Baking Mix Pumpkin Spice Waffles

Thanks to the Krusteaz pumpkin spice quick bread baking mix I received from a coworker, we are eating pumpkin spice waffles this morning. The kitchen smells amazing! Cannot wait to dip in!
‪#‎bakingmix‬ ‪#‎waffles‬

P.S. The waffles taste (singing voice) ammmmaaazinnng!  I used the pancake directions and reduced the water from 1 1/4 cup to 3/4 cup. My waffle iron baked each waffle in about 4 minutes. I served them with butter and warm pancake syrup. OMG pantry style good! 

Buy the mix     Click Here

My camera is still packed up with my camping gear and I settled for my cellphone camera to take the waffle picture. A reminder of why I bought my digital camera! lol...lol

Sallee'sSix - Six Dish Summer Fun Menu!

Summer camping and traveling begins tomorrow! It is Memorial Day weekend, the official start of summer fun! I am sharing a list of six easy recipes for a wonderful summer weekend meal! Create your own summer fun menu from the choices below. 

Your Summer Fun Menu

• Non-alcoholic drink - pick your lemonade from your choice of 40 flavors. I think I would like to try the watermelon lemonade.
• Main dish - Strip steak seasoned with fresh garden herbs. Sallee's tip: Mix the herbs with 20 oz. of ground chuck for five, quarter pound garden burgers.
• Salad - original "like your grandma's" traditional potato salad, or a delicious blackberry salad that features a bed of salad greens, a scoop of cottage cheese surrounded with fresh blackberries and sprinkled with slivered almonds and tangy sweet dried cranberries. 
• Pick a veggie - How about grilled corn, grilled veggie skewers, or grilled romaine hearts?
• Dessert for Family Fun- How about chocolate covered strawberry s'mores for dessert? 

Recipes    Tip: Use your snipping tool to snip and save recipes to your laptop.

1. 40 Summer Lemonade Recipes at 365 Days of Baking     Click Here 
2. Garden Herb Strip Steak       Click Here
3. Hellman's "The Original Potato Salad"    Click Here
4. Blackberry Salad   Click Here
5. 18 Grilled Vegetable Recipes from Laurel Randolph    Click Here
6. Chocolate Covered Strawberry S'mores at almost Supermom    Click Here

A Heavy Duty Cake Board for a Half Sheet Cake.

Constructing a Heavy Duty Cake Board for under $4

I bought 3 sheets of foam core board at the local dollar store for $3. This will make two  cake boards that cost $1.50 each. I used a metal ruler and a razor knife to cut each sheet of foam core board in half. 

Three half sheets of foam core board ,covered with heavy duty aluminum foil,  make a sturdy cake board for a half sheet cake. 

A half sheet of foam core board is the perfect size for a half sheet cake cake board. The narrow sides will be slightly narrower than the long sides.

•  Bill helped me cut the foam core boards in half,on the thirty inch side. 
• I stacked three pieces of foam core board
• wrapped them in heavy duty aluminum foil
•  and used clear packing tape to tape down the aluminum foil on the bottom of the cake board. 

Voila! A heavy duty cake board that will stand up to a two inch thick, 12 x 18 inch cake.

Start With a Box Orange Sandwich Cookies

Oh my gosh! I just ate an orangesicle sandwich cookie that I made for dessert. Crisp, tender, buttery, creamy orange exploded the minute I bit into my cookie and started to chew. Then, another orange explosion rocked my ecstatic taste buds  when I encountered the sweet candy bits that are like hidden flavor treasure inside each cookie. 

You are not going to believe this - BUT I used a boxed cookie mix.  However, I am NOT abandoning my "pantry-style, make it from scratch" attitude. The boxed cookie mix is another gift given to me by my friend who is moving out of state.

As I was looking through the pantry shelves for a dessert inspiration, I noticed a lone box of orangesicle cookie mix. Curious to see what was needed to make the cookies, I picked up the box and read the directions. Guess what? I only had to add two ingredients, a stick of butter and 1 large egg. Cookie making doesn't get any easier than that. 1 stick of cold  butter was soon on the counter to begin softening at room temperature.

After supper was over and the dishes were washed, I turned on the oven to begin preheating the oven to 375°F. Next, the cookie mix was turned into cookie batter by stirring in 1 stick of softened butter and 1 large egg. The directions said to use a teaspoon to measure the batter, but I never make cookies that small. Never. Ever. 

Instead, I used my cookie scoop, which holds 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of cookie dough when leveled off.Needless to say, my way of measuring cookie dough made 22 single cookies and that turned into 11 sandwich cookies.

Pick Your Filling

My cookie filling is homemade butter cream fondant that I had left over from decorating a cake. However, if you do not have the time to make the fondant, I have a really quick and tasty copy cat oreo cookie filling recipe that I found over at Cookies and Cups. I have used this filling to fill cupcakes, dip, and cracker spread. 

copy cat oreo cookie filling recipe                                         Click HERE

homemade butter cream fondant recipe                              Click HERE      


Start With a Box Orange Sandwich Cookies

1 box of Pillsbury Orangesicle Cookie Mix 
1 stick of butter, softened
1 large egg

Directions

1. Mix and bake cookies according to package directions. 
2. Cool cookies on a wire cooling rack until completely cool.
3. Assemble sandwich cookies
4. While cookies are cooling, decide on your filling and whip up a batch of fondant, or copy cat oreo cookie filling. 

To make these cookies REALLY quick, use store bought frosting for your filling.

Fondant Filling

• Roll fondant to desired thickness and cut out circles of fondant that are slightly smaller than the cookie. 

Assembling a Sandwich Cookie

• Pick up a cookie and turn it upside down, bottom up.
• Gently press the fondant circle onto the cookie bottom. 
• Place another cookie, bottom side toward the fondant, on top of the fondant. 
• You now have your first sandwich cookie assembled.

Copy Cat Oreo Cookie Filling  
Time to Assemble Ingredients and Mix: 10-15 minutes

• Follow above directions for assembling a sandwich cookie, except smear on some yummy cookie filling until you have as much filling as you want.

Glazed Garam Masala Sweet Rolls AND Basic Cinnamon Rolls

A two for one recipe! One batch of sweet roll dough means you can have nine garam masala sweet rolls AND nine cinnamon rolls at the same time.  Double treats to eat, how sweet!

Before we start baking, you might need to know how to scald milk.

• Scalding Milk.....I microwave cold milk in a glass measuring cup until very small bubbles appear around the edge of the milk.  Do not boil the milk, just heat until very small bubbles form.

Basic Sweet Dough - Makes 18 sweet rolls

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup of water, heated to about 110°F
• 1/2 cup of milk, scalded and cooled to about 100°F
• 1/3 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/3 cup of salted butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 large egg
• About 3 1/2 to 4 cups of all-purpose flour

Garam Masala Sweet Roll Filling for 9 Rolls

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar, lightly packed and leveled

Combine the cinnamon, garam masala, and brown sugar in a small bowl until well blended.
Set aside.

Cinnamon Roll Filling for 9 Rolls

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl until well blended. Set aside.

Directions for Dough

• Open the package of yeast and dump the yeast into a large bowl

• Add 1/2 cup of heated water
• Let yeast and water mixture stand for 2-3 minutes to let the yeast dissolve

• Add the granulated sugar and stir briefly.
• Add the scalded milk, salt, 1/3 cup softened butter, egg, and 2 cups of flour.
• With a large, sturdy spoon, stir briskly until the mixture is smooth.

• Add 1 more cup of flour and mix until the dough can be handled easily.

• Add an additional 1/2 cup of flour if necessary.
• Put the ball of dough onto a lightly floured counter top, or other surface.
• Knead the dough for about five minutes.
• Sprinkle the counter top with a little more flour as necessary until the dough is no longer sticky.
• You will know when the dough is ready because it will feel smooth and elastic.
• Spray a large bowl with pan coat, or grease it lightly with shortening.

• Put the dough into the bowl and then turn to put the greased side facing up.
• Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for about an hour and a half.
• Test the dough by gently pushing downward with your fingertip and the dent remains in the dough.

• Using you balled fist, push the dough downward, then fold the outside edge into the center once or twice.
• Divide the dough into two balls.
• Spray or grease two 9" x 9" x 2" square pans and set aside.

Forming the Rolls

• Spray or grease two 9" x 9" x 2" square pans and set aside.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll a ball of dough into a fifteen inch by nine inch rectangle.

• Spread 2 Tbsp. of soft butter across the surface of the dough.
• Sprinkle the filling over the dough and gently even it out.
• Starting on the long side, begin rolling the dough tightly.

• When the dough is rolled tightly, pinch the loose edge of the dough into the roll to seal the edge.

• Press each end of the dough "log" to form a flat end.
• Using a fine toothed, serrated bread knife, cut the log into nine, inch and a half slices.
• Space nine slices evenly, in three rows. There will be a lot of space around the rolls, but this is just fine.

• Repeat the above steps with the second ball of dough.
• Cover each pan with a kitchen towel and let rise for about 40 minutes.
• Preheat your oven to 375°F during the last fifteen minutes of rise time for the rolls.
• Bake the rolls for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

• Spread rolls with cream cheese glaze, or frosting of your choice while still warm.

Cream Cheese Glaze 
1/3 cup softened cream cheese
2 cups of confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 to 4 Tbsp. hot water

• Put the butter in a medium glass bowl. 
• Microwave for about 15 seconds. Stir. Repeat if necessary.
• Add confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and 2 Tbsp. of hot water.
• Stir until mixed well. Add more hot water for a thinner glaze.

SalleeShares: My New Spice Love, Garam Masala

How many spice containers are sitting in your cabinet right now?
Five, ten, twenty? My two spice shelves are full, full, full right now. A friend is moving to Oklahoma and guess who was gifted with a box of spices? The bottle that excited me the most was a brand-new, unopened bottle of garam masala.

What's garam masala you ask?
Garam masala is an Indian spice blend that is used in dishes such as Chicken Masala. Anyhow, I tried it out by making a chicken dish called "Fragrant Garam Masala Chicken Stew with Peas and Potatoes." Well, Bill's assessment was - It's Okay, but...and I agreed with him. No more savory applications of garam masala will be making an appearance on the Bonham dinner table. However, my taste buds took notice of the warm flavors that were reminiscent of fall baking and autumn holidays. 

Garam masala reminds me of an apple pie. Yum! 
I searched "garam masala + apple pie" on Google and found that several other baker/bloggers have discovered this yummy combo too! Below are the top six results for my search and a quick note on the information that I learned.

• Not the Usual Holiday Spice: Garam Masala | The Kitchn   

At The Kitchn, garam masala was substituted for the pumpkin pie spice in their apple pie recipe and loved the switch!

• Chai Apple Pie - The Glamorous Housewife

The Glamorous Housewife decided to pair a sour cream apple pie with garam 

masala. I have no experience with chai tea, but the Glamorous Housewife assures readers 
that garam masala is reminiscent of chai tea flavor. Hence, the name of her pie.

• Garam Masala Apple Pie - Teeny Tiny Spice Recipes

Another believer in the pairing of garam masala and apple pie. A recipe is included.

• Midwestern nice for better pies - Terry Hope Romero

And another believer of this pairing! A great recipe from vegan cookbook author 

Terry Romero. Are you seeing a pattern here?

• Garam Masala | Indian As Apple Pie

Indian as Apple Pie is actually the next THREE search results. However, they

believe garam masala is as Indian as apple pie is American! 

• The Girl Pie Chunky Apple Sauce with Garam Masala and ...

Another use for the apple and garam masala! Put it in chunky apple sauce, or any 

applesauce!

I am going to be reaching for garam masala the next time I make apple spice cake, 

apple pie, apple tarts, or apple anything. Be looking for my new spice love - garam 

masala.