Monday, October 18, 2010

Menu Plan - 10/18/10

Fall Break for Miss D this week, both sets of parents coming to visit, L's Birthday party and his birthday next week, and I guess I have to feed them in between all that too!?!

Sunday - Ravioli

Monday - Onion pot roast, baked potatoes in the crock-pot, and carrots

Tuesday - Chicken? (nuggets) perhaps, making room in the freezer for party stuff

Wednesday - Shredded leftover pot roast to make BBQ Beef sandwiches with Challah rolls (freezer), roasted sweet potato fries

Challah Rolls
 Thursday - Pizza has been requested, but perhaps pasta?  not sure

Friday - Pecan Chicken, broccoli, Challah
Pecan Chicken
For more menu ideas, see MPM on orgjunkie.com

Pretzel Dogs

Have you noticed pretzel everything these days?  Pretzel bagels, pretzel hamburger buns...pretzel dogs?  I reworked a pretzel recipe I had to make these pretzel-wrapped hot dogs.  Everybody loved them here, so I thought I'd share the recipe. 


Pretzel Dogs
The original recipe is for "Soft-Ball Pretzels" from Paula Deen.

Ingredients


1 cup warm water (about 98 degrees F)

1 package active dry yeast

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

2 tablespoons margarine, softened

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

4 cups water

2 Tbs. baking soda

Kosher salt  or pretzel salt

One package Hot Dogs ( I used Hebrew National, which only has 7 per package)

Directions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine warm water and yeast. When the yeast dissolves, add half of the flour, the margarine, salt, and sugar and mix  with dough hook for about 3 minutes. Add in the remaining flour. Continue kneading dough in mixer or turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is no longer sticky. Let the dough rise in a greased, covered bowl until it doubles in size, about 45 to 50 minutes. Punch down the dough and divide into 12 pieces. Roll each piece of dough into 18-inch long ropes. Wrap the rope around the hot dog, making sure that the ends are secured.  Place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Any remaining ropes of dough can be shaped into pretzels. Let rise again until almost doubled, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.
In a large non-aluminum Dutch oven over high heat, bring 4 cups of water and baking soda to a boil. Using a large spoon, gently lower pretzels into water a few at a time and boil for about 1 minute, or until they float. Return the pretzels to the cookie sheet and sprinkle with kosher salt or pretzel salt.   Bake until browned, about 12 minutes.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

No-Knead Bread

Bread Experiment #2 - Found this recipe for No-Knead Bread published in the New York Times.  Again,  easy, uses very little yeast, and is quite tasty.  The only problem I had was the smoke it caused from heating my cast iron pot for so long.  Obviously, not from the pot itself, but the oil residue to protect the pot.  I think next time I would like to try it with an enameled pot instead (when I get around to getting one of those). 

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

One Hour Sandwich Bread

One Hour Sandwich Bread from foodiewithfamily

One of my recent experiments in bread-making.  I used the stand mixer version of the recipe.  It was really easy, fast and disappeared quickly!


Monday, October 11, 2010

Menu Plan - October 11, 2010



Is it really the middle of October?  I think I missed last week for a menu plan, again, but I promise I did have one (in my head at least).  A bit easier week ahead.  No Nutcracker practice, so just the regular amount of crazy busy.  The picnic last week worked out well for in between dance class and Nutcracker, but the weather is definitely changing.  By next time, I think it might be too chilly for a picnic on the square, but we'll see.

Monday - grilled chicken, broccoli

Tuesday - black bean, veggies and rice burritos

Wednesday - chicken pot pie

Thursday - crazy pizza bread

Friday - spaghetti and meatballs, challah

Saturday - perhaps pretzel dogs?










Find more recipes and menus for MPM at orgjunkie.com