Bread Machine Honey&Wheat Butterhorns

1 cup milk or milk alternative

3-4 tablespoons honey

1 large egg

1/3 cup coconut oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole wheat flour

( I actually use more wheat flour than that-but it's fresh-ground and very fine. I recommend keeping the wheat.to.white ratio at this level until you are familiar with this recipe!)

2 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons unbleached flour

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (1 pkg.)

Dump all ingredients into your bread machine in the order given, set to dough cycle and start.

When it's done rising, split the dough into two lumps and let rest 5-10 min.

Roll each one out into a circle, like this ^

Smear about 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons soft butter on each circle with your fingers

Cut each circle into 12 wedges

and roll them up ^

Place on a greased cookie sheet to rise, about 30 min [^ these are not yet risen]

Bake for 15-20 min in a preheated 350 degree oven

Delish!

My 3 boys love these warm or cold and spread with raw, spun honey

[yes, our honey spreads...it's the best stuff!]



Apricot Chicken

Here is my version of this recipe for my freezer cooking day.

2-3 cans (whatever you think equals 1 1/2 lbs!) apricots in extra light syrup (I bought mine at Aldi)
5-6 frozen chicken breasts (depending on their size, use enough for a whole meal)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 chopped onion
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 -1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1-3 teaspoons Tabasco or other hot sauce
salt & pepper

Drain all but one can of apricots and coarsely chop 1/3 of them. Puree the remaining 2/3, including the undrained can. Saute chopped onion in the oil, once browned add the broth, apricot puree, cinnamon, rosemary and Tabasco. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and lower the heat to gently simmer uncovered for 20-30 min. Add chopped apricots and simmer 5 min.
Now, you can either grill your chicken and serve it with the apricot sauce over rice, or like I did, cook the chicken breasts in the sauce in a crock pot all afternoon. If you do this reserve 1/4 cup of sauce [so 1-1 1/2 cups in all] to pour over each piece of chicken when you serve it over rice.

Matt loved this recipe-the chicken was so tender and the flavor just complex enough to suit both our tastes ;o) Yay!

Whole-wheat Windmill Cookies

    I made these last night, it's my own recipe, tweaked until I got it pretty close to the authentic flavor. For those of you who [gasp!] don't know what Windmill cookies are, these are pretty close to a ginger snap.

Speculaas {Dutch Windmill Cookies}

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons speculaaskruiden
2 tablespoons ground almonds (optional)

Cream butter, sugar and molasses. Beat in egg and vanilla. I a separate bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder, speculaaskruiden and ground almonds. Spoon into a pastry bag with a large round tip and pipe little nickel sized cookies onto a parchment covered cookie sheet. Alternatively you could drop blobs onto the paper with a spoon, just make them small or they won't get crispy.

I baked these for 13 min., but you may have to vary the time to get them just right. They come out chewy any after cooling completely on the pan they should peel off the paper perfectly. Your batter also is going to be darker than the pictures show, because I've increased the spice and molasses content for additional yum :D

The finished product! Half-dollar sized, crispy windmill cookies.



My *Secret* Ingredient

Today is Sunday and I am bored with Sudoku. My house could really use my powers of organization but it always annoys my dear husband when I do such things on a Sunday afternoon. The classic napping option isn't really an option at all, considering I have a toddler who is shunning his nap on account of his getting enough shut-eye on the ride home from church. (seriously? we need either an hour drive or a 5 min. one...) Soooo...I re-designed my blog and added a recipe page, just for fun. :o) I have a couple really yummy cookie recipes I want to post, but I have to start with a recipe for my *secret* ingredient, Speculaaskruiden. I found this about a year ago when I made Speculaas [windmill cookies] Since then I use it in anything that calls for cinnamon and another spice, like nutmeg, cloves, ginger-whatever. I use it in my pumpkin, apple-even a bit in blueberry-pies. Banana bread, cookies, smoothies...mmmm! My hubby is proud of our Dutch heritage, so I like helping the boys develop a love for this Dutch spice blend.

Speculaaskruiden

for a small batch...
Mix together:
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon mace
1/3 teaspoon ginger
1/5 teaspoon white pepper
1/5 teaspoon cardamom
1/5 teaspoon coriander
1/5 teaspoon anise
1/5 teaspoon nutmeg

for the size batch I usually mix up...
Mix together:
6 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
5 teaspoons cloves
5 teaspoons mace
1 2/3 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon anise
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Note:
No, I really don't have special measuring spoons. I just 'guestimate' the portions, i.e. a slightly rounded 1/4 tsp. instead of a 1/3, or a slightly hollowed one instead of a 1/5.

What a Beautiful Morning!

We wanted to spend the day outside! Everyone is getting over a nasty virus here at our house-we are sick & tired of being sick & tired-we were getting out! Matt took the boys outside and after cleaning up breakfast I joined them. All it took was one step onto the porch to realize I wanted more clothes on-it was downright chilly this morning! After spinning around for a sweatshirt and coming to the conclusion that a pair of leggings would be wimpy, I picked up some jackets for my boys (if Momma's cold everybody's cold!) and headed back out.

Our garden has need attention for awhile, it is finished and was as ugly as a garden can get. Weeds up to your middle and it had the smell of a dead garden-though I don't know if anyone but me would ever notice that. We pulled up the chicken wire fence and I rolled it to the tune of Cephas' "Hurry, hurry Momma", "Come on, you can do it!", "Goood Job!", "Hurry up!", "Let's hurry"...I began to wonder if I really sounded like that. Is it possible for a 3 yr. old to exact revenge upon an overly zealous pep-talking mother? Nevertheless, I finished my first roll and called Matt to haul it away to the barn, pretending to pout at his teasing comment about how he remembers it being rolled tighter. As I bent to roll the second, a grubby pair of pudgy little hands appeared beside mine and Malachi began pushing and grunting, so proud to be helping. "What a sweetheart!", I think. "DaDi!", laughs Ce, "you helping Momma? Good boy!", and I smile, thinking how very blessed I am...very blessed indeed.