Ahh its been awhile but here I am just in time for some christmas time treats. Jumers Cinnamon rolls as a kid were basically my holy grail of deserts. I seriously would stuff myself full of these things. Being that my Dad worked at a Jumers I was naturally there quite a lot. On weekends we would head to bloomington (my sister and I) and spend the weekend with my dad. What was cool is we would stay in the hotel everyonce in awhile. Now as a kid that was always a fun time. Friday night we would eat in the restaurant which like the hotel was awesome. Every dinner they would serve these rolls and I would just eat and eat. Sat. morning we would wake up and get breakfast and just like before we would grab these cinnamon rolls. They were just so good. Well its many years later and finally I have tried my best to replicate what I remember as a kid. I do believe I have gotten very close and will prolly modify it here in the future but for now here it is.

Ingredients:

1 Package Dry Active Yeast

1/4 c Warm to Hot Water

1/2 c Cool Water

1/2 Stick Butter

1 c Sugar

1/3 c Sugar

3 c Bisquick Mix

2-3 Tbsp Cinnamon

Preheat Oven 350º

Alrighty to start you want to take your yeast pack and dump it in a cup with the 1/4 c warm water and give a quick stir. You will let this sit to the side while preparing everything else. Now go ahead and make your cinnamon sugar mixture. Combine the 1 c sugar and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Make sure to mix thoroughly. Once you get this mixed you can set aside for later. Now go ahead and melt your butter. For this I just cut into chunks and put in my little bowl and microwave. This as well can be set aside.

Now in a seperate bowl you will want to combine your 1/3c Sugar, salt and Bisquick Mix (Now as you guys know I usually make everything from scratch but I couldn’t find a consistent couple of recipes for Bisquick so I’m just going store bought on this one.) Now take your yeast mixture and pour into the mix as well as the remaining 1/2 cup water you have set aside. Mix thoroughly. You will want it to be the consistency of biscuits. Not to smooth but still kinda forming together if you catch my drift. On a floured surface place the contents of the bowl on it. Knead together a couple times (make sure your hands have some flour on them as well.) Now some recipes will call for allowing the yeast to rise at this point. Now I tried this and it created to me a to airy of a roll. The rolls I remembered were dense and heavy. So from here on out you need to work fast as to not allow the dough to rise to much.

Now take your dough and cut it into 4 equal pieces. I rolled the dough into one big ball and then cut into pieces from there. Now as said before you must work pretty quickly at this point. The longer the dough sits the more it rises. So read through this and find your system and go with it. Take one piece of dough and roll it out into a lik 6×12 rectangle. Now I usually just use my hands for this as I can do it pretty quickly but do whatever works best for you. You really just want an even rectangle with a thin piece of dough. (prolly 1/4″). Once you get it spread out there take your butter and brush on a layer of melted butter. Once you have done that sprinkle on a generous layer of Cinnamon Sugar and then spread that evenly on top.  Now tightly roll the dough into a pinwheel into a log and place on a greesed cookie sheet. Repeat this for the rest of the pieces of dough. Keep about 1 Tbsp of Cinnamon Sugar for just a bit later.

Place each log on the cookie sheet like above. Placing them right next to eachother. With a knife you want to cut into the dough. Now you don’t want to cut all the way down to the cookie sheet but almost all the way. This is to make them kinda like a breakaway type thing when finished. So cut like 1″ sections and then when all are cut you want to separate the pieces just a tad so that the heat can get into the cuts. So from looking at the picture you want to stretch them slightly from the center to the left and right. Keep the 4 logs together though. Now once you have this done take your brush and apply a thin layer of butter on top of the four logs. Sprinkle on the remaining cinnamon sugar and then place in the oven. You will want to cook for around 20 mins. Depending on your oven it might be less or more just pay attention to the tops and you will see a brown melting of the cinnamon sugar. As well the top of the dough will start to harden. When done take them out of the oven and let them cool and then enjoy. Its a beautiful thing.

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Jimmy one day on facebook was raving about some show he saw on the Food Network. Saying how awesome this french toast looked and so forth. Of course it had Peanut Butter on it his fave and he wanted it. So i thought being the nice person I am that I would make it for him. It was quite easy to make and didn’t take long at all. Really its just a french toast on steroids.

Ingredients (for 2 sandwiches)

• 4 slices  white or wheat bread (I used texas toast style)
• 2 ripe bananas
• 8 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (Enough to cover 4 slices of bread
• Honey, for drizzling
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• Dash salt
• Butter or oil, for frying
• Powdered sugar, for topping
• Maple Syrup, for topping

For Whipped cream topping use 1/2 cup of heavy cream and about 1/4 powdered sugar and whip till holds peaks.

Take your bread and remove the crust. Apply a thin layer on peanut butter to the 4 slices. Follow that with bananas on 2 of the slices. Drizzle honey over the bananas and now Make a sandwich. You should have Bread -> PB -> bananas -> Honey -> PB -> Bread .

Combine the eggs, cream, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and vanilla into a mixing bowl and beat till its completely mixed.

Now preheat your cooking surface. It could be a flat griddle or like my stove has a griddle in the center. If you have a temp setting 350º should work other wise you want butter to sizzle but not burn when putting it on.

Take your first sandwich and dip it in the egg wash on both sides. Place on griddle for about 3 minutes per side. Check to make sure though you aren’t burning anything as it doesn’t really taste that good. When ready to flip be careful not to let everything fall out. Do it quick and you will be alright. My first one had bananas everywhere. It was pathetic. Good thing that one was jimmy’s. lol .

Once you have cooked both sides your are ready to go. Place a dollop or two of your whip cream (optional) on top and then drizzle honey and maple syrup on it.

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Walking through the store the other night with my wife and we came to the bananas. I decided I would attempt some Banana Bread. Now I didn’t have a recipe so I scoured the internet for what I thought would be the best one. Well they were basically all the same. So I took a basic one and added my own touches. This is a really really easy thing to make and doesn’t take much time to prep.

Ingredients :

• 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (You can reduce this if you must)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Cup of Toasted Oats

Preheat oven to 350º

In a large mixing bowl smash up 4 bananas. Now add the wet ingredients and mix, then add the dry. Easy as that. Mix everything thoroughly.

Pour into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle on top with some more oats and then the cinnamon streusel (which you can find here). Place in 350º oven for 1 hour. Try the toothpick method to see if done. Let stand for 10 minutes to settle and then eat!

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Well it was finally blueberry season and they were plentiful at WalMart the other day. 2 bux for 1 pint. So finally I got to make all my blueberry recipes. I made a blueberry kuchen which i will have to make again so I can post about it. It was so good. by the way. These muffins were on my to do list so here we go. They turned out so well I made them again a couple times. My wife brought them to work and everyone loved them. so here you go..

Ingredients :

Streusel -

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened (I cut mine into half inch pieces and nuked quickly)

Muffins -

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 8 ounces sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 cups (1 1/2 pints) fresh blueberries, stems removed
• Or you can use Raspberries or Half and Half on the fruit

Take ingredients for streusel and combine in a medium bowl and set aside. You want them to mix to look like coarse crumbs.

Take your sugar and butter and mix in a bowl till creamy.. Now this is a lot easier if you don’t use a fork. So if you have a hand mixer knock yourself out. When Its creamed it should be a light and fluffy butter. Now beat in one egg at a time till thoroughly mixed.

Now add the rest of your wet ingredients (milk, sour cream, and vanilla) mix them till you get a smooth consistency. Preheat your oven at 350º

Add the rest of the dry ingredients : flour, salt,  baking powder and soda. Mix again till you get the smooth finish.

Now take your blueberries (or whatever fruit you choose) and fold into the batter. Now notice that the picture on the right the batter is still a creamy yellow color. If your batter is turning purple you are stirring or using too much pressure when folding. You want to try not to break the berry with combining them in the batter.

This is with the raspberry mix. Now these ones are hard not to break as they are very soft so try to keep them intact.

Now take your muffin trays and line them with your liners. Take a spoon and scoop into each liner the batter till you fill them. I have blueberry on the left and raspberry on the right. The cinnamon streusel that you set aside its now time to grab it. Sprinkle on the top to cover completely. No worries if you make a little mess.

Now place them in a preheated 350º oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. You can use the toothpick method to see if done but most likely you will hit berry. Best judgement is if its turning brown on top your good to go. Enjoy….

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Also i apologize for the current pictures for i’m not completely setup with my lights and areas… bare with me we are still moving in and fixing up the house.

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Hey for those of you wondering what I’m doing since I’m not cooking can now check my progress. I have another blog going for the new house.

www.thewilshireproject.com

check it out and you can see the new house and such. enjoy….

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Thanks to all my readers out there.

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Peanut butter chicken is one of my favorites to make for its simplicity and just down right good taste. Now obviously if you don’t like peanut butter you will not like this. This is an asian inspired meal with a little american kick. Now with all my hot things the hot sauce is something that can be reduced but for this one I wouldn’t take it completely out. I saw a peanut butter chicken in a Mens Health Magazine and thought that I could handle figuring it out and this is what I came up with. My first couple were pour in some of this and some of that so I have tried to get my best guesstimates of how much of what is in the sauce.

Ingredients

1 lb. chicken ( I use the trimmed and ready chicken breast tenderloins)

- these have minimal fat and they are thin so help with cooking times for this meal

Sriracha Hot Sauce (as always my favorite) I prolly use about equivalent of 2-3 Tbsp

1/2 Cup Milk

1 1/2 Cup Peanut butter

2 - 3 Limes

1 Tsp Ground Ginger

2 Tbsp Soy sauce

2 Tbsp Sugar

-Optional use of Cilantro is also very good. I didn’t have any when I made this. Also makes for good presentation.

Combine all of your ingredients into a saucepan over med. heat. You want to stir together till it kinda resembles a mayonnaise consistancy. Maybe not quite as thick. Add more peanut butter or milk to get right consistency. When it has been heated and mixed allow it to cool slightly for about 2 mins. place your chicken and 2/3s of your sauce in a gallon zip lock bag and mix to coat the chicken completely.

Now once all the chicken is heavily coated dump out onto a cookie sheet. Arrange them and try to spread them out evenly across the pan. Any sauce thats left in the bag I try to place on the chicken to get them nice and coated on top.  Place in a oven that is set to High temp. Broil. You will want to keep them in there 9-12 mins depending on how your broil temp is. You will want to take them out when the tops of the peanut butter start to get dark brown and crispy.

This is how they should look when they come out. Bottom one may be a tad over done but very similar to that. Serve as a main dish or as an sports game snack. They are great for either. Use the remaining 1/3 sauce as a dipping sauce. Garnish with some lime slices and any extra cilantro you have.

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Ingredients :

4 Eggs

4 Pieces of Bread

4 Pieces of Bacon

Your Preference in a shredded cheese

salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 400º. Take your pieces of bread and cut out about a 3in Diameter circle. Now I didn’t have cookie cutters or anything like that basically I tore off the corners and rounded it out as best as possible. Nothing has to be exact here. Now place them in a greased muffin pan by packing them into the pan.

Brown up some bacon but don’t cook all the way to crisp. You want it to still be somewhat rubbery so that you can bend it to shape. When you get them cooked place in the toast cups and then sprinkle some cheese in the middle. Place in the oven for 5 mins and allow the bacon to crisp up.

Take them out of the oven and crack an egg and remove half of the egg white. Pour the yoke and 1/2 white into the center of the cup. Put some salt and pepper on top with another sprinkle of cheese. Place back in the oven for another 5 mins or until the white sets up. Take out and your good to go. Use a spoon to pop them out by placing on one side and pushing from the bottom to slide it out.

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Ingredients

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

2 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp Salt

3 Tbsp Sugar

2 Large Eggs

3 Cups Buttermilk

4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (Melted)

1 Bag Frozen Blueberries (you can use fresh as well) You will need at least 1 cup

Maple Butter :

1 Cup Maple Syrup

1 Cup Butter

Sounds healthy right

Alright first put your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Sift them together well and set aside. In a large mixing cup I placed my eggs and beat them. Then I poured in 3 Cups of buttermilk and then the melted butter. I mixed this as well just quickly. Pour this into your dry bowl and sift till you have medium to small lumps. You don’t want a smooth batter this will help with the cooking process to produce the light and airy cakes.

On a flat griddle at 375º pour out two pancakes and when a couple of bubbles come up place on your toppings whatever choice you may have. (These pancakes were a bad pour as I made them to big and now they are touching. No worries though before flipping place your spatula in the middle and cut them apart and flip and you will be good.) For these we went with some frozen blueberries. I will have chocolate chip in the next recipe as per the beginning. Now what you want is to only have to flip the pancake once. So to be able to do this you need to be able to make the first flip with no pancake sticking to you spatula. Get under one side and if you can slide to the other side your good. If you feel it sticking leave them on a little longer and then attempt to flip. Also a helpful tip is to not get wet cake batter on your spatula and then try to slide underneath. It usually just ends up sticking and making your life harder. Some also have like a 10 bubble rule where you count 10 air bubbles that come from the bottom and then you flip. I however never have luck with this as maybe to my ADD I can’t sit and watch for 10 bubbles. Once they are flipped you will let them sit until the center is firm. You should be able to push down slightly and it will spring back rather then stay depressed. Its prolly around 1-2 mins a side. I don’t really know but just experiment a little and find what works best for you. If you are making bigger or smaller these times will differ so pay attention to your first couple.

Place your maple syrup in a sauce pan with the butter and bring it over med. heat. You want to melt the butter into the syrup and then stir vigorously. It should turn a whitish amber vs. the dark that it starts out as. Pour over your pancakes when ready.

If you need to keep your cakes warm while your cooking a bunch. Preheat your oven 175º and place on a cookie sheet or something similar. Don’t leave them in there really long though they will get soggy.

For chocolate chip pancakes you just need some chips to put on top and just like the blueberries add them to the freshly poured cakes.

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