Slippery Snake

Be kind.

Work Hard.

Stay Humble.

Smile often.

Stay Loyal.

Be Honest.

Travel when Impossible.

Never Stop Learning.

Be Thankful Always.

Love.

 Hello!!! It is the sixth installment of the 10 minute meal project. Fur more and I am done. I wonder what I should  I do next? Any suggestions?


I do not want want to say too much today because I want  to reflect on that quote above. Come on, reflect it with me. Isn't it a nice quote?

The preparation for this is very simple. All you have to do is mix the ingredients and you are done. But the assembling of the spread took me 15 minutes as I was really careful not to make the cream cheese fall on my counter. Also, you do not have to make the whole snake look. You can use the cream cream cheese mixture as spread for you bagel.Otherwise, this good looking snake is so yuuummmmmmy!

Slippery Snake Recipe

1. 1 (5 oz ) can chunk light tuna
2. 1/2 cup cream cheese
3. 1 ( 8 1/4 oz) can corn kernels, drained
4. 4 bagels, halved
5. 8 cherry tomatoes halved
6. 1 black grape ( halved)
7. 1 strip of cucumber skin, cut into a forked tongue

Mix together ingredients 1 to 3
Cut each bagel into half to make semicircles and arrange them end to end on each board to resemble a snake
 .
Spread the tuna mixture on the bagels and arrange the cherry tomatoes, cut side down along the length. Place the grape halves at one end for eyes and finish with the cucumber forked tongue.

NOTE:

You don't have to do the whole snake. Just skip the 5 to 6 ingredients. Just make the spread for you bagel.

Dinner Rolls

Once you chose hope, everything is possible

I am the type of person who likes to plan. I purposely plan occasions  a month, or a week before so that I will not be stressed out or worried. So I plan, and plan , then  plan some more  until I find myself losing some sleep and worry myself out until I am pulling my hair off due to stress... strange, but it worked for me before, until now.

Currently, it looks like my body is not strong enough to handle stress anymore.When I am stressed out, I get sick and I easily gets frustrated. So I decided to use plan Z  ( my A to Y plan was to stress and stress some more) . To relax.

I will give you one example of how ridiculous of a planner I was. My daughter was 10 years old then. It was our daily Sunday church service and I was surveying the church for boys that I plan that will become my son in law. I have to knock my head off and tell myself , "Gosh your daughter is only 10 years old, get a grip!"

You may never believe how crazy it is, but this is true: Three years ago, the biggest price for lotto history was 320 million. I had never bought  lotto ticket ever in my life but this time, I tried my luck. I happily told my husband that I bought a ticket and I got so excited about it. That night, I was thinking what will I do with the money if I win. The night passed to wee hours and  there I was, awake with my eyes popping out due to tiredness, yet I was worrying whether I will put the money in the bank or not, or, what will happen to my win if the bank goes bankrupt. When I told a friend about it, she laughed so hard thinking I was crazy. I thought I was crazy too.

Of course, I did not win that lotto price but  those experiences reminded me how futile and planning wrongly can make me miserable. So now, I am trying to protect myself. I protect myself from futile plans by these Bible verses:
For I know well the plans I have for you. Plans to give you hope and a future.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
If God is for us, who can be against us.

When I go lazy, this is my verse:
Those who do not work do eat

Pinterest quotes help me out too when I am in  futile planning rampage. They have really cool quotes there.

What is futile planning by  the way?


For me, planning is great when done right . The Bible says, " to plan and watch our steps."  But sometimes, I take planning to the extreme that even little "dot and commas" of my life's path have to be PURRR- FECT!  These caused countless sleepless nights and missed meals, which I totally regret.









To be honest, I am thankful that so many of my plans did not work out. Because it is humbling. It reminds me that some things are just beyond my control.

Perfect example of this is my plan to switch from stay at home mom to a working mother.I promise you, I did everything I could to be qualified for the workforce again, but for some reasons that I cannot fathom,  it just did not work out for me.It looks like I am bound to be a stay at home mom for now. I will know the reason why I have to be here when I am able to pass through this crossroad. As Apple founder Steve Jobs said:

"You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future."

Now, I am throwing the towel on planning about my life. I said, I surrender, God. I will keep on doing what is right and do  things the best I  could. Whatever the outcome might be, I refuse to worry about it. I learned that life will always be uncertain no matter what. Having accepted this, I feel free!  I tell my children to work hard and do your best and God will do the rest.

How about you? How do you handle worries? Stress? Tell me your crazy experience about worry. Please leave a comment.

Anyway, I  am making rolls today. I planned and planned about this, I re- read the instructions so many times so that there will be no room for failure. The good thing about this rolls, they are not similar to life. This roll is certain to be a success if you follow the instruction because it did for me. So here it is, my another success in baking.

Being a novice baker, I do not have the guts to experiment with regards to bread. That is why I am baking this roll as early as now to prepare myself for Thanksgiving. I want to make sure I will not make mistake on this bread on  Thanksgiving day  dinner. Boy I say this is a success. This rolls are soft, fluffy and most, the taste is way better that the store bought ones. The kids and their friends gobble it up like there was no tomorrow. So please practice this now so that you will not be scrambling around when Thanksgiving comes.I promise you this rolls are really good, that  you will be making more of these before Thanksgiving Day. By then, you will become an expert.

                                           

                                       












Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

• 2 sachets yeast ( I use fast rise yeast the one where you do not dissolve in water )
• 6 cups bread flour
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 1/4 cup warm milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup melted butter ( 1 stick)

1. Grease a bowl with oil. Set aside
2. Place ingredients 1 to 4 in a bowl. And whisk to mix the ingredients.Set aside.
3. Put egg, sugar and butter in the mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly until sugar is dissolve. Add the bread flour and salt mixture then add slowly the warm water and warm milk. Mix using dough hook. Mix until the mixture is soft and elastic. Place in the prepared greased bowl.
4. If you think the dough is sticky, it is fine.
5. Cover with plastic wrap or damp cloth and put it in warm place until dough doubles. About an hour.
6. After an hour, punch the dough and put in a floured surface. Coat your hand with flour and divide the dough into 24 pieces or a size of a gold ball.Arrange them in a slightly grease baking pan and let it rise again in a warm place for another hour.
7. Bake in Pre heated oven in 375 F for 25 mins or until the top is golden color.
8. Serve and Enjoy.

Notes

I use fast rise yeast the one where you do not dissolve in water Tips to make the dough rise: Heat oven to at 220 F for 1 minute then turn off. This will become the warm place where I let my dough rise. Place the dough there for one hour. Do the same if the oven is not warm anymore when you have to do it for the next 1 hour Adapted from Heart of Mary blog check here

Cinnamon Rolls with Walnuts Very First Cinnamon Rolls Success

I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars make me dream 

- Vincent van Gogh

Today is my blog's 3 month birthday. How time flies when I am having fun. When I started this blog, I have  very simple aspirations: to be entertained, to learn to write and to learn photography. In the last three months, I learned so much and I am thankful. I also found a hobby which I feel that I am going to stick with for a while. I have been aimlessly looking for a fun thing to do, and I think blogging is IT. Most, I am learning to cook. I became a little adventurous in the kitchen. I am also becoming obedient with regards to following recipe books.

Just like this cinnamon rolls today. ( Ooops! Did not follow the gooey syrupy filling).

Today, I borrowed a recipe book from the library called, Breakfast Heaven. it has tons of breakfast recipes that are very easy to follow. Before we went to sleep, I had my son scan through the pages and had him decide which one among the hundreds of these breakfast foods he wants me to make, and he chose this. I was worried because I had attempted several cinnamon rolls before and non of them were successful. But I can give it another shot.

Good thing I tried again because today, I am going to share to you my first successful cinnamon rolls. It was easy to make but as any bread recipe, you have to wait for the dough to rise for total of two hours and 45 minutes; other than that, this is recipe is a "babe".

Rather than making a syrup out of the filling, I decided to make the traditional cinnamon roll toppings made of melted powdered sugar. Which I think works out great because I do not want a gooey and syrup- y cinnamon rolls. The walnuts in the filling are optional, so it is up to you if you want to add walnuts, but I do not think that adding the nuts makes any difference at all. If you think walnuts are expensive or you are allergic to nuts, you will not miss anything as far as the taste goes. So, go ahead and make this...

Cinnamon Rolls Recipe 

Ingredients:

1. 4 cups all purpose flour
2. 1/2 cup sugar
3. 1 tsp salt
4. 1 package fast rise yeast
5. 1 tsp ground cinnamon
6. 1 cup milk
7. 1/2 cup butter
8. 2 eggs lightly beaten
9. 2 tsp vanilla extract
10. GLAZE:
11. 2 cups powdered sugar
12. 4 tbsp hot water
13. FILLING:
14. 2 tbsp melted butter
15. 1/4 cup brown sugar
16. cinnamon ( it is up to you how much)
17. walnut (optional)

Directions:

First Steps:

Prepare all the ingredients.

Prepare a medium bowl brushed with butter or cooking oil.

TIP:

Preheat oven int its lowest setting, for my oven it is 125 F , then turn it off . I use this as the warm place where I can keep rise my dough for two hours. I call it "kinda hot" place for my dough to rise.

Mix ingredients 1 to 5 using a wire whisk in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly. Form a hole in the middle.Set aside

Beat egg in a small bowl. Set aside.

Get a sauce pan and place in the milk and butter in a low heat. Let the butter melt. Make sure that this mixture is warm but not too hot because it will kill the yeast when you add this tot he flour mixture. Add in beaten egg, vanilla extract then remove from heat and pour into the well in the flour mixture.

Mix the dough. Remove the dough from the bowl and place into a floured surface. Knead until smooth then put it in the bowl you prepared which brushed  with oil. Cover and put into a warm place or in the oven that was " kinda" hot. Let the dough rise for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, punch the dough and lay it in the floured surface.Roll into rectangle. When it is flat, add in the melted butter and spread throughout  the dough, then the brown sugar and cinnamon and walnut.

Roll into a log and cut into 2 inch thick. 

Arrange in the rectangular baking pan. Cover it .And put it back into the "kinda" hot oven for 45 minutes

When done, preheat oven to 375 F then bake the bread for 25 minutes or when you tap bread it will sound hollow.

Add the topping on top.

Direction for the Glaze

Simply mix sugar and warm water

Raspberry Cake

I have this favorite blogger named Tim. He is the author of the famous food blog site Lottie + Doof . He is just an amazing writer that you will always find me holed in his blog for a long time. I hope I can be a writer like him. He had won 2012 Saveur' blogger of the year and has become a freelance writer because of his blog. So, in my opinion, he is the man. If I can become half of a good writer as he is, I am a fortunate woman. But that is another story to tell.

When I was reading one of his blog from way back, I stumbled on this recipe. I am so excited to make this because it looks very doable. I think this will also be great for my husband's morning coffee. I listed down all the ingredients then armed myself with my debit card, and off I go tot the market. Everything in the recipe was available except the apricot. What? Then how should I make this? I was battling between just skipping the apricot or should I go ahead and just substitute it for peaches. I am not sure, but I saw this different kind of fruit that looks like an apricot but not really. And it is trying to coat itself to become a plum too. It is called - Pluot. I know, it is very strange name.I have to remember what it is called. Good thing I asked the cashier what it is and she said, it is "Plee- Cot." Boy, I had trouble hearing it and saying it, so she said, "It is an apricot and plums combined." When I was writing this article, I searched Google images under "fruit between plums and apricot" and there it showed the tricky name of this fruit. I also tried to looked up how to say it, but Merriam Online did not have it. So I will just settle saying it as Plu- ut or not say it at all or else I will sound dumb and stupid. So, this little pretty thing - Pluot is from the hybrid of apricot and plums. And I decided to substitute the apricots with this.

Going back to the topic.I geared myself to make the cake and everything is settled. I used 12 TB of butter and I cup of sugar instead of 1 cup minus and 3/4 cup of butter. I used my food processor to ground the almond and I am ready to roll. I baked it for 1 hour. Each oven are different though, so the toothpick test is the best for this. I am not sure if the Pluot caused it, but the cake feels soggy when I removed it from the oven, yet I tell you, it is very good. The ground almond made this cake so yummy. And it is better also the next day. As I am writing this, my husband is eating it for snacks.So please try it.

Raspberry Cake

12 TB butter 

1 cup sugar

2 Pluot

2 eggs

1 1/3 cup self rising flour

1 cup ground almond

2 TB milk

1 1/2 cup raspberry

Direction:

Line bottom of 8" pan with parchment paper

Mix ground almond into the flour

Pit and slice Pluot.Wash raspberry and set aside.

Preheat oven at 350

Place the butter and sugar in the stand mixer until pale and fluffy.

Scramble egg in a small bowl  and slowly add into the sugar mixture. Beat at slow for 2 minutes.

Add in the flour mixture in 2 batches.

Add milk and hand mix.

Fold in the raspberry and the pluots

Bake for 1 hour or test it with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, then it is done.

Note: If you try to transfer it on a tray, wait until the cake cools down so that the cake will not break into half.