Cinnamon Rolls

I have never made our cinnamon rolls with yeast and I've never really had a recipe for them either. I have always just made biscuits, added some sugar and tossed in butter, cinnamon & sugar on top before rolling them up. The last time I made them I measured the ingredients out so I could get the recipe down on paper...so here it is!

2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup milk or light cream

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening with pastry blender until mixture is the texture of coarse cornmeal. Make a well in the center of the ingredients and add liquid all at once. Stir batter vigorously until it comes freely from the sides of the bowl. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead lightly for a few seconds. Roll out dough into a rectangle approximately 1/2 inch thick.

Mix together 1/2 cup soft butter, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and 1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon. Spread this mixture over the rolled dough. Roll up the entire dough into a log. Slice roll at 1/2 intervals. Bake cinnamon rolls on a parchment lined baking pan for approx 10 minutes at 350.

Delicious Oat Burgers

These burgers are another snack shop recipe from Camp that Deanna gave me.

1 tablespoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon sage
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 cup oil
1 cup tamari
8 cups water
8 cups quick oats

Combine water and seasonings in a large pot and bring to a boil. Stir in quick oats and let sit for 15-20 minutes. Form into patties (a large mason jar ring works well for this task). Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until brown. Turn over and bake an additional 15 minutes or until brown.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

This recipe is called "Kim's Cookies" but I don't actually know who Kim is. Deanna makes them at Camp for the snack shop and I have a severe addiction to them so you can imagine how happy I was to get a copy of the recipe.

2 eggs or 2.5 tablespoons soy milk (Deanna uses the soy milk but I just use regular milk)
1 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
3 cups coconut (unsweetened shredded)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups (scant) semi-sweet chocolate chips (or raisins, although I personally hate them with raisins!)

Bake at 350 for approximately 10 minutes, yield 18 big, super yummy cookies!

Potato Salad

7 medium/large potatoes with skins on
7 hard boiled eggs (boil 10 minutes)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 heaping teaspoon mustard
1/4 cup ranch dressing
salt, pepper, paprika and dill to taste
onions

Leave the skins on the potatoes and scrub them well. Boil potatoes in a large pot until tender. Remove from heat and cool. When potatoes are cool, peel the skins and coarsely chop potatoes into a large bowl. Add chopped hard boiled eggs. Use a potato masher to smash up the mixture. Do not mash too much. You want there to be lots of lumps still. Add mayonnaise, mustard, ranch dressing, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Sprinkle paprika on top. Add sliced onions and dill to individual servings as needed.

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry shortcake is my most favourite food ever. Well, it's my favourite food lately but that's probably because it's the first week of July and all the local strawberries are in stores. For me, the shortcake just has to be homemade... none of this tea biscuit from the store bit or those sponge cake, airy things...they just won't do. It has to be shortcake. A sweet biscuit. My goal every July is to eat enough strawberry shortcake in a couple of weeks to get me through to the next July when the berries are fresh and ready to enjoy all over again.

2 cups flour
1/2 cup (heaping) white sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 slightly beaten eggs

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Cut in butter with a pastry blender and blend until the mixture resembles course cornmeal. Add buttermilk and slightly beaten eggs to flour mixture and blend until just mixed. Spoon mixture in 8 or 9 inch square greased baking pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes until top is slightly golden.

This shortcake is also delicious served as a biscuit with butter.

For strawberry topping, slice 1 box of strawberries and add approximately 1/3 cup of sugar. Slightly mash mixture (about 5 times) with potato masher just to bring some of the juices out. Let the strawberry mixture sit for an hour or so to allow the berries to surrender their juices (if you can wait that long!) Serve strawberry mixture over a slice of shortcake. Top with whipping cream or vanilla ice cream (or both!). Eat this 3 times a day while in season!

Chick Pea Curry

My dear friend Deanna taught me to love curry and also taught me how to make it. I've changed things up a little to suit my tastes and I put different things it it but the base of curry remains the same as has she taught me. There are so many variations that can be made with this dish. My favourites are:

chick pea and potato
chick pea, beef and potato
chick pea, chicken and mushroom

Other vegetables that go well in the curry are carrots, peas, cauliflower, mushrooms, green or yellow beans. You can also used 1-2 chopped tomatoes instead of the tomato sauce. Personally I like the consistency of the tomato sauce rather than the chopped tomatoes.

2 onions, finely sliced
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
¼-½ teaspoon ginger powder
2 teaspoons of paprika
2 heaping teaspoons of curry powder (my favourite brand is Bolst's)
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups (approximately) cooked chick peas (and rinsed if canned)
3 potatoes, peeled and diced into large pieces
1 cup (approximately) tomato sauce
large hand full of cilantro leaves, rinsed well and chopped
2 Tablespoons lemon juice (optional)

In a medium to large sized pot, cook the onions in oil until soft and brown. Add a little bit of water as necessary to keep them from burning. In a small bowl add ginger powder to a couple of tablespoons of water. In another small bowl add paprika and curry powder to a few tablespoons of water. When onions are soft add the water/ginger mixture and the minced garlic to the onions. Cook for a minute or two then add the paprika and curry mixture and continue to cook for a couple more minutes. Add small amounts of water during this time if necessary to keep ingredients from sticking to the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This is where the variations happen. I happen to love chick peas so I always add them. I usually use 2 cans. I just use whatever size and brand happens to be on sale. The most common sized can of chick peas that I use has approximately 2 cups in it so I would estimate 4 cups of cooked chick peas for this recipe. I rinse them before using them. Add chick peas and potatoes to cooking mixture. Add water to pot, not quite enough to cover everything. Simmer gently until potatoes are tender. Add tomato sauce, chopped cilantro, lemon juice and remove from heat. Let sit for a few minutes before serving. It tastes even better the next day!

Serve over basmatic rice with some sour cream.

If adding beef or chicken to curry: Add with the chick peas and simmer gently until the meat is tender. The beef will take a lot longer than the chicken. Do not add the potatoes until the meat is tender. Continue as above by adding the tomato sauce and cilantro after everything else has already been cooked.

Cornmeal Muffins

I love cornmeal muffins. Always have. Always will. They are a staple in our home. I always used to use a recipe that my mother gave me but once I used the recipe off the package of cornmeal (Purity brand) and now that is my favourite recipe. So easy. So yummy.


3/4 cup Cornmeal
1 ¼ cups milk
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Combine cornmeal and milk and leave to sit for 10 minutes. (If it sits longer than that it's no problem. I've left my sitting for hours when I've gotten busy with no ill effect).

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Add egg and oil to cornmeal mixture. Mix well. Add to dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Grease (or spray) muffins tins. Makes 12 muffins. Bake @ 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.