Bike Man's Favorite Recipe

I promised my hubby that I would post his favorite cornbread recipe.  So, please checkout my Turtle Recipes for the actual recipe.  Since we had a rainy and cloudy day today, Bike man felt inspired to bake cornbread and regular homemade bread.  The house smells heavenly....really!  Can't decide if I want to toast a slice of the cornbread for breakfast tomorrow or the homemade bread.  Geez, maybe I'll do both!!!

Do You Remember Maida Heatter?

Maybe I'm dating myself here, but do my readers remember Maida Heatter?  Cookbook author?  I've had this recipe for 30 years and it's my husband's favorite.  I use to use raisins years ago, but now my hubby requests craisins!!!  To find the recipe, please look in my Turtle Recipe menu.

I've been on a baking binge lately, baking for friends, family and non-profit agency meetings.  I like to keep myself busy, so baking is my refuge.....it keeps me feeling happy and satisfied.  Somehow, my life is mimicking my mother's.  My mom used to bake for the love of giving to others.  I'll be traveling to my parents home soon and taking lots of home-baked goods to them, just like they used to bring to me in my younger years.  The life cycle continues.......

Swedish Cardamom Rolls (Swedish Bullar)

A friend of mine introduced me to Cardamom Rolls, or otherwise known as Swedish Bullar.  Bullar dough is similar to cinnamon roll dough, but not as sweet.  Bullar dough calls for lots of melted butter and an egg to make it rich and flavorful.  You will find this recipe in my Turtle recipe menu.

After letting the dough proof for one hour, I rolled the dough out on a floured surface to a 20 x 15 inch rectangle.  Softened butter is spread on the rectangle and then sprinkle with a mixture of sugar, cinnamon and cardamom....I used more cardamom than the recipe called for.

Now, just fold the dough over in half!  With the short side of the rectangle, cut 1 inch strips.  I then took my rolling pin and rolled out the strip to flatten and lengthen it. 

Take the flattened strip and coil it tightly around three fingers, tucking in the tail.  You can also use a twist motion if preferred.  I just did a basic coil around the fingers.

After tucking in the tail, I took the coiled up roll and dabbed the top in the cinnamon/cardamom sugar that was left over on the matt.  No need to waste good sugar!!!

I put the cardamom rolls on a parchment lined cookie sheet and proofed another 30-45 minutes in a warm place.  When the rolls are ready to bake, brush each roll with an egg wash and sprinkle with a little more coarse sugar.  Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.

Trigger Foods

Brickle Chip Blondies

Have you ever cooked or baked something that suddenly triggers family memories?  I had one of those moments tonight when I reached for a family favorite cookie/bar recipe book.  I haven't used this cookie book for like fifteen years!  I was contemplating tonight what favorite bar recipe could I make for my neighbors to try and cheer them up.  Laurie and Therese experienced the worse nightmare last night when a skunk sprayed underneath the crawl space of their house.  The stench is so horrible that the gals had to quickly grab some belongings (and their cat) and move to the local hotel.  All day I've been trying to think about how I could help the gals, but there really isn't anything my husband and I could do for them......except, make a sweet treat for them. 

So getting back to my question, do you have a trigger food or recipe?  As soon as I made these bars tonight, memories started flooding back to me of when Becca and Chris were young children.  I sure miss those days.  So, this particular recipe was one of their favorites and I bought the cookie book back in the mid 90's.  I made these bars all the time because they were fast and easy to make.  The pan of bars NEVER lasted long in our house.  And now?  Bike man and I rarely bake cookies, cakes or pies.  Nowadays, all you hear or read about is that sugar is bad for you.  Kind of makes a person depressed ya know!  I enjoyed making the pan of bars and will make them again when I have my next sugar craving.

If you are interested in the recipe, please look in my Turtle Recipes menu.

 

Ted's Thanksgiving Patties

I meant to post this right after Thanksgiving, but I'm running behind, so please excuse my lateness!  I wanted to share my hubby's idea for leftover Thanksgiving food.  He actually came up with this recipe years ago and we always look forward to making these patties every year.  So, you basically use leftover cornbread stuffing from your Thanksgiving meal with some cooked turkey or chicken mixed in....and leftover sweet potatoes (for this photo, I forgot to use the sweet potatoes).  Our cornbread stuffing always consists of craisins and fried bacon pieces....it's delicious. 

After mixing it all together in the bowl, I use my Tupperware hamburger press (remember Tupperware?) and make individual patties.  At this point you can just freeze the patties and then take them out of the freezer when you want to fry up some patties.   So handy.....

I like to use butter in the fry pan when cooking the patties.  The butter makes the patties nice and crisp and flavorful.  I recommend serving the patties with a large dollop of homemade tangy cranberry sauce.  We use to eat these primarily for breakfast, but now I realize the patties make a wonderful quick dinner when you are in a rush.

Want to make a batch of these patties anytime of the year?  No sweat, just buy a package of cornbread stuffing (Pepperidge Farm) in the bag and follow the directions on the package.  I highly recommend adding fried bacon pieces and yummy craisins.  You can also add nuts and any type of meat, or NO meat.  These patties would be great vegetarian style too.  Whatever your heart desires.  

Red Cedar Peace Initiative

A very dear friend of mine asked me to attend the Red Cedar Peace Initiative with her last night.  I happily accepted her invitation, but not really knowing what I'd be getting myself into at this gathering.  Well, I personally have to say that this was the best medicine for my heavy heart.  Ever since our presidential election and it's outcome, I've grown increasing weary and now it's to the point of feeling anxiety and fear.....real fear that I haven't felt in many many years.  So, I decided that I'd like to share my personal feelings with you about the political climate that surrounds all of us.  If you'd rather not read this, I'll understand.  Actually, I was going to post about Bike man's Thanksgiving patties, but with my personal anxiety these days, I thought I might feel better just getting this off my chest.  Lol....then I'll move on to food and recipes on another day.

As you can see in my two photos, there were around 55 people that showed up for this community gathering.  As I listen to numerous folks talk, I soon realized I wasn't the only one that is suffering from fear, sadness and anxiety.  Wow, somehow I began to feel a peaceful energy surround me last night.  I think I also started to feel the compassion and love of others in that room.  I discovered we all felt passionate about the same issues and this gathering quickly had us talking about our concerns.  Now, I have to tell you this gathering wasn't meant to talk politics.....we weren't there to bash a political party, but we were there to talk about our fears and concerns of political changes that would affect our children, grandchildren, our seniors, our communities, our LGBT community, international student population at our local university and much more.

One thing I am so proud of that I just want to briefly mention.  When I look around and I see the people who immerged from the 60's era (the hippy generation), and I still see them today in their mid to late 70's, still fighting for social justice and still so passionate about the environment.  These are the people from my generation, even though I was a young girl in the 60's, they have always cared about society and they care little about BIG money or big corporations.  I truly respect these people and I respect their integrity of clean living and protecting our earth.  I am sad to think that our young people of today do not understand the hippy era.....the love and not hate attitude. 

So, getting back to our peace initiative gathering.  I'd like to list our common concerns, which will be affected by the new Trump administration.  When you read through the concerns, just ask yourself, what can I do to help my local community deal with these issues?  How can I help?  Even if you are a Trump supporter, how can you help community members who feel scared like me?  What I'd rather not hear is the typical Christian reply....oh, just pray about it!  Prayer is not the answer to greed and corruption.  I'd like you to think about how can you make children feel safe, especially with the hatred that is oozing out from our communities right now.  How can you comfort the LGBT community that is increasing fearful for their lives.  And how can you help the African American communities that feel the bigotry and hate?

Concerns from our gathering:

How can we teach our children to be kind and show respect?
How can we console our immigrant workers who are fearful of losing their jobs?
What will happen to climate change when all the regulations are thrown out?
Many worries about clean water and clean air
Environmental regulations dismantled nation-wide
Clean energy and moving forward like the rest of the world
Public school systems and funding cuts verses Charter schools
The growing divide in our country.....can't we all work together?
Silencing of opposition from Donald Trump himself.....people are scared! Dictatorship???
Standing Rock situation and taking away the rights of our native people to protect their sacred land
LGBT community - how can they feel safe from the hatred and discrimination
How can we make our international students feel safe while attending college at UW-Stout
How can we stop the factory farms from increasing their herds to thousands of cattle & runoff issues

There were so many more concerns that I didn't mention, but this gives you an idea of what we were talking about locally.  I will be attending the next meeting in January to continue to help implement a plan for bringing our community together to feel safe and to give support when we are facing so many political changes.

For now, I might just have to take a break from social media, especially my Facebook account....or even reading the news.  The political climate is exhausting right now and it's easy to get depressed and feel hopeless, but that is why it's so important to get involved in your community to make a difference.  We owe it to our children, as they will suffer the consequences in the future.  Thanks for reading.  






       






 

Enjoying November

I've been traveling to Southwest WI once a month since January 2016 to help my elderly parents.  This most recent photo was taken two weeks ago at Wildcat Mountain State Park, near Ontario, WI.  Since we were having unseasonable warm weather in November, I wanted to take my dad on some outings so he could enjoy taking photos....and I wanted him to feel normal again.  Dad hasn't felt normal for months now. 

Since my dad has terminal cancer, any day I can spend with him is a good day.  I was so happy to catch this photo of a "good" day with my parents.

 

Wow, and dad caught a photo of me with my camera!

So, today with the cold and windy weather, I decided to stay indoors and make a batch of cranberry orange scones....my mom's favorite!  When I return to Southwest Wisconsin for Thanksgiving, I will bring my mom her scones!

I also decided to make a batch of buttermilk biscuits....I love baking with fresh buttermilk.  As the weather cools and winter returns, I hope to do more baking and cooking big batches of hearty soups.  Be sure to check out my Turtles recipes in the top menu.

Thanks for checking my sporadic blog.  Life is always interesting..........