I love and adore Macaroni Grill’s bread that they serve, so I went on a hunt for a copy cat recipe for the bread. Here is my  own version of Macaroni Grill -ish Rosemary Bread after experimenting for awhile.

Ingredients: (makes 2 loaves)

1 tablespoon yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup warm water

2 1/2 to 3 cups flour…I start with 2 1/2 and add a bit more if needed (my fav is white flour, but I’ve made it with wheat flour)

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt (I use kosher or sea salt)

2 teaspoons dried Rosemary (I use this because I always have it on hand), or 2 tablespoons fresh Rosemary

Directions:

1. Put water, yeast,  and sugar in large bowl and let the mixture to become bubbly.

2. Add in butter, salt and 2 1/2 cups of flour.

3. Add in a teaspoon of the dried Rosemary. (or a tablespoon of fresh) This is half the total amount of Rosemary for the recipe. I kind of smash the dried rosemary up a bit.

4. I use my kitchen aide mixer and knead with the bread hook for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. I’ve also kneaded it for about 10 minutes by hand. Your choice. Add in a bit more flour if needed.

5. Cover bowl. You can oil bowl first if you want, but I just pull the bowl off the mixer stand, cover,  set in warm area, and let the dough rise until it’s doubled in bulk…about 1 hour, give or take.

6. Punch down the dough (love that step for some reason.) Divide the dough into two halves. Form into two round loaves. Place on greased/sprayed cookie sheet, use a baking stone, or, what I do is use a silicon baking mat on my cookie sheet.

7. Use a teaspoon of dried rosemary (or tablespoon of fresh rosemary) and kind of pat the rosemary into the two loaves. Or just sprinkle it on. Whatever works for you.

8. Cover the loaves again, place in warm area, and let them rise again until doubled. About an hour, sometimes less for this stage.

9. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

10. Bake the bread for about 15 to 20 minutes until brown. (it doesn’t brown a lot) (I often bake this ahead of time, and then warm it up when we’re ready to eat by heating for another 5 minutes or so.)

11. Pull from oven and brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt or kosher salt.

Dipping Sauce:

We use olive oil, Spice Island Bread Dipping spices, and Parmesan cheese. (you could use your own choice of spices like garlic, oregano, italian spices, etc.)

Pour the oil on a plate and add the spices and cheese.

FAIR WARNING: This bread should come with a warning…you just can’t. stop. eating. it. once you get started. So very yummy.

Very easy to make and incredibly tasty. Enjoy your faux Macaroni Grill -ish- Rosemary bread.

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• Tale of an Apple Crisp Recipe
• Company

Ah, the weather turns cold and I crave apple crisp. It’s just a fact of life.

This apple crisp recipe is from the church I went to when I was growing up. Every 10 years or so, the women of the church would put together a cookbook for a fundraiser. When this one was published, I’m sure I didn’t even cook yet…I was probably at the “don’t touch the stove, it’s hot” age.

A matter of fact, the only reason I have this cookbook now, is that my grandmother got a copy of it, and I inherited it from her. Complete with her notes in it. It has a drawing of our church…before the numerous additions were added on. A cute little sanctuary and some classrooms and offices. My parents still go to that church, and their minister married SuperGuy & I at my parents’ home. It has a bunch of down home  cooking delicious recipes in it. Anyway…

You can see the cookbook is well loved and well worn. This apple crisp recipe is from the Audrey Hindman, wife of the wonderful man who was minister of the church at that time.

Apple Crisp Recipe

Grease 8 inch square pan

5-6 peeled and sliced cooking apples. (I use Jonathan or Granny Smith)

Sprinkle apples with lemon juice

Mix togehter:

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup rolled oats (quick)

1 stick oleo (butter)

1 tablespoon cinnamon (okay, I cheat and use more and a sprinkle of white sugar)

Pour mixture over sliced apples. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until apples are cooked. Delicious with ice cream! Serves 5-6

Thank you Mrs. Hindman for a recipe I’ve baked and enjoyed for years and years.

Enjoy, my friends.

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The best homemade mustard recipe ever. Compliments of my mother. Warning! This mustard is spicy hot!

You take 4 oz of dry mustard.

Add in one cup white vinegar. Mix with a beater in a saucepan. Let sit overnight.

THE NEXT DAY:

Take 3 eggs and beat them well. Add to the mustard mixture.

Add in one cup of sugar. (no low calorie recipe here!)

Cook over low heat. Really low. Stir it often. Cook until it starts to thicken.

With any luck you’ll find a sucker willing participant to do some stirring while you partake of your favorite beverage. (I like that word, partake!)

Anyway, cook until it thickens. If you cook it too quickly, the eggs might cook a bit (they’ll look like tiny pieces of scrambled eggs. Not to worry! Just pour the mustard through a strainer.) Once the mustard has thickened, pour into canning jars. I use small half pint mason jars.

This mustard is a great hostess gift. Add a label and ribbon and you’re set to go. We really like this mustard with a slice of brie on a stone ground cracker. Yum.

4 oz. dry mustard
1 cup vinegar
(mix and let set overnight)

1 cup sugar
3 eggs-beaten well
Add to mixture and cook slowly over low heat until thickens. Maybe 20 minutes?

STORE IN REFRIGERATOR

I double this homemade mustard recipe to make the 6 half pint jars. Enjoy!

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One thing I love about fall? Apples!

Seriously. Crisp, cold apples. These are Granny Smith apples, probably my favorite. Well, except for when I’m baking apple pies. Then I use Jonathan apples. Why? Because my mother and my grandmother made apple pies from Jonathan apples, why else?? :crazy:

Apples are great dipped in caramel. Yum. [I did have dipped in Carmel, you know, like the place in California...]

Apples are also great to dip in my Fabulous Swiss Fondue.  Okay, okay…I confess…it’s SuperGuy’s recipe. I saw that he bought all the ingredients when he went to the grocery store this weekend. (I told you he was a keeper!). I’m hoping he’s going to make it for dinner. No, really, hop on over to that link and check out that recipe. To die for yummy.

Anyway, what was the point of this post???….. Oh, apples…I love ‘em. Do you have any to die for apple recipes? I need to dig up my apple crisp recipe and share it with you…

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It’s that time of year. Autumn. Time to change out from lighter, cooler to food to cool weather food.

Last night I put on my first pot of chili of the season. Yum. The house smelled so great.

As the weather turns cold, I crave different comfort foods. (SuperGuy swears he doesn’t understand the whole comfort food thing, but I know he’s stressed when he heads for certain foods. So there’s the truth. Just don’t tell him I have him figured out!) Anyway, when the weather turns cold I want chili. Pot roast. Apple Pie. Fresh homemade bread. Homemade noodles. Chocolate. (okay, I want chocolate all year long, but I just thought I’d throw that in there.)

So what are you cool weather/cold weather comfort foods? Or what is your all year long comfort food? Confess to us all.

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Want some delicious and easy dinner rolls? Let me share another one of my secrets with you!

I know, yummy looking, right?

Rhodes multi-grain dinner rolls. They come in the frozen section. Perfect for large families (24 rolls) or empty nesters (you know who you are…) I just pull out a handful of them for SuperGuy and I. You let them rise for 4-5 hours (I take them out at lunch time and throw in a pan). Bake for about 10 or so minutes at 350. They are SO good! I love things I can make that are just the right portion for SuperGuy and I. Though, I admit, I usually bake a few extras to have as sandwich rolls the next day.

Which is what I did the other night. Then SuperGuy wanted to have these for sandwiches last night. I stopped him! I told him “You can’t eat those! I want to take photos of them for a blog post and I haven’t yet.” I guess it’s a funny commentary on our lives that he didn’t blink an eye, he just went and got out a loaf of bread for his sandwich.

Had to get these photos today, so he can have the rolls for his sandwich today. Not sure how many days he’d be so understanding…

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Oh, I forgot to tell you about this!

So “we” decided to try something new. Grilled peppers. Of course it started with a trip to Williams Sonoma to get this special pepper holder griller thingie. SuperGuy likes going to Williams Sonoma almost as much as the toy store hardware store.

They (SuperGuy and Texas Boys) wanted to get the super duper secret double probation pepper corer. But, alack and alas, they were out of that little gadget.

Looks, yummy right? Stuffed with cream cheese, shredded cheese and I don’t know what else. Grilled right there on our Weber grill.

Have a wonderful and relaxed weekend. I usually like to give you a hint about what Monday’s post is going to be about…but… I. Have. Not. A. Clue.

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Admit it…

these just make you want to run to your kitchen and bake an apple pie, don’t they? Pies are one of my claims to fame in the kitchen. Bake them from scratch. Darn good at them if I do say so myself.

As a total aside…do you notice the hint of reflection in the silver bowl of my kitchenaid mixer in the background? Yep, I’m out trying to get that perfect reflection shot for this month’s contest too.

As another total aside, I love my camera. This was shot at 6400 iso with my macro on f 3.2. My camera rocks the high iso.

Okay, back to the subject at hand…do you bake pies from scratch? Or what is your kitchen claim to fame? Tell us!

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This recipe has been in our family for generations. It makes the best oatmeal cookies ever. Really.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 t cinnamon
3/4 cup shortening (I use butter, I’m sure my grandmother used lard…)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3 C Old Fashioned Quaker Oats (you can use Quick, but I prefer Old Fashioned)
couple tablespoons of powdered sugar for flattening cookies

Makes about 3-4 dozen, depending on size.

Cream shortening, both sugars, and eggs. Preferably in a lovely KitchenAid mixer. I heart my Red KitchenAid mixer. (Yes, I realize my grandmother mixed her cookies by hand, but I had to go tangential there for a minute. They are still authentic traditional oatmeal cookies if you use a mixer. Trust me!)

Add the rest of the incredients (except the powdered sugar). Mix well. Drop cookies onto greased cookie sheet.

Put some powdered sugar in a bowl. Try not to makes a mess like I did.

If it’s Christmas time and you use a red bowl, so much the better.

Flatten the cookies with a fork dipped in powdered sugar.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serve with an ice cold glass of milk. (and if you think that’s all the cookies I ate, you’re sadly mistaken! ) You can also substitute a nice glass of wine for the cold glass of milk. Both work well as a side beverage. Enjoy.

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How about a quick, easy recipe for stuffed chicken breasts? Yes, I’m fully aware that most of the recipes I post here have the word easy or quick in them. I’m an easy kind of gal. No, that didn’t sound right. Nevermind. You know what I mean. While I do have some time consuming, complicated recipes, I find as I get older, I rarely reach for them. So I’ll share with you one of my almost instant dinners.

Easy Stuffed Chicken Breasts

chicken breasts (however many you need to feed your family)
Chives (I prefer fresh, but if you don’t have them growing out your door like I do, use dried)
Cream Cheese (I prefer soft cream cheese, a couple 2-3 tablespoons per chicken breast.)
Bacon (one piece per breast)

Really, can it get much easier than this?

Get your chives right out your back door, or grab them off your homemade spice rack.

Mix chives in with the cream cheese. I think I used about a half the tub of cream cheese for 4 large chicken breasts. Give or take. A couple of teaspoons of dried chives. Use more or less to taste.

Flatten the chicken breasts. (I flattened but didn’t pound them flat, you know?). Spread on cream cheese mixture.

Wrap in bacon and place open/stuffed side up on wire rack over baking pan. (I’ve also just baked them down in the pan, but I prefer to bake them up out of the grease/drippings).

Bake for about an hour on 350. (Note to self, use regular sliced bacon, not this thick sliced bacon I used this time so the bacon gets crispier.)

There you have it! The main course of a romantic dinner for two…

Oh, or a dinner for three if the Geeky One is here too!

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