Buttermilk Refrigerator Rolls (Southern Living 1982)

Hey y'all! It's been a while. We're still here, and have still been cooking... just not much posting. 

Okay, fine. 

Not any posting.
 

Things have changed some around here.  Baby Girl is not so much a baby anymore.
 

Waaaah!

She's a full blown toddler. She's perfected the furrowed brow and refusal of foods she ate with gusto the day, or even the meal before. So that's been fun. 

The boys are growing up too. Mostly just up. Junior is nearly as tall as me! Sniff!

We traded in our cookbooks! I'm using 1982. (aka the best year ever, aka the year of my birth)

Okay, on to today's recipe. I'm a sucker for bread recipes. I. Love. Bread. But yeast breads and raising and all that jazz can be about 0% fun in winter.  This recipe goes straight into the fridge, which I love.

The recipe:

 

Only one major change. The recipe calls for shortening. I try not to cook with shortening - I don't keep it in the house. 

So, for this recipe I used a combination of butter and coconut oil. Halfsies.

I used 2.5 cups of regular ap flour and 2 cups of white whole wheat. I think that's all. 

Except this happened. 

For the first time ever I bought a gallon of buttermilk. A. Gallon. I got a teensy bit excited about all the buttermilk recipes in my cookbook and in the February issue of Southern Living magazine. I'm looking at you triple chocolate buttermilk cake.

So get ready for the buttermilk. 

Those of you who know me well know I have approximately no memory. But, for some inexplicable reason I can remember that my music teacher in 4th grade drank buttermilk with her lunch. I can still picture her cartons of buttermilk sitting untouched by anyone but her in the milk fridge thing in the lunchline. I guess it was so scarringly gross my crazy brain decided to remember that. Not Disney World. The buttermilk-drinking music teacher.

So. The rolls are good. I'm glad I didn't go all coconut oil or all butter. The mix was yummy. No coconut flavor at all.

 

But this happened.

Just a touch too long on the last batch. Just a touch. You can see the few that got a bit too much love. I'll blame it on the fact that we were already eating when I put in the last batch. It can be really hard to hear that timer go off. And other excuses.

All in all, it was a winner. Next time I would cook them a bit longer than I did the first two batches, but not quite as long as the third batch. Probably 15-18 minutes in my oven.

Creamy Beets (Southern Living, 1980)

Yes... before we go any further, I made a recipe entitled "Creamy Beets".  A couple of take aways - I like beets.  I did not, however, love this presentation of beets.  It was good enough to determine I would like to try beets again, though, so it wasn't too bad.

On page 136 in Southern Living, 1980; Creamy Beets are as follows:

I truly didn't change too much.

Creamy Beets

1 1/4 lbs. fresh beets

1 tbls lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

5 drops hot sauce

1/2 cup sour cream

- Peel & cut beets, steam

- Add remaining ingredients to cooked beets, except sour cream, over medium heat until warm.  Remove from heat and add sour cream, stirring constantly.  Serve warm.

The Steamed beets, ready for the remaining ingredients.

The final product.  I don't think this picture does the PINK color justice.  I'm really surprised Chris ate this... I guess after all of these years he does love me ;0)

I think my downfall in the looks was peeling the beets prior to cooking them...  As this was the first time I have ever made beets, I was in a time pinch and wanted to skip the cook, cool, then peel steps.  Seeing my hands dyed red while peeling/cutting the beets I kept thinking this would be a disaster and my white steaming basket would never be the same again.  I am happy to say, the red stain washed off easily.  From the steam basket and my hands.  What a relief.

Until next time,

Chery

Broccoli-Rice Casserole (Southern Living 1981)

This recipe came from Lindy's suggestion. She's really trying very hard to help my family branch out in our veggie eating ability. Thanks sis!

Buying the "jar process cheese spread" was fun. The boys were like...what's cheese wiz?? I assured them they'd like it. I think the would...plain, or minus the veggies.

I swapped cream of mushroom soup for cream of something else. I have a mushroom aversion. I think I used cream of broccoli. I also opted for a carrot/califlower/broccoli mix instead of straight broccoli. This was for two main reasons: 1. I couldn't find the 10oz chopped broccoli, and 2. Too much broccoli for mama equals a gassier baby. Y'all. It is how it is. I learned that about Baby Girl in week 2.

An almost action shot. Making the brown rice.

After the rice cooked, I mixed in the rest. On my cookbook. Counter space is at a premium in this kitchen.

Mixture ready for the baking pan.

There is nothing about this that looks appetizing. I cannot blame it all on my lack of photography skills.

This was a terrible. I kept asking The Hubs...what can I do? How can I save it? This is the pits. It was a bit better when I added extra rice. But...Junior said he liked it.

He.

Said.

He.

Liked.

It.

I think he was lying. I think it might have had something to do with the mini-lecture The Hubs had delivered during the Hot Chicken Supreme Fiasco. Something about, "your-mom-works-hard-to-make-dinner-for-you-and-there-are-kids-starving-all-over-the-world."

We'll never know, though, because I won't be making this again. Both The Hubs and I agreed it would have been much much better if the veggies had been alone. Sans cheese wiz and condensed soup.

  ~Audry

Cheesy Spinach Souffle (Southern Living 1981)

J-Boy said this dish tasted like nothing. He then amended his comment by adding that it tasted a little bit cheesy. Junior abstained from commenting and I didn't ask. The look of disgust on his face spoke volumes. 

Lindy assigned this recipe. We thought if my kids were going to like it, it needed to be cheesy. I guess this one wasn't cheesy enough for them! However, The Hubs and I both liked this one a lot. 

I served it two nights in a row (hey, I like to use the leftovers!). The boys seemed to have an easier time eating the first time - it even tasted more spinach-y to me the second night. (But for me...that's a good thing!)

But wow on the preparation!  This is a for real souffle! Well...I'm guessing that it is. I've never made one before! This girl whipped egg whites into peaks and gently folded them into the spinach mix (which, by the by, had a béchamel sauce involved) before baking. Good thing Baby Girl was napping well!  

The original recipe:

 

 

I didn't use any fresh onion, just minced dried onion. I had some frozen to use, just didn't fool with it.  There were also crazy instructions for making a foil collar. Wow. Skipped that. It seemed wholly unnecessary. I guess I'll never know if it was or not. I can't see what it would have done differently to the outcome of the dish. 

I have a problem. I keep forgetting to take process pictures! Here's when I remembered I hadn't taken any pictures:

I had just folded the egg whites in and put the mix into the casserole dish. It was also at this point that I seriously considered taking pictures of all of the dirty dishes to prove I had actually done something. I then decided against it. You're welcome.

This is after I put the Parmesan cheese on top. Impressive, right? And, if you look at the upper right hand corner - the bowl I used to whip the egg whites! I guess I kinda took a dirty dish picture. Forgive me.

 And after it baked:

 

 

I thought this was good. Not too cheesy. The spinach flavor definitely came through (hence the boys not liking it). It was a winner for me and the Hubs, but I can't say I will make it again. It was a too time consuming for a side dish...especially one the boys won't like. Maybe I'd be willing to make it for a potluck or holiday - something where I just bring a thing or two.