Sunday, January 30, 2011

7-up Biscuits

So tonight I made Chicken and Gnocchi soup like you would get at Olive Garden (it's the boys' favorite) and I made these 7-up Biscuits to go with it.  Remember how I said in the last post that I wasn't very good at making bread type things?  Well this was no exception.  I got this recipe from Mylitter.com and it seemed so simple so I had to try it.  Well I made 2 separate batches the other night and the dough just didn't rise!  They were hard as rocks!  I couldn't understand what I had done wrong!  Then I looked at my Bisquick package and it was expired!!!  I mean 2009 expired!  You can tell we don't use Bisquick that much around here!  Well tonight I decided to try it again with not so expired Bisquick (only a few months past the date) and they turned out pretty good!  They taste like the biscuits you would get at KFC or Popeye's!  They didn't rise as much as they should though so maybe I should buy some new bisquick.  So give it a try!  I give this recipe a 4.5PS:  If you want you can "follow" this blog (over on the right) so when you log into your blogger dashboard you can see when I post a new recipe!
Ingredients
2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup 7-up
1/4 cup melted butter
Directions
1. Cut sour cream into biscuit mix, add 7-Up. Makes a very soft dough.

2. Sprinkle additional biscuit mix on board or table and pat dough out. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a 9 inch square pan. Place cut biscuits in pan and bake at 450 degrees until golden brown.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Best Banana Bread Recipe!


Ok guys I am really no good at making anything that resembles bread so when I first looked at this banana bread recipe I thought, oh I'll just ruin it if I try. But I tried it out and it was awesome! It can't be wrecked! I always have those few bananas that nobody ate in time so they just turn to mush, now I have something to do with them and they won't go to waste! This recipe came from our Provo ward's recipe book c/o Jessica Mathews! It rocks! It makes 2 loaves. I give this recipe a 5!


Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 medium RIPE bananas, mashed
2 Cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sour cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Cream the margarine and sugar
together. Then add eggs and bananas. Mix well.

2. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together and add to mixture. Then add vanilla
(and any other mixins like nuts, chocolate chips, etc.) Fold in sour cream.

3. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until toothpic comes out clean.

Bakers note:

The bananas make the difference between good banana bread and REALLY good banana bread. When the banana gets to the point that it is so brown I wouldn't think of eating it, I put them in the freezer and just thaw them out on a plate on the counter when I need them. When they are thawed out they will be a soup, slimy mess. They are perfect! Always have a freezer full of bananas!

THANKS JESSICA!!!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Potato Broccoli Cheese Soup

Hey everyone! Hope you're making it through the cold weather months and staying warm. The recipe I have to share with you today will help keep you warm! Who doesn't like soup when it's cold outside?! Anyway, this "recipe" comes from my Mother-in-Law and I put the word recipe in quotation marks because it's one of the recipes that can be adapted and put together pretty much anyway you want but it makes one awesome soup! There will be a lot of commentary with the instructions and ingredient list so you can see what I mean about adapting it. I definitely give this recipe a 5!


Ingredients
-Fresh broccoli chopped up (you can also use frozen) use as much or as little as you want
-Chicken Broth/vegetable broth (again use as much or as little as you want, we like to make a big batch at once because this soup gets better as the days go by, it's great for leftovers!) I used about 58 oz. or 4 cans of broth
-potatoes cut up small (again as much or as little as you want and it can be cut up as big or as little as you want)
-chopped carrots (as big or as little, as much or as little as you want)*
-chopped onions (ditto)*-cornstarch (for thickening use as much or as little depending on desired thickness)
-shredded cheddar cheese (as much as you want, the more the better!, I used about 3-4 handfulls)
-salt and pepper to taste
*as a side note to the onions and carrots, if you have little kids who don't like this kind of thing, then put them in a food blender and get them as finely chopped as you can so they kind of blend into the soup.

Directions
Put all ingredients except for the cornstarch and cheese into a pot and bring to a boil. Then simmer until the potatoes and other vegetables are tender.

Add the cornstarch to desired thickness, then add in the cheese until melted. Salt and pepper to taste.

Variations: there are many! Use other vegetables if you want. Also if you don't have potatoes on hand (like I didn't tonight) use instant potato flakes instead and then you can skip the cornstarch because the potato flakes will thicken up the soup themselves.