Cinnaburst Bread

Back home in Utah there is a bakery called Great Harvest. They make some wonderful bread! I wanted to get a job there just so I could learn how to make my favorite breads from there. Still tempted to if I ever live by one again....

This cinnaburst bread is one of my favorite loaves of bread, right behind the blueberry raspberry bread. I am making myself hungry just thinking about these breads. 

Did I mention I could live off bread? 

Seriously I could do it. 

I found this copycat recipe for cinnaburst bread on the one and only Pinterest. 

I had to wait forever to make it, Lubbock does not have cinnamon chips!! I looked all over the place and they were no where to be found!

I had to have my Mom buy some at a Utah local grocery store called Macey's, she brought them with her when she came down around Christmas. Even then I waited a few months before I made the bread. 

The recipe says to only add 1 cup of the cinnamon chips, I highly suggest only adding the 1 cup. I added the whole bag cause it is a smaller bag that maybe has a cup and a half of the chips. That 1/2 cup was an overload of the chips in  the bread. I liked the chips but I didn't like the bread loaded with them. 

I think this bread is best when warm from the oven, or I suggest warming it up before you eat it.

 Yum!

Great Harvest Cinnaburst Copycat Bread

1 cup warm water

1 cup warm milk 

1/3 cup sugar

2 1/4 teaspoon yeast (1 pack)

1/3 cup oil (I used veggie oil)

1/2 T salt

1 egg

4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup cinnamon chips

In mixer combine yeast, sugar, and warm water and milk; let bubble for about 5 minutes. 

Add in oil and egg. 

Slowly add 2 cups flour, mix and then add salt. 

Add 1/2 cup flour at a time until it comes away from side of bowl. Add the cinnamon chips when it gets close to the right consistency. The dough will be very sticky but the softer the dough the lighter the bread. So use the least amount of flour you can handle. 

Let rise in mixing bowl for about 30 minutes. 

Form into loaf (or whatever shape you want).

Let rise and additional 30 minutes. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. 

Makes 2 loaves

Recipe from: Rae Gun Ramblings

Craisin Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

One of the hubby's favorite T.V. quotes he says to me whenever I am going to make a salad is,

 "You don't make friends with salad! You don't make friends with salad!" 

Well I think if you serve this salad it will make you friends with whoever you serve it to!

My Mom had this at a luncheon at a neighbor's house a couple months ago. She served it to me when I went home in April. I have had it twice since then!

The craisins make the salad nice and sweet. The toasted almonds and cabbage give it a nice crunch.

The homemade poppy seed dressing goes nicely with it. I like to use my sister-in-law's Shelly's. Or if you don't have stuff to make the dressing on hand, Brianna's poppy seed dressing is a nice alternative.

These amounts for the salad are approximate for 1 dinner size salad--you can adjust amounts to your preference.

Craisin Salad

3/4 cup spinach

1/2 cup shredded cabbage

1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

1 Tbsp. craisins

1 Tbsp. sliced almonds, toasted (I just chopped up some almonds and toasted them)

3 Tbsp. poppy seed dressing

Mix all ingredients together. Serve. (Pretty simple, eh?)

Poppy Seed Dressing

1/2 C. sugar

1 T. grey poupon mustard

1/3 c. red wine vinegar

1 C. vegetable oil

1 T. poppyseeds

Mix. Serve immediately. Chill remaining dressing.

Recipe for salad from: Randi Rich

Recipe for dressing: Shelly Millgate

The Solar Eclipse From Our Back Deck

Dave took these pictures of the solar eclipse yesterday. Lubbock is suppose to be one of the best places to watch the eclipse, apparently the clouds didn't get the memo. Dave did get some pretty pictures though!

If you look very, very closely where the horizon meets the field you will notice the outline of the sun around the moon. The clouds were pretty much in the way the entire time. 

Still way cool though!

Melt In Your Mouth Biscuits

While my parents were in town, my Dad requested biscuits and gravy for breakfast. And I remember the biscuits my Mom use to make after we went on trip through mid eastern states. If I remember correctly if was when we stopped in Ohio. We stopped to visit where the Amish lived in the country side of Ohio. Beautiful place! The Amish, they are amazing people. 

And boy can they cook!

My little brother LOVED their homemade creamed corn! He couldn't get enough of it. 

My Mom picked up a cookbook at one of the stops and this biscuit recipe was in it. The best part, they are drop biscuits. I struggle just a tad when I have to roll out and cut out biscuits. I haven't perfected not over mixing them, they turn out tough and flat instead of light and fluffy like these biscuits do. 

Melt In Your Mouth Biscuits

2 cup flour 

4 tsp. baking powder 

½ tsp. cream of tartar 

½ tsp. salt 

2 Tbsp. sugar 

½ cup shortening 

1 egg 

2/3 cup milk 

Sift dry ingredients together and cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse meal. Pour milk in slowly. Add egg and stir well. Drop dough on a cookie sheet. Bake 10 – 15 minutes at 450.

Garlic Tomato Bruschetta

So since I love to eat bread, I love to find stuff that goes along with bread. Toasted bread that is, with olive oil. 

The first time I had this bruschetta our family was visiting some good friends in the neighborhood I grew up in. I lovingly refer to her as "Moose". That is a nick-name she acquired back in early days of Young Womens within my church. I won't go into too much detail about, it had something to do with a humanitarian project and a baby that looked "moosey" to her. 

She is by far one of the funniest people I know. She lives in Nevada now, and I live in Texas. Amazing how things can change. 

Anyway.....

This garlic tomato bruschetta is delicious! And with hot days approaching it is the perfect snack or appetizer for summer! 

I have tried to grow my own basil so I can have it on hand for recipes like this one, but sadly I am still working on acquiring a green thumb. They tend to die and I have been keeping them in the house. Any tips on how to grow herbs would be helpful!!

Garlic Tomato Bruschetta

1/4 cup olive or canola oil (I used olive)

3 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil

3 to 4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

4 medium tomatoes, diced

2 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

1 loaf (1 pound) unsliced French bread (I used baguettes)

In a bowl, combine oil, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Add tomatoes and toss gently. Sprinkle with cheese. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Bring to room temperature before serving. Cut bread into 24 slices; toast under broiler until lightly browned. Top with tomato mixture. 

Serve immediately.

Recipe from: Kalynn (Moose) Sedgwick

Catching Up!!

Hello!!

I feel like it has been forever since I have updated this blog. I like this blog, and normally I am pretty good at finding time to update it. Lately though it has been a little rough, hopefully that changes and I will stay up to date on it!

When I went home to Utah a few weekends ago, my Dad had seen on the news some girls that donated their hair to "Locks of Love". He thought I should do the same with my hair. I got to thinking about it, and decided I would do it!

Now I normally cut like 2 inches at the most off my hair when I get it cut. I had a bad haircut once in high school. So now it makes me nervous to do anything to my hair.

Before

I cut off 8 inches!! 

After

We had a pigeon hanging around our house for a couple of days. 

It was living under the back deck and then disappeared!!

The weekend of April 27 we went camping with our ward from Church. We went to a place called Caprock Canyon. It is about 2 hours northeast of here. It is a state park that has a buffalo herd that resides there. 

It was great to get out and go camping! We haven't gotten to go since we moved here, mainly because most places are 2 to 4 hours away. Not that that is a bad thing, it's just different since you in Utah you can be up American Fork Canyon in 45 minutes and up Little Cottonwood or Big in about 20 from where we lived. 

Cosmo was somewhat nice to people....

We go to get away from it all, but yet we got better cell phone reception camping then we do at our house.

Our tent for just the two of us! 

We like space. We later found a nasty ant hill right behind our tent. Luckily none of the ants got in.

We had yummy dutch oven chicken and dumplings for dinner!

Fishing, we didn't catch anything. Just drowned a couple worms.

Those little black dots by the water, those are buffalo. They came down to get a drink.



And of all the weird places to find a clam I found one in this tiny lake. 
And it was huge!!





I had Dave open it, I wanted to see how big the clam was inside.

Gross huh??
 This hasn't changed the fact that I like clam chowder, I'll still eat it. 
I showed it to all the kids they thought it was pretty cool!

Look at how low the lake is?! Can you tell we have been in a bit of a drought??


The buffalo, who needs Yellowstone?! Psh! 
(I do!! That is for sure!)


And last but not least, my parents came to visit this past weekend. They actually flew back home this morning. 
While they were here we got to celebrate Cinco De Mayo!

I found these mustaches with the Cinco De Mayo stuff at Hobby Lobby and when Dave and I came out with them on, my Dad said they look too French! 

All I can say is, we look good!