Lefse Making!

Lefse is a tradition in many scandinavian homes, especially the Melling home. The best way to make it, is to prepare the potatoes and refrigerate the night before cooking.  You also need a lefse grill, lefse stick and pastry board.  Most of you won't be buying this stuff but I had to document for family's sake!

Here is the basic cooking method, however Grandpa Duanne has his own way of making it and others may not entirely follow the exact recipe but it always seems to turn our wonderful! Just make sure to get all the lumps out!!! My first time making it here in Colorado, we didn't know what we were doing totally so we ended up with lumps and that made it harder to roll the dough and cook it.

We usually triple the recipe, so that there is plenty to go around at Thanksgiving and Christmas time. It stores well in the fridge or freezer.

5 large white potatoes

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp butter or margarine, melted

1 1/2 cups flour
         -extra flour for rolling pin and pastry board

*makes about 18 pieces

Cook potatoes in boiling water until tender (they will fall apart when you stick a fork in them);drain.  Mash potatoes until smooth-this works best in a Kitchen-Aid mixer but whatever you have is great too. Beat in milk, salt and butter.  Refrigerate covered, several hours or overnight if possible.  Work in 1 1/2 cups flour to mashed potatoes; shape into a ball. Let stand 3 munutes. Knead lightly on floured surface until springy about 2 minutes.  On a heavily floured cloth covered surface (The Bethany Co. sells a great round board made just for lefse) using a rolling pin with a pastry sock on it, roll 1/4 cup dough into thin 10 inch circle. Lift lefse with lefse stick onto lefse grill, baking until golden brown spots appear. Flip over using lefse stick and cook the same way on other side. Continue until all dough is used. 

Now, there are different ways to serve lefse, but our family prefers butter and cinnamon & sugar.  So spread butter over whole piece of lefse and then sprinkle on the cinnamon mixture. We found that a pizza cutter works best to cut it, so cut into quarters and roll. Wah-lah! Some other options are to roll up deli ham in it, jam, plain butter (Grandma's favorite) nutella or anything else you can think of.  If you ever get a chance to make this, take advantage and learn a part of our culture!

Spritz Cookies

A classic for Christmas time, you can't go wrong with the Spritz cookie! It's probably on the top of the list for easy cookie making.  You will need a cookie press. Wilton makes them, but wherever you can find an electric one, or an old fashioned one like we used, those are the two best kinds.  We came home and bought one of the manual ones from Walmart, but I would save your frustration and spend a little more on an electric press. It got jammed and the lid kept coming off so I spent a good couple hours in the kitchen making just one batch of these!!!

 1.) Mix all the dry ingredients together (powdered sugar, salt, and flour) in mixer and slowly add in wet ingredients (egg yolks, butter, almond extract and vanilla extract).

2.) Place the dough into Spritz maker, and screw the top on. You will have to screw it so that the dough is all pushed to the tip and your ready to start.

3.) Using baking sheets, place the Spritz maker onto the sheet and lift after you feel a little pressure. You will also be able to see the dough come out as in the picture above.

5.) Decorate with candy sprinkles.

4.) Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes until slightly golden.

Lia's Butter Toffee

The Pioneer woman has posted some great recipes but this happens to be the first that I have tried. Mom, Micaela and I made it on our trip back to Minnesota.

Prep Time is about 10 minutes, Cook time about 30 minutes, and boy is it HOT!

*You will need a candy thermometer which you can find it at Bed Bath and Beyond or Walmart for about ten dollars. Rest it on the side of the saucepan.

Ingredients:

4 sticks of butter (dont worry, everything is better with butter!)

2 cups + 2 tbsp granulated sugar

6 tbsp water
1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups of chopped pecans ( you can also use candy canes, sea salt etc.)

4 cups of dark chocolate chips

Preperation :Combine butter, sugar, water and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook over moderate heat, stirring gently, until candy thermometer registers 298 degrees. remove from heat and stir in vanilla until well combined.  Pour the mixture onto a silicone baking mat or good parchment paper. Use a heatproof rubber spatula to spread quickly before the toffee sets. Spread thinly. Allow toffee to cool completely. Blot with a paper towel to remove excess oil from the surface. Coat surface with half of the melted chocolate and immediatley sprinkle with chopped nuts.  When chocolate has totally set, carefully flip over (it's okay if it falls apart a bit) and coat other side with the rest of the chocolate. Sprinkle remaining nuts immediatley. Allow to set and then break into bite-size pieces.

La Dolce Vida Candy Cane Truffles

Ok, FINALLY!!! My computer has been down with a virus for a little over a month and i've been itching to blog the many things that we have made over the holidays! I also started reading Julie and Julia which has also made me anxious to get back at it. This is an abundance of chocolatey deliciousness :) Super easy but a little time consuming. We doubled the recipe because it barely made anout 30 small truffles.

All you need is 5 ingredients:

-8 ounces of chocolate chips
-1/2 cup heavy cream
-2 tsp peppermint extract
-1/2 cup cocoa powder for dusting
-1/2 cup crushed candy canes

1.) Combine extract and cream in a microwave-safe cup and microwave for one minute.
2.) Add the chips to the hot mixture. Whisk until smooth and well-blended. Refrigerate until firm (At least 4 hours).
3.) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a teaspoon, drop small, rounded spoonfuls of mixture onto the sheet.
4.) Place the baking sheet in the freezer for aprox. 45 minutes, or until the rounds are firm. Remove and quickly roll each spoonful into a ball.
5.) Place the cocoa powder into a small dish and gently roll each ball into the powder until covered.
6.) Chill in the freezer until firm again.
7.) We found that you need to roll the balls again, rolling the cocoa into the balls or else the candy canes won't stick. Repeat the process with the candy canes.
8.) Finished! Store in an airtight container and serve in small paper cups.

Spicy Steak Fajitas

Here's an easy mexican favorite: Spicy steak fajitas. I would say this is a 30 minute meal. Its technically a recipe that uses leftover flank steak, but we just bought the meat and cooked it.

1) Warm tortillas wrapped in foil in a heated oven (375) for about 7-9 minutes.

2) To cook the steak, pat-dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. Cook in a frying pan with 1tbsp OO for about 8 minutes on each side. Slice thinly against the grain.

3) Heat 1 tbsp of OO over medium-high heat. Add 2 yellow bell peppers, thinly sliced, 1 red onion,halved lengthwise and thinly sliced, 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced, 2 jalepenos(remove seeds if you prefer less heat) thinly slice and then dice, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until veggies are tender and browned 7 minutes. Add cooked steak and cook for about 2 more minutes. Add 2 tbsp fresh lime juice.

4) Serve beef mixture on tortillas and assorted toppings. Our favorites are sour cream, salsa, and fresh lime wedges.

The New Mac and Cheese

Our friend Kellie gets the credit for this recipe. She found it online and then made some changes to make it her own and fortunately, she shared with us :) Its basically just a twist on regular mac & cheese but its so much better in its own way! Here's what you will need

1/2 lb sausage (we prefer the hot italian sausage)
 1 can diced tomatoes (undrained)
1 cup of water

1 12 oz pkg of Annie's Creamy Deluxe shells and cheese
2 cups of broccoli

1 tsp italian seasoning
Brown sausage, stir in tomatoes, water and seasoning. Bring to a boil, add shells. Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Simmer for 7 minutes stirring a couple of times. Add broccoli, cooking another five minutes. Lastly, stir in cheese and serve. We like to eat this with some hot french bread or garlic bread. Oh, also, you will NEVER have left overs. We doubled it last night for 5 people and it was all gone! Enjoy!

Banana Oat Smoothies

Smoothies are one of our favorite things to make. Especially in the mornings after we go to the gym, we add in our muscle milk protein powder to almost any smoothie. I found this recipe and wanted to try it since it was so unusual and different from the basic fruit and yogurt. Its also a great use for bananas to avoid throwing them away every week. Here's the recipe....Also, I added ice because I cant stand really liquidy drinks, it has to be thick.

1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)

1 cup plain yogurt

2 ripe bananas, plus a few extra slices for the topping

1 cup milk

4 teaspoons honey

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Serve immeadiately, top with slices of banana.

A Lighter Chicken Potpie

This was a yummy dish to pick for such a cool night. We changed up the chicken, using a rotisserie chicken instead of baking chicken breast halves, so our time was cut in half and made the whole cooking process a little less busy.  Also, we decided we had had peas in potpies before so we would make it like the recipe called for, but next time we want to change that by adding broccoli or something else. We had the leftovers for lunch and they reheat so well!

Pumkin Walnut Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting!

We love making bread! Kellie and I had found a pumpkin walnut bread at Williams-Sonoma but it was 10 bucks. We ended up getting it but wanted to find a recipe that wouldnt cost more than a few dollars and that was equally delicious. I found this recipe online and it turned out to be wonderful!

Pumkin Walnut Bread Recipe:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1 tsp bakng soda

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup olive oil

2 eggs beaten

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method: Preheat oven to 350. Sift together salt, flour, sugar and baking soda. Mix pumpkin, oil, eggs, water and spices together. Then combine with the dry ingredients. Do NOT mix too thoroughly! Stir in walnuts.  We doubled this recipe and that worked out well! Pour into a well greased loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

3 tbsp salted butter

2/3 cup sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Blend until creamy and smooth 2-3 minutes.

Homemade Applesauce

This is a fun treat for the cool fall weather. The tempurature is dropping and this applesuace tastes great warm as well as cold. Its super easy, just a bit time consuming with all of the apple peeling. All you need is about  8 cups of apples. We used the Gala and Granny Smith apples, 4 of each. An apple slicer works great if you have one, but cut into about 6 pieces, and peel the skin off. It didnt come to mind at all when I was making this, but use an apple peeler too to help with the time. That would have been so much easier!  Put into a microwave safe bowl. Pour 1 cup of sugar on top of the apples along with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 cups of water. Then, you put it in the microwave for 10 minutes, then stir, put it back in for 5 minutes, then stir and finally 5 more minutes then stir one last time and mash apples with a potato masher. Who would have ever thought? Those things are so useful! Cool in the fridge for a couple hours and you have applesauce! It sure beats any store bought applesauce and doesnt have any added junk to it.

Chicken with Tomatoes, Onions and Olives

We ended up cooking a lot this week on our days off. I wanted to make a few things since its been awhile and we came up with this recipe along with a few others that we made. For this recipe, it only took about 30-40 minutes. All the ingredients were very simple and it seemed to turn out like a mediteranean dish. I added some cilantro into a basmati rice and juice from maybe about half of a

lime for our side dish. this one was a keeper! Yummo!





October Surprise Date Night

We've decided that once a month, we are going to take turns planning a date night. This month, we went to one of the parks off Ken Caryl to play a couple of rounds of frisbee golf and then went out to dinner at
 Pei Wei- thee best asian "fast food". Although its not technically fast food but for those of you who have been to Noodle's, its basically the same style. Order, sit down, grab drinks and they bring your food out within 5-10 minutes. Its pretty awesome stuff and Ryan has never been there. Ive been wanting him to
 try it for awhile now and we finally got the chance. Its a pretty scarce restuarant around here so I was pretty excited to find one not so far away! Here's what we enjoyed for the night :)

Zucchini Breads

This morning Kellie and I spent about 3 hours in the kitchen making two different kinds of zucchini bread which turned into about 6 loaves of bread! She had gotten this insanely large zucchini and needed to do something with it before it went bad. The first one we made was the same as grandmas chocolate banana bread only instead of the bananas we substituted zucchini. The second one we did was Ryans moms recipe....

Jackie's Zucchini Bread:

3 eggs, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup olive oil> mix well

add 2 cups of grated zuchinni (cheese grater works perfectly), 3 tsp vanilla,

3 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 3 tsp cinnamon,

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional) also, we added about
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips for fun! (optional)

Grease two loaf pans & flour them so that the bread won't stick.

bake at 325 for about an hour. We baked at 375 for about 35-40

minutes because of the high altitude. Cool 10 min before removing from pans.

Homemade Pizza

This is mom's recipe for pizza dough. We always bought the Pillsbury dough in a tube but nothing compares to homemade!!!

For Two Medium Pizzas:

1 1/2 cups water

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

4 cups flour

4 tsp quick-rise yeast

Let rise in bowl for one hour. Then cut into two pieces and roll out with floured rolling pin to fit the size of each pan. Grease pans with olive oil (the Misto sprayer is our new favorite kitchen tool for olive oil), and sprinkle with yellow cornmeal. Then lay dough onto pans and layer with pizza sauce, cheese, and your choice of toppings! Our favorites are pinneapple, pepperoni, sausage and mushrooms.

Halloween Sugar Cookies

These cookies can be made for any holiday such as valentines day with hearts and easter with bunnies but I think they have always been a fun halloween treat :) This year, mom had found an owl recipe and wanted to change from doing just the normal pumpkins. Michaels sells a three pack of Wilton cookie cutters for about 4 bucks that includes an owl, cat, and a pumpkin. We used a candy corn for the nose and mini chocolate chips for the eyes! This is the perfect treat for any sweet tooth!