Alisa.wray

When Betsy and I were hiking the Incan trail in the fall we had a pretty amazing group of cooks in our porter group. By far the most impressive thing they made, in my opinion, was on the last day when they baked a freakin’ cake. At about 10,000 feet. Without an oven.

And it was perfect.

I had this feeling that their baking method probably involved a dutch oven of some sort because that’s the only way I could think of to get even heat.

A few weeks ago, Betsy and I went camping with some friends and they wanted to try making cinnamon rolls in the campfire. I realized that this would be basically the same method as baking a cake! We gave it a shot and it worked like a charm. Or at least, as well as one can expect if you’re baking with coals.

Campfire Cinnamon Rolls

Yield: Makes 12 rolls

Prep Time: 2 hours + rise and freeze time

Total Time: 3 hours + rise and freeze time

Ingredients:

DOUGH:
1 package (2.25 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/4 cups warm milk (100-110 degrees F.)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons kosher salt
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
FILLING:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, soft
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped pecans
GLAZE:
2 cups powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons water

Helpful Equipment:
Dutch Oven

Directions:

At home directions:
1) Combine yeast with water and honey. Let sit for five minutes until bubbling. Add melted butter, salt, eggs, and milk. Then gradually mix in five cups of flour using the dough hook of a stand mixer or a wooden spoon. Mix until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

2) Lightly butter a mixing bowl and add the dough to the bowl. Let rise at room temp until doubled, about an hour.

3) Punch dough down and roll out onto a lightly floured surface to a large rectangle, about 12x24in.

4) For filling, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans, and raisins.

5) Spread softened butter over dough and sprinkle filling on evenly. Lightly pack filling into dough.

6) Roll dough up starting with the long end into a tight cylinder, then cut in half. Oil a large freezer bag and add logs to freezer bag. Freeze overnight.

WHEN CAMPING:
1) Transport frozen dough in a freezer to camp a day before cooking. While logs are still nice and firm, slice each into 6 even rolls.

2) Butter a large dutch oven and arrange rolls in the pot. Let them rise at least 3 hours. I found that letting them rise overnight is fine as long as it gets cold at night (40-50 degrees).

3) In the morning, build a fire and add some charcoal to it which will result in more even heat. Scoop about 12-15 coals out to the side of the fire and place your dutch oven on the coals. Then place 6-8 coals on the top of the dutch oven.

4) Bake until rolls are cooked through, about 35-40 minutes. Maybe check them halfway through to make sure they aren't burning.

5) Remove pot from fire and let cool, then serve rolls with glaze. It's possible that some of the outside parts of the rolls will be slightly burned, but you can easily cut those parts off.

Recipe adapted from Sunset Magazine.

Making the Dough (at home)

The good part about this recipe is that you actually do almost all of the work at home. Once you make the dough and filling, you just roll it up, freeze it, and then it transports perfectly to camp and slowly thaws until it’s baking time the next morning!

I used my stand mixer for the dough but you could also just mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon and then knead the dough until it’s smooth.

Start by adding the yeast, warm water, and honey to the bowl and let it sit until it’s foaming, about five minutes. This just makes sure that your yeast is alive and well. Then you can stir in the milk, salt, and eggs. Once that’s combined, slowly add in the flour until the dough is soft, smooth, and elastic.

Once the dough is mixed, add it to a lightly oiled bowl and let it rise for about an hour. It should easily double in size.

Meanwhile, you can make the filling. I recommend chopped pecans, raisins and lots of brown sugar!

Next, roll the dough out into a large rectangle on a lightly floured surface. You’ll also need about 6 tablespoons of soft butter. My rectangle ended up being about 12 inches by 24 inches.

Spread the butter out on the dough and then sprinkle on the filling. Distribute it evenly and lightly press on the filling so it sticks to the dough.

Then roll op the dough tightly to form a cylinder. Cut this in half and you should see the magic of the cinnamon roll!

Place your two cylinders in a lightly oiled bag and stick them in the freezer!

Freezing them will make sure that they thaw slowly as you work your way to camp and then they will be ready to go the next morning.

Camping Time

Obviously, this recipe only works if you are car camping. It’s not really realistic to bring a cooler, cast iron Dutch oven, and frozen logs of dough if you are backpacking.

Once you get to camp though, your dough should be thawed. Right before bed, just cut each of the thawed, but still somewhat firm cylinders into 6 pieces each. So, you should have 12 rolls total. Put those in a buttered dutch oven, cover it, and let them rise overnight.

This assumes that you are camping in a place that gets at least 40-50 degrees at night. If you are camping in the desert or something you’ll want to do this in the morning and just let them rise in the pan for an hour or two before baking.

Overnight is best though and that’s what I did.

Baking on Coals

Since you already have a car full of stuff, throw in a bag of charcoal also. It will make it much easier to control an even heat around your pan while the cinnamon rolls bake. Just let the coals get very hot and then make a bed of 10-12 charcoal pieces and place the dutch oven right on top. Also cover the dutch oven with 6-8 coals. It should look something like this!

Believe it or not, this should be plenty hot to bake your rolls. They will probably need to bake for 35-40 minutes and I recommend turning the dutch oven a few times while they bake to ensure even heating. Also, it’s probably not a bad idea to check on them after 25 minutes or so just to make sure they aren’t cooking too fast.

After they bake, just let them cool for a bit and then serve them up! You can make a quick glaze with powdered sugar and water if you’re feeling ambitious, but also baking cinnamon rolls in a fire is pretty ambitious on it’s own.

These came out pretty much perfect honestly. There was one side of the pan that was a bit hotter and some of the rolls were a bit charred on that side, but it was easy to just cut off those parts and dig in.

Everything tastes better while camping but these tasted really good.

The post Campfire Cinnamon Rolls appeared first on Macheesmo.

The week Scott and I got married (nearly four years ago now!), my dad cut a giant hole in my kitchen wall and inserted floor-to-ceiling spice rack into a few inches of unused space. This had long been the wedding present plan, though looking back on it covering the apartment with drywall dust a few days before the big day wasn’t one of my better laid plans.

Still, I’ll never regret the mess, because I LOVE this spice shelf. Not only did it give me a bounty of additional storage space, the shelves are perfectly spaced to hold the canning jars that house my herbs and spices. Truly, it was one of the best presents I’ve ever received.

For the longest time, I thought I was the only one using slightly past their prime mason jars for this purpose, but in recent years, I’ve discovered that I’m very far from alone. And this spring, Ball finally recognized the fact that many of us use their jars in this way and released a product designed expressly for spice storage.

Meet the Dry Herbs Jars. They are four ounce jars fitted with sturdy, locking shaker lids. I’m liking these herb jars for several reasons. I appreciate how large the holes are in the shaker lid (they’re akin to the ones you find on Parmesan cheese canisters) because they allow chunky things like kosher salt and red chili flakes through.

I appreciate the slight rim on the edge of the lid, which means they stack with a sense of security. And finally (though this has nothing directly to do with their utility as a spice jar), I love the look of the smooth-sided four ounce jar. Would that they’d kick those quilted quarter-pints to the curb and sell these by the dozen!

Thanks to our friends at Ball, I have a box of these Dry Herbs Jars to give away (each box contains four shaker topped jars).

1. Leave a comment on this post and share how you store your herbs and spices.
2. Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Sunday, June 2, 2013. Winner will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog soon after.
3. Giveaway open to US residents only (so sorry, further-flung friends).
4. One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.

In addition to the giveaway, I’ve created a Pinterest board for photos of herb and spice storage. If you’d like to pin to the board, mention that in your comment and I’ll invite you to participate. It’s simply for fun, no additional entries to the giveaway will occur if you participate.

Disclosure: Ball has provided two sets of these Dry Herb Jars, one for photography purposes and one for giveaway, at no cost to me. However, I am unswayed by this gift and my opinions remain my own. 

Related Posts:

• Links: BPA-free Lids, Lilac Honey, and a Dry Herb Jar Winner
• National Can-It-Forward Day + Giveaway
• Home Canning Discovery Kit Giveaway

Last weekend I got an email from Robyn with a link to this really cool recipe over at Apron Strings. I always love cooking pasta and rice in liquids other than water, so this idea for a one pot pasta dish (which is originally from Martha Stewart Living Magazine) was right up my alley!

This dish is incredibly easy and super flavorful. The pasta cooks in a mixture of broth, herbs, and aromatics, like onion and garlic, which really ramp up the flavor. The starch that leaches off of the pasta as it cooks helps create a thick sauce right in the pot. It’s magic! So fast, so easy, and SO flavorful. I do want to mention, though, that if you’re the type of person that can’t handle pasta any other way than al dente, you may not like this one. The pasta can get a little soft, if you let it cook even just a little too long.

I made a few changes, as usual, to fit my needs. First, instead of using fresh basil, which can cost an arm and a leg, I used frozen spinach for a pop of green and increased the dried basil to make up for the flavor. Second, I wanted more “stuff” in my pasta, so I used a larger can of diced tomatoes and reduced the amount of vegetable broth to compensate. Lastly, I added a light sprinkle of feta over top. Other great ideas for add-ins: mushrooms, parmesan, artichoke hearts, or olives.

I think next time I’ll save adding the frozen spinach until the end so that it will defrost and heat quickly from the pasta’s residual heat. That way the spinach will stay bright green and pretty, and it will not darken the pasta as it cooks. But hey, either way it tasted fantastic!

Italian Wonderpot

 

Step by Step Photos

Start with four cups of vegetable broth. I use Better Than Bouillon soup base for all of my broths because it is much less expensive than boxed or canned broths and I can make any amount needed. These little jars last forever in the refrigerator, too, so it’s there whenever you need it. And no, I am not being paid to endorse it.

Then add this to the pot. I used half a bag, or 8 oz., of frozen spinach. I like to use the kind that is frozen loose in a bag because I don’t even have to bother thawing it, as opposed to the kind that is frozen in a block. Thinly slice the onion and garlic cloves. Add the entire can of tomatoes, juice included. I broke the fettuccine in half before adding it, so that it would be easier to stir later on.

Also add your herbs and spices. A half tablespoon each of basil and oregano, just a dash (about 1/4 tsp) of crushed red pepper flakes, and as much freshly ground pepper as you’d like. If you haven’t started to use a pepper grinder yet, you need to. The flavor is worlds away from pre-ground black pepper. These little disposable McCormmick pepper grinders are only about $3 and it lasts quite a while.

Okay, now that everything is in your pot, you’re ready to start cooking. Push everything down so that it’s submerged, place a lid on top, and then bring it up to a rolling boil over high heat.

Once it reaches a full, rolling boil, you can remove the lid, turn the heat down to medium, and give it a stir. Make sure it’s still bubbling away when you turn the heat down. It needs to continue boiling for this to work. Let it boil for 10-15 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked and most of the liquid has been absorbed or evaporated. Only stir once every few minutes to keep the pasta from sticking. Over stirring it can make the pasta overly mushy and sticky.

And then it’s done and it tastes amazing! Cool, huh?

Whenever I buy a block of feta, I go ahead and cut it into four equal pieces so that I already have 2 oz. portions ready to go. I keep the rest in a resealable plastic container in my fridge. Because feta is so potent, you really only need a little to add a lot of flavor!

It deserves a cape for being so amazing. That bowl was gone in 60 seconds.

 

 

The post Italian Wonderpot appeared first on Budget Bytes.

It’s just two humans, two dogs, and two sewing machines at California-based Mattie & Margot. But this small operation is producing big-time style with their handmade collars available in over 150 colors and patterns. Yes, you read that right. ONE HUNDRED FIFTY COLORS AND PATTERNS. Sorry to shout, but that kind of selection just blows my mind!

There’s plenty more to love about Mattie & Margot, of course, and we were fortunate enough to try out a few of their collars. Read on to hear what Wrigley and Smash think, and snag a special coupon code, too!

[Disclosure: Wrigley and Smash were sent collars for review by Mattie & Margot. All views and opinions are our own.]

Like I mentioned above, each of these stylish collars is available in over 150 colors and patterns (this fact is still blowing my mind), with the option to buy a coordinating, 5-foot leash as well. You can choose your favorite color/pattern in either the Standard width (1 inch) or Mini (5/8 inch), which accommodate neck sizes anywhere from 8 to 21 inches. Wrigley and Smash sprung for “Sea Mist” (in standard and mini) and “Ansi Yellow“.

When the collars arrived, I was immediately impressed with the quality of materials: each one is made from premium ribbon, nylon webbing (in your choice of black or brown), and die-cast metal hardware. The hardware itself is some of the best I’ve seen; these hefty buckles could probably survive Armageddon — and then double as blunt weapons in the post-apocalyptic world. For real.

Another little detail my modernist heart fell for was this:

The Mattie & Margot logo is on the inside. So, whatever color or pattern you choose stands out without any distracting/seamless-design-ruining tags. I LOVE THAT.

Other than incredible good looks, durable construction, and high quality materials (what more could you ask for, really?), Mattie & Margot collars have a few other things going for them: an awesome recycling option (mail in your dog’s old collar and get a new one for 30% off) and a collar-of-the-month program (a color or pattern is chosen as the “collar of the month” and all proceeds from the sale of that collar go to a non-profit animal organization or rescue — how cool is that?).

Want to try one out yourself? Hop on over to Mattie & Margot, pick your favorite color and size, then enter the discount code MMDOGMILK at checkout to receive 20% off your order! Hooray!

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© 2013 Dog Milk | Posted by capree in Collars + Leads | Permalink | 2 comments

Sneef? SNEEF? Erp.

Ah don’t know what these green things are. And ah don’t WANT to nose. Mmmmmmmm, CARROTS.

As seen on the Po Of Huff.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Sloths

Two convenient pet licensing and care days are coming up. Bow Wow and Meow Days return this year on Wednesday, June 5 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, July 20 from 9:00 a.m. to noon. The events will be held at their traditional location at the northeast corner lot of Clark Avenue and Del Amo Boulevard near the Lakewood Civic Center.

Can you believe that Memorial Day is right around the corner already? I’m having a little trouble computing that May is coming to a close and that the kickoff to summer is in just a few days. I think it’s partially because we’ve been spoiled over the past couple of weeks with several warm and sunny days…but it could also be that the farmers market season starts up again in less than two weeks! With my first year as a small business owner under my belt, I’ve made some exciting changes for this year, and I’m really looking forward to everything that my second year making handcrafted confitures will bring. In the meantime though, I made these homemade hamburger buns for our Memorial Day celebration, which I adapted slightly from King Arthur Flour’s recipe. After getting annoyed one too many times with the packaged buns available at the grocery store that are too small and soft to hold up to a decent burger, I decided that I had to try my hand at making my own. I was happy to find that it wasn’t very hard at all; you simply need to plan ahead to make sure you have the time to let the dough to rise. And, even if you’re not feeding a crowd, you can easily wrap up the leftover buns and pop them in the freezer for later. Enjoy, and have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!

...Read the rest of Homemade Hamburger Buns on Sugarcrafter.net

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© Sugarcrafter, 2009-2013. | Permalink | 10 comments | Post tags: bread

The dark, yet sweet, “Teddy Has An Operation” by the humorous Ze Frank. Watch as the surgeon goes through Teddy’s bon bon layer, play pouch, crotch unicorn, kidney crayons, and deeper in an effort to heal everything that has gone wrong with Teddy.

 

[spotted by Noah Scalin via Laughing Squid]

 

Betsy and I were able to squeeze in one last camping weekend with friends a few weeks ago before our big move away from the Western side of Colorado. Camping in this area has been really fun just because there is such a huge diversity of landscapes all within driving distance. We can be in alpine country and two hours later be in red rock desert.

We chose to take a trip to the desert side this time and made our way over to Moab for some red rock camping!

For dinner one night I made a campfire jambalaya that I was somewhat concerned about, but it turned out pretty much perfect honestly. As with most cooking successes, the key to a good meal is mostly about planning.

Campfire Jambalaya

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes + fire time

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 large onions, minced
2 green peppers, diced
2 red peppers, diced
4 stalks celery, diced
2 pounds andouille or other spicy sausage
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning (or to taste, I Like Tony Chacheres)
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
2 quarts vegetable stock
3 cups long grain white rice
Scallions for garnish
Extra Cajun seasoning for garnish

Helpful Equipment:
A campfire
A sturdy dutch oven

Directions:

1) I recommend chopping the onions, peppers, celery, and garlic before you arrive at camp as that is most of the work.

2) When you get to camp, get your dutch oven hot over a medium flame and add 2 tablespoons of oil and all the sausage. Get a nice brown on the sausage on all sides (about 4-5 minutes per side). Then remove the sausage and cut into coins.

3) Add veggies to dutch oven and extra oil if the pan is dry. Cook veggies until they start to soften, about 5-6 minutes.

4) Add spices, tomatoes, and stock to the pan and bring to a slight simmer. Add sausage back to pan along with rice. Stir everything together, cover, and let cook over medium heat for 25 minutes. Then check to make sure rice isn't burning. It might need a few more minutes though for rice to be cooked through.

5) When rice is cooked through, adjust spices (salt/pepper/creole seasoning) to your liking and serve with chopped scallions and more creole seasoning.

Very loosely adapted from Campfire Cuisine.

Cooking Over a Fire

I’ve been cooking over a campfire (or watching my dad do it) for pretty much my entire life, but it can be a bit of an intimidating situation. After all, it’s like a grill except without the grill. Here are my basic tips for campfire cooking success though:

1) Time. Give yourself plenty of time to cook. It’ll take longer to get the fire the right temperature and you don’t want to rush it or you will almost certainly end up burning something. Fire doesn’t exactly have an off switch.

2) Equipment. A decent dutch oven is invaluable when it comes to campfire cooking. It heats evenly and if you happen to drop the cast iron thing in the fire, no big deal. I usually recommend some sort of grill grate also to help control the level of heat to your pot. A friend we were with on this particular trip had this cool tripod situation where you could raise and lower your pot. It was perfect for heat control.

3) Charcoal and Coals. Most people rush when they cook over a fire. The truth is that you want to cook over very hot coals and not a raging fire. This requires that you start the fire probably an hour before you plan on cooking. I also like to cheat a bit if I’m car camping and bring a bag of charcoal. Tossing a few handfuls on the fire will help keep the fire hot and regulate the temperature.

Starting the Meal

A lot of jambalaya recipes contain chicken or seafood, but just to make it easy, I did an entirely sausage version for this trip. Well, actually I also did a vegetarian version by substituting some of the sausage for soyrizo which was surprisingly delicious.

Start by heating a few tablespoons of oil over in the dutch oven and then browning all your sausage over a medium-high heat.

The sausage should brown nicely for 4-5 minutes per side. Then remove the sausage and cut it into pieces (it won’t be cooked all the way through at this point which is fine.)

Then add all your veggies to the pot and continue to cook.

I highly recommend chopping all of these at home and just sticking them in a bag for easy transport. Chopping is the hardest part of the recipe.

Like I mentioned I also made a vegetarian version in a cast iron skillet on the side of the fire. It was super flavorful and spicy which I loved. I didn’t even bother to take out the soyrizo and just added the veggies to the pot as it cooked.

Once the veggies have cooked, I added my sausage back to the pot along with the tomatoes, spices, and broth.

The Rice

All of the campers in my group agreed that the rice was an ambitious step over an open flame. Rice is notorious for burning and it’s almost impossible to control the heat in this environment.

You kind of have to take a leap of faith with the rice I guess. Stir it in, add enough broth, cover it, and let it simmer away.

Check on it after 20 minutes or so and give it a stir. It will probably need another few minutes. Check the bottom of the jambalaya to make sure the rice isn’t burning and feel free to add more water or broth to the pot to keep the rice from burning. Taste it regularly so you know when it is just cooked through.

Other than that this is a pretty hands off meal once the lid goes on. Go do something else for twenty minutes!

A Camping Break

Here are a few shots from our camp site. We found this sweet little spot in a canyon surrounded by red rock cliffs.

Our camp site resembled a Subaru commercial although the guy in front isn’t technically a Subaru.

Porter played so hard the first two hours we were there he had to immediately take a nap.

And yes, we did manage to find a place in the desert with a little stream running through it. What luck!

Back to Cooking

After the pot simmers for 20-25 minutes, give it a stir and it’s probably ready to go! (hopefully)

I served this stuff with lots of chopped scallions, hot sauce, and extra seasoning!

It was a serious hit of a meal.

Just because you’re camping doesn’t mean you can’t eat fantastically and everything tastes better over an open flame (science).

Of course, if you wanted to cook this not camping, you absolutely could cook the whole thing on your stovetop and probably have much more consistent results.

The view of the stars probably sucks from your kitchen though…

The post Campfire Jambalaya appeared first on Macheesmo.

Remember those Browned Butter Snickerdoodles I told you guys about last week? Well, they ended up in the freezer. You see, I hadn’t made them for anything specific, other than an urge to bake something delicious. And I had just recently taken a treat in to work, so I threw them in the freezer.

My original plan was to save them for this coming weekend. My sister and her Hubby are coming to visit and she LOVES snickerdoodles. Yea, they didn’t last that long. It started with just snacking on one here or there and then turned them in to this ice cream.

Hubby has been requesting cookie dough ice cream since I got the ice cream maker attachment for Christmas (it’s his favorite). So cookies and ice cream were on my mind. I figured I might be able to hold off his request for cookie dough ice cream a little longer if I just mixed some cookies into ice cream. Same idea, right?

I knew from making this vanilla bean ice cream that I wanted to use full fat coconut milk throughout the recipe. I wanted this ice cream to be thick and extra creamy. So I just substituted the coconut milk in place of the heavy cream and half and half in the recipe. The nice thing about most ice cream recipes is that the amount of dairy usually adds up to 3.5 cups. That’s exactly what you’ll get out of two cans of coconut milk! While the base of the original ice cream recipe does taste snickerdoodle-y, I wanted to have the snickerdoodles be the star of the show. So I just chopped a couple cookies up into large chunks that got mixed in at the end of the churning process.

So enough about how I made the ice cream, I’m sure you’re wondering how it tasted. Hands down, the best non-chocolate ice cream I’ve made (hey, I’m a chocolate lover, it’s tough to beat). For Hubby, there is no caviat, it’s the best ice cream I’ve made. Period.

Now after creating this ice cream, I tried to save some for my snickerdoodle loving sister. I tried really hard. But Hubby loved it so much there was no chance. The amazing thing about this ice cream was how soft and chewy the cookie chunks became in the ice cream. They were still chunks, but just the perfect texture to compliment the ice cream.

One Year Ago: Pimento Cheese Burger and Baked Brie with Grape Balsamic Compote
Two Years Ago: Mustard Chicken Salad
Three Years Ago: Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes and Homemade Oreos (again)
Four Years Ago: Coconut Lime Cupcakes
Five Years Ago: Dairy Free Mac and Cheese with Broccoli and Cauliflower

Continue reading: Snickerdoodle Ice Cream