Nicole’s Recipes

Would you like to make artisan bread? My 11 year old son and husband made it! Even Thomas mixed the dough once! YOU can make bread like that too. It’s easy! We followed this recipe found on this youtube video:

Here are some written instructions for those of you plagued with slow internet like me!

3 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. instant dry yeast
1 1/4 tsp. salt

1. Mix the salt, yeast and flour together in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 c. lukewarm water. Stir it all together with until just mixed. I use a rubber spatula. You can use your hand like the video. Just don’t use a mixer!

2. Let dough sit in a bowl, covered, for at least 12 hours. (So, you can make the dough at night, go to bed, and finish it in the morning.)

3. After 12 hours, heat oven to 500 degrees with an iron dutch oven with a lid in the oven to get it blazing hot.

4. Pour dough out onto a heavily floured cutting board so it doesn’t stick. Handle the dough as little as possible so you don’t deflate it. Do not roll it out. Fold dough over from each side (top, bottom, left, right) like an envelope. There will be four folds that all overlap in the middle. Flour the top of the bread dough heavily. (Don’t worry what the shape looks like or how it transfers. It will puff up as it cooks and I’ve not had an ugly loaf yet.)

5. Carefully slide dough off the cutting board seam side up into the preheated dutch oven, put the lid on, turn oven down to 475 degrees, and bake 25 mins on the middle rack. **

6. Remove lid (it should be light golden brown when you take the lid off) and bake another 10 mins. This will crisp up the crust and make it a darker golden color. Remove from dutch oven and cool on a rack. Cool bread before you cut so you don’t smash all your nice holes!

FYI:
**I adjusted the bake times here according to what has worked for me. The video says bake it longer, but that time always slightly burns the bottom for me. I don’t want a burned bottom! Whether your cast iron dutch oven is enamel coated or not may make a difference. Also ovens vary. You should end up with a dark golden crispy crust, but not a burned crust.

Notes: You can put wheat in place of white flour. You can use all purpose or bread flour. I like unbleached Hudson Cream. You can rise it anywhere from 12-20 hours before you bake it. My opinion is the only things you cannot do this recipe without is the long overnight rise, the cast iron dutch oven, and mixing without a mixer. You get your flavor from the long rise, your crust from that dutch oven, your large holes from mixing without a mixer. The longer you rise it, the more sourdough flavor develops. The recipe as is makes a rather small loaf. I usually make 2 for my family. You can start more than 1 bowl of bread dough and just take turns in the dutch oven cooking them – or you can double it the recipe for a larger loaf.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup butter flavored shortening (or plain)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, butter flavored shortening, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until light and golden. Do not over bake. Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

Enough mashed potatoes to cover the top of your dish 2 inches thick
1 cup of cheese, grated and stirred into the mashed potatoes
(I mash my potatoes with butter and cream cheese so they are thick and creamy)

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
Worchestershire sauce to taste
salt
red, white, black pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp basil
2 cups beef broth
1 can tomato paste
5 carrots, chopped
1 onion, minced
2-3 carrots, practically minced
Sm container of mushrooms, practically minced

Brown ground beef, drain. Season with salt, few dashes of Worchestershire, basil, oregano, thyme, red pepper, white pepper, black pepper. Throw in finely chopped carrot, onion and mushroom. Add tomato paste and broth. Cook until carrot bits are done, and everything is thick and saucy.

Pour filling into dish. Top with mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika. Cook at 375 until heated through.

4 lb chicken fryer
2 stalks celery chopped finely
2 carrots chopped finely
1 small onion chopped finely
1/2 cup long grain white rice
1/2 cup wild rice
1 1/2 qt? milk depends on how thick you like your soup
red, white, black pepper
sage, basil, thyme
salt & pepper
chicken bouillon- optional

Boil chicken in 2 qts of water. Strain broth, return to pan.

Add wild rice, celery, carrot and onion to broth and simmer for 35-40 minutes. Meanwhile de-bone and chop the chicken.

Add white rice to the pot and simmer 20 mins more.

Add chicken, milk, and seasonings and simmer and taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

You can thicken it with a roux if you want, but I always find the rice soaks up the broth and makes it plenty thick on it’s own. After it’s cooled, you may have to thin with broth or milk to reheat.

2 cups of all-purpose flour (you can sub some wheat too)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
3/4 cups of warm milk

Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and oil. Slowly add the warm milk. Stir. Knead for two minutes on a floured surface. Dough should be firm and soft.

Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap for 20 minutes.

After the dough has rested, break off eight sections, roll them into balls, cover balls with damp cloth or plastic wrap for 10 minutes. (It’s very important to let the dough rest, otherwise it will be like elastic and won’t roll out to a proper thickness and shape.)

Roll until thin and about eight inches in diameter. Don’t over work the dough, or it’ll be stiff. Keep rolled-out tortillas covered until ready to cook.

Cook the tortillas about thirty seconds on each side in a dry iron skillet. It should start to puff a bit when it’s done.

Keep cooked tortillas covered wrapped in a napkin until ready to eat.
Can be reheated in a dry iron skillet, over your gas-burner flame or in the oven wrapped in foil. While you probably won’t have any leftovers, you can store in the fridge tightly wrapped in foil or plastic for a day or so.

Makes eight tortillas.

1 cup butter
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup honey
4 eggs
2 cups buttermilk (you can sub milk with 2 T of vinegar)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cup cornmeal
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 13×9 inch pan.

2. Melt butter in large batter bowl. Stir in sugar and honey. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture bowl. Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I adapted this recipe from another recipe to make it healthier. You can adjust it for what you like in your muffins.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely shredded carrot
1/2 cup raisins or dates, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries
1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
1 apple – peeled, cored and shredded
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce or all fruit preserves
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin liners.

2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, honey, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Beat in egg, oil, applesauce/preserves, and vanilla. Stir in the carrot, dried fruit, coconut, and apple.

3. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

**I use my food processor to shred the carrot and apple and chop the dried fruit. I think kids like them better when everything is chopped up small.

I am big on butter, but these cookies are better with shortening. The texture is all wrong with butter. The peanut butter is for flavor, the shortening is for texture!

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Cream shortening, sugars and peanut butter. Add eggs one at a time beating until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Combone flour. soda and salt and add to creamed mixture, blend. Roll dough into balls, press down with a fork. Sprinkle the top with raw sugar.

Bake 350 for 12-15 minutes until golden. Let sit on the pan 5 minutes then remove to rack to cool.

Slow, long cooking and just the right spices makes this better than any rotisserie chicken I’ve ever bought. I have cooked it without seasoning it the night before- and it was still VERY good.

2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 onions, quartered
2 (4 pound) whole chickens

1. In a small bowl, mix together salt, paprika, onion powder, thyme, white pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. Remove and discard giblets from chicken. Rinse chicken cavity, and pat dry with paper towel. Rub each chicken inside and out with spice mixture. Place 1 onion into the cavity of each chicken. Place chickens in a resealable bag or double wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight, or at least 4 to 6 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).

3. Place chickens in a roasting pan. Bake uncovered for 5 hours, to a minimum internal temperature of 180 degrees F (85 degrees C). Let the chickens stand for 10 minutes before carving.

2 pounds hamburger
3 cups? sour cream
Worchestershire sauce
A little beef broth
Salt & Pepper
Optional: mushrooms
Wide egg noodles

Brown your hamburger, drain, season with salt and pepper. Add 1/2 cup of beef broth or so, couple dashes of worchestershire, stir in sour cream. You can thicken sauce with cornstarch/milk if you like. Adjust the sauce and seasoning however you like- I never have kept track of amounts of anything with this dinner. Simmer for awhile to soften the meat and thicken the sauce. Add mushrooms if you like. Serve over wide egg noodles. I like serving peas with this dinner.

No need to brown the meat. This stew is the easiest to put together- and it’s very good. Sometimes I serve it on top of rice.

2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups beef broth
3 potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped

Directions

1. Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.

2. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 6 hours.