Tag: buns

beetniks 

getting your hair done is odd… looking at yourself in a mirror for the better part of four hours can almost be seen as a form of torture… so I just stare at my hairdresser instead… and as she tends to my mane, I grace her with my witty stories, stemming back to my childhood but all the way through college and giving birth to my children…  sometimes she has stepped out of the room but I didn’t notice with the blow dryer going and it’s humorous as I’m still weaving a story and the only one listening is her dog…

 by the end of our four hours together, she usually says something to the effect of “don’t you dare try to pay me… our time together is payment enough”…   and then she makes sure that I knew she was joking… she wants to get paid…

another thing about her is her humility… when I see her ‘out and about’ around town and I’ve styled my own hair that day, she’ll say things to me like ‘you don’t need to tell anyone who does your hair’… and I say to her ‘stop it Roselle Burton… you deserve all the credit you’ll get for this’…  she laughs and I laugh
last time I was there… we were discussing the garden and cooking and I asked her if I could feature one of her recipes on my blog…  my idea was to come to her house ‘off the clock’ and have her cook her favourite recipe for me and I’d eat it…  turns out she’s really busy… but she did tell me about beetniks…

fall time here and all us farm ladies bring in the garden the day before a big frost…  things like spaghetti squash, zucchini, corn, onions, garlic… all of that needs to get brought in… so I also grabbed beet leaves… and made up these beetniks as best as I could remember her telling me how to do…

beetniks

Ingredients:
– bread dough
    – 5 cups all purpose flour
    – 2 tsp sugar
    – 2 tsp salt
    – 2 tbsp instant rise yeast
    – 4 tbsp canola oil
    – 2 cups warm water
– 24 big beet leaves, wiped clean
– 1/4 cup butter
– 1/2 onion, finely chopped
– 4 cloves garlic
– 1 cup cream milk
– fresh dill, chopped
Directions:
– make the dough and let rise for 45 minutes
– grease two 9×13 pans
– wash the beat leaves and pat dry with paper towel
– pinch off a piece of the dough and roll into the shape of a fat thumb
– wrap the beet leaf around it and place in the greased pan
– continue until done and cover with a tea towel and let rise 1 hour
– bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes
– for the sauce, melt butter in a saucepan
– add onions and garlic and cook till soft
– stir in cream and dill
– bring to a slight bubble and then remove from heat
– pour over top of the cooked beetniks and cook for 5 more minutes
– serve warm (they freeze well)

I might have ate about four of them fresh out of the oven…  then rued the day that I ate four of them fresh out of the oven…  the kids have been loving having them after school… they just heat it up and away they go into doughy, creamy heaven…

meal to the field #1

 the first meal to the field is always a little ‘hairy’…  not sure when to cook things, when to pack them up…  when to cry because I’m overwhelmed…

the first meal plan was:

  • Hot Corned Beef Sandwiches
  • Tammy’s Buns
  • Garlic Roasted Potatoes
  • Fresh Corn Casserole
  • Macaroni Salad
  • Saskatoon Berry Crumble Cake

the other wrinkle thrown into my plans was a 2 hour wait in a doctor’s office to get my knee looked at… during this time I left my children (child labourers) to tend to the cooking and packing…  

I had made this Saskatoon Berry Crumble Cake earlier on in the morning… I made it in a square baking pan and realized as it was flowing over the sides and making a mess of the oven that a 9×13 is a better idea…  I like to learn by mistake – every time – only way I learn anything

Saskatoon Berry Crumble Cake

Ingredients

For the Cake:

– 2 cups all purpose flour

– 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

– 1 tsp baking soda

– 1/2 tsp kosher salt

– 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

– 1 cup white sugar

– zest of 1 large lemon

– 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

– 2 large eggs, at room temperature

– 1 tsp vanilla extract

– 1 cup plain Greek yogurt

– 2 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

For the Streusel Topping:

– 1/2 cup all purpose flour

– 1/2 cup brown sugar

– 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

– 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed

Directions

– preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 9×13 pan

– whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon

– cream the sugar, lemon zest and butter

– add eggs and beat until smooth

– add vanilla and Greek yogurt and mix until combined

– add dry ingredients and mix until just combined

– fold in blueberries with a spatula

– for the streusel topping, combine ingredients and work it until the mixture resembles oatmeal

– pour the cake in the pan and top with the streusel

– bake until golden and toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean

(approx. 40 min)

this Macaroni Salad is delish…  I remember being in Oahu and my farmer went out to pick up a cheap supper so we didn’t break the bank on a meal out with our kid’s whom neither of us enjoy a meal out with anyways…  so we were left watching ‘River Monsters’ and he came back with ribs, rice and macaroni salad…  this is when I discovered that Hawaiians loved macaroni salad as much as people that like to eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken…

Macaroni Salad

Ingredients

– 4 cups dry elbow macaroni

– 3 roasted red peppers, chopped

– 1/2 cup (200 mL can) black olives, chopped

– 1/2 cup dill pickles, chopped

– 6 green onions, sliced (1/2 cup)

– 1/2 cup radishes, sliced

– 1/2 cup mayonnaise

– 1 tbsp red wine vinegar

– 3 tsp sugar

– 1/2 tsp kosher salt

– freshly ground black pepper

– 1/4 cup milk

– small splash of pickle juice

Directions

– cook macaroni in lightly salted water, drain and set aside

– to roast the red peppers, put whole peppers on a sheet pan in the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes

– cover with tin foil and let sit for 30 minutes

– cut the top off and remove charred skin and seeds

– mix mayo, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper

– add enough milk to make it pourable

– splash in the pickle juice for extra flavour

– mix macaroni and dressing

– stir in olives, roasted red peppers, pickles, green onions and radishes

– chill for at least 2 hours before serving

the potatoes are curtesy of my garden… and the boys made them for me while I was at the knee appointment…  they even blanched them first, then paper towel dried them off and then coated them in the olive oil and spices and then lade them out on the pan individually… I informed them later that it was awesome they did that but didn’t need to go to that much work!

Garlic Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients

– 5 pounds red potatoes (sliced into wedges and enough for 2 sheet pans)

– 1/2 cup olive oil

– 2 tsp kosher salt

– 1 tsp ground pepper

– 2 tbsp minced garlic (around 6 cloves)

– 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley (or 1tbsp dried parsley)

Directions

– boil salted water and put half of the wedges in for 3 minutes or until water is back to a boil to blanch them

– remove with a strainer and put immediately into a ice water or cold water bath (I put mine into the sink filled with cold water)

– repeat with the other half of potatoes

– dry potatoes wedges on a tea towel

– toss the potatoes with the olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic

– transfer onto a sheet pan with parchment paper lining it

– roast in oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crisp

– flip once while roasting

– remove from oven and add parsley

we also went to the garden for some corn on the cob and made it into Garden Corn Casserole…  it is one of my favourite ways to take corn to the field…

Garden Corn Casserole

Ingredients

– 12 ears of corn (still in the husk – 10 cups after cut off)

– 1 1/3 cups heavy cream (half & half works)

– 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

– 2 tsp kosher salt

– ground pepper

Directions

– remove corn from husks

– in a large deep bowl, slice off the kernels of corn

– with the dull side of the knife, press and scrape out the creamy milk of the rest of the cob

– add butter, heavy cream, salt and pepper

– put into a 9×13 baking dish

– bake at 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes

 lastly…  the Hot Corned Beef Sandwiches… I bought the corned beef at Prairie Meats in Saskatoon, SK…  and it was excellent…  this is my oldest boy’s hand in the picture… my other boy is taking the picture with his phone… they learn from their mom pretty quickly that everyone likes to see every move you make documented on Instagram…   they had to make and wrap in tin foil all 20 sandwiches…  for boy’s that spent most of August playing Clash of Clans this is quite the undertaking… but they pulled it off!

Hot Corned Beef Sandwiches

Ingredients

– Tammy’s Buns (see following recipe)

– Corned Beef (I bought seasoned at Prairie Meats)

– 1 pound Provolone cheese

– 1/2 cup mayonnaise

– 6 tbsp grated onion

– 1 tbsp poppy seeds

– 2 tbsp spicy mustard

– 1/4 tsp worcestershire sauce

Directions

– cook corned beef at 325 degree oven with beef broth and apple cider vinegar in the pan for 3 hours

– slice the corned beef thinly

– slice buns

– mix mayo and other ingredients

– spread the dressing on both the top and bottom of bun

– place meat and cheese slices in

– wrap each sandwich in foil and either put in fridge to heat up later or bake right away

– 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes

Tammy's Buns

Ingredients

– 3 cups warm water

– 1/2 cup sugar

– 6 tbsp (90 mL) crisco oil

– 1 tsp salt

– 2 tbsp Fermipan instant rise yeast

– 2 eggs, room temperature, beaten

– 8 3/4 cups all purpose flour

Directions

– in a Bosch dough mixer (or any mixer with a dough hook) add all ingredients except for flour and mix

– add half of the flour, mix and then the other half and mix

– beat for 7 minutes

– let rise in a warm place, covered with a tea towel and punch down 3 times every 15 minutes

– form buns and allow them to rise for 45 minutes covered

– bake at 350 for 17 minutes