Annual repost of "Nut Roll with a Side of Fairy Tale" and Happy Advent!

Hello, Yankee Belle Cafe! The Fresh Pioneer is back and it's time for the annual reposting of the a delicious recipe. It's traditional for Christmas time AND it comes with a love story. (You know how much I enjoy a good love story.) This one definitely falls into the genre of fairy tale, and if you've read many fairy tales you'll see why. 

(book carving art by Su Blackwell)

 Once upon a time there was a happy young family. A mother and a father, two little boys, and a village where nothing very exciting happened, except all the small events in life that make living worthwhile. Seasons passed peacefully. 

(Su Blackwell)

Then a brutal civil war began and the young father was drafted into the army.

(Credit: Su Blackwell)

The unthinkable happened. The young mother was left to care for her little boys alone. 
The war raged on.

                                            (credit: Su Blackwell)
Across the sea there lived a man who lived a quiet life in a peaceful part of the world. His children were grown and off on their own adventures.The man heard about the war. He knew what it was like to grow up without the things a boy might need, so he decided to become a benefactor.

 An organization paired him with the little family. He sent money to help with school supplies and clothes... and he wrote letters.The young woman spoke no English, but she had a small dictionary. She worked hard to decipher the letters and craft a response. This went on for many years. The boys grew older. The war eventually ended. The pair  continued to write. The man asked the woman if she would come visit America and at first, she declined. It was too far, too scary, and she had never really traveled before. 

(credit: Su Blackwell)

But the young boys were eager to see the new land and finally their mother agreed to a short visit.

(themeparkinsider.com)

 There were many strange and mysterious things in this land. Like lime jello. And self-locking doors. And cheese that went in the fridge. But the strangers had one thing in common.

(Credit: Su Blackwell)

Two continents and an ocean apart, their faith was the same. They all enjoyed the lazy summer days. A few short weeks and it was time for the woman and her sons to return home to their own land. 

(istockphoto.com)

And the man's heart was empty and sad.

So he asked the woman to marry him, to come live forever in the land far, far away. Like any good mother, she first wanted to ask her sons. They all agreed it was a fine idea. 

(fancyscripts.com)

Oh, wait. The nut roll! We've forgotten the nut roll. I got so excited about the fairy tale, I forgot the food.
So, Nada Belavic is the brave young woman who took a leap of faith and ended up over here married to the old, cranky-pants man (hi, Dad!). That was many years ago, when I was just graduating from college. She introduced us to all her delicious Croatian recipes and in turn, we introduced her to lime Jello. (I know she's very grateful about the Jello. She hasn't said so, but I believe it.)

 Isn't that the cutest apron? Her sister gave it to her before she came to this country. Adorable.

 Now, my husband is a huge fan of Nada's nut roll. I'm afraid if it came down to me or the nut roll, I might have to fend for myself. So, in the interests of preserving my marriage, I asked Nada to teach me how to make this delicious dessert.

 She took one of her few days off from her job as a nurse to come over and tutor me in the mysteries of nut rolls. (Right, she not only moved to a faraway land, but learned English, homeschooled her sons (who are now college graduates with their own families) and went to college, too. Overachiever alert!)

We have an abundance of walnuts (unleashing my inner squirrel this fall gave us close to twenty pounds) so I have the kids shell and then I grind them up. You'll need a lot, close to four cups.

Nada says it's probably a traditional recipe for the Christmas season because the nuts are readily available, and it also gets dark so early. What can you do but sit around the fire and shell walnuts? This dish is usually reserved for feast days and New Year's.

 4 c. flour sifted (I don't usually sift the flour, but it makes this a lot easier if you don't have to work out the lumps)

2 tsp salt

2 tsp yeast

2 1/2 tbs sugar

1c. lukewarm milk

1/4 cup water

So, make a well with the flour, and add in the center the first four ingredients. Then gradually add in the milk and water, stirring with a fork as you go.

In the center, add one beaten egg and 1 tsp of grated lemon peel. (A small person has come to watch the proceedings. He's thinking this might turn into something delicious... soon.)
 Add 2 tbs oil to the mix.

Keep mixing until the dough has formed. There might be some flour left over. Not too sticky, not too stiff. (Hey, that's a different small person. They're invading.)

Now, leave the dough for about five minutes in a warm place. 

Knead it until it looks glossy. Put in a clean, greased bowl, let rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size..

                                                           Oooooh, fluffy!

Now, we take our walnuts and add 3/4 c sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and a 1/2 c of boiled milk.  Mix it together, make sure it's not too wet or too dry. It should be like a paste.

Divide the dough into two generally even balls. Roll one out, like so. Add the nut mixture on top, smoothing evenly to the sides in one layer.

Roll the dough and the nut mixture up together, just like a cinnamon roll. Put it in a greased pan. repeat with the other small ball of dough and the remaining nut mixture. let it rise in a warm place for about 20 minutes, checking every five. Depending on the weather, it can rise nicely in ten minutes or take the whole 20.
Preheat the oven to 350F while the rolls are rising. 

Ready for the oven!

While it was rising, Nada decided my sink needed to be uncluttered. Too many dirty dishes. How's that for a good guest? She makes nut roll AND does dishes! This is probably the cleanest my sink has been for weeks. Score!

So, it took about thirty minutes, but you 'll want to check on them often after about twenty. They need to puff, but not burn the tops. Sometimes the top can be hard and crusty, and a bit of butter melted on it will solve that problem. But it seemed to be just soft enough so I skipped the butter part.

I sliced them, sprinkled on a little powdered sugar, and laid them out on the table. Aren't they glorious?? They're called orehnjača and they're delicious!

The children are ready to sample this midwinter feast! (No, the baby doesn't get the coffee. That's mine.) Our Advent wreath is lit, with a special candle in honor of Medjugorje, the pilgrimage site in Nada's country of Croatia. Did you wonder about her name? It means HOPE. How's that for perfect?

This tale has a happy ending, but it started with tragedy, something we've all felt deeply the past week.  We're saying many prayers for those families dealing with unimaginable loss this Christmas. May they know God's healing, comfort and peace. 
   Dođi, Gospodine Isuse!  Come Lord Jesus!

I hope you enjoyed this post! Feel free to drop by my facebook page at Mary Jane Hathaway, at my blog The Things That Last, or over on Huffington Post Books for my latest post "38 Best First Lines in Ya Books" Stay tuned for the romance version! 

See you all next week!

Making Chocolates, Oh My!

with Missy Tippens

I recently made chocolates for my husband's co-workers and thought I'd share with y'all. They turned out soooo yummy.

I started with Mindy's recipe for Chocolate Peanut Bliss: click here. But I doctored it up, mainly to make it stretch further.

1 pack vanilla almond bark

1 pack chocolate almond bark

1 pack (4 oz) Baker's German Sweet Baking Bar (I'm convinced this is the secret ingredient making it so yummy)

1 bag semi-sweet chips (12 oz)

1 bag butterscotch chips (12 oz I think)

32 oz. dry roasted peanuts

½ of a large bag Chow mein noodles

Chop the chocolate bark and bar. This was taking me forever, so I just started digging the tip of the knife into the chocolate to break it up in chunks.

Toss all the chocolate into the Crock Pot. I turned it on high to start the warming but then turned it down to low.

While the chocolate melted (stirring occasionally), I gathered the other ingredients along with my silicone baking sheets and parchment paper.

When the chocolate was melted, I used a whisk to smooth it out (some of the chips didn't want to melt really well).

Once smooth, stir in the nuts and noodles. Then spoon onto the paper/silicone mats and let sit until hardened. This step took a couple of hours, so be sure to leave time--especially if you're planning to pack them up as a gift.

These are definitely something kids can help make. I guarantee everyone will love them!

Now, to share some funnies that I saw at Cracker Barrel the other night. These are so ME! :)

HAHAHA!!! I love that last one. It's my new motto to my children. :)

Happy Christmas preparation, everyone! I hope you enjoy the time with friends and family. And also remember the Reason for this season.


www.missytippens.com

Christmas party Extravaganza!

You know what happens when you clean for a party and clean the house as if no one really lives there?

Well, little silver cameras disappear!

But that's okay, I paint pictures with words for a living, so here we go:

Our Herne Family Christmas party....

SO MUCH FUN!!!! And I don't have pics until someone sends me some, but we had a ball.

I love family gatherings, I love seeing brothers and sisters, nieces, nephews, grandbabies, and for some siblings, great-grand-babies! How fun is that????

Everyone brings a dish to pass, which equates way too much food, and yet, we managed to go through a lot of food, and a lot of fun!

My sister-in-love Linda and brother Sean brought a ginormous kettle of meatballs and sauce, Sean is famous for his meatballs and this is a family tradition.... and a pot of pasta, with more meatballs and sausage and deliciousness!

Peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake???? I can't even!!!!

Rye boat, an antipasto style meat and cheese tray, and my nephew Joe brought down the kid side of the house with an amazing tray of chicken tenders, boneless Buffalo chicken wings and popcorn chicken: Can you say happy kids???? And he brought his toddler son, Sean Joseph who is the third Sean in our family! #lovefamilynames

Famous Blodgett family punch, from Betty Crocker: (three batches made and enjoyed!)

1 12 oz. can frozen orange juice thawed
6 oz. (half a 12oz. can) frozen lemonade, thawed
1 quart apple juice
1 2 liter bottle of ginger ale, chilled
1 quart of rainbow sherbet

Stir apple juice, thawed orange juice concentrate and lemonade concentrate in big punch bowl. Once blended, pour in ginger ale. Scoop sherbet onto the punch and watch it fizz!!! This was originally "Floating Island Punch" in the Betty Crocker Recipe Card library from decades ago. We upped the amount of o.j. from the original recipe, but other than that it has stayed the same and been a crowd pleaser at every kind of party!

This picture was from our "Fight Like a Girl" party for my buddy Lisa as she fought breast cancer. Her daughter Taylor wanted to plan a party in her mom's honor... and we were honored to help!

We're gearing up for "Bake a Memory" day at Grammy's house this Saturday.... cookies and crafts, keeping Christmas simple. :)

But you can't get any more simple or more beloved than this new arrival at the family parties:

Skyline Chili Dip!

1 can Skyline Original Recipe Chili (I order it from Amazon, link is embedded!)
8 oz Cream cheese, softened
About a cup of shredded sharp cheese, more or less, more is never bad, right?

Spread cream cheese in small baking dish (a pie pan works great)
Pour chili over cream cheese
Sprinkle generously with sharp cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes.

Serve with Frito Scoops or Tostito scoops, and you will have a very happy party crew!

No after pic even though I've made this 3 times in the past month. It is a ridiculously marvelous new fave!

And then there's this, our tradition of laying our good deeds at the feet of our Savior:

Every time a child does something kind or thoughtful or giving, they get to lay a piece of yarn in the waiting manger. When baby Jesus arrives, his bed is warmed by good deeds. :)

And Mary and Joseph are trekking around the room, on their journey to Bethlehem. ETA: Christmas Eve!

I love Christmas, but I love the preparatory time best of all, the season of Advent, of preparing the way, like John did, in the desert....

God bless us, everyone!

Multi-published author Ruthy Logan Herne loves God, Christmas, Eggnog, Chocolate, Coffee... Oh, wait, that should read God, family, country... and then the food, LOL! But there are days when chocolate and coffee rank pretty high!

Come to facebook and friend Ruthy because she loves to chat over there and stop by Ruthy's Website to see what's goin' on and what's coming up!

An Accidental Delight

Caveat: this meal is brought to you courtesy of some nasty grapes.

I love red grapes and lately I've been eating a lot of them. They're a great natural way of keeping your blood pressure down! And all those antioxidants! Honestly, I just feel so virtuous when I'm snacking on them.



So last week, I bought a big bag of organic ones. I was so excited to have them to snack on while I wrote.



Alas, they had some nasty muck on them.

It might have been mold. It might have been dirt. But the thought crossed my mind that it could also be bird poop, so there was no way I could enjoy them.

But waste not, want not.

So I decided to roast them after thoroughly washing!


I put a little coconut oil in a baking dish and put the washed grapes in it in a hot oven.

They were okay, but a little sweet.

So then I had this brainstorm.

I needed lunches for work, so I made a pot of brown rice and cooked another pot full of sprouted lentils. 
I added some garam masala. 

I added turmeric to the rice, but I don't recommend it. Pretty but the flavor was overwhelming.

When the rice and lentils were done, I mixed them together and added in the grapes.

Delicious!

 
The grapes were the perfect counterpoint to the rice/lentils mix. It tasted great warm and it also tasted terrific chilled.

I sprinkled some toasted almonds on top!

Chocolate Crinkles - Revisiting Childhood Memories

I've always loved food. And I've always had a sweet tooth. My mom was never a big baker, so when I was about ten, I decided to try my hand at baking. Probably because I wanted something sweet and there wasn't a cookie or treat anywhere in the house. 

I remember the first cookies I made were from a Girl Scout cookbook. I have no idea where that recipe is today. All I remember is that it was for chocolate chip cookies and included a box of cake mix. I thought they were the best cookies in the world.

So I guess my love of collecting recipes began at a relatively young age, though many of those early recipes have disappeared. Over the years, I've recalled a recipe called Chocolate Crinkles and wondered why I hadn't saved it. Or figured it had been lost in one of our many military moves years ago. So imagine my delight when I was going to through a stack of my mom's recipes and found that recipe card I'd hand-written at twelve years of age.

Last Tuesday was my friend, Drenda's, annual cookie exchange. Yes, I know I've been talking about it for weeks. Well, as soon as I found this recipe, I knew what I was taking.

Let's gather our ingredients.

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable/canola oil

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. baking powder

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup confectioners/powdered sugar

Okay, let's start with that chocolate.

This is what you'll be looking for at the store. And it's a 4 oz bar, so that works out perfectly.

Chop it up to aid the melting process, then you can either melt it in the microwave in 30 second intervals or on the stove over low heat.

Once the chocolate is melted, set it aside to cool.

Once it's cooled, mix together the chocolate, sugar, oil and vanilla.

Blend in the eggs, one at a time.

Next, sift together your flour, baking powder and salt and slowly add to the chocolate mixture.

Don't be alarmed when your cookie dough looks more like a really thick cake batter.

We're going to cover this with plastic wrap and pop it into the refrigerator for 3 hours.

I press the plastic wrap against the batter so it won't dry out.

After three hours, your batter-like cookie dough looks like this.

Stiff and smooth. All of the sugar granules have dissolved.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Form dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. 

Roll balls in confectioners sugar.

Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet.

I ended up with somewhere between 5 and 6 dozen ball/cookies, so be prepared.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set.

And voila!

Aren't they pretty? 

I will confess that they didn't taste quite as good as I remembered. Actually, they taste a lot like brownies. And my guys had no complaints. One even asked if he could take some to his friends. 

But I guess my taste buds have become more refined over the years, so next time I'm going to make one slight tweak.

Cinnamon.

Yep, next time I'm going to add a teaspoon or so of cinnamon to ramp up that chocolate flavor.

Now it's your turn. How old were you when you starting cooking/baking? 

Did you have a favorite recipe? Do you still have/make it today?