CHEESE!

I get milk from some local Amish farms and sometimes when I can snag a little extra I like to make cheese. Today I decided to document one of my all-time favorites, Burrata and Mozzarella.

The first step is to collect the required items. A small dish to mix ingredients, heatproof rubber spatula, knife for cutting curds, stockpot with lid, thermometer, strainer lined with cheesecloth, ladel/spider/slotted spoon to remove curds from the liquid.

I put 1/4 cup of water in a small dish and add 1 1/2 teaspoons of citric acid and stir until it’s dissolved. Pour this into your stockpot with the milk.

Now you wait until the . . . → Read More: CHEESE!

Lobster Macaroni and Cheese

I have been wanting to make Lobster Macaroni and Cheese for a long time, I would reckon it goes all the way back to the day I discovered that Carrabba’s was no longer offering it. I searched for recipes and this is the first one that stuck in my head. Don’t worry I have another one to try. I started with Ina Garten’s recipe and worked from there, you know adapting it and making it my own. We were joking that this was the most expensive experiment we’ve ever done, however now it was totally worth it.

Ingredients: 1 pound cavatappi (cork screw pasta) 1 clove of garlic whole 1 . . . → Read More: Lobster Macaroni and Cheese

What to do with so many herbs?

It’s about to storm here at the Hideaway, if you don’t know yet we call our home The Osburn Hideaway and Hideaway for short. I am really upset that we didn’t get to the garden in time to get green beans as I would rather be doing that crummy inside work during a storm that later this after noon. So the air was cooling off a bit I decided to take a little trip to the herb garden. Now I went and busted up my ankle 2 weeks ago so my ability to handle the uneven terrain and the wet grass has been difficult so I was a bit of . . . → Read More: What to do with so many herbs?

Jambalaya

Well yet another adventure that begins with me watching the Food Network on the weekend. One of my favorite personalities is Anne Burrell , she is kind of a bigger girl with a LOT of spunk. I have said before and will say it again, I am not sure I trust those skinny bitches in the kitchen. 😀 So she was making Jambalaya and it occurred to me that I have most of those ingredients right here and many of them would be from the garden. I have made this recipe now 3 times and I still like it! First let me educate you on the things I learned this . . . → Read More: Jambalaya

Jalapeno Poppers right from the garden

And into the freezer!

So our jalapeno plant was very busy and gave us more fruits than we could use, maybe that is because I never got to can salsa. I was on a quest all last season to create things I could freeze and cook later. I decided that Kerry and Sam love the idea of melting their faces off with really HOT foods. Why not make poppers? They are totally easy and you more than likely own most of the ingredients required. Good news – outside of the pepper hotness you can adjust how hot these babies are by adding more or less cayenne and by picking different . . . → Read More: Jalapeno Poppers right from the garden

Sun Dried Tomatoes

Or nearly roasted to death, the first sounds way more appealing. I have tried several methods for making sun dried tomatoes. First I left them outside in the sun, yeah they get bugs or rot. Then I tried the dehumidifier, that took several days and dried them too much. Maybe that was just a case of leaving them in there too long. So the last thing I did was roast them on a baking pan. OMG! Not only do you get pretty dang tasty tomatoes you fill the house with a wonderful smell. So where do you begin? I love the grape and cherry tomatoes. All you need to do . . . → Read More: Sun Dried Tomatoes

Brioche Dough Part 3 of 3 ~ Cinnamon Rolls

It has started to be a Christmas tradition that I make cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve to be baked and enjoyed on Christmas morning. I have done this several years and have delivered unbaked pans of rolls to friends and family to make themselves. But since we are here in Nashville it’s just the 2 of us with no family and friends to deliver to. That is why this multi purpose dough is working out so well. So here we go!

Grab about a pound of dough from your dough bucket in the fridge. On a floured surface start working the dough and roll it out. I ended up with . . . → Read More: Brioche Dough Part 3 of 3 ~ Cinnamon Rolls

Brioche Dough Part 2 of 3 ~ Doughnuts and Doughnut holes.

Day 1 DOUGHNUTS!

So first thing I went to the fridge and grabbed what felt like enough (~1 lb). I rolled it out on a floured surface and cut doughnuts out, using the rest of the dough to make of course doughnut holes. The dough was a tick sticky so I was dusting with flour often and turning my dough. I made 4 doughnuts and about a dozen holes. In place of the round cutters that I still don’t own even though they have been on my Christmas list 3 years in a row I used a rocks glass to cut the big circle and my apple corer for the . . . → Read More: Brioche Dough Part 2 of 3 ~ Doughnuts and Doughnut holes.

Brioche Dough – Part 1 of 3 ~ Making the dough

There I was a few days before Christmas trying to figure out a better way to make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. Knowing that my friend Melissa uses the Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day and that she just tweeted about making cinnamon rolls for the neighbors I asked her what she uses as her dough. She promptly replies ” ABi5 brioche dough“. As I panic to find the recipe I discover many post where you can use this dough to make doughnuts, dinner rolls, brioche rolls, tarts and of course cinnamon rolls. The best news is that she tells me I have 10 days, yes 10 days to . . . → Read More: Brioche Dough – Part 1 of 3 ~ Making the dough

Awesome Sauce

Also known as Red Sauce, Pizza Sauce, and dip for your bread sticks!

Having a garden is GREAT. Having your harvest come in a little at a time SUCKS! Yeah, Yeah I know I was posting all summer that I am hauling in 12-16 lbs every few days, but dang it that is mostly cucumbers and squash! So what’s a girl to do with tomatoes in quantities not worthy of skinning, dicing and canning or freezing? ROAST THEM!! Now I can’t tell you exactly how many of everything you need, not all tomatoes are created equal, but I can give you some estimates. I used this technique multipe times during . . . → Read More: Awesome Sauce