Apple-Snickers Salad Again

I've actually posted this recipe on my blog before.  You can see it here.

But at Camp Steiner, along with an abundance of bananas, we were sent an abundance of apples.  So I had to make Apple-Snickers Salad.  The difference is that at Steiner I had to make it for about fifty people.  I really think the recipe for fifty is better than the small recipe, but I'm not going to the trouble of reducing the recipe by five. If you want to divide each ingredient by five and make it smaller, more power to you. ;-)

APPLE-SNICKERS SALAD

(serves about 50)

25 of your favorite apples, cored and diced
28 regular-sized Snickers candy bars, sliced about 1/2-inch thick
3 cups milk
2 pkg. (3 oz. each) white-chocolate flavored instant pudding
1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip (I like the extra creamy kind)

1.  Toss diced apples and sliced Snickers together in a huge bowl.
2.  In a smaller bowl, mix the pudding and milk together.
3.  Pour the pudding mixture and Cool Whip into the huge bowl with the apples and candy.
4.  Mix well to coat everything with the yummy sauce stuff.
5.  Refrigerate until ready to serve—but not longer than an hour or two.


Oh, all right! Try this to serve 6 to 10:

5 apples, cored and diced
5-6 regular-sized Snickers bars, sliced
about 2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 oz. instant white-chocolate pudding (You'll need a food scale for this one! Or you could measure how many tablespoons of pudding mix are in a box, divide that by 2.5 and put that measurement in. Good luck.)
1/2 cup Cool Whip

See if that works. :-)

Loralee's Banana Cream Goodness

While we were at Camp Steiner we were plagued with an abundance of bananas—about two to three cases of them every week. I'm not sure why commissary thought 50 people could, or would, eat 150 bananas a week, but it was driving me crazy.  And then they brought us so much milk one day that I didn't have room for it in my miniscule refrigerators.  I was very irritated.

In my cranky state, and having just had a scoutmaster give me a couple dozen real eggs, I came up with an idea, and here it is (whittled down to normal porportions, rather than the 50-person dessert I made at camp):

LORALEE'S BANANA CREAM GOODNESS

one small pie tin (about 8 inches)

CRUST:
Lorna Doone cookies (I have no idea how many you'll need—enough to crush and line a small pie tin)
2 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. melted butter

FILLING:
3/4 cup sugar
3-4 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. rum extract

sliced bananas (I have no idea how many—I'd guess two or three would do for one pie)

whipped cream

CRUST:
1.  Crush the Lorna Doone cookies and put them in the pie tin.
2.  Add the 2 Tbsp. sugar and 3 Tbsp. melted butter to the crushed cookies and mix them together.
3.  Press the cookie mixture onto the bottom of the pan and up the sides.
4.  Bake it at 350 for about 10 minutes.
5.  Remove from oven and let it cool.

FILLING:
1.  Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a medium saucepan.
2.  Add the milk and egg yolks; whisk to blend.
3.  Cook over medium heat, whisking until thick and bubbly.  Cook another two minutes or so.
4.  Remove from heat and blend in the butter, vanilla, and rum extracts.
5.  Place plastic wrap (actually, I use a grocery bag) directly on top of the pudding and let cool to room temperature.
6.  Spread half of the pudding over the crust in the pie tin.
7.  Top with the bananas.
8.  Spread remaining pudding over the bananas.
9.  Place plastic directly on top of the pie and refrigerate until ready to serve—at least an hour.
10.  Top with whipped cream and eat it up!  Yum!

Basic White Bread

Hi Steiner Staff!

Some of you asked for the recipe for Snakes and for Pizza Rolls.  Well, I don't actually have a recipe for those.  It's pretty much white bread with stuff in it.  So here's the basic bread "recipe" (which is really more like instructions), and I'll give instructions for the specialty stuff at the end.

  First of all, when you make bread, remember this: 

• One cup of liquid (milk, water, broth, juice) will make one loaf of bread or eight to twelve rolls (depending on how big you make the rolls). 
• For every one cup of liquid you need to add one teaspoon of yeast.
• For every one cup of liquid you need to add one teaspoon of salt.
• Oil and sugar depend on your taste.
• NEVER add all the flour at once.  When I first add flour, I generally add one cup more than the liquid I started with (so if you used one cup of water, start with two cups of flour)—and I use heaping cups. Stir that in, then add a cup at a time until the dough seems about right—sticky, but like bread dough.  Any additional flour you need will be spread on the counter/table and kneaded in—again, you'll add a little at a time.

If you remember those guidelines you can make bread all day long without a recipe.

BASIC WHITE BREAD

1 cup warm water (or other liquid)—about like a nice, soothing bath temperature.
2 - 4 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. yeast
1 tsp. salt
2 - 4 Tbsp. oil (cooking oil or butter—I always used butter at camp, and I didn't measure it at all.  I just chucked in a glop of butter.)3 - 5 cups flour

1. Stir warm water, sugar and yeast together in a biggish bowl.  Let yeast proof (this means it will get all foamy and bubbly-looking—it takes about five minutes).
2. Add salt and oil; stir in.
3. Add two heaping cups of flour; stir (use a large mixing spoon or rubber spatula.  I prefer the rubber spatula myself).
4. Continue adding flour about 1/2 cup at a time until the dough is too stiff to stir with a spoon.  (If you're doubling, tripling or making ten times this recipe, add the flour about 1 cup at a time.) 
5. When the dough is too stiff to stir with a spoon, then you start mixing it by hand.
6. Generously dust your table or counter with flour.
7. Dump the dough onto the floury table and begin kneading.  You do this by folding the dough in half, pulling the far edge toward you, then pressing down hard on it to seal it closed (you might even press it a few times).  Turn about a quarter turn and repeat; fold; press; fold, etc. You are finished when the dough is like a smooth ball, and very elastic—this takes me about five to ten minutes; you might take longer at first.
8. Scrape the gunk out of your mixing bowl, oil the bowl lightly and put the dough back into the bowl. Turn it to coat with oil on all sides. 
9. Cover with a damp towel and let rise about an hour, or until it's about doubled in bulk.
10. Spray a bread/loaf pan with cooking spray (PAM, etc.).  Make sure you get the corners.
11. Punch down the dough.
12. Shape dough into a loaf and place in the greased pan.  Let rise 30 to 60 minutes—until it's about doubled.
13. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
14. Bake loaf for about 35 to 40 minutes; remove from oven to a heat-proof surface.
15. Dump the loaf out of the pan and it's ready to eat (although easier to slice if you wait a bit!).

You can easily double, triple, or even octuple this recipe. :-)

YUM!
HAM & CHEESE ROLLS (or Pizza Rolls)

In addition to the basic bread ingredients, you'll need:
grated cheddar cheese and
some diced ham 
or
spaghetti sauce/pizza sauce
grated mozzarella cheese
chopped pepperoni

Follow the bread recipe up to instruction 9. Then:

10. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.
11. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 1/2-inch thick.
12. Sprinkle the dough with grated cheese but leave about a 2-inch space bare, along one of the long edges.
13. Sprinkle ham over the cheese.

14. Starting with the long, cheese-covered edge, roll the whole thing up into a log (cinnamon-roll style). 

15. Pinch the long edge closed.

16. Use a piece of heavy thread or dental floss to slice into 10 to 12 rolls. (You can use a sharp knife, but the thread works beautifully and the rolls look nicer. Just slide a 10 to 15-inch length floss under the roll about one inch. Wrap the ends around the roll, let the ends cross over and keep pulling until the floss has cut all the way through the roll.)
17. Place the rolls onto the greased cookie sheet and let rise until about doubled.
18. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
19. Bake rolls for 25 to 30 minutes.
20. Remove from oven and eat them hot.

For Pizza Rolls, spread sauce, then mozzarella cheese, then pepperoni over the rolled out dough.  Be sure to leave the 2-inch blank space or the dough won't stick closed. Rise and bake as for ham & cheese rolls.



SNAKES!

This is easy.  Use the same ingredients as for Ham & Cheese Rolls, or Pizza Rolls.  OR I've also done sliced beef with barbecue sauce & Swiss cheese, or turkey with whatever cheese sounds good at the moment.  Just choose whatever sounds good in a hot sandwich.
Plus you'll need a couple eggs and some food coloring.

Make the bread just like basic bread dough—one whole snake takes about six times the recipe (6 cups water, 6 tsp. yeast, etc.).  After the first rising, divide the dough into three semi-equal pieces and roll each piece into a rectangle about 10-inches by 16 to 20-inches. Put the filling on each rolled-out piece just like for Ham & Cheese Rolls, and roll it up but do not slice it.   Pinch the ends closed, too.  Put the roll onto the greased cookie sheet and shape it kind of like an S. (Make sure all three pieces bend in the same direction.)

For every color you want to paint onto your snake you need to mix:
1 egg
1 Tbsp. water
food coloring

Use these colored egg mixtures to paint your snake pieces in stripes or whatever strikes your fancy.  Stripes are easiest.
Poke two fingers down into the dough on the head end, where you want to put the eyes.  Stick a couple of olive slices in the eye sockets you just made.

Bake each snake section at 350 for about 25 to 30 minutes.  Generally my snakes explode in the oven and some of their innards ooze out.  That's OK.  Just cut off the leaked-out stuff before you remove the snake section from it's baking sheet.

Lay the snake pieces out so they're touching, and look like a big, long snake.

Enjoy!

German Potato Salad

I bet you thought I'd never post a recipe again!  I bet you don't even look at my recipe blog any more! ;-)  But I made this salad for our Relief Society Mother/Daughter Night, and I've had a couple of requests for it.  Because, quite frankly, it is very yummy!  So here it is:

GERMAN POTATO SALAD

1 1/2 lbs. red potatoes, scrubbed and sliced 1/4-inch thick

6 slices bacon, chopped into small pieces [I think it's easier to cut it with kitchen scissors before you cook it, than it is to crumble it after it's cooked.  Just cook it like stir-fry.]

1 Tbsp. flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. celery seed

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 Tbsp. parsley flakes [I used fresh parsley that night—if you use fresh, use 1/4 cup]

2 dashes black pepper

1/2 cup water
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Cook bacon; set aside on paper towels to drain.  [If you didn't cut it up before-hand, crumble it now.]
Leave about 1/3 of the bacon grease in the pan and discard the rest.  Cook the onions in the bacon grease until translucent and browned.
Stir in flour, sugar, celery seed, salt, parsley and pepper.  [Actually, if you use fresh parsley, save it until the end.]  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until bubbly.
Remove from heat; stir in water and vinegar; set aside.
Boil potatoes in salted water until tender; drain. [They'll cook pretty fast, since they're already sliced.  Yay!]
Reheat onion mixture to boiling, stirring constantly for about 1 minute; remove from heat.
Add crumbled bacon to the mixture, then stir it all into the warm potatoes. [Add fresh parsley now.]
Serve warm, garnished with paprika and parsley (if desired).

Das ist gut!

Rice Pudding

For Stephanie. :-)

I'm not a big fan of rice pudding, and don't have my own recipe. But this is the recipe from my new Cooks Illustrated cookbook, The New Best Recipe. So try it out and let me know if you like it.

RICE PUDDING

2 cups water

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup medium-grain rice (they say you can use long-grain rice)

2 1/2 cups whole milk

2 1/2 cups half & half

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Bring water to boil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir in the salt and rice; cover and simmer over low heat, stirring once or twice, until the water is almost fully absorbed—15 to 20 minutes.

Add the milk, half & half, and sugar. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cook, uncovered and stirring frequently, until the mixture starts to thicken, about 30 minutes. Reduce heat to low and continue to cook, stirring every couple of minutes to prevent sticking and scorching, until a spoon is just able to stand up in the

pudding—about 15 minutes longer.

Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Cool and serve at room temperature or chilled.

If you like raisins, or cinnamon, add them to taste when you add the vanilla.

To store, press plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding and refrigerate for up to 2 days.