonderful plump soft pretzel topped with Butterkäse or butter cheese. The Käsebrezel is a perfect snack. Eat them hot from the oven or save for later and eat at room temperature. I like mine plain but dipped in a spicy mustard is also very nice.

Cheese Pretzels
6 soft pretzels
6 slices of muenster cheese

Preheat oven to 400°. Place pretzels on a sheet pan or stone and brush with water and sprinkle with the pretzel salt provided with the pretzels. I use the Hanover brand of soft pretzels found in the freezer case. Top each pretzel with one piece of cheese. Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted, bubbly, and golden. Serve immediately. You may make as many as you desire but eat on the same day as baked for the best results.

Army Wife Banana Bread

My mother and I share similar love stories. Both of our men were in the Army, both served in Korea (30 years apart), and both were from far away states. My mother and father met at a dance on April Fool's Day, while dad was stationed at Fort Devens in Massachusetts. By June they were engaged and he was off to Korea for 15 months. They married in October 1962 upon his return. Mom always thought she would marry a local guy, someone she knew from the old neighborhood, not a Texan like my dad. If dad hadn't come along it may have been a Sal, Vinnie or Gino, even though her Italian father told her to never marry an Italian man, "They're no good," he said.

I met Dan in NJ while he was stationed at Fort Dix and I was a nurse at the local hospital. Just like mom I figured I would marry a local, I had been in NJ most of my life. Dan is from Seattle. When I told my dad that I was dating an Army man he asked his rank. "Lieutenant," I said, "They're good," he said. After 15 months of dating we were married and I was whisked off to Fort Bragg, NC, Fayetteville to be exact (or fondly, Fayettenam) and my life as an Army wife began, just like my mom's 31 years previous when she was uprooted to Mineral Wells, Texas after living her whole life in East Boston. Army life was good to both of us. The good times and hardships had given equally to fond memories of our early marriages. But I think mom would agree that it was the friends we made during those Army days that added to the richness of our memories.

This banana bread is by far one of the best that has ever crossed my lips. It is the most requested dessert in my home and with the abundance of bananas lurking in my freezer, it is by far the most convenient. This old recipe is from one of my mom's neighbors during her time as an Army wife in Mineral Wells, TX.

Banana Bread
1/2 cup butter , softened
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. soda
2 eggs
1 t. salt
1/2 t. nutmeg
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/4 cup milk
1 t vanilla
1 T. espresso powder (my addition-optional, but good!)
1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional

Mix all ingredients on high speed in mixer for 2 minutes. Bake in a greased 9x9 pan at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. This is delicious right from the oven schmeared with butter.
Note: I use 2-3 “Costco-sized” bananas right from my freezer. To defrost, place bananas in the microwave and heat on high for 30 second increments until the bananas are soft. Cut one end off and squeeze the softened banana toothpaste-like right out into the bowl. That’s right, freeze bananas in their peel.