Orange Breakfast Rolls - Cinnamon Buns don't hold a candle to these amazing rolls

Orange Breakfast Rolls

Dough: You can use a loaf of store bought dough, thaw and roll out to a rectangle approximately 10X15 or make a simple dough like this one;

1 pk. dry yeast (about 2 1/4 t)
3/4 c warm water
1/3 c sugar
1 t salt
1/3 c oil
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 c evaporated milk
4 - 4 1/2 c flour
Real butter, soft
Orange juice concentrate
White sugar
Dried orange peel


Dissolve yeast in the water in a bowl.  Add the rest of the ingredients and knead either by hand or with the dough hook of your electric mixer.  Use more or less flour so the dough is the right consistency and not too sticky or wet.  Knead about 5 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl, cover and let raise until doubled.  Punch down.  Roll out on parchment paper or a floured surface to form a large rectangle.  Aim for about 16-18 inches across and 12-15 wide.

Spread with real butter.
Drizzle with orange juice concentrate.
Spread liberally with white granulated sugar.
Sprinkle with dried orange peel.

Roll up the long way.  Slice into 1 inch slices and place in a heavily greased baking pan or muffin tin.  I used a 'lasagna' pan which is slightly larger than the traditional 13X9" so I made 16 of them (4 across, 4 down).  You could make it into 12 - 16 depending on your pan and how thick you want them.  Place them into the pan.  Cover and let raise in a warm place until double in size (about 3 hours).  Bake at 350 degrees about 15-20 minutes until center rolls are done.  If you want to make them ahead and freeze; let rise about 1 hour and then cover and place in the deep freeze.  When you want to use them, remove from the freezer, let thaw and then let them raise about 1-2 hours past thawing until they double in size.  Bake as directed.

Let them cool a bit and then cover with a simple powdered sugar glaze.
One idea is this;

1 stick butter
4 c powdered sugar
1-2 t dried orange zest
2 T orange juice concentrate

Mix and spread on warm but cooled rolls.

Put into a greased bowl, cover and let rise

After rising and punching down, roll out to a large rectangle and spread with real butter

Sprinkled with dried orange peel

Drizzle with as much or little orange juice concentrate as you wish

 

Rolled up lengthwise and ready to slice into approximately 16 one inch slices to let raise and bake

Seafood Cheese Ball Bites

I've posted a number of different hot cheese ball recipes over the years because it's something our family really loves.  I adapt any recipe to what we have on hand or what 'sounds good' in it that evening.   This recipe is adaptable as well - especially the cheeses and the seafood you choose to use. 

Although it's perfectly wonderful with a can of crab and some baby shrimp in it,  I only had salmon, clams and oysters on hand in the pantry... but I had a frozen seafood mix in the deep freezer!  Perfect.  I used the mixture except I left out the oysters - and picked those out. I adore oysters but you wouldn't want them in this dish as they would overpower the flavor (kind of like why you don't use chicken liver in most dishes - it's a strong, different taste that you have to add only when you want that flavor.)


Seafood Cheese Ball Bites

2 T butter
3 oz cream cheese
1/4 c sour cream
1 T mayonnaise
1 t Old Bay seasoning
1/8 t paprika
1/8 t chili powder
1/4 c cheese, shredded (mozzarella, pepperjack, etc.)
4 t onions, minced
4 t green or red peppers, minced
3 jalapenos, minced and seeded
1 cup seafood of your choice; crab and shrimp being the first choices
2 eggs
1T milk
1 1/2 c Panko or breadcrumbs
oil for frying

Mix the butter, cream cheese, sour cream, and mayonnaise until blended. Add Old Bay seasoning, paprika, and chili powder. Add cheese, onion, peppers, and jalapenos. Add crab and shrimp; mix.  I opted (see photos below) to put these into a mini food processor and pulse them to mince and mix.

Roll into small balls; refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Beat eggs and milk. Dip the balls into egg mixture; dredge in fine bread crumbs. You can refrigerate or freeze them at this step.  Deep fry until golden in hot oil and drain on paper towels.

I used a seafood mixture, thawed in the microwave a bit and then blended in a food processor on pulse

The spice, cream cheese, mayo, red pepper and sour cream mixture

Pulsed the seafood, onions, etc. in a mini food processor

Making small balls out of the mixture

Breaded and ready to fry or freeze for a future meal

I do not publish unsolicited articles written by others as guest posts.

Apparently even though it's posted in red, in two different places on this sites homepage alone, it's not clear enough;

I do not publish unsolicited articles written by others as guest posts.




 

Keeping Guacamole From Turning Brown and Storing (Freezing) Guacamole

It's Autumn and time for school to start back up!  Not just for The Littles, but for college students too!  And our college girl has a few requests from Mom when we are packing her up and preparing to make the trip cross-state.  One of the 'please please please' requests is my homemade guacamole.

To give you an idea of how much this girl loves guacamole, I can tell you a little memory that pops into my head at the mention of this yummy green condiment/dip.  Remember back in elementary school when you are chosen to be student of the week and you have fill out a paper or make a poster of things that tell about you?  Some of the questions are "Favorite Color" "Favorite TV Show" and "Favorite Food".    Our daughters favorite food was "guacamole" - which was apparently so odd and different for a little 7 year old to put on their "STAR" poster that it warranted a special 'comment note' from her teacher.  Her brother and her used to have a silly fun argument at dinner time over who was the 'Guacamole Queen' and 'Guacamole King' and who loved it more. 

This summer we had to buy avocados in bulk as she literally had it on her foods for breakfast and lunch every day. 

One of the downfalls of homemade guacamole is it turns brown when you try to store it.  But we don't have any issues with that because last year I started to 'food seal' ours.  I make a big batch of it - doubling or tripling a regular recipe - and then scoop some into food vacuum seal bags and proceed to seal them tight.  When they are sealed they can be refrigerated or they can be frozen.  To use the frozen packages, just take them out and let them thaw completely before using.  We sometimes 'rush' the process by running them under warm water and kneading the package to get them to thaw a bit faster when we need them asap. 

I use a really cheap affordable Weston food sealer that my husband bought for me a few years ago on clearance at Lowes and I like these food sealer bags that I order on Amazon best of all the brands of bags I've tried.  I'm not a fan of the popular Food Saver brand - I haven't found them to be as thick and good quality, nor do they seal as well. 

Our daughter was THRILLED when we arrived at college and I surprised her by pulling out 6 small packages of vacuum sealed homemade guacamole.  Popped into her dorm fridge, she was a happy girl for the next two weeks.

Oven Roasted Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Garlic and Onions

Looking at the length of time between posts lately you would think I haven't been cooking or baking but of course I have.  I've even managed to finagle some photos of dishes I made and sometimes even the step-by-step process which I normally don't remember to.  And then... they've sat in files on my computer gathering cyber dust and never seeing the light of day.

It's been that kind of summer.  Actually, the first week of May is the last 'normal' week I've had before life threw a bunch of curve balls and I've just been keeping my head above water and treading it for now.  It's all I can do.  Tonight is one of those nights when the last thing I feel like doing is updating my recipe site but I need some busywork to keep my brain occupied so I thought I'd open up a few of my food files and see what pictures I had waiting for me to put recipes to.

And here is a 'not really a recipe' type recipe.  And it's good!

Oven Roasted Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Garlic and Onions

Brussels Sprouts
Olive Oil
Butter (real)
Onions - sliced
smidgen of brown sugar sweetener or brown sugar (just a touch!)
fresh, minced garlic
Salt and Pepper

On a foil lined pan, spread enough olive oil and/or canola oil to cover the bottom.
Place a single layer of fresh, snipped and trimmed Brussels Sprouts.  You can halve them if you wish or you have large sized sprouts.
Sprinkle all over some fresh garlic and slices of onions.  Dot with some real butter.  Sprinkle a tiny bit of brown sugar natural sweetener or brown sugar over all to 'start' the caramelizing process (not *needed* but makes it yummy).  Salt and pepper to taste.

Place in a hot oven 350 ish - bake until they start to look golden.  Turn them and flip them a bit.  Continue cooking until they are turning golden brown and bits of dark brown, with the butter caramelizing and the sprouts are tender. Serve hot.




Of course I took a photo of the pan right before I placed it in the oven and then we ate it up so quickly when it was done I didn't think to get an 'after' photo.