Braided King Cake

So you wanna make braided bread, huh?

After having made the king cake on a previous post, I got requests for how to make a braided bread. I wont go into the ingredients and how to mix and how long to rest and yada yada yada... The recipe for this cake can be found on this post. For this batch, I split the recipe into 2 separate cakes.

Instructions:

Go ahead and make the dough just like in the recipe.. when you have finished letting the dough rest for 1 1/2 hours disregard the next few steps about making a canoe shape and rolling your dough. At this point, You are going to punch down your dough and knead it for a bit.. I think 8 minutes.. Now, separate your dough in 3 balls. 

Now its time to go back to kindergarten and make dough worms. 

Flatten your worms into long strips. This is optional... But I like to have the cinnamon (or sometimes pumpkin pie spice or nutmeg) woven throughout the whole cake.

Next sprinkle seasoning on one side of your smushed worms. (you can also make a cinnamon paste with butter to spread inside too!)

At this point,  its time to seal your worms back up with their new yummy innards! 

(I just wanted to say innards)

Just pinch all along the edges until you have made a closed seam down the length of your dough worm.

 Next, you need to secure the ends of the 3 strands of dough. Simply pinch a small bit of each worm at the top to connect. Now we braid! If you don;t know how to braid...

There is an instructable here on wikihow, that will explain the process with the help of some visual aid.. (pictures )

Left over, right over, left over, right over, left over,  right over..... etc... Once you have completed your braid, pinch the two ends together to form a ring.

Ta da! You are so awesome! Look what we have created together!!! Actually, these cakes are alot more impressive after having baked them..  So how do we get to that point?... 

Eggs.

Remeber those five egg yolks you used to make this thing? Now you can use the whites to make your bread pretty.. Just paint some egg white over your dough before popping it in the oven. 

Mama says use 1 egg white and 1 tsp milk. I say.. just use the egg white.. Your choice. Not a big enough difference to me to be able to tell the difference...

ees preety, no?

ok.. Now Ta Da!!

And now you can dust with powdered sugar or make the icing as in the previous post.. I made these for others so I went ahead with all the festivities.. Minus the plastic baby.. Those are hard to digest.. :)

Wonderful! 

Now go get off the interwebs and have a marvelous Mardi Gras!  You deserve it after all that baking!

Lucky Black Eye Pea Recipe

Lucky Black Eyed Peas

Oh wow! This was such an amazing dish! I'm not even going to go into how all of the wonderful flavors from the pork fused seamlessly with the various home grown veggies to create a dish that was truly "comfort food."  I could, but I'm too excited to give you this recipe!!

Lucky Black Eyed Pea Recipe

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs       black eye peas (cowpea)

4 cups        organic chicken broth

1                ham hock 

bacon,       cooked and chopped  (how ever much is in one of those packages... sorry.. trash day.. :(

1& 1/2 tsp bacon grease (optional, but I couldn't help it.. Yumm!)

1 cup         chopped onion

3/4 cup      chopped celery

3 cloves garlic minced or dry equivalent

water          enough to make sure the beans are slightly covered

pepper 

The following are optional.. just ideas and suggestions. These were not included in the original recipe:

salt (remember, pork is salty)

bay leaf

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

First, you need beans that have been soaked.. BEP's can just about triple in size when soaked so just be aware. To soak there are 2 methods that I am aware of.:

1.) Put dry beans in large pot and cover with water at least 3 inches above the beans. Allow to soak overnight.

2.) Quick soak by putting dry beans in a large pot, filling (about 3 inches above the beans) with water, covering, and bringing it to a rolling boil. Allow to boil for 2-3 minutes (some say more, some say less..) and turn off the heat. Let beans soak for 1 hour and drain.

Now that you have your beans ready to go, its time for the hard part. 

Step one:

Put all that stuff into your crock pot.

Notice how the broth slightly covers the beans while cooking.

Step Two:

Set on high for 3 and a half  hours, cover.

Step Three: 

GO ENJOY THE NEW YEAR!  Yay! and in 3 and a half hours (or probably 6 on low) you'll have yourself some good new fashioned Black Eyed Peas!

Lucky Beans and Yarn

 Dried Black Eyed Peas in pod

I just learned of "an age old tradition" today... Something about Black eyed peas (cow-peas) bring good luck all year long if eaten on new years day. And now, all of a sudden, everywhere I look, people are talking about lucky beans. I hear about them on the radio, on forums/websites, chatting with neighbors, that sort of thing, you know?

HOW COULD  I HAVE MISSED THIS'!?!

In all my years of.. well, years... I have never heard of this lucky bean phenomena! So I got to thinking, Have I missed out on 28 years of good luck and fortune!?  I almost went as far as to find out how many beans i would have had to eat for said luck to be bestowed upon me.. But instead, I devised a plan! A plan to have a "Sorry I missed your day Day" complete with Black eyed peas and ham hocks! Brilliant.

So out to the garden I went and came back with boxes of dried black eyed peas to shell ( or shuck.. which is it?) First thing first.. Dried beans means before I can do anything with them, I have to rehydrate them. So, I am off to pour my beans into a big pot, cover them with filtered water, and let  them soak... and soak.. and soak.. 

I'll see you tomorrow with the recipe! I don't have one yet so, I'm thinking I'll take a bunch of recipes and combine the best parts of each and see what happens! 

And Yarn...

I made a scarf for a friend! hooray! I got this great pattern from Red Heart Free Patterns . I chose a grape color of  Red Heart's soft yarn collection... Its sooo soft and the color is so vibrant! And I lost the wrap for the white yarn.. but it was a soft yarn too in a creamy eggshell color. (Hello chicken friends! I know, chickens lay a rainbow of colors.) This was my first ever scarf and I think it turned out beautifully! I just had to share it!

Have a wonderful day!

Homemade Chicken and Dumplin's

Bubbly warm goodness still in the pot!

Nothing screams comfort food like Hot Chicken and Dumplings! There's been so much crazy weather lately that I got to feeling a little under the weather. I got this great idea from my Dear Hubby who asked for soup for his sore throat. This recipe for chicken and dumplings is not your "traditional" C&D. I was expecting a pretty creamy white sauce with tons of black pepper to "flavor"... This recipe calls for apple juice and waaay less pepper.. More my style.. a little sweet ;)

So heres what you do:... oh wait.. you probably need a grocery list first huh?..

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, chopped (add more...can never have too much garlic!)
1/4 cup apple juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
29 oz chicken broth (thats 2 of those 14 1/2 oz cans apparently)
10 3/4 oz  mushroom soup (1 can i think)
chicken ( i just use 1 breast and shred it but the recipe calls for 4 pounds. of skinned pieces)
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup water
2 tbs cornstarch

Dumplings
 2 cups baking mix
2/3 cup milk

Ok.. now heres what you do:

Heat a dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium high heat and add your chopped onion and garlic. Saute 5 minutes
Stir in Apple juice and the next 4 ingredients. Bring to a boil. (this is a good place to add any extra ingredients too... like carrots or celery...)

(to save time I cook my chicken seperately and shred it, then add it to the mixture... but the recipe says to do the following:)

Add chicken pieces. bring to boil. cover. reduce heat and simmer for 35 minutes until chix are tender.
Remove chix from cooking liquid. place in bowl and chill 15 minutes
remove chicken from bones and cut into bite sized pieces. add to pan. stir in peas.
(anothing thing i dont do is take the chicken out and chill it.. why do you think you are supposed to? does it make the chicken taste better?........ I add most all my ingredients  in and let it boil for 15 minutes or so.. whenever it starts to smell done....  its done)

combine water and corn starch and stir into mixture. stir well..

Dumplings:
Combine baking mix and milk. drop the dough into the chicken mixture to form about 16 dumplings. bring to simmer. cook 20 minutes. stir occasionally.  caver and cook for 10 minutes or until  the dumplings are done.
(you can also use those biscuits that come in the cans.. pop one can open and tear the biscuits in half, throw them in the pot and cook. I dont see the point in boiling or simmering for another 30 minutes after your soup has boiled and simmered for 40 minutes.. it makes for mushy veggies...the dumplings dont need to cook all that long.. maybe 10 minues or so.. )

Makes about 8 - 1 1/2 cup servings and 2 dumplings..

This recipe can be tweaked here and there.. if you follow my guidlines you can cut your cooking time for this in half... well i havent timed it... but sheesh! thats alot of simmering and waiting and ... blablabla...

Actually now that I have gone back and read that.. it looks like 2 different recipes mushed together.. Sorry! I just had alot of notes.. besides, it saves you the trouble of trial and error. :) Happy cooking!