The Best Fail-Proof Dinner Rolls

Mmmm...bread.  Hot, warm bread.  Artisan, sandwich, dinner rolls, pretzel buns...it doesn't matter.  There is something so comforting about fresh baked bread.  Don't you think so?

It can, however take forever to make homemade bread.  And sometimes, even the best laid plans can go awry, leaving you with a solid mass of something that looks similar to bread but feels more like a rock.  But here's my favorite, easy, go-to dinner roll recipe.  It never fails me and always produces soft, fluffy, buttery rolls.  The taste is incredible...not flavorless like the store bought rolls, but so divine, you won't eat just one...or three! 

It does take time (mostly the waiting for the dough to rise), but I warn you to beware of those "homemade bread in 10 minutes" recipes.  While technically it is bread, I have always found the taste to be quite lacking in the homemade bread flavor area.  It's homemade bread.  It takes a while.  That's just the way it is.  But it's sooooooooo worth it!  I encourage you, take a day and make some of these rolls and at the end of the post, I will show you how you can have awesome homemade dinner rolls any other day without all the work!  So, you with me?!  Then let's make some dinner rolls!

 

No-Fail Dinner Rolls

2 (.25oz) pkgs active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 tsps if you buy it by the jar like I do)

1 cup warm water (110-115F...I just use hot tap water...probably not scientific but it never fails)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1/2 cup shortening

3 eggs, beaten

6 cups all-purpose flour

 

The first thing you need to do is add the yeast to the warm water.  Swirl it around so that all the yeast is wet (you aren't trying to stir until dissolved...you just want it all underwater and wet).  Set this aside.

 

Add your sugar and salt into your stand mixer (or bowl if doing this by hand).  Set aside.

 

Take your milk and shortening and heat until shortening melts.  Make sure to stir often as you don't want the milk to boil.  If it gets too hot, let it sit for a few minutes to cool somewhat.  You want the temperature to be around 120F-130F.  It doesn't have to be all exact.  Really.  Just put the heat to low and stir until the shortening melts.  Once it's melted, you're done.  I never use a thermometer to check the temp and my rolls always come out well, which is why I love this recipe.

 

 Here it is melted.

 

Go ahead and beat your eggs.  I just use a fork and give them a quick whip to break up the yolks.  Go ahead and add the eggs and milk/shortening mix to the bowl with the sugar and salt.  If using a stand mixer, attach your dough hook.  If using a bowl, get out the sturdy wooden spoon and give yourself a pep talk about the ensuing arm workout about to come...

 

At this point, you can check your yeast...it should be all bubbly and foamy (and if you stare at it long enough, you can actually see it "grow"...it will expand...I find it fascinating to watch, but I'm a nerd like that!).  Go ahead and dump this into the egg/milk mixture in your bowl.  Next, you will add your flour to the liquid, 1 cup at a time (although I usually dump in about 3 cups first, then 1 cup at a time).  I apologize for no picture of this...my crazy daughter demanded my attention so I let the mixer do it's job while I tended to her (gotta love stand mixers!). 

 

You will mix the dough until it comes off the sides of the bowl.  I ended up added all 6 cups of flour, but then needed to add about a tbsp of water to get all of the flour mixed in (it was crumbly at the bottom).  Once it's all mixed together, let the stand mixer knead the dough (I used level 2...1-10 on mine) for about 5 minutes or until the dough is soft and smooth.  You should be able to hold the dough in your hand for a quick moment without it sticking to your hand, however if you try to work it, it will stick a little.  If you are kneading by hand, I would add about 5 1/2 cups of flour and then work in as much of the last 1/2 cup as needed.  You want a soft, elastic-y dough.

 

Spray a bowl with cooking spray (or wipe with oil), place the dough in the bowl and roll it around until it's lightly oiled.  Cover with a towel and place somewhere away from drafts/fans.  I usually stick mine in the oven (turned off, of course). 

 

Let the dough rise for about 1 hr or until doubled.  You should be able to poke a finger in the dough and the hole should stay and not rise back up.  See my finger hole in the dough?

 

Go ahead and punch the dough down and start tearing off pieces to make the rolls.

 

You want the balls to fit in the palm of your hand.  Remember, they will rise again, so don't make them HUGE.  Place them on a baking sheet with a couple inches separating them.  Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

 

Once they have risen a second time, place them in a preheated oven at 375F and cook for about 16-18 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and rub butter over the hot rolls.  Besides just making the rolls taste fantastic, it will keep the tops soft. 

 

You should really let them cool for a few minutes at least.  You know...so you don't burn your tongue.  Of course, it's much easier to say than do, so be careful and Enjoy!

 

This recipe made about 32 rolls for me at this size.  Since we can't eat that many in one sitting (almost, but not quite), I rolled the rest of the dough into balls and placed them on a baking sheet right next to each other.  I then put the pan into the freezer.  The rolls won't rise in the freezer and once they are solid, just take them out and put into a freezer bag for later.  Then when you want some fresh, homemade rolls, take some out, place on a baking sheet and let thaw and rise until doubled in size.  Bake like normal.  No more buying the ready to bake rolls from the freezer section at the grocery store!

 

 

Happily Homemade

Sandra

 

 

 

 

 



Brussel Sprouts...love 'em or hate 'em?

So, are y'all as stuffed as I am from Thanksgiving yesterday?  Ugh...I ate so much I practically needed to be rolled to the living room afterwards!  So bad, I know :( 

What did you fix for your dinner?  Do you eat the yummy meal at your home or go somewhere?  Ours was a small affair of my hubs and kiddos.  Our family is long distance, so we spend the day enjoying our own company. 

Yesterday I made a new side dish.  Brussel Sprouts.  I, personally, love them, but I know a lot of people don't.  It's really a love or hate thing.  I grew up eating vegetables all the time (sometimes we would have vegetables and no meat for a meal).  So I like just about everything.  My hubs' version of vegetables comes in the form of salsa....that's about it.  So, unfortunately having a wide variety of veggies on our menus isn't something I do often.  But, I wanted something that wasn't white or yellow (turkey, potatoes, mac & cheese) on our Thanksgiving menu.  And add bacon to anything and it instantly becomes something magical!

And you know what?  Everyone loved them!  Yay for more veggies (although, yes, I do realize that once I added the bacon all nutritional value probably flew out the window...but I still felt better).

Roasted Bacon Brussel Sprouts

1 lb brussel sprouts
1/3lb bacon
2 tbsp butter, melted
Salt
Pepper

 

Clean and prep your brussel sprouts, cut off the ends and remove the outer leaves if necessary.

 

 

Chop your bacon and toss with salt and pepper in the brussel sprouts.  You will then pour your melted butter over the sprouts and toss until all are coated.  An easy way to melt the butter is to put it in the roasting pan in the oven at 350F to melt while you are prepping the brussel sprouts.  Then just pour the bacon and brussel sprouts into the pan with the butter and mix.

Roast the baby cabbages in the oven at 400F until the brussel sprouts are roasted and bacon is cooked (my bacon didn't get super crisp...if you wanted it crispy you could pre-cook it for a few minutes before added to the sprouts).

 

These have to be one of our favorite side dishes now and were the first thing to be finished!  Try them, even if you've never cared for brussel sprouts...I promise, bacon makes everything better!

 

Enjoy

 

Happily Homemade

Sandra

 

 

Turkey, turkey, turkey!!

Gobble, gobble!  Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has an amazing day filled with God's great blessings!  

A few of the things I am thankful for are God's love and goodness, my healthy family, and all my amazing friends and readers of this slightly chaotic blog!  Thank you for taking the time to read all my rambling a and trying some recipes!  You make writing so much more fun and meaningful!  

So, here's today's main ingredient...turkey!

Here's how we make ours...and it always comes out juicy and delicious!!!

Thanksgiving Turkey:

1 turkey, thawed with all the giblets removed

1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup

13 (a small garlic head) cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole

Wine, we had sherry on hand but any white or pink wine will work (red probably would too but might change the color of the turkey)

Get your ingredients together.

Take a knife and jab some holes in the turkey.  Insert a clove of garlic in each hole.  Make sure the holes are all over the turkey.

Cut the butter into small pieces and place under the skin of the turkey, all over the bird, on both sides.

Pour wine inside the skin of the turkey also.  Use about 1 cup.  The wine will run through the turkey but that's fine.  Sprinkle the turkey with some pepper and place it breast up in the oven at 350F for about 2 hrs (for a 13-14lb turkey...adjust longer for a larger turkey).  Flip the turkey over, breast side down, for  about 45 min or until turkey is finished.  Take out of oven and flip back over, breast up, to rest until ready to serve!  Delicious!!!

Enjoy!!  Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Happily homemade

Sandra

Puerco con Salsa Verde (Pork with Green Salsa)

Who's ready for Thanksgiving?  Have you done your shopping?  Made your menu yet?  I just finished my grocery shopping today and, except for desert (weird since that is my favorite part of the meal), have my menu planned out. 

I personally want pecan pie, but my hubs, who loves pecans, doesn't care much for the pie because it's so sweet and according to him, "You can't taste the pecans."  Aaaaannnnddd...this is bad????  Obviously to him, it is.  *sigh*  So sad.  I am not a huge fan of pumpkin pie although I do have a ton of pumpkin from those Halloween pumpkins.  I also have apples, but apple pie just doesn't seem Thanksgiving-ish.  So, I'll probably find myself searching Pinterest in the wee hours of the night to find something. 

What does this have to do with Puerco con Salsa Verde?  Nothing.  Nothing at all.  I just wanted to chat about Thanksgiving for a minute :) 

Do you remember those pork picnic roasts I talked about the other day???  The ones that were on sale and I bought way too many of them?  Yeah, those.  Well, in the spirit of cooking the food we have versus buying more, I needed to figure out what to do with this pork.  The crockpot pork I made the other day was ok.  My family liked it.  And, don't get me wrong, it was good...it's just that I use an almost exact marinade for chicken and have trained my taste buds to expect chicken with these flavors.  So having pork was interesting.  Not bad, just interesting.  And again, my family liked it, so if it appeals to you, try it!

My husband decided to cook it in a similar way to how we do it for our tamales, only without the sauce.  When I tasted it, I decided right then that I needed salsa verde to go with this!  I don't know why, but it was perfect!!  So, that's what we did.  It's scrumptious, as my son would say (this seems to be his new favorite word lately...everything's scrumptious!).

Puerco con Salsa Verde

For the Pork:

1 pork picnic roast (or any other pork roast...shoulder, butt, etc.  Ours was about 11lbs, but feel free to divide in 1/2 if needed for a smaller cut)
salt
pepper
garlic powder

For the salsa verde:

3 lbs of tomatillos
3 jalapenos (or as many as you like to be as mild or spicy as you choose...ours wasn't spicy but then neither were 2 of the 3 chiles)
2 garlic cloves
1/3 onion
1/4 bunch cilantro

Cut the pork into small chunks.  If you have the picnic roast like we did there is the huge outer layer of skin that can be cut up and made into chicharrones, or pork rinds.  Even if you don't eat them, you can keep the lard that it gives you for any unhealthy cooking that you plan to do in the future (said with tongue in cheek...we use lard for our tamales...or those bacon fat cookies...or to add flavor to just about anything). 

Season your pork with salt, pepper, and garlic powder (if cooking the skin just season that with salt).  Place the pork in a large pot over low heat and cook, and stir, until the pork is completely done and falls apart.

Here you can see we are separating the skin from the meat.  Again, we cook all of it, but we do so in different pots since we season them differently.

 The cooked pork. 

 

To make the salsa verde, take your tomatillos and peel the skin off and clean them well.  Add the tomatillos, onion, garlic, and jalapenos (we took the seeds and veins out and just cut them in half) to a pot with water.  Just add enough water to cover the tomatillos.  Boil until soft.  Process everything (but the water) in a blender...add water until you get the consistency you want.  It shouldn't be a paste, but not soup either...somewhere in between is perfect (sorry for the lack of a pic here...I guess I was snoozing or something!).  Add the salsa back into the pot it was just in and add some knorr chicken base and salt to taste.  I can't tell you how much because it really is a taste preference...just start small.  You can always add more, but there's not much to do if you add too much salt.  Once the taste is perfect, add the pork.  Simmer for about 10 minutes on low with the lid on so the pork can soak up the flavors.

Serve with refried beans and corn tortillas!  (You can serve more than this...this was my 2 yr old's plate...I scarfed mine down waaay too fast to be taking any pictures!).   This isn't really a difficult recipe, just a bit time consuming because of the cutting and cooking the pork.  After that part is done, it goes together really quite quickly and easily and is oh so very delicious!!!!

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Happily Homemade

Sandra

 

 

Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

Browned butter.  Have you tried it yet?  It seems to be the newest "thing" for all baked goods...browned butter cookies, cake, pie, muffins, etc, etc.   I hadn't tried it...until today.  And wow...seriously!  Butter is delicious as it is, but once browned...it takes on a caramel-y, toffee-like flavor that is amazing in sweet treats!  And to be truthful, I have been browning butter for a long time (just not on purpose...and more like burnt butter...soooo not the same!).

Browned butter in blueberry muffins gives that extra deep sweet flavor that is seriously divine. 

 

Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

For the muffins:

 

1 stick of butter

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

2 cups blueberries

 

For the crumb topping:

 

3 tbsp cold butter

1/2 cup flour

3 1/2 tbsp sugar

 

Preheat oven to 350F.

 

Whisk the egg and egg yolk with the milk and vanilla in a medium sized bowl. 

 

 

In a saucepan, add the 1/2 cup, or 1 stick, of butter.  This will make your browned butter.  Melt the butter over medium heat, stirring until it just starts to turn brown (in last pic).  There will be foam as the butter melts that will stay white, so make sure to stir so you can see when the butter starts to turn brown.  The difference of browned butter and burnt butter is a mere second or two.  Once it starts to look the color of caramel, take off the heat and continue to stir around for a minute.

 

Whisk the butter into the egg/milk mixture.  Whisk well while adding so that the hot butter doesn't curdle the eggs.  Keep whisking for a minute or two until well combined.

 

 

While you are making the muffin mix, go ahead and get your blueberries prepped.  My blueberries were frozen, which is just fine.  You can use fresh or frozen.  I typically buy a ton when they are in season and freeze them for later use.  Either fresh or frozen, I toss my blueberries with about a tbsp or two of flour.  You want enough flour to lightly coat the blueberries but not give you lots of extra flour.  This helps the blueberries to mix well into the muffin mix and not just sink to the bottom of the muffins when cooking.  Let sit until ready to add.

 

This is were most recipes will tell you to get another bowl and mix your dry ingredients...I don't go to all that trouble (to me, it means washing an extra dish...and this is a food blog, not a cleaning blog, for a reason...I don't enjoy cleaning).  I add the salt and baking soda to the wet ingredients and whisk well.

 

 

Go ahead add the dry ingredients.  The mix will be like cookie dough.

 

 

Add the blueberries and lightly mix.  Don't go stir crazy or your berries will get mushed and the batter will be a greyish blue color...

 

Take a large spoon, or scoop, and add the blueberry muffin mix to your cupcake pan.  I didn't fill the cups very full and made 18 muffins.  If you want to fill them more, you would probably get a dozen.

 

 

 

To make the topping, add the sugar and flour, along with the cold butter, to a bowl and use a trusty 'ole fork to combine until you get crumbs.  You can see there are still some larger chunks of butter...this is fine.

 

I put about 1 tbsp of the crumbs on each muffin and had plenty.  Bake at 350F for about 18-20 min or until lightly browned. 

 

 

Enjoy your yummy blueberry muffins!

 

 

Happily Homemade

Sandra

 

 

 



 





Bread Pudding & Lentil Soup

I must apologize for my lack of a homemade post yesterday.  I did make some yummy bread pudding, however my cute hubs came home with a movie for us to watch after the kiddos were in bed...so I had a choice...write a post about bread pudding or cuddle with my Mexicano.  Sorry, I ditched ya ;).

So today I will give you two recipes.  The bread pudding from last night and lentil soup for today!

Cranberry Bread Pudding:

stale, unused, or day old bread (any kind of bread...I used a couple biscuits and some sourdough rolls)
2 tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup craisins
4 beaten eggs
2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F.

Tear enough bread apart until it loosely fills a 9 x 9 baking dish.

 

 

Gather all your ingredients.  This will go together super easily and super fast.

 

 

Add your beaten eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon together and stir.

 

Pour the melted butter over the bread. 

Sprinkle the craisins (you could also use raisins if you like them...I don't so I use craisins) over the bread and then pour the milk mixture all over. 

 Use a fork to smash the bread into the milk.  You want to make sure all the bread is wet and soaking up the mixture.  Put into the preheated oven for about 45 minutes or until the bread has soaked up all the milk and springs back when touched.

Eat with a big dollop of whipped cream!

 

 

Lentil Soup

1lb bag of dried lentils

2 small tomatoes

cilantro

2 tbsp knorr chicken base

pepper

 

 

These are lentils.  You will need a 1lb bag.  You can make less, of course, just adjust the water and chicken base.  Make sure you search through them for any stray rocks or icky looking lentils.  Then rinse them.

 



Add triple the amount of water into the pot with the lentils.  If you use 1 cup of dried lentils, use 3 cups of water.  Add cut tomatoes.  My tomatoes were small romas so I only cut them in half.  You don't want them chopped, but instead you want large pieces.  Add a handful of cilantro and the knorr chicken base and pepper to taste.  I used about 2 tbsp of the chicken base.  Just add it 1 tbsp at a time and let the lentils get warm.  Taste the broth...if it has enough flavor, great.  If not, add more until you get the flavor you like.  Bring the water to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for about 1/2 hour or until lentils are tender.

Serve up a large bowl of warm lentil soup.  You can add fresh cilantro to garnish if you'd like.  Perfect for cold rainy days like we are having today!

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Happily Homemade

Sandra