Hello, everyone, this fine and frozen morning. As I mentioned in my last post, I am two weeks behind. I have been repainting a room, cleaning my house, and sewing. So I am playing catch up. I appreciate your patience with me. ☺
This meal was from November 8.
To make this meal, I started out with the rolls because they need time to rise. And with the weather making the arthritis in my knuckles act up, these babies need a little extra rising time.
I got this roll recipe from my sister-in-law's mother. Not only is my brother one lucky man to have found such a fantastic wife, his mother-in-law is awesome. She made them for my nephew's baby blessing last year and I finally got an excuse to whip these bad boys up. The original recipe called for margarine. I would just like to state for the record, I am not a margarine fan. Give me the real stuff; I love me some butter! With feeling so strongly about this, I rarely have margarine in the house. When I say rarely, I mean it is once every three blue moons. Why buy the stuff for it to just sit in the fridge all lonely and dejected? Sitting by its lonesome, always being passed over for its better, more delicious rival. So I just used butter and hoped for the best. My family and I think they turned out like scrumptious little bread pillows, but one of these days I will go against my better judgment and try the recipe with margarine to see which one we like better. If you try it with margarine, drop me a line and let me know how they turn out!
You start out by scalding the milk. To be honest, I didn't know what in the world that meant. After my husband searched the internet for me, we found that it is heating the milk to almost a boiling state and it reaches about 180°F. The internet gods also suggested to use a double broiler, so I did. One thing I would like to point out is that scalding is not really necessary anymore because of the milk being pasteurized. However, I wanted to try something new, so I scalded.
I used a food thermometer to get the milk to 180°F. When it reached that, per the recipe directions, I pulled off the top pan of the double broiler and set it on a hot pad to start cooling. You don't want it too cool too much, just back to about 105-110°F.
While the milk starts to cool down, start on the yeast and water. Don't forget, the water NEEDS to be nice and warm, not hot and not lukewarm - around 105-110°F is perfect. If the water is too cold, the yeast won't work. If it is too hot, it will kill the yeast. Let it sit in the bowl while the milk cools. About 5-10 minutes is perfect timing for both the milk and yeast mixtures to do their magic.
While the milk cools and the yeasts works, put the salt, sugar, butter, and eggs into a heavy duty mixer. Mix well.
Slowly mix in the milk while the mixer is on low.
Mix together nicely.
See the nice bubbles starting? This means the yeast is working. If you look closely at this picture and the one earlier, you will notice that the one earlier is chunkier looking. This one is frothier.
Pour in the yeast and mix.
Look at the pretty splashes.
Next, add 1/2 cup of flour and beat mixture until smooth. (yes, I know the picture shows a 1/4 cup, but that is because I couldn't find my 1/2 cup and my handy helper had to do the 1/4 twice. Great time for kids to learn about fractions!!)
I could not get enough of those sloshy waves.
Once that 1/2 flour is beaten in until smooth, add the rest of the flour, enough to make a stiff dough.
Here is my awesome Kitchenaid working hard.
This is about what you want the dough to look like.
Plop it into a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double.
Meanwhile, I got back to the Hawaiian themed dinner. I saw this on the shelf at the store in the ethnic food's aisle and had to give it a whirl.
We followed the directions.
Here is R whisking away. I don't remember all the directions, but after it was doing boiling, I poured it into a shallow dish and put it in the fridge to set while the rest of dinner was being made.
For the Hawaiian Meatballs, we started by pulverizing soda crackers into decent crumbs. Dump crumbs into another container so the food processor can be used to mix the meat.
This handy gadget my husband purchased this past summer and it has made our lives of chopping onions (and such) so much easier! It is a Progressive Onion Chopper. If you notice, there is even measuring marks on the side for easy measuring! We got other Progressive Choppers, but this one is my favorite; even my kids can use it.
Here is R pushing down on the chopper and dicing those onions in one swift movement! Oh happy day for both of us!
Into the food processor that was used to make the cracker crumb, R puts some fresh pressed garlic cloves.
She puts in the diced onions. Then crack in one egg (I forgot that picture).
Pour in the milk.
That is ginger and salt getting added in.
In goes the ground beef. We chose 80/20 for the meatballs to keep them nice and moist but not too fattening that they shrink up too small when cooked. You can use a lower fat content if desired.
After the meat has been added, pour the cracker crumbs on top. The reason the crumbs don't just stay in the food processor as you add the rest of the ingredients for the meatballs is simply because you don't want the crumbs to get overly soggy from the liquid ingredients before the meat even enters the scene.
Start mixing in the food processor. I did a couple pulses first, to get it going along.
When it looks like this, you are done.
Using whatever size cookie scoop you want, plop out some meat.
Here is R rolling the meat into meatballs.
While R was rolling the meatballs, I rinsed some rice and them put it in a rice maker.
Add the water, turn on the cooker, and forget about it until it beeps.
In an electric skillet, I put some shortening to melt.
R did an excellent job!
In the skillet they went and then I put the lid on top.
I took off the lid and found they were cooking pretty well. I rotated them to reveal some awesome browning going on.
I am drooling just looking at this!
I dumped the risen dough onto the counter and kneaded it.
When it started looking smooth, I poked it pretty deep.
It started popping back out fairly quickly which means it was almost ready. It needs to be smooth and elastic. I kneaded it for about a minute more and it was perfect.
Roll out.
When it was pretty flat (about a 1/4 inch) start cutting. In the times since making this, I didn't feel like cutting it into circles, so I just rolled a pizza cutter and made squares, it was MUCH faster.
Look what a good job R did cutting a nice circle. Place onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet or a lightly greased cookie sheet. Let rise again.
While the rice and meatballs were meat cooking and the rolls rising, I had R working on dessert. Measure out the peanut butter.
Crush the Reese's Puffs cereal.
Put the crushed cereal and some powdered sugar into a bowl and add the peanut butter.
You can use a mixing spoon, but as you can see, R went in for the kill and used her hands.
Mix until it looks like this.
Use a cookie scoop to make little balls.
Roll into balls. Then place in freezer.
Now it is time to make the vegetables and sauce. This is how I slice bell peppers. I cut the top off.
Then I slice down the sides.
Then slice into strips and sauté.
Once the meatballs are done, remove from pan and keep warm. Drain oil but keep all the lovely, flavored bits. Mix some cornstarch and sugar together. Stir in pineapple juice, vinegar and soy sauce. Mix together and pour into hot pan.
Cook over medium heat stirring constantly.
Whisk until it is thick.
When mixture is thick and boils, boil and stir for one minute. Then add the bell pepper and some pineapple chunks.
If desired, you can mix in some baby corn. I am not a baby corn fan, but the rest of the family is. Somehow, I really liked them this time. So yummy. When the pineapple is heated through, add the meatballs.
Here are the rolls all ready to be baked. Look how pretty and puffy they are!
Bake at 425°F for 5-10 minutes.
Brush the rolls with melted butter.
Break one open and scarf it before the kids know!
Here is the whole meal. Serve the meatballs and sauce over the rice.
Mmmmm, this is making me drool.
Here is the coconut pudding we made earlier. It was a weird texture. It was kind of like Jell-O but with a coconut flavor. It was ok, but I will not make it again.
After you stuff yourself with seconds and thirds, it is time to melt some chocolate to dip the peanut butter balls into.
Cut them into smallish chunks.
Melt the chocolate in a double broiler and dip the peanut butter balls into the gooey goodness. In this picture I used a toothpick, but I found it not to work very well. I ended up using a fork and dipping them that way. I wouldn't poke the ball with fork, just place the ball on the fork tines.
When done, you can place an M&M on top if desired. Let the chocolate set and enjoy!
Recipes:
Rolls
My sister-in-law's mother was kind enough to share her roll recipe with me. This recipe can be doubled - which is a good idea because if you have little ones, they disappear rather quickly.
3/4 cup scalded milk
1 tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup warm water (about 105-110°F)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
3 1/4 to 4 cups flour
- Scald the milk. Bringing it to 180°F. Remove from burner and let milk cool to about 105-110°F.
- While milk is cooling, add the yeast to the warm water. Let stand 5-10 minutes.
- In a mixer, mix together the salt, butter, sugar and egg. Slowly add the cooled milk and mix well.
- Stir the yeast and add to the milk mixture. Mix well.
- Add 1/2 cup flour and beat smooth.
- Add the rest of the flour, enough to make a stiff dough.
- Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise until double. When doubled, turn out into floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. Add more flour if needed.
- Flatten dough and cut into circles or squares. Place on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet or a greased cookie sheet. Let rise.
- When risen to your desired puffiness, bake at 425°F for 5-10 minutes. Brush with melted butter when done baking.
**Yield: 3-4 dozen rolls
**Remake Factor: Ooooohhhh yeah! I have made these about 5 times since. So delish!
Hawaiian Meatballs
This is my variation of a recipe from my mother-in-law. I prefer more sauce and will usually double the sauce ingredients. If you decide to do that as well, then make sure you measure how much pineapple juice you get out of the can, then either have pineapple juice on hand or measure out water equaling the amount of reserved pineapple juice.
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2/3 cup cracker crumbs
1/3 cup diced onions
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon shortening
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 (13 1/2 oz) can pineapple chunks, drained and juice reserved
1 green bell pepper
1 can (I forgot to look at the oz) baby corn
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
- Mix beef, cracker crumbs, onion, egg, salt, ginger, and milk. Shape mixture into balls.
- Melt shortening in a large skillet; brown and cook meatballs.
- Remove meatballs from pan, keep warm. Pour fat from skillet.
- Sauté bell pepper in the same skillet the meatballs were cooked in.
- In a medium bowl, mix cornstarch and sugar. Stir in reserved pineapple juice, vinegar, and soy sauce until smooth.
- Pour into skillet, cooking over medium heat; stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir one minute.
- Add pineapple, bell peppers, and baby corn. Heat thoroughly and then return the meatballs to the flavor party.
- Serve over rice.
**Yield: 6
**Remake Factor: Very high. Even the picky eater in our family loved the meatballs studded with small onion chunks.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
I adapted the recipe from Picky-Palate.com. Her version was for Halloween and looked like monster eyes. Which would have been fun and cute had I thought to make them before Halloween. ☺
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (the first time I made these I used creamy but have since made them with crunchy and they taste better that way)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup Reese's Puff cereal, crushed (we measured, then crushed)
1 cup chopped chocolate
1 small bag M&Ms
- Place cereal, powdered sugar, and peanut butter into a large bowl (we used a bowl a bit too small, don't make that mistake). Mix until dough forms; by hand is fun, but extra messy.
- Roll by the tablespoons into balls. Freeze for about 15 minutes.
- Melt the chocolate in a double broiler and mix until smooth. Using a toothpick, skewer, candy dipper, or simply a fork, dip balls into chocolate.
- Press an M&M on top and let chocolate set.
**Yield: about 14 balls
**Remake Factor: Definitely will make again and again and again.... you get the picture. I have made these twice and plan to make them again closer to Christmas. I love that my kids can help with these.
