{recipe} Mom's Homemade Buns

Weekly Test Recipes - week 32!  And it's a special one this week :)

My Mom was always baking bread.  It seemed every Saturday she was making bread, or buns, or kolaches, or raisin rolls, or caramel rolls, or muffins, etc.  The house always smelled soooo yummy!  My favorite thing she baked was homemade buns.  All my sisters and I had to have sandwiches on Mom's buns for our high school graduations.  They made the best Broiled Buns (family recipe - I'll share sometime :).  Whenever we took road trips (even if it was just a two-hour trip to the Twin Cities), we packed a lunch for the car, preferably with homemade bun sandwiches.  They are yummy, they freeze well, and they say 'home' to me.  This week I decided to attempt to make them myself.  I was a bit nervous, because I've heard some bad stories about baking bread - that there's a knack for it, that it can end up like bricks.  I've never been so worried baking something before.  It was very important to me that these turned out edible, and as close to Mom's as possible.

MOM'S HOMEMADE BUNS
3 c. lukewarm water
2/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. yeast
½ c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
~ 8 c. flour

Combine water, sugar, and yeast. Add oil and salt. Gradually add enough flour to make dough stiff enough to handle. You don't want it to be sticky when you touch it, but don't want to add too much flour or you'll get dry rocks instead of buns. 

dough all mixed up - before first rise

Let rise, punch down, and let rise again. Shape and place on greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise to about double. Bake @ 375* for 10 to 15 minutes.

after rising on the pan, ready to go in the oven.  these are not dough cookies, as my brother-in-law asked the first time he saw Mom baking buns

I made half of the above recipe and got 18 buns.  I also used half wheat flour and half all-purpose flour.  Any additional flour added to make the dough stiff was all-purpose.  The rise times were much longer than I expected, but make sure you don't rush the rise.  It took 7 hours from the time I mixed the dough together to the time they came out of the oven.  I'd say each rise (the bowl rises plus the time for buns to rise after being shaped on the pans) took a good couple hours each. 

fresh out of the oven

I had 9 buns on each pan, and baked the first pan for 15 minutes.  They came out a bit darker than I wanted and the tops of the buns seemed rock hard when they came out of the oven.  I was crushed.  I thought I had failed, or maybe just overbaked them.  So I baked the second pan for 10 minutes and they looked much better, but still came out a little crusty on top.  However (hallelujah!), the buns softened up as they cooled.  Success!!  I had made yummy buns just like Mom's!!  You have no idea how happy this makes me!!!  These are definitely going in the regular rotation.

Tradition growing up was to put a slice of Velveeta in a fresh-outta-the-oven bun and let me melt until yummy.  So of course I did just that!  Cheese bun!  Mmmmmmmmm....

Rating: EXCELLENT and comforting.

I'm linking to Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog

{recipe} Hawaiian Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Weekly Test Recipes - Week 20!

This was one of the recipes we made for Tony's graduation BBQ.  The original recipe was shared by my sister, and we tweaked it a little for the graduation.  The recipe below is as we made it.

HAWAIIAN PULLED PORK SANDWICHES (adapted from allrecipes.com)
2 lb. pork shoulder
1 bottle/can of your favorite root beer
salt/pepper/mesquite seasoning
16 oz. bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce
hamburger buns

***side note: Tony wanted a luau-themed graduation BBQ, so we used 2 parts Archer Farms Hawaiian-Style Barbecue Sauce and 1 part regular sweet BBQ sauce.  It was soooo nummy with a little bit of a kick to it, and we will make it this way every time!***

Rub pork with salt/pepper/mesquite seasoning.  Pour half the root beer in the crock pot (use the entire bottle for a bigger pork shoulder) and place in crock pot.  Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours.  Remove pork and trim off fat.  Drain liquid from crock pot.  Shred pork and place back in crock pot to cook for 20 minutes.  Add BBQ sauce, stir, and cook for 20 minutes.  Serve on hamburger buns. Yum, yum, yum! Definitely rated EXCELLENT and one of the best recipes I've tried in a long time.

{recipe} Fruited Tuna Salad

Catching up today and tomorrow....So sorry I have fallen TWO months behind with my recipes.  I have been cooking as normal, just not blogging the results.  I have some new favorites that I'll be posting about this week.  Bear with me while I catch up.

Weekly Test Recipes: Week 19 (From May....)

FRUITED TUNA SALAD (Simple&Delicious, May 2010)
1/2 c. mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. honey (or corn syrup)
2 cans water-packed tuna, drained
1 can (11 oz.) mandarin oranges, drained
1 medium apple, chopped
1/3 c. chopped pecans
1 celery rib, thinly sliced
1/4 c. dried cranberries
1/8 tsp. salt
4 whole pita breads
alfalfa sprouts

In a large bowl, combine mayonnaise and honey.  Stir in the tuna, mandarin oranges, apple, pecans, celery, cranberries, and salt.  Serve on pita breads with sprouts.

This was sooooooo yummy!!!!  I was a little apprehensive about how all the different fruits would mesh with the tuna, but it was amazing!  I will definitely be making this in the future.  Rating: EXCELLENT. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of this yumminess for you.  Next time I make it I will add a picture to this post.

{recipe} Chicken Salad

Test Recipes week 16! (continued)

Chicken Salad is one of my favorite sandwich fillings.  Since I moved to South Texas, I have discovered that chicken salad here usually consists of ground up chicken.  Good, but a little too much 'mush' for my taste...This week I had a craving for good chunky chicken salad, so I decided to try out the recipe from Pioneer Woman that I've had bookmarked for a long time.

CHICKEN SALAD (Pioneer Woman)

3 large cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts (or 1 grocery store rotisserie chicken), shredded/chopped into bite-size pieces

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 green onions, minced

2 c. grapes, quartered

1/2 c. mayonnaise

1/2 c. sour cream

small handful fresh dill, minced (I used ~ 1 Tbsp. dill weed)
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
Kosher salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
*I also added a couple teaspoons mustard and a few shakes of cayenne pepper*

Prepare cooked chicken into bite size pieces or shred.  Place chicken, grapes, celery, and onions into medium bowl.  Place remaining ingredients in smaller bowl and whisk until combined and smooth.  Taste test and adjust until you like the taste.  Combine dressing with chicken mixture.  Serve as sandwiches, wraps, lettuce wraps, or straight salad mixture on a plate.  Makes 6 servings.

I rated it GOOD, not great.  I think it's a good starter recipe that can be tweaked according to your own tastes.  Next time I'm going to add pine nuts for even more crunch.  I'm not a huge celery fan (hate it in soup!), but I love the crunch it adds to this salad.  Stay tuned to see what I did with the leftover celery!