Crock Pot Turkey Breast

Just wanted to report that I made a crock-pot turkey breast today and it turned out GREAT, as advertised by L.E.. She cooked hers for an hour on high then turned it down to low for about eight hours. I kept mine on high for the whole time, about 7 hours. (All crock pots are different.) As promised, the meat was really moist and practically fell off the bone. Just take a bone-in turkey breast, take out whatever is inside (ours, from Vons, had a gravy packet inside), rinse, rub the outside and under the skin with one package of dry onion soup mix and some garlic. Put it in the crock pot with about a quarter cup of water.

To make gravy (it's milder-tasting than roasted turkey gravy, but still good) strain the solids out of the broth (mine generated a lot of liquid), put the broth in a saucepan with the gravy packet and some cornstarch dissolved in water, and heat until thickened. We had ours over rice, LaLa had mashed potatoes.

Thanks, L.E., for this delicious, easy dinner idea!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs (or flax-seed egg substitute)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2.5 to 3 cups sifted flour (lightly spoon into cup; level with knife)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
A couple of handfuls of oatmeal (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugars. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Add flour, soda, powder, salt, and chocolate chips. Add oatmeal if desired. Using cookie scoop if possible, scoop onto baking sheet and bake for 8-11 minutes. Don’t overbake.

I use a homemade egg substitute made of ground flax seeds. For each egg, put 1 tbsp. ground flax seed with 3 tbsp. water in a microwave safe bowl and heat for about 30 seconds. Stir, and as it cools it will be the consistency of beaten eggs. When you don’t use eggs you can eat the dough raw without worry! The ground flax from Costco is great (flaxusa.com). I keep it in the freezer as once it's ground it is perishable.

Christmas Morning Bagels

This is what my family always wants for Christmas Morning brunch.

Bagels (adapted from two recipes I have)

2 cups warm water
1 pkg yeast
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
5-6 cups flour
1 tsp Karo syrup
Egg white wash
Flavorings for top: dried onion, poppy seed, sesame seed, garlic powder, salt, etc.

Note: we like savory “everything bagels” with all the above toppings mixed together. For cinnamon raisin bagels, add some cinnamon, raisins, (and sugar?) to the dough.

Dissolve yeast in water, add sugar and salt. Work in enough flour to make a rather stiff dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let dough rise until doubled.

Bring a large pot of water to boil and add 1 teaspoon Karo syrup. Grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Punch the dough down and divide into 12 (or 16?) equal balls. Poke your finger into each and quickly form it into a bagel shape. It doesn’t have to look that great.  Drop each bagel one at a time into the boiling water for about 15 seconds or until it floats to the top, then take it out and place it on the cookie sheet. When the cookie sheet is full, brush with egg white wash and sprinkle on desired toppings. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned.

Scones

This was a benefit of going to the class party I really didn't want to go to. When I was growing up "scones" were actually fried bread dough (yum!) but where I live, scones are kind of like baking powder biscuits only lighter and fluffier and you cut them in triangles. They look really dry and crumbly but they're light and fluffy and delectable. Our ward is in charge of feeding people at the transitional homeless shelter in our town and I signed up for breakfast. Since it will be a very small group of people it won't be stressful to make something from scratch. I'm supposed to bring the food the night before and I tested these and they are still good the next day. (Cinnamon rolls and bagels I like to eat the same day.) By the way, I make my own bagels for Christmas morning breakfast. They're really easy. I will post a recipe later.

2 1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. butter
1 lg. egg
3/4 c. sour cream
1/2 c. currants (I used Craisins, my friend used orange-scented dried cranberries)

Glaze: powdered sugar mixed with a little OJ or milk + vanilla.

Preheat oven to 425. Put dry ingredients in food processor. (I didn't use a food processor.) Blend with butter, cut into small pats. When blended fine, pour in bowl.

Place egg in bowl and beat with fork. Add sour cream and mix with fork. Pour mixture into crumb mixture. Blend with fork until mixed. Don't overbeat! Add currants or Craisins.

Roll/pat out 3/4 inch thick. Make two 6-inch circles and cut into 6-8 wedges. Place wedges on cookie sheet and bake 12 minutes. Top with a little bit of glaze.