Nor Easter Ready

 The East Coast is prepping for one of the first pre winter Nor'easter,Treat it the same as a hurricane.Be prepared.Be stocked up and be ready for anything.

First of all are you ready to leave if there's flooding in your area? Make sure there are travel essentials food wise along with pet food and baby formula.Bring crackers  and juice boxes along with sandwiches  to eat .Baggies full of cookies and pretzels along with nuts are always good. Also baggies full of cereal are also helpful along with croissants for a quick breakfast. Some motels, and hotels will offer breakfaTreat yourself  and your family to a hot one .Many on higher ground are wisely staying at home. Tonight they are getting in last minute shopping before heavier winds and rain arrive. Bread and milk should be at the top of your list along with dry foods such as cereal and pasta. Canned foodstuffs are another must. You can create a nice sauce just by using canned diced tomatoes , tomato paste and olive oil. Also canned veggies are another must since they can be cooked and then chilled for salads. What about meats? Get canned. Think tuna and salmons along with Spam and any deviled meat like ham and chicken. These are versatile and can be made into a variety of dishes.

What about the perishables like eggs? Try to get half a dozen instead of the usual twelve.Eggs can go bad if the power gets shut off and you don't want to throw away eight or nine of them.Be judicious with buying a  lot of frozen food too. If the power goes out the only think you can do is cook everything in a gas oven,If you want to do this, then get frozen pizza Bagel Bites and Stouffer's casseroles. This will  keep a housebound family happy. If you still have power then also buy frozen burgers and  hot dogs along with buns. These are perfect in the air fryer and go well with any kind of frozen fry. If the kids get bored then also have a few rolls of cookie dough handy. This will  keep them occupied and it's a great snack for movie night. Also have rolls of cinnamon rolls too for a breakfast in on a rainy Sunday morning. There are other food project you can try too. Think cupcakes and frosting or making caramel apples to alleviate that cooped up feeling. Also have plenty of healthy  fun snacks like pretzels and popcorn along with apples and pears for healthy snacking

Be Nor'easter ready. Either be well stocked or be ready  to flee floods.Have plenty of food and water along with favorites for a wild and wet weekend.

One Week To Go

 Christmas is exactly one week away. Are you ready? Are you all set for another round of baking? Peeling spuds? Get that ham or turkey? What do you need? One thing you don;t need is stress.

A lot fo people don't have the time to bake. However if you;re craving hiome baked, then buy a couple of logs of the Pillsbury Slice And Bakes. It's the same home bakd taste but easier. They have  some cute patterns like reindeet and snowmen. If you don;t even have time for this, then hit your local LIDL and other supermarkets like Acme or Stop and Shop. Lidl has an excellent selection of German libekuchen and specalioos. groceries such as Acmes not only have stoew baked cookies cakes and pies but also excellent selection of frozen desserts like Marie Callendar's chocolate chiffon pie ( I think this will be my Christmas dessert) and their banana cream one.Buy the easy to bake even in an air fryer crescent rolls for the main course.What about a Christmas brunch? Same thing. Buy easy to bake cinnamon rolls or just buy them along with smaller rolls for jams and flavored butters.

You should have the main course or should be buying it this week. Make sure you have plenty of room in the fridge or freezer for the ham or the turkey. You really can't sub in here. YOu can buy smaller easier to roast hams and sub in capon or Cornish hens for the turkey for easier cooking.The sides however, are a different story. Yes you can make that green bean cassarole. Do you want to make it from scratch which is a bit more time consuming or make the classic recipe using Campbell's mushroom soup with frizzled onions on top? You have to have all the ingredients for both kinds. If you're serving ham, then have baked beams to go with it.This is another conundrum. Do you want to make it from scratch or just buy a can and reheat them in the microwave. Luckily the homemade kind can be cooked days before Christmas and reheated for the meal.A ham dinner also requires potato salad. Again make sure you have th eingredients  such as potatoes, celery , eggs and mayo tor this. If your main course is turkey you have to ecide now if you want scratch stuffing or Stove Stop Stuffing. The last is easier to make and save you time to make time for other sides.

The biggest cooking day of the year is a week away. Be calm,Be prepard. getting through Christmas dinner and dessert is easy if you have a goodl handle on what you;'re doing

Cinnamon Buns With A Twist

 One of the highlights of a chill fall morning is hot cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven. These are perfect with a hot cup of coffee or tea. They're also not that hard to bake. 

Regular contributor Claire Saffitz wrote about them and gave the recipe in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday food section. . Hers are a bit different. The twist is the addition of Specaloos, a spicy molasses based snap cookie.It gives it a different taste that makes the buns memorable. She also uses scalded milk which gives the rolls a pillowy texture. This allows specific proteins to denature. Without scalding these same proteins inhabit the development of gluten. You need a lot fo gluten for this . They react with the yeast which produces a light airy texture.  Biting into the  rolls willbe like biting into clouds. She also added a rouxlike mixture of flour and milk called tangzhuong. Thsi is what gives Japanese milk bread and other Asian breads that soft, spongy testure. Use a stand mixer to mix and knead the dough/

As for the cinnamon, mix it with the specaloos to cut back on the earthy spice flavor,. these won;t be so intense flavor.  If you can't find them then add windmill cookies or even graham crackers. Just make sure that all three are pulsed into fine crumbs.Don't add sugar either. These will make the rolls too sweet. The frosting is sweet enough . The dough is rolled out and then thethe filling is added. The rolls are cut with a thread and then baked with aluminum foil over them. This keeps in the moisture. Let cool and then frost with a standard cream cheese frosting.

These are a different cinnamon roll. They are light and tasty with a different texture. Try them on a cool fall day.

One Dough Many Recipes

Name one dough that can have as many recipes as pizza has toppings. The answer - pizza dough. It's so versatile that it can be used for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's great too in creating snacks and fun desserts too. Make a batch of pizza dough and you'll have a wide swath of delicious dishes.

Pizza dough is one of the easiest to make.It's a bread dough recipe without butter and eggs. You can use white or whole wheat flour or a mix of the two. Olive oil, along with salt and surprisingly sugar,  is also needed for body and flavor. Yeast is to give it a defined crust.Some home chefs add Italian seasonings such as oregano and rosemary to give it more flavor. There is even the option of subbing in brown sugar for white for a healthier dough.Of course the dough can be used for pizza and if more flour is added - it creates a great, chewy crust for Sicilian or Nonna style pies..The dough can also be divided to create individual pizzas, perfect for fun dinner with the kids where they make their own. A byproduct of pizza dough is calzone - or big sock in Italian.Calzones are fun to whip up because the variety of stuffings rivals that of pizza toppings. The original recipe calls for ricotta and mozzarella along with smoked ham. It has a nice creamy texture and taste, heightened by the meat's saltiness. Italian salame or even paper thin sliced prosciutto can be subbed in for the ham. Fresh goat cheese can also be used instead of the traditional ones which gives a lighter in calorie calzone. Veggies and calzones go hand in hand. Add chopped red peppers, broccoli, onions and spinach  for a colorful,t asty one..

Pizza dough can be made into other Italian treats. It can easily be cut and hand rolled into grissini, those Torinese .extra thin, extra crispy breadsticks. They're then rubbed with olive oil and baked for only fifteen to twenty minutes until they're golden brown. These would be perfect with minestrone soup on a crisp fall day. Another crunchy idea are crackers!The dough can easily be rolled to a wafer thinness and then cut into squares. They're then docked or poked with a fork before being given a wash of olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt.Again these would be great with soup but also with soft cheeses like Brie.Pizza dough also makes for nice dinner rolls and Italian bread, perfect for a Sunday dinner. What many don't know is that the dough can take on a Middle Eastern cast. It's perfect for making pita bread.The only difference is that's it's made on an ultra hot cast iron skillet instead of in the oven.Pizza dough can also be turned into yummy cinnamon rolls and donuts.It's rolling out the dough , brushing it with melted butter and then adding a mix of cinnamon and sugar.Raisins, nuts and even chocolate chips can be added to the filling.The dough. can also be cut into doughnuts and fried in vegetable oil. These can be dipped in cinnamon or powdered sugar for an extra boost of sweetness.

Pizza dough can be used to create a luscious pie but it can be used for so many other recipes as well. Try it as pita bread or doughnuts. Bake yummy grissin or cinnamon rolls for a weekend dinner. It's versatile and fun, perfect for so many recipes.

Cinnamon RollsTasty Morning Treats

Nothing beats a cinnamon roll in the morning or as a snack. There's something about the combo of a yeasty bread with the zing of cinnamon and sugar. Even better when they're fresh from the oven .Their recipe is also versatile because you can add extras to make them special or different.

Cinnamon rolls are one of the easiest baked goods to make. You can use a regular yeast base recipe or even just get crescent rolls and fill them up with plain cinnamon and sugar. Before doing this mix brush each triangle with melted butter and then roll up There was a recipe in Wednesday's new York Times dining section where Melissa Clark made her own , making the icing more butterscotch in taste. You could do this and also use it as a filling too, making it like the Cinnabon ones.

Cinnamon rolls can have variations too. You can add raisins as well as a variety  of nuts.Most bakers add walnuts for crunch and texture but also try milder tasting almonds to balance out the flavor. Again use whole nuts or grind them in a food processor. You can mix them in with the cinnamon and sugar and cinnamon too. Size can also vary, You can make huge ones that are perfect to split or tiny ones that are perfect for brunches or even afternoon teas.

Cinnamon rolls are wonderful bites of flavor and sweetness. You can easily make them using  premade dough or from scratch,Either way they are a great treat with coffee or tea.