Christmas treats

 These are super easy. Brownie bites on the bottom, with strawberry, and real whip cream or frosting. Took me about 10 minutes to do (but I already had the whip cream made. Just added some extra powdered sugar and beat it to stiffen a little bit)

 Gave this to the neighborhood kids this year. Sugar cookie and royal icing with sprinkles. I used 4 different size star cookie cutters. The bottom is a very large flower cookie cutter.

Same cheese dip I made at Thanksgiving and Halloween (but in the shape of a pumpkin). This time turned it into a Christmas tree with a yellow bell pepper star at top.

Melanie's Grand prize Chili recipe!!!

Today we won the grand prize at a "Chili Challenge" at a church we've been visiting. There were 26 crock pots entered. I was going to include a picture of the HUGE trophy we won but the picture came out a little too blurry!

Melanie rolls

Thanksgiving is less than a week away and it has me thinking about what my food contributions will be to the mix. Years ago, because I enjoy making things from scratch, I made home made rolls. Then it became my "responsibility" to bring them to family gatherings, referred lovingly by family members as "Melanie Rolls". So here is the recipe and a bit of a demo so you can make your own "melanie rolls".

 I usually double the recipe (because we have a HUGE family). This will make around 4 dozen rolls. First measure out 3 cups of flour and add 2 Tablespoons of yeast (2 packets) to the flour. Add 1-1/1/2 teaspoons of salt and set aside.

 Heat 2 1/2 cups milk, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 stick of butter (and yes, if you are going to go to the trouble of making home made rolls, use the good stuff!!). Heat to 115 degrees, until butter almost melts. It's ok if its not melted completely, it will mix in just fine. You don't want your liquid too hot or you will burn the yeast.

 Add liquid to your dry ingredients and mix until combined.

 Add 2 eggs, one at a time and mix on low for 30 seconds until combined. Then mix at a higher speed for 3 minutes.

 Now, you can change and use your dough hook on your mixer or just use a wooden spoon at this point. Add 1/2 cup flour at a time, adding 3 1/2-4 cups flour, stirring  to make a soft dough.

 here's what the soft dough looks like :)

 Place in a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to grease the whole surface of the dough.

 cover with a warm damp towel and put in a warm place for 1 1/2-2 hours until it doubles in size. On colder fall/winter days I like to heat the oven up to 200 degrees, shut it off and then place the bowl in the oven with the door open.

 Isn't it pretty??

 So, I like to form the dough into a knot. First take a piece of dough and with  your hands, stretch it out to make  a little log.

 Then take one end and put it behind and then through the hole

 presto!

 Place rolls on well greased cookie sheets, cover and let rise for about 30-45 minutes, until doubled in size

 Here they are ready to go into the oven. At this point you can brush the tops with either an egg wash (beaten egg with a little water added) or melted butter, or just leave them plain. If you want to sprinkle anything like poppy seeds or sesame seeds you will need something wet to hold the seeds to the raw dough.

Bake 400 degrees for about 10 minutes (give or take a few minutes depending on your oven). Many times I will "under bake them" just a little and put them in the freezer. About an hour before we eat them I'll take them out of the freezer, line them on a cookie sheet and "rebake" for 2-5 minutes, just to get them hot and a little brown. If you put the rolls in tupperware or freezer bags they should stay for a couple weeks without freezer burn.
Well, that's done. Now onto pie crust....

Easy and yummy blackberry cobbler

Sprouts had beautiful blackberries today for only $.99 and decided to make something special for dessert

 Wash 2-2 1/2 cups of fresh blackberries (or you can use frozen) and add 3/4 cup of sugar (next time I would only add 1/2 cup. It made them plenty sweet). Set aside for 15-20 minutes for the sugar to form a little syrup.

 Sift together 3/4 cup flour, 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt. Add 3/4 cup of milk to the flour mixture and blend together.

 Add 6 TBSP of melted butter to the batter and blend together.

 Pour batter into an ungreased 8x8 glass baking dish or a round crock or casserole.

 Spoon the sugared berries on top of the batter

 Bake at 375 degrees for about 40-45 minutes until the crust is golden brown (see below)

 One happy husband!!!

Favorite appetizers

Petit Fours for Baby and Bridal showers

Seems like this past year or two I've done lots of petit fours for baby and bridal showers. They are easier to serve than a big cake and the way I make them (like my Mama taught me) are different than most of the bakeries. The icing is a tasty buttercream rather than a glaze and they are coated in either coconut (as shown above) or chopped pecans. The most popular flavors tend to be a french vanilla with an apricot glaze or a chocolate with a raspberry glaze. Very yummy!

Can I "blog" about food?

Recently, our website got hacked into and we had to shut it down. Someone mentioned that the up and coming thing to do was to "blog" your business, so here goes!

Just a little background: we are a small catering company in the Dallas Fort Worth area, Frisco, TX to be exact. My husband and I are the "managing members" of this little LLC. I can't remember a time in my life that I wasn't cooking with my mom and grandmothers, all of them Italian and great cooks!!! I remember sitting in my grandmother's kitchen all summer, watching her cook and stopping to measure all of her ingredients before she mixed them in the bowl. Nana didn't use measuring cups or spoons, she just used her hands. I still have my handwritten recipes from that summer and my kids even use some of those same recipes to cook for their families now.

So, over the next several posts, I will try and put up pictures of some of the items we had on the website to give you an idea of the kinds of things we love to do.  Our favorite is to come into your home, set up, cook, serve and clean up so that you are free to enjoy your friends for the party you are hosting. So until the next post...happy cooking!

Halloween cake bites