Strudel Dough AND Filling

I only remember having a strudel at McDonalds, once. Plus I was real little, like, I can barely remember this. So I kept hearing things about strudels. Strudel this, strudel that, etc. I finely got myself on the computer and found this. BUT, it didn’t come with a strudel filling recipe. So I went to Cooks.com, cuz (yes I’m using poor spelling) I had enough of allrecipes for right then. And I found an apple filling. I didn’t use apples. I used labu siam (chayote) which can be a substitute for apple whenever. Great, right? I got the strudel recipe from here, http://allrecipes.com/recipe/strudel-dough/. Apparently I can’t find the filling recipe on Cooks.com. But here it is anyway.

        Strudel Dough

2½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon white sugar

3 eggs

3 tablespoons oil

¼ cup water (maybe less)

        AND Filling

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ cup and 3 Tablespoons white sugar

3 cups uncooked labu siam (chayote)

·         STRUDEL DOUGH: In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix sugar, eggs, and 2 Tablespoons oil in a small bowl.

·         Mix in about half the water. Knead into a soft dough using more of the water if needed.

·         Cover the dough while you make the filling.

·         Roll the dough out into a rectangle, the long way away from you,

·         FILLING: Put the labu siam, sugar, and cinnamon in a pot. Put on the heat and stir til’ bubbling. Cool for a couple minutes before spreading on the rolled out dough.

·         Preheat oven to 225C (400F).

·         ***Spread the filling while making a straight line, leaving equal amount of room on either side. Now with a knife, cut lots of strips on one side. Repeat this on the other side. Now on the right side, take on strip a fold it over to the left side. Do the same with the left side. Repeat all the way up.***

·         Bake for 30 mins.

***** Tip. Do this on the pan you plan to cook it on so you don’t have to move it to the pan and watch it break in half. J   

Pizza

Pizza, pizza, pizza, when are you going to make pizza?’ my dad asks. ‘I don’t know.’ I answer. My whole family loves pizza. I do, of course. Which we are so lucky that there just happens to be a pizza restaurant on our island. But we all still love homemade. And it’s pretty “simple” minus the whole afternoon. So I’ll just go ahead and tell you, this is not Really Simple Pizza Dough. I read the recipe for the first time about 1 year ago. ‘I’ll make it’ I told my mom. It sounded real simple. Forget the ‘real simple’ it took all afternoon! And it’s kinda’ salty.  I have no idea where this came from, but here is what we do.

        “Really Simple” Pizza Dough

6 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon salt (this is a little less than the real recipe says)

1 pouch (1 Tablespoon) dry yeast

2 cups water biasa (room temp.)

4 Tablespoons oil

        Ibu Yenni’s Pizza Sauce

1 8oz can of tomato sauce

1 6oz can of tomato paste

1/3 cup oil

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 Tablespoons oregano

3 Tablespoons basil

6oz of water

        Toppings

2½ cups mozzarella cheese

pepperoni, optional

green peppers, optional

anything you want on your pizza

·         “REALLY SIMPLE” PIZZA DOUGH: Combine flour, salt, and yeast, in a large bowl. Add the water and oil. Stir til’ a dough forms. Dump everything that is in the bowl onto the counter on a floured surface and knead everything for 8 mins.

·         Lightly oil the bowl that you mixed the dough in. Dump the dough in. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 2 hours, undisturbed.

·         Re-flour the counter, dump the dough back on the counter, and gently press the air out of the dough. And let it sit in the same bowl under the plastic wrap for another 20 mins.

·         Preheat your oven to its top temp. Roll out the pizza dough,

·         PIZZA SAUCE: Mix tomato sauce, paste and oil together. Put on high heat; add salt, sugar, garlic powder, oregano, basil, and water. Mix well. Bring to a boil and boil 30 secs. Let cool a couple minutes before putting on the pizza.

·         BACK TO THE PIZZA MAKING: Put the dough on a greased pan. Spread as much pizza sauce as you want. Put the toppings you want on and then the cheese.

·         Bake for about 10 mins.

Banana Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin, banana, pumpkin, banana. Which should I do? How about both? I have never even heard of pumpkin banana bread. I don’t see how that is possible since I am baking banana things and pumpkin things all the time. I was looking for some pumpkin recipe I think (maybe banana) and saw banana pumpkin bread. I was shocked there was such a thing. I looked at it and we had all the ingredients so I said, ‘I’ll try it’. Sure enough, I was at my little counter the next morning making some bread. And what’s better is the taste is AMAZING!!! (BTW, I doubled this) I want it all the time. I got this from AllRecipes, . Here it is.

       Banana Pumpkin Bread

5 bananas, mashed

4 eggs

2/3 cup oil

22/3 cups fresh pumpkin mush (puree)

1 cup honey

1 cup white sugar

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon and 1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

·         In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, oil, pumpkin, honey, and sugar.

·         Preheat oven to 163C (325F). Grease 2 loaf pans.

·         Combine the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, Pumpkin Pie Spice, and cinnamon, stir into the banana/pumpkin mixture til’ just combined. Pour in the prepared pans.

·         Bake for 90 mins. Cool loafs in the pans for 10 mins.

Taco Pasta

I helped my make this one evening when we were having a couple over. We had never made it before. NEVER. But it turned out great (thankfully). They loved it and so did we. It’s Mexican so of course we loved it! I wish we would make it again, BUT we went on this thing where we stopped eating beef for awhile. We finally started again! (YES!!!) We got this from http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2011/02/gluten-free-taco-pasta.html. And here is what we did.

        Taco Pasta

½ kilo (1 pound) ground beef

1 package taco seasoning

2 cans tomato paste with enough water to make 15oz

1 package of cooked and drained macaroni noodles

1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

·         In a skillet, brown the ground beef. Drain and add taco seasoning and tomato paste/water mixture.

·         Preheat oven to 190C (350F).

·         Stir in cooked macaroni. Place in a greased 9x13. Top with cheese.

·         Bake for 30 mins or til’ heated thoroughly.