Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Homespun Meal

Is there such a thing as a Homespun Meal? I don't know - but if there is, this is what would come to my mind! I was so excited to make a big and "old-fashioned" meal on Monday night - it was worth the effort!

Our Menu:
Cynthia's Roast Chicken (with rosemary from our yard)
Twice Baked Potatoes (I combined several recipes and came up with my own)
Steamed Zucchini
Homemade Dinner Rolls (new recipe)

The chicken just coming out of the oven:

And, ready to serve:
Twice Baked Potatoes: Wash and bake 2 potatoes on 400 for about one hour or until tender. Slice a small piece off the top side of one potato and scoop out all the insides.

Saute 2 Tbsp. butter and 2-3 Tbsp. fresh chopped onion. Mix cooked potato, butter and onion mixture, 1 1/2 slices cooked and crumbled bacon, scant 1/4 c. shredded cheese and about 2 T. whole milk. Blend with mixer or potato masher. Salt and pepper to taste.

Fill potato skins with mashed potato mixture and return to 350 oven for about 30 minutes. Top with shredded cheese and crumbled bacon if desired.

Dinner Rolls:

Perfectly Easy Dinner Rolls:
1 c. warm water
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. salt
4-4 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

Combine the warm water and yeast in a large bowl. Let the mixture stand until yeast is foamy, about five minutes.

Stir in butter, sugar, eggs and salt. Beat in flour, 1 c. at a time, until dough is too stiff to mix (I did not need all 4 1/2 cups). Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to four days.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide dough into 24 equal portions. Shape into a ball and place into greased 9x13 baking pan. Note: I froze most of mine on a tray with waxed paper to pull out and use in the future and only baked what we would eat last night or today)

Cover and let rolls rise until doubled, about one hour. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until rolls are golden brown. Break rolls apart and serve. Rolls will be fluffier in height if baked closer together - since I did not bake the whole batch, mine were a bit more spread apart and therefore spread out instead of up!

These were also delicious reheated the next morning with butter and apple butter on them! Yummy!

13 comments:

Wendi said...

I've been wanting to make some dough for the freezer. Impressive meal, looks delish!

Anonymous said...

Wow -- I wish I could have been at your house for dinner! Looks yummy! :)
Love you, Mom

theups said...

OH YUM YUM YUM!!! Everything looks SUPER delicious!!! Thank you for sharing the recipes!

His,
Mrs. U

Meredith said...

Now my mouth is watering uncontrollably...

Anonymous said...

My goodness, did you wear yourself out? That does look like a lot of hard work. Usually those meals turn out the best and are worth it!
Thanks for sharing! Hope your hubby helped clean up...

Andrea L.

*carrie* said...

Fancy shmancy. =) I've never thought to make twice-baked potatoes--may try these--without the bacon, of course!

Anonymous said...

I have been looking for easy roll reciepe. Can't wait to try it tonight. Every thing looks so yummy in your pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Dana a/k/a Sunshine said...

That chicken is a thing of beauty!!! Wow, beautiful meal.

kimi said...

you're making me hungry. looks fantastic! I bet your house smelled FANTASTIC!

Family W said...

Wow, it all looks so good.......thank you especially for the dinner roll recipe. I need all the help I can get in the area of biscuits and rolls! The last ones I made from scratch were awful!!

Anonymous said...

Monica, is there anything you can't do? I tell you, the big chickens intimidate me so I stick to boneless chicken breasts. I just got a $50+ Romentopf clay baker for $6 at Goodwill so I will have to get friendly with the boney chickens!
Your washcloths were so cute too! I am almost inspired to learn to crochet or knit; whatever the difference is.
Elise

Anonymous said...

Your recipe looks fantastic. I am going to post it on my blog with a link to your. thank you for your inspiration!!!
Indiana Country Girl
www.homesteadblogger.com/borncountry

Anonymous said...

Can the twice baked potatoes be frozen? Thx! They look sooo good.