A couple of months ago, I decided that I wanted to learn how to make Chicken Tacos. I poked through Cook’s Illustrated’s website and found nothing (only a steak taco recipe), so I decided to search some other online cooking sites. The wealth of chicken taco recipes was overwhelming, and I had no idea which recipe would be good and which would be horrible (ratings and reviews aren’t all that helpful because of the variance in opinions. How can a recipe be both fabulous and disgusting at the same time??).

So, I decided to go with the Cook’s Illustrated steak taco recipe and just modify it for use with chicken. Happily, the tacos were a great success. They’re sort of like a no-grill-required wintertime version of fajitas, and they’re really easy to make.

Also, they use up cilantro, which will appeal to all of you out there who, like me, struggle to use up an entire bunch of cilantro before it goes bad.

You start by making a pesto-like herb paste, which includes cilantro, garlic, scallions, a jalapeno, cumin, and some vegetable oil. Put all of that into a food processor (a blender would probably work as well), and pulse until it’s all finely chopped.

With the machine running, add 1/4 cup vegetable oil and process until the mixture is fairly smooth.

Remove 2 tablespoons of the herb paste to a bowl. Squeeze in 1 tablespoon of lime juice, and set it aside (this is for use  as a taco condiment later).

The rest of the paste is going to go on the chicken, but first, you need to rub some coarse salt on the chicken.

Because I’m not that good terrible at cooking whole chicken breasts, I always cut mine in half lengthwise so that they’re turned into thin cutlets. This makes it easier to cook the chicken all the way through without scorching the outside.

Spread the herb paste over the chicken, then cover and refrigerate the chicken for 30 minutes to an hour. If you’re worried someone in your family won’t like the herb paste, you can always leave a breast or two plain.

Scrape the herb paste off of the chicken (as you can see, I never get all of it off, but it seems to be fine!) and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a 12-inch skillet (I use my cast-iron skillet) over medium high heat. Add chicken.

Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until cooked through (this will vary depending on how thick your chicken pieces are). Let the cooked chicken rest for 5 minutes.

Slice rested chicken into narrow strips and season with salt if desired. Place several strips in the middle of a warmed flour tortilla, and top with cheese, tomato, sour cream, chopped cilantro, reserved herb paste, or whatever else you wish (I sometimes saute onion slices before I cook the chicken and add those in my tacos).

Chicken Tacos (printable version)

Herb Paste
1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
3 medium garlic cloves , roughly chopped
3 medium scallions , roughly chopped (about 1/3 cup)
1 medium jalapeño chile , stemmed and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Chicken
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced lengthwise into thin cutlets
1 tablespoon coarse salt or 1.5 teaspoons table salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Combine cilantro, garlic, scallions, chile, and cumin in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped, and with machine running, add 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Process until smooth.

Remove 2 tablespoons of herb paste to a bowl, whisk in lime juice, and set aside.

Rub salt over both sides of the chicken, and spread with remaining herb paste. Cover and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.

Scrape herb paste off chicken and sprinkle with sugar and pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy 12 inch skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook 4-5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Let cooked chicken rest for 5 minutes, then slice into strips. Season with salt if desired. Serve in warmed flour tortillas and top with cheese, chopped tomato, chopped cilantro, sour cream, sauteed onions, and reserved herb paste.
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Need more dinner ideas? Browse my other main dish recipes.

Today’s recipe, like many of the previous yeast recipes I’ve posted here, comes from my 1973 Better Homes and Gardens bread cookbook (In case you’re wondering, I bought it on Ebay…I wasn’t even born in 1973!). I love this no-fuss, down-to-earth bread book.

If you’re looking for something hearty and a little more nutritious than regular dinner rolls, this is a recipe for you. We like to eat these with dinner, but leftover rolls are also tasty at breakfast and lunch. My kids like to split them open and spread butter and jam on them, or sometimes peanut butter, but they’re also good with more savory toppings like lunch meat, cheese, or chicken salad.

A combination of whole wheat and white flour is used in this recipe.  Though you could use nothing but whole wheat flour, the resulting rolls would not be as fluffy or soft as those made from a combination.  So, if you have reluctant whole wheat eaters at your house or if you are a new baker, I highly recommend sticking with the proportions specified in the recipe.

This recipe, like many of my others, starts with a combination of flour and yeast.

Combine the milk, sugar, butter, and salt together, and heat to 120 degrees F. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, but you can use less if you prefer, and you can substitute honey.

Add the milk to the dry ingredients, add 2 eggs, and beat for three minutes.

(please excuse the glare-y picture…do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture of smooth batter inside a reflective bowl on a cloudy day? I do.)

Add enough all-purpose flour to make a soft but kneadable dough. I kind of misjudged how soft my dough was this time around…I would not recommend trying to knead dough that is this gloppy if you are a beginner baker!

When I screw up like this, though, I just sprinkle some flour all around the dough and use my bench knife to help me knead until the dough is more organized.

Knead the dough for 3-5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. The dough should still be somewhat soft. This is what it looks like right after I finish kneading it:

It’s soft enough that after it sits for a moment or two, it flattens out some.

By the way, I only have white wheat on hand at the moment, as opposed to hard red wheat, so I used that when I ground the flour for this recipe (I have a grain grinder that I use to make all my whole wheat flour).  Because of this, my dough looks a little lighter than it would if I used regular whole wheat, so don’t worry if your dough is darker in color than mine.

Put the dough back into the mixing bowl (I don’t even bother to wash mine), cover with wet tea towel, and let it rise in a warm place for an hour, or until it’s doubled in size.

Punch the dough down and divide it into 36 pieces. If you prefer for your rolls to be a little larger, you can cut the dough into 30 pieces. You can shape the dough however you wish, but here are three suggestions.

To make cloverleaves, cut each dough piece into 3 pieces, shape each piece into a ball, and place three into each cup of a greased muffin tin.

To make rosettes, roll each piece of dough into an 8-10 inch rope and tie a loose knot. Tuck one end of the rope into the middle of the knot and tuck the other end underneath the roll.

To make swirls, roll each piece of dough into a 8-10 inch rope, and coil the strand into a snail-like shape.

Cover pans with a wet tea towel and let the rolls rise for 30-40 minutes, or until doubled.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

I highly recommend eating them warm from the oven, spread with butter.  Really, I think that’s the best way to eat any bread!

Printable Whole Wheat Roll Recipe

Whole Wheat Rolls

3.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 pkg. (4.5 teaspoons) yeast
2 cups milk
½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
3-3.5 cups all purpose flour

In a large mixer bowl, combine whole wheat flour and yeast. Heat milk, sugar, butter, and salt together just till warm (115-120 F). Add to dry mixture; add eggs. Beat at low speed until combined, then beat at medium speed for 3 minutes. By hand, stir in as much of the all-purpose flour as necessary to make a soft, but kneadable dough.

Turn out onto a floured counter and knead for 3-5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with a wet tea towel, and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled.

Punch dough down. Divide into 36 pieces.

To make cloverleaves, divide each piece into 3 pieces, shape each into a ball, and place three balls into each section of a muffin tin.

To make rosettes, roll each piece into a long strand, about 8 inches long. Tie into a loose knot and tuck one end into the top of the roll and one end under the roll.

To make swirls, roll each piece into a long strand, about 8 inches long. Coil the strand into a snail-like shape.

Cover rolls, let them rise for 30-40 minutes, or until doubled, and bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack.

You who fear kneading and yeast can rejoice today, as this week’s Wednesday Baking post requires absolutely no yeast or kneading.  And it doesn’t require a stand mixer either!  Our recipe today comes from a Taste of Home magazine.

If you’ve ever made a Texas sheet cake before, you’ll notice that these cupcakes are made in a similar fashion (and they have the same wonderful texture as a Texas sheet cake).

These are really easy to make, so easy that I think these are just as fast as a boxed mix (and much tastier).

Here’s how.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.

Combine the cocoa, water, oil, and butter in a saucepan, and bring to a boil.

Combine the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla.

Add the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine.  Then add the buttermilk/yogurt/vanilla mixture, and stir well.

Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake liners, or if you don’t have any liners, you can grease your muffin tins.  This makes it more difficult to removed the finished cupcakes, though.  Pour the batter evenly into the muffin cups.  I find this to be much easier when I pour the batter into a measuring cup first, like so.

I do still end up with drips on my pan, though!

Bake the cupcakes in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

These are still very soft when they first come out of the oven, so let them sit in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool.

Now, here’s the part where I should show you how to make the frosting.  However, I made these on a very busy day. See what all I baked that day?

And so  I didn’t manage to take any pictures of the frosting process.  I’m sorry.  But, the directions for making the frosting are below, and next time I make the frosting, I’ll try my best to capture the process with my camera and update this post.

Because this recipe is already printable on Taste of Home’s site, I didn’t bother uploading a PDF here.  Just go to the cupcake recipe page and click on “print” (and please enjoy their photo of a frosted cupcake, which is much more beautiful than mine!).

This recipe makes two dozen cupcakes, but you most certainly can cut the recipe in half if you prefer.

Texas Cupcakes with Caramel Icing

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup butter, cubed
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

CARAMEL ICING:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/4 cup milk
* 2 to 2-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1) In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. In a large saucepan over medium heat, bring cocoa, water, oil and butter to a boil. Gradually add to dry ingredients; mix well. Combine eggs, buttermilk and vanilla; gradually add to batter and mix well (batter will be very thin).
2) Fill paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

3)  For icing, in a heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter and milk. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium. Do not stir. Cook for 3-6 minutes or until bubbles form in center of mixture and syrup turns amber. Remove from the heat; transfer to a small bowl. Cool to room temperature. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar. Spread over cupcakes. Yield: 2 dozen.

Today is the day to use c’s in blog titles, apparently.  It’s also a non-yeast day here on Wednesday baking.  Although I made this recipe and took pictures a few weeks ago, coincidentally, I am completely out of yeast at the moment (boo!).  So, it’s appropriate timing.

I received this recipe as a newlywed from not one, but two women at my church, and I’ve used it here and there over the last 12 years when I need a coffeecake but don’t have time to mess with yeast.

You may have noticed that yesterday, I managed to upload a printable PDF version of the Tortellini Soup recipe (woo!).  I’m doing the same thing today, and I plan to continue that every time I post a recipe.  Thanks for all the free PDF writer suggestions…I’m most appreciative!

Because this coffeecake uses no yeast, the preparation is about as simple as that of muffins.  You mix the dry ingredients together:

Cream the butter and sugar, and add an egg and some milk.

Combine the two, and spread into a greased 8×8 pan (or a 9×13 if you’re making a double recipe, as I was this particular day).

Now, that boring-looking white blob of dough is a coffeecake, but it’s not a cinnamon crumble coffeecake.  So, to lift it out of the boring realm and into the heavenly, mix the brown sugar, butter and cinnamon together.

and dump it all on top of the coffeecake.

Using a fork, swirl the cinnamon mixture all through the coffeecake dough.

Then, bake it and enjoy the cinnamon-y goodness.

Here’s a printable Cinnamon Crumble Coffeecake Recipe, and for those of you who don’t have a PDF reader, here’s a regular version.

Cinnamon Crumble Coffeecake

Coffeecake Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
¼ cup softened butter
1 egg
½ cup milk
1½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Cinnamon Crumble Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons melted butter

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350.

2. Cream butter and sugar, and mix in egg and milk.

3. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl.

4. Gently mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients just until moistened, and spread into a greased 8×8-inch baking pan.

5. Combine cinnamon crumble ingredients and sprinkle atop coffeecake dough.  Using a fork, swirl cinnamon mixture through dough.

6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

I’ve been meaning to post this recipe here forever, but have not, for one reason or another, gotten around to it.  I made it again just the other day, though, and was freshly reminded that it really did need to be shared.

I got the recipe from my mom a few years back, and it’s been a staple at our house ever since.  It’s simple, customizable, and inexpensive if you can get the turkey sausage and tortellini on sale.

Tortellini Soup
Printable Tortellini Soup Recipe (ta-dah!)

1. Brown:

1 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage (I use Shady Brook Farms…my favorite!)
1 cup chopped sweet onion
1 clove garlic, minced

2. Add, and simmer 30 minutes:

5 cups beef broth (use homemade, canned, or reconstituted bouillon)
1 pint (2 cups) canned tomatoes
8 oz. tomato sauce
1 cup sliced carrots
1 medium pepper, chopped
½ teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon rosemary (I omit this)

3. Add and boil for 1 minute:

½ cup red wine or sherry
8 oz. fresh tortellini, or 4 oz. dry tortellini, cooked according to package directions

Want to see how easy this is?  Just brown the first group of ingredients:

Add the second group and simmer:

(I don’t really like my sausage to simmer, so I complicate matters by taking it out of the pot while I simmer the second group of ingredients.)

Although you can certainly use fresh tortellini, I’ve found the dry variety to be the least expensive option. I usually use Barilla.

It’s kind of like having fresh pasta, except that it’s much more shelf stable.

Add the cooked tortellini, wine (and the sausage if you decided to complicate matters by taking it out!).

I like to serve this with some homemade bread, like

• French Bread
• Honey Glazed Rolls
• Pull-Apart Garlic Bread
• Corn Bread

If you’d like some other frugal dinner ideas, take a peek through the Main Dish and Pizza categories.

Yesterday, the kids and I baked cookies (with cookie cutters that were bought for pennies in Januarys past).

This was always one of my favorite Christmas activities when I was young, and my kids are like me in that regard.

They enjoy the whole process from cutting the cookies out….

to decorating.

They’re all quite fond of liberally using sprinkles (which were, naturally, purchased post Christmas on deep discount).

We always end up with a table full of very colorful cookies.

And a LOT of mess.

Oddly enough, the mess is conspicuously absent from my childhood memories of cookie baking.  

(Joshua was there with us…he just managed to stay out of almost all the pictures!)

This year, I used a Christmas Cookie recipe from the Girl Talk blog (I omitted the nutmeg and added a teaspoon of vanilla, though) because the one my family traditionally uses calls for a small amount of Crisco, and I had none.  I did, however, use our traditional frosting recipe, because I think all good frostings should include butter.

I usually make 1.5 times the frosting recipe for one recipe’s worth of cookies because some of my children are fairly,  um, generous when they spread the frosting.

Christmas Cookie Frosting

1/4 cup softened butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk or cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whip the butter until soft and fluffy. Mix in half the powdered sugar, the milk, and the vanilla. Add remaining cup of powdered sugar and beat until smooth, adding more milk if necessary.

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If you have kids of your own or if other people’s kids are in your life (our neighbor’s daughter joined us yesterday), I highly recommend baking cookies with them. Though it requires an investment of time (and a lot of cleaning up!), kids take such delight in being allowed to participate in the baking and decorating process. I think you’ll find yourself thinking, even in the midst of the sweeping and wiping, that it was an awfully good use of your time.

Happy Baking!

This is a favorite recipe at my house…my kids love to eat it, and I love that it can be made ahead of time. It’s from a really old Fleischmann’s yeast recipe cookbook that I used to bake from when I was a teenager. This particular recipe is from the freezer section of the book, which contains recipes that allow you to do all the prep up to the baking stage and then freeze the bread/rolls/coffeecake. When you’re ready to do the baking, you just take the frozen product out of the freezer, let it thaw and rise, and then bake it.

This is not particularly handy if you are wanting fresh baked bread for breakfast, as it requires you to take the bread out of the freezer at something like 3:30 in the morning (if you want to eat at 7:30 am, that is. When I was a teenager, I used to set the alarm for 3:30, run out to the cold garage, take the coffeecake out of the freezer and into the kitchen, and then hop back in bed. Yes, I was a weird teenager.).

Anyways. I keep meaning to experiment with a refrigerator version of this coffeecake (similar to the Cinnamon Twists method), and when I do, I’ll let you know how it worked out. At the moment, though, I usually just bake my coffeecakes in the afternoon and we eat them for breakfast (some of my kids reheat theirs in the microwave). They are still more than edible after sitting overnight on the counter, trust me.

Ok!  So, to make a freezer coffecake, here’s what you do. Because the dough doesn’t rise at all before shaping, you’ll want to make the streusel topping and apricot filling straight away.

To make the apricot topping, you just cook dried apricots and water for about 20 minutes, or until the water is absorbed.

The recipe book then says to “sieve the apricots”, because food processors hadn’t been invented yet.  Happily, I live in the era of food processors, so that’s what I use to blend up the apricots (I usually mix in the brown sugar by hand, so as not to whip the apricots too much).

To make the streusel, just combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix in the butter with a pastry blender.

Now, to make the dough, combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a mixer bowl.

Add melted butter and warm water, and beat for two minutes.

Add eggs, and beat for another two minutes. The dough will be significantly closer to being a batter at this point.

Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft, but kneadable dough.  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic (this picture is obviously before I kneaded the dough).

Now you have streusel, filling, and dough, which means it’s time for assembly.

Divide the dough into three equal pieces.  Roll to a 12×7 inch rectangle and transfer to a greased baking sheet.  Do not, I repeat, do not leave it on the counter.  It will be nigh onto impossible to transfer it to a sheet once it is filled.  Ask me how I know.

Also, do yourself a favor, and do NOT skip greasing the baking sheet. I tried that out, and it doesn’t work too well.

Spread 1/3 of the apricot filling down the middle of each rectangle.

Using a pizza cutter or a knife, cut one-inch wide strips along the edge of the apricot filling.

Fold the strips in towards the middle of the rectangle, overlapping as much as possible. Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly neat…it’s all getting covered with streusel.

If you want to be fancier, you can twist the strips as you fold them in.

Sprinkle the streusel topping over the three coffeecakes.

At this point, you can either let them rise and then bake them, or you can freeze them. To freeze, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for several hours, or until the coffeecake is frozen solid. Then you can remove it from the baking sheet (because you’re not going to want to have your cookie sheet in the freezer for weeks!), rewrap it in the plastic wrap and freeze it for up to 4 weeks.

When you’re ready to bake your coffeecake(s), remove them from the freezer, unwrap them, place them on a greased baking sheet, cover them loosely with the plastic wrap, and let them thaw/rise for about 3 to 3.5 hours, at which point they should look somewhat soft and puffy.

How long you let them rise is sort of up to you. A longer rise will make for an airier result.

And a shorter rise will make for a more dense end product.

It’s tasty either way! Whenever your dough has risen to your taste, bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack before serving, because the apricot filling will be HOT. (dare I say “ask me how I know.” again??)

When it’s cooled off sufficiently, cut into slices and serve.

Apricot Coffeecake-makes three coffeecakes

Dough
5 1/2 to 6 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 pkg. yeast (6 3/4 teaspoons)
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup very warm tap water (120 degrees)
3 eggs

Apricot Filling
11 ounces dried apricots
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup brown sugar

Streusel
1/3 cup flour
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter

To make filling, combine apricots and water in saucepan; cook 20 minutes.  Process in a food processor or blender until smooth; add brown sugar.

To make streusel, combine dry streusel ingredients and cut in butter using a pastry blender.

To make dough, in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 1 1/4 cups flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Add cooled butter and water; beat for 2 minutes. Add eggs; beat for two minutes. Stir in enough additional flour to make a soft dough; turn out onto floured surface and knead 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.

Divide dough into thirds; roll each into a 12×7 inch rectangle.  Place each on a greased baking sheet.  Spread 1/3 of the apricot filling down the center of each rectangle.  Cut one inch strips along the edge of the filling out to the edge of the dough.  Fold strips to the center of the dough, overlapping if possible.  Sprinkled 1/3 of the streusel over each coffeecake.

To freeze, cover each coffecake with plastic wrap.  Place in freezer until firm, then remove each coffecake from baking sheet, rewrap and freeze for up to 4 weeks.  When ready to bake, remove from freezer, loosen plastic wrap, and let thaw and rise in warm place for 3 to 3.5 hours.  Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.

To bake right away, cover coffee cakes loosely with plastic wrap or a lightweight, damp tea towel, and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.  Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.

Cornbread is one of those things that is super-duper easy to make. In fact, it’s so simple, I marvel that it is sold in bakeries and that there are boxed cornbread mixes.

Cornbread mixes are not terribly expensive, but they usually include only the dry ingredients and some sort of fat (usually in the form of shelf-stable shortening, which is not exactly the healthiest fat in the world). This means that you still have to provide the milk and the egg, and that makes the mix a lot less of a bargain.

Most cornbreads, this one included, are leavened with baking powder or baking soda, not yeast, which makes it easy to get them on the table in a hurry (I almost said “jiffy” but I think that’s the name of one of those boxed cornbread mixes!). It also means that you do NOT want to overmix the batter. If you do, your cornbread will be tough (remember our lesson on gluten?)

There are a bazillion cornbread recipes out there, some with cheese, some with hot peppers, some with bacon, some with corn kernels, some with sugar, and some without. This, though, is just a very basic cornbread recipe for those of you out there who are all, “But I can’t make cornbread from scratch!!!!”.

My cornbread usually takes all of about five minutes to mix up. Here’s what’s involved.

Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Mix flour, cornmeal, sugar (if using), baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. I like to mix this with a wire whisk.

Mix eggs, milk, and oil together in a bowl (I actually just use a 2 cup measuring cup for the mixing…saves on dishes!). A whisk works well for this too.

Add milk mixture to the dry ingredients, mix gently, and pour into a greased 8×8 inch baking pan.

Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.

See? Wasn’t that easy? and fast? You should totally give it a try, even if the idea of baking scares the pants off of you.

Basic Cornbread

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal (I use the whole grain kind)
2-4 tablespoons of sugar, depending on your preferences
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil, or melted butter

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

3. In another bowl (or a 2 cup measuring cup), combine eggs, milk, and oil.

4. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients, mix gently, and pour into a greased 8×8 inch baking pan.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.

To make corn muffins, spoon batter into 12 greased muffin cups, and bake for 12-15 minutes.

P.S. This goes very nicely with a bowl of Tortilla Soup.

Probably 99% of pumpkin bread recipes are the quick bread sort, that rely on baking powder or baking soda for their rising. I do love a good pumpkin quick bread, but sometimes it’s kind of fun to make a pumpkin yeast bread.

Pumpkin is wet and heavy and inhibits rising, so this recipe doesn’t use as much pumpkin per loaf as quick bread recipes do. The same goes for butter/oil…since fat gets in the way of yeast growth, pumpkin yeast bread requires far less butter or oil. This bread is also not as sweet as pumpkin quick bread. Because of this, I like to put a cinnamon swirl in my loaves, though of course you can bake it without the swirl if you prefer.

Here’s how to make the cinnamon swirl version.  Incidentally, I was out of raisins when I made this loaf, which is why they are not in the pictures.

Combine the flour and the spices in a mixer bowl.

Heat the milk, brown sugar, and butter together.

Add the liquids to the dry ingredients, and mix until combined. Add the pumpkin.

Which will give you a funny looking orange-ish bread dough.

Beat for 3 minutes, then add raisins (if you have them!) and enough flour to make soft dough.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.  Cover and let rise for one hour.

Punch dough down, divide in half, and roll each half out into a rectangle.  Brush each rectangle with water, and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Roll up jelly roll style, starting from the short end.  Place in a loaf pan, cover, and let rise one hour.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  Since this bread is fairly dense and heavy, err on the long side of baking.

My children think this is delicious toasted and buttered for breakfast.

Of course, most things that are toasted and buttered are pretty delicious. 

Pumpkin Yeast Bread-makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups flour
2 pkg (4 1/2 teaspoons) yeast
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup raisins (optional)

In large mixer bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, the yeast, and the spices.

Heat milk, brown sugar, butter, and salt to 115-120 degrees.

Add to dry mixture in mixer bowl; mix until combined. Mix in pumpkin, and beat for 3 minutes on medium speed.

Add raisins, if using, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes, adding more flour as necessary. Place in bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour.

Punch dough down, and roll out into a rectangle. Brush lightly with water and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar
(3 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon).

Starting from short end, roll up jelly-roll style and place in a greased 8×4 inch loaf pan. Cover; let rise until double (about 35-45 minutes).

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Remove from pan; cool.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that ever since our vacation, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make Chai at home.   I’m still busy experimenting, but the following recipe is what I’ve been using for the moment.  I found it on All Recipes, but it’s also on RecipeZaar, and in some other places on the web, so I’m not entirely sure where to give credit!

This recipe makes tea that is pretty tasty, but it’s still not quite as good as those Oregon Chai mix packets that I had on vacation.  I’m hoping to try some non-mix Chai recipes (where you heat milk, tea, spices, and sugar on a stovetop or in the crock pot) next.  I think that sort of Chai would be a bit healthier, as a mix requires things that aren’t particularly natural, like coffee creamer.  I’ll keep you posted if I happen upon a really good recipe of that sort.

For now, though, here’s how to make a Chai tea mix (ingredients are at the bottom of the post.)    It’s really easy to do.

Dump all the ingredients into a large bowl.

Mix them together. You could use the tea mix this way, but it won’t dissolve all that well, and it does look kind of funky.

So, in two batches, process the mixture in your food processor until it’s smooth and fine.  Much better.

Chai tea mix makes a good homemade Christmas gift if you package it appropriately. It looks lovely in a glass jar (this one is from Goodwill).

And of course, a canning jar is always a good packaging idea too (especially if you procure lids that are not all bent and rusted like mine are!).

Chai Latte Mix

Ingredients

1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1 cup French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.  Working with about half the mixture at a time, process in a food processor until fine and smooth.  Store in a cool, dry place, in an airtight container.

To use, stir two heaping tablespoons into 6-8 ounces of hot water.