Cocktail Meatballs

I bet you have 10 different recipes for meatballs but I bet none of them call for grape jelly. My mom made these for holidays and they are so good. My kiddos love them too. I use ground turkey but you can use beef if you wish. This would be a great snack for your Super Bowl party.

Needed:
2 pounds ground turkey (or ground beef)
1 T garlic powder
1 cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper taste
1 jar grape jelly
1 jar chili sauce(this located next to cocktail sauce in the grocery)
1 egg

Mix turkey, garlic, bread crumbs, salt and pepper and 1 egg. Mix well with hands and form into 2 inch balls. I place mine on parchment paper and bake at 325' until done, usually about 15 minutes. Now place jelly and chili sauce in a crock pot and let melt, now add your meatballs to crock pot. Heat on high until bubbling. These are really good with cheese and crackers.

Indian Tacos

Okay I will be the first to tell you I hate the name "Indian Taco". First Native Americans are not Indians because they do not come from India and second I really don't think Natives ate "tacos" per se, but I do love them. I am going to call them Native Tacos, so if you do make them, call them Native Tacos and maybe we can start a good thing. Once you master the fry bread you are ready to make Native Tacos. Practice makes perfect fry bread, just as with any good bread. It is very icy on Beaty's Creek today and this just sounds like a good dinner.

Needed:
2 lbs ground beef or turkey-browned with salt and pepper only
2 lbs Colby cheese-shredded
Pinto beans-cooked with salt and pepper only
1 head lettuce-cut finely
1 purple onion-chopped
3 tomatoes-chopped
Salsa- Paul Newman's Meduim Chunky Salsa is so good!
Sour Cream

Fry Bread

6 cups of all purpose flour
3 T baking powder
1 cup powdered milk
2-3 cups water
Oil for frying


Sift flour and baking powder together, make a bowl in the middle of flour, this is where you will add milk and water. I mix with my hands, I think you get a better feel for the dough this way. I mix until the dough feels like loose biscuit dough. Does that make sense? If not use the comment section to ask me questions. Believe you me it took me making fry bread 10 times before I reached my goal. So don't be disappointed, keep trying! Once mixed together form into disks about 1/4 inch thick and 4 inches across. Heat up oil over medium heat. I place my hand over the oil and can tell if it is ready to add the bread but you can always drop a piece of bread in and see if it sizzles, if it does you are ready to cook your bread. When frying your bread you don't want to turn your bread more than once. I check mine to make sure it is brown enough before turning. This usually happens between 5-6 minutes. Dough should be cooked through and not doughy. I place a couple of paper towels in the bottom of a brown paper bag to soak up any excess oil, and that is where I put my hot fry bread. The bag keeps the bread hot while you finish cooking all the bread.

Now is the time to make your taco. I will list in the order we build our tacos. You can make them anyway you want but this is how we do it on Beaty's Creek.

Bread
Beans
Meat
Cheese
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Onions
Salsa-Paul Newman's Medium Chunky Salsa takes like fresh made!
Sour Cream

Apple Turnovers

It is another cold day on Beaty's Creek. My MIL is making dinner tonight but I still want to cook. I am making dessert, Apple Turnovers that is. I love the way the puff pastry flakes as you bite into it and the way the apples and cinnamony syrup runs out. STOP!!! Will not eat them before dinner, will not eat them before dinner. I must keep saying this or they will be gone with a pot of strong coffee. Now let me tell you before I had 3 children I ALWAYS made my puff pastry and loved doing it, maybe loved is a little strong but I did like making it. Now I use the frozen puff pastry and think it tastes really good. So go ahead and give yourself a break and use frozen pastry with this recipe.


Needed:
1 package frozen puff pastry dough-thawed for 20 minutes on the counter
5 yellow delicious apples-peeled and diced
1 stick butter
1 cup white sugar
1 T cinnamon

Melt butter in skillet and add diced apples, sugar and cinnamon. Cook until apples are fork tender, this takes about 20 minutes over medium heat. Cool apples completely. When apples are cool unfold puff pastry and cut into quarters. Fill each quarter with 1/8 cup of apple filling, fold over and seal with water. Water will seal the pastry and keep filling inside. Cook in a 400' oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown. I baked mine on parchment paper to be safe. I hate cleaning up pie filling. As long as you seal the turnover they should not leak too bad.

Chicken and Dumplings

What says home cooking any better than a pot of chicken and dumplings?? I love rolled out dumplings for chicken and dumplings. This is one recipe Sean's Grandmother and my Granny West shared, I think it is a good southern recipe. We serve ours with homemade cornbread and coleslaw. Coleslaw you ask??? I know it sounds odd but it is so good once you have it you will never want one without the other. So that is "what's cookin" on this eve of a supposed ice storm, we will see...

Needed:
1 whole chicken(I use our free range)
2 T sage(I use about 5 fresh leaves of sage)
Salt and Pepper to your taste
All Purpose Flour
Baking Soda
Water
2 carrots-peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch slices
1 celery stalk-peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch slices

Boil in a large soup pot, chicken, water to cover chicken, carrots, celery, sage, salt, and pepper. When chicken is done and falling off the bone, remove from pot and let cook completely. Once cool remove all meat, Raven likes the skin in the dumplings so I add it back but you don't have to. Now is the time to make your dumplings. Sift 6 cups of flour with 1 t baking soda, make a bowl in the middle of flour, this is where you will add your water. I start with 3 cups of warm water. You may need more. Mix with your hands until lit resembles a hard biscuit dough. Now roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness and slice with a pizza cutter 2 inch squares. Bring broth to a boil and add dumplings, be sure to stir once in a while. Boil dumplings for 10-15 minutes, lower heat and add chicken back to pot and boil for 10- 15 minutes longer. I hate it when chicken gets stringy, this is the reason to add the chicken and the end of cooking.

Cinnamon Roll

Okay, I will admit I am going a little bread crazy here. I just want you to know that I really love to make bread and when it is this easy, it just makes it all the better. My favorite kind of cinnamon rolls are ones that I was served when in grade school. They were the best I had ever eaten, until now. This recipe is even better than those I longed for in grade school. This is the challah recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Mintues a Day cookbook, of course. Challah fresh out of the oven is almost perfect but made into cinnamon rolls it is perfect.

Challah
This will make 4-1 pound loaves or 16 cinnamon rolls.

Needed:
1 3/4 cups of lukewarm water
1 1/2 T granulated yeast
1 1/2 T salt
4 large eggs-beaten(I use free range)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup butter-melted
7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Filling:
1 cup white sugar
1 T cinnamon
1 stick butter-softened
Icing:
3 cups of powder sugar
3 T vanilla syrup (The kind you use in coffee)
1/4 cup heavy cream

Mix yeast, salt, eggs, honey and melted butter together. Mix in flour all at once. I used my Kitchen Aid and it was so easy. I have not mixed this by hand so I cannot tell you how hard it would be. After all flour is mixed in cover and allow to rest at room temperature for 2 hours. You can now make challah or cinnamon rolls. We are going to make cinnamon rolls. So here goes. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick and in a rectangle. Spread 1 stick of softened butter evenly over dough, now sprinkle 1 cup of white sugar over butter evenly. This is when I take 1 T of cinnamon and sprinkle over the sugar. I don't like to mix the sugar and cinnamon together. That is just me, you can if you want. Roll up very tight and seal the end with a little water. Cut into 2 1/2 inch slices, place in a DEEP cake pan. If you don't have a deep cake pan use a loaf pan. I did not the first time I made these and had to clean up a very messy oven the next morning. Bake at 350' for 40 minutes. When cinnamon rolls are still warm ice.


Icing is made by combining powder sugar, syrup and cream until smooth.

Turkey Burger

I was never a fan of turkey burgers. I always thought they were dry and did not have much flavor. When I heard Oprah Winfrey talk about the turkey burger she had eaten at Donald Trump's Mar-a-lago Resort, I was intrigued by the ingredients. I made my own version of this recipe, hope you like it.

Needed:
3 pounds ground turkey or chicken
2 golden delicious apples-chopped very small
1 yellow onion-chopped into tiny pieces(I do this so Raven does not see the onion.)
2 cloves of garlic-minced
1 pound of sharp cheddar cheese-shredded
1 t cayenne pepper(use less if you don't want too much spice)
salt and pepper to taste
Oil

Heat enough oil to coat your skillet. Once heated add apples, onion and garlic. Saute until very tender, almost mushy in fact and let cool. Now mix all of the ingredients together. Mix ever so gently with your hands. Over mixing will cause tough burgers. Form into patties and cook in a oil covered skillet. I cook the heck out of mine but I want my turkey done. Check with a meat thermometer, temp should be 160'. Make sure you only turn your burgers once, I cook ours about 7-8 minutes per side. I think these are the juiciest turkey burgers I have ever eaten!

Artisan Light Whole Wheat Bread

I tell you I really love my Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook! Can't tell can you, since I have been posting recipes for different breads from this cookbook. Well here is one more you will love! You can make pita from this one also. I made a loaf of artisan for dinner last night and everyone really liked it. My husband is not a big fan of whole wheat bread and he really liked this one.

Needed:
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 T yeast
1 1/2 T salt(I used kosher)
1 cup whole wheat flour
5 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Whole wheat flour for stone or Silpat

Mix yeast, salt and water in your stand mixer or large bowl. Now you will add all of your flour in at once. Mix until a nice dough forms. Cover and let rise for 2 hours. Now you can either place in a covered bowl for the fridge or break off a grapefruit size piece and roll in your hands until smooth place on stone or Silpat that has been sprinkled with whole wheat flour and let rest for 40 minutes. Slice 2 crosses on top of bread. Preheat your oven to 450' for 20 minutes if using a stone or until your oven reaches 450'. As your oven heats up put a pan on a lower shelf, this where you will add 1 cup of water when you put your bread in the oven. Put bread in and place 1 cup of water in pan and close oven quickly. I leave my ventilation fan on so the steam goes outside. You don't have to but but the steam bugs me. Bake for 35 minutes.