Apple Bread

Image to follow shortly.  I can't find it.

3 cups flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups apples, peeled and chopped

1. 
   
   Preheat oven to 325.  Grease the bottoms only of two loaf pans.
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Beat the eggs.  Add the vegetable oil, sugar and vanilla to the eggs, and mix until well incorporated. Incorporate the flour mixture into the eggs mixture until just blended.  Fold in the apples. Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans.
   
   
   
4. 
   
   Bake for 75 minuts or until a toothpick inserted deeply into the center of the bread comes out clean.
   
   
   

THINGS I CHANGED:

• 
  
  Okay, I need to be honest here.  This is NOT a new recipe for my family.  I've been making this bread since last fall when I discovered it online somewhere.  I keep losing it, so I'm putting it here so that I won't lose it again.
  
  
  
• 
  
  I used a Pampered Chef spice called Cinnamon Plus instead of regular cinnamon, which I am out of.  Cinnamon Plus also has allspice and a few other spices.  It's good stuff.
  
  
  

WHAT I LEARNED:

• 
  
  I know that this is a great recipe.  I didn't learn anything from this particular baking, but I will tell you that few recipes fill your house with a better scent than this bread baking does.
  
  
  

OVERALL OPINIONS:

This is a household favorite.  We pick apples every fall at a local orchard, and I must make thirty loaves throughout the fall and winter.  We really enjoy it.

Orange Honey Cracked Wheat Bread

1 1/3 cups unsweetened orange juice

1/4 cup nonfat dry milk

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup liquid honey

2 tbsp shortening or vegetable oil

3 3/4 cups bread flour

2/3 cup cracked wheat

2 tsp orange zest

1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

1. Measure ingredients into baking pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Insert pan into the oven chamber.
2. Select Basic Cycle.

Recipe from 250 Best American Bread Machine Baking Recipes.

THINGS I CHANGED:

• More orange zest.  I don't know how much more because I didn't measure it.  I zested two oranges into the pan.  I'm a big fan of orage and orange zest.  Mmmm...

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Honey is a really good sweetener for bread machine bread.  There's no sugar in this recipe, but the bread was insanely good and very soft.  My bread machine breads are sometimes a little dry, but this was really enjoyable without anything on it.

OVERALL OPINIONS:

We all liked it.  I ate mine without butter, as did Emma.  Bill and Georgia had a little bit of butter on theirs.  As far as bread machine bread goes, this is very moist, favorful bread.  I'll make it again for certain.

The Best Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

Chocolate chip cookies are hard to photograph.

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 cups butter, softened

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 (3.4 oz) pkgs instant vanilla pudding mix

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sift together flour and baking soda; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonsful onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/.  Search soft chocolate chip cookie recipe.

THINGS I CHANGED:

• Because this is from a recipe posting forum, I read some of the suggestions.  The first suggestion recommended adding 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 2 tbsp vanilla.  I did that.
• This is a huge recipe. Anyone who does any cookie baking at all who sees a recipe that begins with 4 1/2 cups of flour knows that the recipe will make a TON of cookies.  I didn't need that many, so I halved it.  I also halved the additional recommended ingredients above.  It still made about four dozen 1 tbsp-size cookies.
• I didn't need to bake them a full ten minutes.  Nine minutes was enough.
• As always, I did NOT add the optional nuts.  Ick.
• A recipe footnote says that you can use any flavor of pudding mix.  I used French vanilla because that's what I had.  It was good.  I wonder if banana would be good...
• I changed the name of the recipe.  These are seriously the best soft chocolate chip cookies I have ever made, so I wanted the title to reflect that.  I left them out all night on the cooling rack, and they were still as soft and delicious the next morning as when they came out of the oven.  Amazing.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Pudding is the best baking softener ever.  I use it in cakes regularly to make them super soft and moist, but I've never used it in cookies.  It was actually the use of pudding mix that made me choose this recipe when I was searching for soft chocolate chip cookie recipes.  I knew it would work.
• Online forums are awesome.  Always read the comments.  The comments will tell you if there's anything missing or an easier way to do it or if the recipe is any good.  I might not read directions very carefully, but comments I always read.
• Even though the recipe makes an obscene number of cookies, I do believe that I'll be making the full recipe as often as I can.  The cookies were so good that we went through them all in two days.

OVERALL OPINIONS:

Everyone in the family liked these.  Loved them, really.  In fact, no one outside of the family got to try them because they were gone so fast.  The dough is excellent, too, so if you're a fan of cookie dough (and willing to risk whatever poisoning may occur from the raw eggs), you'll have a hard time keeping your hands out of the batter.  This is now my go-to cookie recipe.  Absolutely amazing.

Stuffed Baked Chicken Breasts

1 pkg. Lipton vegetable soup mix

1 1/2 c. water

1/2 c. uncooked regular rice

1 sm. clove garlic, chopped fine

1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1 ten-oz. pkg spinach, cooked and squeezed dry

1/2 c. shredded mozzerella cheese

1/2 med. tomato, coarsely chopped

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts

1. 
   
   In a medium saucepan, blend vegetable soup mix with water. Bring to a boil, and stir in uncooked rice.  Simmer, covered, 20 minutes or until tender.
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Stir in remaining ingredients except chicken; set aside.
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Preheat oven to 350.
   
   
   
4. 
   
   With a sharp knife, parallel to cutting board, make deep 3-inch long cut in the center of each chicken breast half to form a pocket. Evenly stuff pockets with rice mixture.
   
   
   
5. 
   
   In lightly greased baking dish, arrange chicken and bake uncovered, basting occassionally, 40 minutes or until done. If desired, sprinkle with paprika.  Makes 8 servings.
   
   
   

Recipe from The Meals on the Bus Go Round and Round: Favorite Recipes Collected by the Merrillville Transportation Department.

CHANGES I MADE:

• 
  
  I'm not sure what the recipe write meant by regular rice, but I used Minute Rice brown rice.  A-OK.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Again, unsure of exactly what the recipe writer meant, I didn't cook the spinach.  I just thawed it, rinsed it, and squeezed it as dry as I could.  It was fine that way.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Half a tomato didn't seem like enough, so I used the whole thing.  I like tomatoes.
  
• I pressed the garlic with my garlic press rather than chopping it.  That way, my fingers don't stink like garlic for three days.
  
  
  

THINGS I LEARNED:

• 
  
  Recipe writers in cookbooks are much more precise with instructions.  That must be why they get paid.  :)
  
  
  
• 
  
  There were not eight servings here.  I don't know if chickens have grown exponentially since 1999 when this cookbook was put together, but there were only three chicken breast halves in the 2-lb package I bought.  I trimmed the flappy part off to make three additional smaller portions (perfect for the girls or second helpings), but there were not eight servings.
  
  
  
• 
  
  There was a lot of leftover stuffing.  I put it in the fridge, hoping I can find a use for it in a day or so before it goes bad.
  
  
  

OVERALL OPINIONS:

Bill:  Liked it a lot.  Had seconds.

Emma:  Liked it, but ate around a lot of the stuffing.  She ate some of the stuffing, but she avoided as much as she ate.

Georgia: Really enjoyed the chicken.  I think she may have accidentally gotten some of the stuffing, too, but she avoided it almost entirely.

Me:  Mmmmm...  It was really good.