Blackberry Jam

Blackberry cooked jam

Ingredients

4 cups crushed berries
7 cups sugar
1 pouch CERTO pectin
1/2 tsp butter


Directions

1. Bring boiling-water pot, half-full with water, place jars mini 8 or large 4 in boiling water with lids.
2. Crush berries.
3. Sieve 1/2 of the berries to remove some seeds place together with unsieved berries in a pot.
4. Add 7 cups of sugar and stir
5. Add 1/2 tsp butter stir
6. Place pot on stove bring to a rolling boil on high heat. (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred)
7. Stir in pectin quickly. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 min. stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Remove any foam from top.
8. Remove hot boiling jars and lids with a metal tongs.
9. Funnel quickly into hot jars place lids on top.
10. Flip upside down for 10 min. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. (If lid springs back, lid is not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.) Unopened jam can be stored in a cool, dry, dark place up to 1 year. Refrigerate opened jams and jellies up to 3 weeks.


potato masher works great to crush berries

The sugar is what makes the jam taste so good!


Don't forget to flip the jars upside down.

The final product. Now we can enjoy pb and j's, rolls, toast, and maybe saltine crackers with this jam. I would have to say that I'm so happy to be done with the no sugar diet. It was too hard to resist sweets at this holiday. Sugar cookies will be next. :)

Razz

Razzmataz smoothie

2-3 cups frozen raspberries

1 vanilla light yoplait

around 3 cups 1% milk

1 tbsp honey

Mix all ingredients in blender. Pour in cup and spoon away or sip away whatever you prefer. This smoothie has a lot of raspberries which gives it a great flavor without sugar. I am on a no sugar spell for a month, half way there. This smoothie fills any sugar craving.

I got half way done and realized granola would be good in it. I would rather have the smoothie without. It is always fun to experiment. This granola is vanilla almond granola from whole foods. Its on sale for 2.99 lb.

*note: adjust raspberries and milk to consistency you like.

ROLLS!

(picture taken from my husbands new phone, EVO)




LION HOUSE DINNER ROLLS

2 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup butter, shortening, or margarine
1 egg
4½ to 5 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
½ cup butter, melted

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine water and dry milk powder, stirring until milk dissolves. Add yeast, then sugar, salt, butter, egg and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on low speed until ingredients are wet. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups flour; mix on low speed until ingredients are wet, then for 2 minutes at medium speed. (Dough will be getting stiff, and remaining flour may need to be mixed in by hand.) Add remaining flour, ½ cup at a time, and mix again until dough is soft, not overly sticky, and not stiff. (It is not necessary to use the entire amount of flour.)

Scrape dough off sides of bowl and pour about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil all around sides of bowl. Turn dough over in bowl so it is covered with oil. (This helps prevent dough from drying out.) Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 1½ hours. Sprinkle cutting board or counter with flour and place dough on floured surface. Roll out and shape as desired. Place on greased or parchment-lined baking pans. Cover lightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm place until rolls are doubled in size, about 1 to 1½ hours.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter while hot. Serve with Honey Butter or Raspberry Honey Butter. Makes 1½ to 3 dozen rolls, depending on shape and size of rolls.

You can also freeze shaped rolls for later use: Simply double the amount of yeast used when making dough. After the first rise, shape the rolls but do not rise again. Instead, place rolls on a baking sheet and immediately place in freezer. When dough is frozen solid, remove rolls from pan and place in a plastic bag, squeeze excess air out of bag and seal. Rolls can be frozen for 3 weeks.
— "Lion House Bakery"

Thank you mormontimes.com for this recipe. I am a huge fan of these rolls. They are way addicting, you can't just have one. We added the last bit of homemade rasberry jam on the rolls. When we ran out of jam we used honeybutter. I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. I will definitely be making these again. I'm so relieved to find a roll recipe that works!

sidenote - use a food thermometer for the water temperature. Also I used a muffin tin.

Cream Puffs

Ingredients

1 c heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

a pinch of sprinkles on top

1/2 c water

1/4 c butter

1/2 c flour

2 eggs

Directions

Boil water and butter together until butter is melted. Add flour all at once. Cook and stir with wooden spoon until mixture pulls away from sides of pan. The dough will form a ball/lump in middle of pan. Remove from heat. Add eggs and beat with mixer until smooth and velvety. Drop by tablespoon onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 min. at 450 degrees oven. Then turn oven down to 250 degrees and cook 30 min. more. Temperature varies with different ovens.

Cool then cut tops off with sharp knife (bread knife) fill with whipping cream. Then top it off with whipping cream and some colorful sugary sprinkles.

*Note-When making whipping cream make sure your bowl and mixer is pre-cooled.

At our wedding my husband suggested one thing and it was cream puffs. It is a family favorite.

PASTA TIME! mamma mia

2 cups flour

2 eggs
1 T EVOO
2 T water
pinch of salt

mix, then knead on flour surface for a few min.
roll dough out with rolling pin
place in pasta maker let it do its magic
only cook for 5 min.

Grill some chicken strips
season with salt and peppa
alfredo on top and Voila


This is really easy but time consuming, but so much better fresh! Enjoy!

Who ate the cookies from the cookie jar? NOT ME...

Ingredients

• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put flour, salt, and cinnamon in a food processor; process until walnuts or pecans are finely chopped, about 1 minute. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle, cream butter and 1 cup confectioners' sugar on medium until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add vanilla and mix until combined. Mix on low until dough just comes together.
4. Roll dough into twenty 1 1/2-inch balls; place on ungreased baking sheets, spaced 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball slightly with your palm.
5. Bake cookies until lightly browned around the edges, about 25 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to a wire rack; let stand until cool enough to handle.
6. Place remaining 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar in a medium bowl. Roll warm cookies in sugar, reserving any remaining sugar. Return cookies to baking sheets. Let cookies cool 15 minutes, and roll again. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

I had a craving for these cookies. My mother would make these mexican wedding cookies when I was growing up. They are delish! By the way, it was me who stole ALL the cookies.