Eat, drink and be merry!

Okay, so maybe all I put here are things to eat and be merry. If you want the drink I'm of no help here. This is a modified version of a post I made last November. It's still the same 5 recipes.

1. I’ve posted about this one before, this is a Rachel Ray 30 minute meal (it takes me closer to 45 without a helper for me). The chicken lettuce wraps are a lot like the ones at Pei Wei and P. F. Chang’s. I even use it as a salad topping with no dressing instead of making wraps sometimes.

2. It is a simple homemade Vegetable beef soup. This one requires no measuring and minimal prep. Just brown some ground beef (you choose the amount). Get a large pot and dump a can or 2 of Veg-All, a can or 2 of sliced new potatoes, a can of whole green beans, 3 beef bullion cubes and some seasoned salt and pepper. Add whatever amount of water you desire. Bring it to a boil; reduce it to a simmer for 15 minutes (or how ever long you feel, simmer longer and just keep checking the water level). This is good reheated and even my kids eat it. In one pan you have multiple veggies, meat, and starch, I love one pot meals and soup on cold days.

3. I made this pumpkin swirl cheesecake three times last year. For Thanksgiving and Christmas I cheated and didn’t swirl it. I just made it strait up pumpkin; this was a nice change to the usual holiday desserts. The ginger snap crust is so good. If you’ve never made a cheesecake before the videos on the page were very helpful. I’d never used a spring form pan before either.

4 & 5. 2 recipes for the price of 1. This is the recipe for the rolls I blogged about before. This is a super simple and delicious dough. It is knead free and takes about 10 minutes to mix up. The time is mostly in letting the stuff rise, but it is well worth it. I usually make a double batch and make one batch of cinnamon and one batch of dinner rolls. By doing this you have breakfast on the go and rolls for your holiday dinner or whenever you want. Both freeze and reheat very well. I’ve been known to freeze meal size quantities of dinner rolls, so we don’t eat them, and I just pull them from our deep freeze with our dinner meat when I need them.

Cinnamon/Dinner Roll Dough

1 cake of yeast
3 tbsp warm water
Dissolve yeast in water (to check yeast activation add a very small pinch of sugar and stir in, if it begins to bubble yeast is activated).

2 eggs beaten
½ c Crisco
1 tsp salt
½ c sugar
1 c warm water
Mix together well and add yeast. Gradually stir in 4 c of flour. Cover bowl with a dish towel, if used the same day allow to rise 2-3 hours (may be stored in the refrigerator over night).

Cinnamon Rolls

After rising, divide in half. Roll on floured counter into a rectangle with dough about ¼” thick. Melt a stick of butter or margarine and brush onto the dough all the way to the edges. In a container with a lid combine ½ c dark brown sugar, ½ c white sugar and ground cinnamon, shake until well mixed. Shake ½ of the mixture onto the dough (don’t apply to the last inch on the 1 of the long edges) spread evenly and smoothly with hand. Roll like a jellyroll from the long edge that has cinnamon. Cut into 1” rolls with dental floss or a piece of string. Place in a greased pan, but not too closely. Let rise 2 hours.Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.Glaze with ¼ c butter or margarine, ½ c of powdered sugar and 2 tsp milk. Soften butter at room temperature and use a fork to combine butter and powdered sugar, add milk and heat for about 30 seconds on medium in the microwave. Mix well and spoon over hot rolls.

Dinner Rolls

Divide into 4ths and roll into circles about ¼” thick. Brush with melted butter and cut into wedges. Roll from edge to point. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Let rise 2-3 hours.Bake 6-10 minutes at 425 degrees. Time varies upon cookie sheet and oven and desired doneness.I use airbake pans and a temp closer to 450 degrees for 10 minutes, on the lower middle rack.

I hope someone can use these for some holiday help. Enjoy!