The Joy of Spam Folder Cooking

I think i may have mentioned in the past that Fred doesn’t like spicy foods.  I actually think is mother convinced him he doesn’t like them, but that’s neither here nor there.  This week, the recipe was Boudin Sausage form Emeril Lagesse.  Now, I don’t watch cooking shows often, but I do know that he’s famous for Louisiana cooking, which is spicy.  I knew there was no way Fred would go for this.

The recipe!

It’s a good thing I didn’t plan on making it, I refuse to use liver of any kind in my cooking.  And Pork butt?  Seriously?

There’s an old quote that I remembered Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made that’s misattributed (according to Mr Google) to Otto von Bismarck.  After reading this recipe, I think they’re right.

Until next time, toodles!

Hey there, sugar!

This week’s recipe is one for Cocoa Biscuits. I know biscuits, I’ve made enough of them in my lifetime. Fred surely loves his biscuits with breakfast. Buttermilk, not buttermilk, he’s not picky, as long as he has biscuits. Good thing they freeze okay. Otherwise I’d go crazy with biscuits. If the way to Fred’s heart is through his stomach, that road is paved by biscuits.

Anyway, on to the recipe!

    2 cups or 1 pint of sifted flour,
    3 level teaspoonfuls of baking powder,
    ¬Ω a teaspoonful of salt,
    2 level tablespoonfuls of sugar,
    4 level tablespoonfuls of Baker's Cocoa,
    2 level tablespoonfuls of butter or lard,
    2/3 a cup of milk or enough to make a firm but not a stiff dough.

Sift all the dry ingredients together, rub in the butter with the tips of 
the fingers. Stir in the required amount of milk. Turn out on slightly 
floured board, roll or pat out the desired thickness, place close together 
in pan and bake in very hot oven ten or fifteen minutes.

That’s about half the amount of butter I use in my usual biscuits, but hey, it worked. I used this site to figure out what temperature to set the oven to.  Here’s a picture of the result!

Fred tried them out, because he’s willing to try anything related to biscuits.  Even those called ‘Cocoa Biscuits’.  He said ‘they looked like chocolate… but tasted like biscuit! My eyes saw the chocolate but my taste buds didn’t get any.’

He also suggested that next time I add chocolate chips. That Fred, he wants me to add chocolate chips to almost anything as long as there’s no meat in it. He wanted me to add them to the top of the sweet potatoes I made last year for Thanksgiving! We compromised, half was chocolate chips and half was little marshmallows.

Anyway, he didn’t like them enough to replace his beloved morning biscuits, but said if I’d add chocolate chips, they’d be great on special occasions.  Cocoa Biscuits with a touch of chocolate chips.  Whatever makes that boy happy!

Until next time, toodles!

Hey there, sugar!

This week’s recipe is one of Fred’s favorites. I knew that before I even started baking. It is a sure way to prove ‘the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’ and in Fred’s case, he loves cinnamon rolls of all kinds. He’d eat them for every meal if he could (and he has, when I was off visiting my sister).

Anyway, on to the recipe!

Scald one cup of milk and then place

Four tablespoonfuls of shortening,

One-half cupful of sugar,

One teaspoonful of salt


in the mixing bowl, and pour over it the scalded milk. Stir to thoroughly 
mix and then cool to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Now dissolve one-half yeast 
cake in one-half cupful of water 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and when the milk 
is at the proper temperature, add six cupfuls of flour and work to a 
smooth dough. Place in a well-greased bowl, turning the dough around in 
the bowl so that it will be thoroughly coated with shortening. Cover and 
let rise three and one-half hours. Now pull the sides of the dough into 
the centre and punch down, turning the dough over. Let rise again for one 
hour, then turn on a moulding board and divide the dough in half. Knead 
each piece into a ball. Cover and let rise or spring for ten minutes. 
Now roll out one-quarter inch thick, using a rolling pin. Brush with 
melted shortening and sprinkle well with brown sugar, using [pg 21] 
about one cupful. Now dust with two teaspoonfuls of cinnamon and spread
over the prepared dough one and one-half cupfuls of currant s or small 
seedless raisins. Begin at the edge and roll like a jelly-roll. Cut in 
pieces one and one-half inches thick and then place in prepared pans and 
let rise for one hour. Then bake in a moderate oven for forty minutes.

So the ingredients include:

• One cup milk
• 4 tbsp shortening
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 yeast cake
• 6 cups flour
• Melted shortening
• About 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cup currants or raisins

I had to find out what a yeast cake was and how it compares to my envelopes of yeast. After asking my friend Mr. Google, I found this bit of information:

>http://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/featured-articles/active-dry-yeast-vs-compressed-yeast/

According to that, a yeast cake and a packet are the same size, so I used half my packet or 1 and 1/8 tsp yeast. Although it was interesting to learn that a yeast cake is sweeter than normal yeast.

Anyway, I put the dough together. It was a bit … shaggy, I guess is the word. Bits kept falling off of it. I finally just put the whole mess in bowl and left it to rise… for 3 1/2 hours. That’s the longest time to rise I’ve ever seen… And yes, I do bake bread on occasion. Fred loves my cinnamon bread, especially when I make french toast from it.

Back to the cinnamon rolls. I blew it. They turned out to be cinnamon rocks with a hard coating of brown sugar attached. See my lovely picture? These are some of the most pathetic cinnamon rolls I have ever made, considering it took all day to get to this point.

Oh well, I tried. I guess I didn’t use enough yeast or get things to precisely 80 degrees… maybe next time I’ll do better.

Until then, toodles!