Grandma Elias' bun recipe

I don't know if the VMA (Valley Mennonite Academy, one of the private Christian schools in the Winkler area) does a recipe book every year or if they just have the one, but the copy I have (March, 1995) is great! I got it as a wedding gift from my Taunte Anne Friesen (and Joanne and Laura). It was my first favorite recipe book, my standard and go-to for anything I wanted to make; and for good reason, half the recipes in the book are submitted by my relatives! There's a bun recipe that I tried February 4, 2006 that was my Taunte Anne's recipe. I talked to my Grandma today and when I asked her for her bun recipe, she told me it's the same one my aunt uses. So here it is!

4 1/2 cups warm water

3/4 cup melted lard

1 egg, beaten

3 Tbsp sugar (Grandma said she does 2 Tbsp, but Taunte Anne's buns are always better so maybe she should try 3 Tbsp too)

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp instant yeast

5 cups of flour

6 1/2 to 7 cups flour

Beat the first 7 ingredients with a whisk until smooth. Put the dough hook onto the machine. Add 6 1/2 to 7 cups more flour; knead until smooth and elastic. Let rise until double in bulk, about 1 hour. Put on pans; let rise for about 1 hour. Bake at 400 degrees for about 17 to 18 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen buns.

Notes:

I also had a conversation with her about lard. I asked if she always used lard. (short answer = yes) She said she sometimes used chicken fat that was rendered after chicken slaughtering. I've never heard of people keeping it and using it in baking or cooking! She said my great-grandma used to like that very much, and used it instead of butter. Isn't that interesting?!

She said she would store the pail of lard in the freezer and just keep a smaller portion in the fridge for easier access.

Used 8 cups white flour, 4 cups whole wheat.

Made 2 full pans of buns with 2 dozen on each pan, plus a large handful of dough leftover which I made into bite-sized pieces, deep-fried them, and rolled them in (2Tbsp) sifted icing sugar and (1 tsp) sifted cinnamon.

Put the buns in the oven to rise and set a small pot of boiling water in the bottom of the oven to aid in the rising. Worked well!

Baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. (My oven would probably have been closer to 400 degrees because it's hotter than what the dial is set at.)

The buns are a great texture, even though I haven't eaten one yet.

Asian noodle dish

I knew I had this somewhere! It was on my FB. This is from the Kraft magazine.

For this recipe, I increased everything except the chicken. Hey, meat's expensive, so I use more vegetables. The recipe suggests using snow peas, sliced peppers, sliced carrots, or chopped red onions instead of broccoli (or in addition to... mmm). This would be a GREAT meal to buy a box of spring rolls and plum sauce to have on the side. mmmm YUM!

300g angel hair pasta
2 cups broccoli florets
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1/4 cup Kraft Signature Asian Sesame dressing (our local Superstore has it)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp EACH: ground ginger, garlic powder, crushed red pepper
1/3 cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts

Cook pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the boiling water for the last 3 minutes of the pasta cooking time.

Meanwhile, spray a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat on medium-high heat. Add chicken, cook 6 to 8 minutes or until cooked through, stirring occasionally. Stir in dressing, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and crushed red pepper; cook 1 minute, stirring occasionally.

Drain pasta mixture; place in large bowl. Add chicken mixture, mix lightly. Spoon evenly into four serving bowls; sprinkle with the peanuts.

Banana-only ice cream

http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2012/05/banana-ice-cream-made-from-bananas-only.html

This is too good to keep to myself! It's ice cream and the only ingredient: bananas. Seriously.

More detailed info on the link, complete with photos.

Take your banana collection that's just a bit more ripe than you'd want to eat as is or grab some that you have already in the freezer. Cut the not-frozen banana into 1 inch chunks, lay them out in a single layer on wax paper on a baking sheet, freeze. Or if you're using an already-frozen banana, leave it on the counter just long enough so you can peel it. 

Grab a food processor or blender, throw in the frozen pieces, blend, scrape down if you need to, blend more until it's a smooth, creamy-looking texture. It's like soft-serve ice cream!

But, let's get creative! And if you've tried a variation on this theme, give me a holler and I can list if here if you like, to inspire others :)

I added fresh strawberries to mine. It tastes like a smoothie. Would be AMAZING on waffles.

Other additions:

peanut butter

coconut

pineapple
Nutella

Multigrain Buns

I've made this recipe a number of times, but not for a few years. It's from the white recipe book (I still have some if you want a copy and the money goes to our church missions projects.) This is Rachael Penner's recipe.

4 cups warm water

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 Tbsp salt

1 tsp vinegar

2 egg whites, well beaten (or 1 whole egg)

1 cup powdered milk

1 cup bran

1 cup flax seed, freshly ground

1 cup rolled oats, ground in blender

4 cups whole wheat flour

2 Tbsp Fermipan yeast

6 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup crushed sunflower seeds, opional

Put water, honey, oil, salt, vinegar, eggs, powdered milk, bran, flax seed, oats, and whole wheat flour. Mix well.

As you continue to mix, sprinkle with yeast. Knead in the all purpose flour for 8 to 10 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (1 to 1 1/2 hours). Shape into buns or loaves, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (1 to 1 1/2 hours). Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minute for buns, 35-40 minutes for loaves.

Notes:

Makes a huge batch! 2 large and 2 small loaves, 6 large buns and 6 muffin cup buns.

A coffee grinder works well to grind the flax.

Multigrain flour is fantastic in place of whole wheat.

I used 2 whole eggs instead of 2 egg whites.

Fried Rice

This is called "Fried Rice Restaurant Style" on allrecipes.com. It's very similar to how I throw together fried rice. This could be gluten-free if the soy sauce is GF.

2 cups enriched white rice
4 cups water
2/3 cup chopped baby carrots
1/2 cup frozen green peas
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs
soy sauce to taste
sesame oil, to taste (optional)

In a saucepan, combine rice and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

In a small saucepan, boil carrots in water about 3 to 5 minutes. Drop peas into boiling water, and drain.

Heat wok over high heat. Pour in oil, then stir in carrots and peas; cook about 30 seconds. Crack in eggs, stirring quickly to scramble eggs with vegetables. Stir in cooked rice. Shake in soy sauce, and toss rice to coat. Drizzle with sesame oil, and toss again. 

Notes:

This is a great way to use leftover rice. If you plan to prepare rice for dinner one night, make extra to use for this purpose. I personally prefer brown rice and I don't know how to link to it, but if you search my blog, I have a good recipe for that.

The first review on this recipe on allrecipes says: "really easy and yummy! IMPORTANT NOTE: if you want it to taste like true restaurant style, you need to put the rice only in a pot over high heat and stir it around for about 5 minutes or so before cooking. it helps the grains of rice to stay separate (more like restaurant style) and less sticky. i also used frozen peas/carrots from a bag...worked great!"

The second review says: "This is a great recipe! The only thing I want to add is that to get that authentic "taste" of restaurant fried rice, you should add about half a bottle of Oyster Sauce. Easily found in the asian section at the grocery store. Back off on that much if it tastes too strong, but after years of living in Japan and trying many versions of fried rice recipes, oyster sauce is the ticket!"

I typically saute onion and frozen-veggies-from-a-bag together, add the rice, then the eggs, and then the soy sauce and a little sesame oil at the end. It can be a pretty simple and complete meal on its own, especially if you have meat in it.

Iced Coffee

I take no credit for this recipe! You can follow this link for helpful instructions and step-by-step photos: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/06/perfect-iced-coffee/

The basic foundation of her recipe, and if you've had iced coffee and especially if you've attempted to make your own, are these two concepts:

1) iced coffee is easily diluted and therefore bland. 

2) it must be super cold; the colder the better!

First things first: the next time you make a pot of coffee, make extra or save the leftovers and freeze it in your ice cube trays!!! Make lots of them. Once they're frozen you can store them in a plastic storage bag or in a container.

The original recipe is roughly this:

In a large container (it will need a lid in a minute), combine:

1 lb coffee grounds

2 gallons COLD water

Stir to ensure all grounds are soaking in the water. Put the lid on, toss it in the fridge for a minimum of 8 hours. The longer it sits, the more the grounds can settle and therefore easier to separate it later.

Strain it through a fine mesh strainer or use what you have on hand: I used a colander with a coffee filter in it. Put it into a (preferably glass) pitcher or container of some sort to store in the fridge. I find my Pampered Chef batter bowl works well, and I did NOT start with 2 gallons of water :)

When it's time to make your iced coffee mixture, fill a glass with coffee ice cubes OR throw them into your ice crushing blender :) LOTS of ice cubes! Add your coffee. I went for about 2/3 of the mixture being coffee, 1/3 any combination of milk and/or cream, vanilla or other flavoring you love, and sugar to taste. 

I just did a batch in my blender and it was approximately 4 cups of coffee, 1 1/2 cups of milk, 1/2 cup of cream (I know! right?), 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 tsp vanilla. I gave it a quick whip with the blender to mix.

Updated May 20, 2014:
I made a batch today:
2 cups cold coffee
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cream
1 full tray of coffee ice cubes
No milk

The coffee isn't strong enough and I didn't add milk because it would dilute it further :(

Orange Muffins

I'm bored of all the usual things I have for breakfast, like toast with cinnamon and sugar, or cereal, so today it was muffins! I wanted to try something different, I already made banana muffins a couple of days ago and I knew I had a bowl full of oranges I could use. I wonder what allrecipes has for orange muffin recipes! This is the first one that came up, and wouldn't you know, the comment posted by the person who contributed the recipe said, "An old Mennonite recipe". Say no more!

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon grated orange zest

2/3 cup orange juice
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup ground walnuts (optional)

1 tablespoon melted butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, white sugar and grated orange peel. Stir in orange juice, 1/2 cup melted butter, eggs and chopped nuts.

Pour into 12 muffin cups.

Blend 1 tablespoon melted margarine, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on top of each muffin. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 20-25 minutes. Serve hot.

Notes:

I didn't have white sugar, so I used 1/3 cup brown sugar. (I prefer to reduce sugar in most recipes.)

I pulled the insides out of the orange and used a hand blender to mix it with butter and eggs. May as well keep the fiber of the orange, not just the juice. I should have measured the orange juice because the muffins were a tiny bit dry, so I may have been a little short on juice. 

I made a small mistake with the topping. I did extra butter (of course!) so the topping wasn't crumbly. It still turned out okay (not ideal, just okay), but you'll definitely want to maintain that crumb texture with the topping.

This would probably work just as well with whole-wheat flour, to make it just a little bit healthier with a little more fiber.