Food, drink, and geek stuff
This past Christmas, I made some recipes out of a vintage cookbook from the mid 1960s called Jingle Bells and Pastry Shells. I love these old books with their illustrations and stories about the recipes! This recipe is for a semi-sweet Christmas cake/bread, full of …
Not too long ago, Stephan and I were binge-watching The Great British Baking Show, and I was seriously digging the episodes where the contestants were making cream rolls. Having made cream rolls and jelly rolls before with varying degrees of success, I felt bad for …
I found a similar recipe years ago that was listed as part of a spring luncheon menu. Modern ingredients like refrigerated crescent rolls make it much quicker and easier, and the sprinkle of sesame seeds on top give it a nice nutty crunch!
This recipe is perfect for spring when the asparagus is in season, but it’s great year-round!
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PrintA quick and easy recipe for brunch, lunch, or dinner
1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoons finely diced yellow onion
2 tablespoons diced pimiento, drained
dash of salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper
two 8 ounce tubes of refrigerated crescent rolls
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and cook asparagus for 3-5 minutes. Drain.
In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and mayonnaise until smooth. Stir in the onion, pimiento, salt, pepper, and asparagus until combined, then set aside.
Unroll the tubes of crescent rolls and press the edges of two together to form a rectangle.
Repeat with the remaining crescents.
Spoon 1/4 of the cream cheese mixture into the center of one of the dough rectangles, then top with another rectangle. Pinch the edges shut or crimp them with the tines of a fork. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a nonstick liner.
Brush the tops of the pockets with butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve with a side salad and fresh fruit.
Keywords: asparagus recipes; brunch recipes; crescent rolls
When I was a vegetarian, I tried lots of different veggie burgers–commercially made, grain-based burgers, bean burgers, Impossible burgers, Beyond Meat burgers–you name it. Even now that I can eat poultry and seafood again, I still love a good veggie burger. I often make black …
I love apple season! We always end up buying tons of fresh, crunchy apples to eat and bake with, but by mid-winter, some of them start to get a little past their prime. Easy fix–make applesauce! This simple cake goes together in a snap, but …
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I love Autumn! It’s hands-down my favorite season (Halloween!!!) Because I live in the south (sort of), we don’t get those crisp days where you get to wear hoodies and boots and have bonfires and stuff until mid-to-late October, or later, but I’ll take it when I can get it!
This lovely soup is one of my favorites in autumn and winter, served with fresh bread or rolls. It takes a little bit of prep time to cut and bake the squash, but the whole thing comes together super easily. If you can find frozen butternut squash, that will cut down the prep time dramatically, and it will be just as yummy!
A slightly sweet winter-warmer! This is one of my favorite autumn and winter soups
1 butternut squash
1 medium onion, diced
2 Tablespoons butter
1 small apple, peeled and diced
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup heavy cream
Peel the squash and then cut it in half and scoop out the seeds. Cut squash into four pieces and bake one hour at 400 degrees.
In a Dutch oven or soup pot, saute the onion in the butter, then add squash, apple, broth, and seasonings.
Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove from the heat and blend with an immersion blender until smooth (You can also carefully pour the mixture into a regular blender or food processor, but you might want to let it cool first, and then reheat it after blending.)
Stir in the cream and serve.
Keywords: butternut squash, winter soup, fall vegetables, winter vegetables, vegetable soup
This post contains affiliate links, which cost you nothing but may earn me a small commission. I’m a big fan of homemade bread. Quick breads, yeast breads, biscuits–doesn’t matter. I’ve been making a soda bread for about 25 years that you bake in a springform …
This post may contain affiliate links which cost you nothing, but may earn me a small commission. The first time I had cabbage rolls was at my grandfather’s funeral in 1996. It was January. In Cleveland. There was A LOT of snow on the ground, …
This post may contain affiliate links that cost you nothing but may earn me a small commission.
During the shutdown of 2020, I baked a lot of bread.
A LOT of bread.
I always have flour in the pantry, but I had to order yeast from Amazon since it was impossible to find locally.
One of my favorite breads to serve with soup or stew is this simple batter bread. Because it has yeast, so it achieves a nice rise, but you don’t have to knead it.
You can also leave out the garlic and Italian seasoning to make a plain loaf (I do this all the time).
Print
A simple but hearty bread to cut into wedges and dunk into your favorite soup or stew
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons each salt, sugar, and yeast
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
2 cups lukewarm water
In the bowl of an electric mixer (I’m a Kitchenaid girl), combine sugar, water, and yeast, and let sit for ten minutes.
Stir in the flour, seasonings, and salt, which will form a soft dough.
Let the dough rise for an hour, then plop it into a greased casserole dish or round ovenproof bowl. I use a 9 inch diameter, 2 quart round Pyrex casserole dish, sprayed with Bakers Joy.
Let rise another 30 minutes.
In a preheated oven set to 425 degrees, bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 degrees and bake another 15-20 minutes, until done.
Serve slathered with butter, or dunk into soup, stew, or spaghetti sauce
I’ve seen a number of memes and posts on social media lately that poke fun at food bloggers for giving the history of a recipe or ingredient, or for telling personal stories about making or eating the food, and the memories that go along with …