Lickety-Split Pickled Beets

This recipe for pickled beets first came about at the Wednesday Community Meal during the summer of 2008 when a kind parishioner donated pounds and pounds of homegrown beets.

We were short on salad ingredients that Wednesday so I thought we could utilize the beets best if we pickled them. So we peeled, boiled and sliced the beets and then tossed them with white vinegar, salt and black pepper.

The guests, especially the older gentlemen like my good friend Roy, went crazy for them. I remember one man saying that the beets brought back memories of summers spent with his grandma.

There were of course a few, mostly younger guests, who were not so excited about the beets and didn't want to eat them. My guess is that they've just never tried them and don't know what they are missing.

Then in 2012, a new volunteer named Kate joined the Wednesday team. Kate who is a super gardener and cook taught me an even better way to cook whole beets.

Her method involves baking the beets in the oven instead of boiling which I think enhances the flavor of the beet and retains more of the nutrients. To put it simply, the beets just taste better and it's so simple to do — All you do is wash the beets, cut off the ends, wrap the whole beets in foil and bake them in a 350 degree oven for an hour. 

Wash the beets.

Lay two pieces of foil on a baking sheet. Two pieces will help ensure that beet juices don't leak out during baking.

Cut off the ends of the beets.

Set the beets on the foil.

Wrap the beets. As you can see I'm using a not so pretty baking sheet for this task. Bake the beets for 1 hour in a 350 degree oven.

After baking, let the beets cool for about 20 minutes in the foil and then all you have to do is use your fingers to rub off the skins. The skins come off easily and there is very little waste.

The skins come off so easily with your fingers. Notice the small pile of waste — This is such an efficient method.

Then you just need to slice the beets and toss them with vinegar, kosher salt and black pepper. And there you go, quick and delicious pickled beets to add to salads or to devour on their own. I absolutely love them and once I get going, it's hard for me to stop eating them.

Slice the beets

For four large beets, add 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper. I've also added fresh dill to the recipe and that's a very nice addition.

Delicious pickled beets ready to eat.

Easter Cinnamon Rolls

I made two recipes of Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls this morning. From one I got 80 of the smaller-sized rolls and from the other I got 24 of the giant-sized rolls.

I delivered a big batch of cinnamon rolls early this morning to my friend Pam who was at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Beaverton, getting ready to serve a special breakfast for the choir, bell choir, clergy and instrumentalists to enjoy between Easter morning services.

Pam had a large sunny room in the church all ready with place settings, living flower centerpieces, candy and baskets for the cinnamon rolls. It looked beautiful.

My recipe for buttermilk cinnamon rolls makes 24 giant-sized rolls but for Pam, I got 80 smaller-sized rolls out of one batch.

Of course I had to make two batches since my family would be very disappointed if they smelled cinnamon rolls but were told they couldn't have any.

Here is a side by side comparison of how I arranged the giant-sized and smaller-sized rolls on the sheetpans. A single recipe fills two sheetpans with the bigger rolls (24) or four sheetpans with the smaller rolls (80).

From start to finish the rolls took 3 1/2 hours to make. Here's a timeline in case you too want to make them and serve them at just the right moment, warm from the oven.

3:30 a.m  — Get out of bed and scald the quart of buttermilk.

3:45 a.m.  — The buttermilk has cooled enough so start making the dough.

4:15 a.m. — The dough is done, covered and rising.

5:15 a.m. —  Make the rolls.

6:00 a.m. — The rolls are rising.

6:30 a.m. — Bake the rolls.

6:50 a.m. — The rolls are out of the oven and it's time to make the frosting.

7:00 a.m. —  Frost the rolls and serve them warm!

And, here's the recipe for Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls:

Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls
(makes 24 giant cinnamon rolls)
Note - If you want to alter the recipe to make 80 smaller-sized rolls, divide the dough into fourths instead of half and shape each into an 8x20-inch rectangle. Top each rectangle with 1/4 of the butter and 1/4 of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Tightly roll the rectangles into a cylinder and cut 20 cinnamon rolls out of each. Bake the rolls 20 to a sheetpan for 10 to 12 minutes, switching the pans from the top and bottom racks midway through baking.

Dough:
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/3 cups canola oil
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoons salt
4 cups buttermilk, scalded and cooled
12 to 14 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in the water and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar, eggs and salt. Add the buttermilk and yeast mixture. Finally, add the flour, a cup at a time until a soft dough forms. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 to 7 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth. Place the dough in a large clean bowl and cover with a towel or plastic wrap.  Let the dough rise until is is double in bulk, about 1 hour.

Punch the dough down and divide it in half. Let the dough rest for a few minutes before rolling each half into a 12 x 17 inch rectangle.

Filling:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Optional: 1 1/2 cups raisins for the whole batch or 3/4 of a cup for half the batch

In a bowl, combine the sugars, cinnamon and raisins if desired.
Spread half of the butter evenly on each rectangle of dough and sprinkle with the sugar mixture covering the dough evenly and leaving a 1/2 inch line of uncovered dough at the top.

Roll the rectangle up tightly into a cylinder starting at the bottom. Pinch the edge to seal the cylinder closed.

Slice the cylinder into 12 rolls and place them evenly spaced on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet.

Repeat with the other rectangle of dough.

Cover the rolls loosely with plastic wrap and let them rise until the spaces between the rolls begin to fill in, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Bake both sheetpans of rolls at the same time in a 375 degree oven for 16 to 20 minutes, switching the pans between the top and bottom racks midway through to ensure even baking.

Let the rolls cool slightly before icing.

Icing:
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whip the cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and whip again. Finally add the milk and vanilla.

With a table knife or offset spatula, evenly ice the tops of the rolls before serving.

Easy Enchilada Sauce

A pan of enchiladas ready for the oven.

My daughter Eleanor loves it when I make enchiladas for dinner.

It's by far her most requested dish and I don't mind one bit because they are quick to make and everyone else in the family loves enchiladas too.

When I make them I usually take the easy route and make them "lasagna style" in the pan, alternating layers of tortillas and filling. I find this so much faster and just as good as making individually rolled enchiladas.

I recently mentioned to my friend Anne that Eleanor was getting ready to leave for a school trip to Japan and had requested a special family enchilada meal the night before her trip. I also mentioned that I always make my own enchilada sauce and she said "please put that recipe on the blog."

So here it is for Anne and for you, the tastiest and easiest enchilada sauce made with ingredients you probably already have on hand in your pantry.

Enchilada Sauce
1 28 oz can tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes (Note: Once I only had a single 12 oz can of tomato paste on hand — so I added water to thin it down to a sauce and it worked just fine.)
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
3 teaspoons cumin
4 teaspoons chili powder
2 tablespoons water

Add caption

Put all of the ingredients into a bowl, mix and that's all there is to it.

A Special Easter Lunch

Today's lunch.

We celebrated Easter a few days early at The Wednesday Community Meal by serving a special lunch of glazed ham, mashed potatoes with country gravy, green beans with caramelized onions and soft dinner rolls.

Volunteer Charyl brought flowers and candy for the tables. We wanted our guests to feel treated and know that this was a special Easter meal planned just for them.

The glazed spiral-cut hickory-smoked hams were a huge hit.

Vounteer Davis was on ham carving duty today and did a great job.

But that's not all, we also had soup, salad and chocolate chip cheesecake for dessert. Needless to say our guests were very very happy.

Volunteers Linda and Mary Ann adding slices of fresh strawberries to the mini chocolate chip cheesecakes.

The guest loved the cheesecakes. Volunteer Cheryl baked every single one of them and brought them to the meal.

We were also lucky to have some extra help from 18 8th graders from the Creative Science School. The young workers sure impressed all of us regular volunteers with their energy, willingness to help and hard work. But what I love the most is that they were kind and caring to our guests and took turns sitting down to eat and visit with them.

Calvin and Casey eating lunch with our guests.

The dish washing crew lead by Dave was very happy to have the help of Alex and McKenzie today.

Ruby and Jem were pros in the kitchen. Ruby served drinks and Jem ladled on gravy and passed plates to the dining room servers.

It was a busy but very satisfying day. We served 420 meals today and hopefully made a difference in our community.

Cookie Tags

A sweet way to finish off a packaged cookie is with a ribbon-tied gift tag.

Of course you can buy gift tags at craft and paper supply stores but I prefer to make them myself using paper punches. The punches are a one time purchase and with them I can make as many tags as I like. Purchased tags are not cheap.

You can use paper punches that actually punch out the entire tag or you can use punches that add decorative edges to tags you cut.

My two tag punches.

My scalloped edge punch.

I used the latter for my recent batch of Double Decker Bunny Cookies for Easter. I found the scalloped edge punch on sale at Michael's Arts & Crafts for $5.

Here's how:

Get your supplies together — (clockwise from the top) a hole punch, ribbon and scissors, paper for the tag, decorative edge paper punch, ink pen for writing on the tag and a decorated cookie wrapped in a cellophane bag.

Line up your paper in the punch. You can see exactly how the paper is aligned if you check the guide on the bottom of the punch. Be sure to start with an evenly cut piece of paper.

The punch finishes off 2.5 inches of paper at a time.

Keep aligning and punching until you have one entire edge done. Then repeat with the second edge.

Cut your tag to the desired size.

Add writing, a hole in the top corner and the tag is ready to be tied on. To attach the tag, punch another hole in the cellophane cookie bag, thread your ribbon through both and tie a bow.

Double Decker Bunny Cookies

Arranged on a platter or individually wrapped and tucked into an Easter basket, either way these Double Decker Bunny Cookies are irresistible.

To make them, bake an equal number of small bunny cookies and large plain shaped cookies that will be used as the bases.

I found my small bunny cookie cutter at the The Decorette Shop here in Portland, but you can easily find similar cutters online. Just make sure to get a mini bunny cutter so that you don't have to make giant cookies for the base.

I added dots to some of the base cookies using the wet-on-wet technique. And, I kept some of them a single solid color just for variation and to add interest.

Here's how I made them:

I outlined all of the base cookies with white royal icing using a #2 tip and left them to dry for 30 minutes.

I then filled in the base cookies with flood consistency icing using a #2 tip.

After flooding, I immediately added white dots to some of the cookies using the same white icing I used for outlining. After all of the base cookies are decorated, leave them to dry completely. This takes about 8 hours.

Outline the bunny cookies using medium consistency royal icing and a #1 tip.

Using the same icing, immediately fill in the outline.

Use a skewer or scribe tool to move the icing to fill in the gaps.

Give the cookie a gently shake and leave it to dry.

Once the icing is dry, add a dot of pink icing for the nose and a blob of stiff icing for a fluffy tail. I didn't even use a pastry bag to add the icing to the tail. I just took a small spoon and dabbed it on.

Also add a tiny dot of black icing for the eye. Wait until everything is dry before assembling the double-decker cookie.

To assemble, add a blob of stiff icing to the back of the bunny. Keep it in the center so that it doesn't squish out too much when you press it onto the base cookie.

Set the bunny on its base cookie and gently press. Wait for the royal icing "glue" to  dry completely before serving or packaging.