Homemade English Muffins

Okay, so some of you may be wondering why I would go through all the hassle of making my own English muffins when I can buy them at the store. First, these are NOT a hassle to make, they are very easy. Second, I am trying to eat more natural foods and "clean" up my diet as well as my husbands. I've been looking at the foods that we most often eat and I have been trying to make them myself from "scratch" to avoid extra fillers and chemicals. Half of you probably think I am crazy right now and I already know I will be receiving a phone call from my best friend to tell me as much. :-)  I have been reading a  ton of the food labels in my house over the past month and I am truly shocked by all the ingredients in my food that I put into my body that I cannot even attempt to pronounce. I have decided that I want to know what's in my food, where it comes from, and be able to pronounce without saying words that are 6+ syllables.  I noticed that my husband and I eat a lot of bread. He eats English muffins every morning for breakfast and I often eat them for lunch. My husband eats a lot of sandwiches. Bread is a huge component to our diet and I'm sure if you evaluated your diet as well, you would notice that you ate a lot of bread. Many store bought breads contain high-fructose corn syrup. In my Meijer brand wheat sandwich bread I found high fructose corn syrup, "natural flavor" (whatever that is), sodium stearoyl lactylateon, ethoxylated mono-diglycerides, calcium propionate, and monoglycerides. Yikes! Maybe all this will cause no harm to by body, but who knows? You know how easy it is for me to whip up a loaf of bread in my bread mixer, certainly easier than driving to Meijer, finding a parking spot, dodging traffic to safely walk in, find the bread, wait in a check-out line, pay, dodge parking lot traffic again to find my car to drive home. I'm not saying I want to be this perfect eater with all these homemade foods because some weeks that is impossible. I'm trying to slowly make changes to our diet so that we can eat foods that are natural. I have decided to start with bread products and they are a huge part of our daily diet. It really is not very time consuming once you have the routine down after a couple times of making yeast products.

I made a recipe for English muffins last week that I thought were pretty good but I was not completely satisfied with the end result. I found the recipe on Pinterest which was linked with the Food Network. It was also messy and a lot of work. I kept searching and found this recipe that I am going to share with you today on Tasty Kitchen. I tried it last night and I made a few adjustments so the recipe would work for me. Totally sold on it! So easy. They look exactly like the ones you buy at the store except they are free of preservatives and fillers! The recipe made 20 English muffins. My English muffins from last week stored great in a airtight container for nine days now (there is one left).

• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 cups flour (you may need more or less)
• cooking oil (I used canola oil).
• Additional tools: electric skillet, wax paper, rolling pin, circle cookie cutter.

1. Warm the milk in the microwave for one minute (lukewarm). Stir in the sugar.
2. In the mixing bowl you plan to use put the water and yeast. Stir a bit and then let set so the yeast can dissolve.
3. Pour milk into the yeast mixture. Also add the melted butter, salt, and about 4 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. (I used my kitchenaid with the dough attachment)
4. Continue to add flour by small amounts until you are able to form a soft ball of dough that does not stick to your finger when touched.
5. Place dough into a greased bowl. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise for one hour.
6. Punch down and put dough on a floured surface.
7. Roll dough with rolling pin until it is about 1/2 inch thick.
8. Cut out dough with cookie cutter or biscuit cutter. (I had a fun idea last nigh when I was making these. I think for Valentine's day I will make heart shaped English muffins. You can make these any shape you want).
9. As you cut the muffins out, place them on wax paper. If you are concerned about sticking, just sprinkle a little flour or cornmeal on the paper. I did not have any problems with sticking.
10. Cover and let the muffins rise for 30 minutes
11. Heat your electric skillet. If you have a skillet with temperatures, set the heat to 300 degrees. If you have a low-high skillet, set heat between low-medium heat.
12. Pour a small amount of cooking oil and swirl skillet to coat. (I used a pastry brush to coat the entire surface with oil.) You want enough oil in the bottom as this causes the nice brown color to form.
13. Place muffins on the skillet for about 8 minutes on each side. I just checked them often. Once each side is browned feel the sides. They will feel soft. I just broke my first one open to see if it was done (and it was so I slathered some strawberry jam on it and ate it right then). That way you can gauge if your other ones are done or not.
14. I let mine cool on a paper towel so that some of the oil was also absorbed

So, there you have it! Your own homemade English muffins! My husband LOVES these, says they are better than the store bought muffins anyday!

The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake

This cake truely is the best cake in the world. It involves basic ingredients so you do not have to make a shopping trip to the grocery store just to pick up the ingredients. I found this recipe in Pioneer Woman's cookbook. Not familiar with Pioneer Woman? Visit her here and get her recipe for her cake and make it today. The icing is absolutely the best part of the cake. Once cooled, the icing forms a glaze that is the best thing you will ever put in your mouth. Since this recipe makes such a huge amount, I either bring the cake with me to work (where it has recieved rave reviews) or I cut it into individual serving sizes, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze so that it can be packed in lunches. I usually do not put the nuts in as I'm not a huge fan of nuts.  You can also make these into cupcakes, although I have never tried it but have read about in my cookbook. Also, if you are making this for a special occasion, you can decorate with sprinkles before the frosting hardens. Go ahead, give this cake a try today!

Creamy Chicken and Rice Casserole

I think my mom found this recipe in Taste of Home magazine a long time ago. If you are looking for ultimate comfort food, you have come to the right recipe. If you are looking for a healthy recipe, RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!! This is so good though and does not contain any "cream of ... soups." A lot of times I make it for my friends who have babies. Actually, this is the only time I make it. It's a special occasion! I just brought this to a friend yesterday and she said her boys said it was the best food ever! So, now you have to give this a try. This can probably easily feed 8 people so that is why I make it for friends. I will make a small loaf pan size for my husband and I, then I put the rest in a 9x13 inch pan for friends! Works out great!

• 4 cups cooked rice (I used brown rice and you can't tell a difference. Great time to get some whole grains, may be the healthiest thing in this recipe!)
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups milk (I used skim and it still thickened beautifully!)
• 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 4 cups chicken, cooked and shredded
• 12 ounces Velveeta cheese, cubed
• 2 cups sour cream

Optional Cracker topping:

• 1 1/4 cup crushed Ritz crackers
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Start out by spreading the rice in the bottom of a greased 9x13 inch pan. In a large saucepan, melt butter and stir in flour until smooth. Do this over medium heat as not to burn the butter/flour. Add milk, chicken bouillon granules, seasoned salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Bring to a boil and stir 2-3 minutes until thickened. Reduce heat and add Velveeta cheese and sour cream. Continue to stir until cheese is melted. Add chicken and mix well. Remove from heat and pour over rice. (At this point, if you are planning to add the cracker topping, mix crackers and butter and evenly spread over casserole.) Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 20-30 minutes until heated through.


***This dish can be made ahead and served later. Just keep these things in mind. First, you will need to add cooking time as it will be cold out of the refrigerator. Second, it will not be as creamy because the rice will absorb some of the cheese mixture. It still turns out great, but just a few things to keep in mind***

Bran Bread

Lately I have had an obsession with bread. I don't know if it's the winter months or what but I need bread. I was given my church's latest cookbook as a Christmas gift and have been trying many new recipes. One of which is this one. I like to try recipes from other generations other than my own. I enjoy trying foods that grandparents or parents grew up eating. It's kind of fun for me to read through old cookbooks and try recipes. That is what I really like about my church's cookbook is that they reprint the much loved recipes from older cookbooks, plus some newer ones. I made a minor change. The original recipe called for shortening and I avoid using shortening at all costs. I put in real butter. I also avoid margarine at all costs.

I know, I know. Bran. Really? Give it a try. I brought a loaf of this with me to work and got rave reviews. One person I work with admitted that she only tried it to be polite and ended up loving it. Another said that she would try and add some cinnamon, which is crazy, because I too thought I would add some cinnamon. My brother-in-law thanked me four times when I shared this bread with him. Give it a try, you won't be sorry!

• 2 cups raisins (optional)
• 3 cups water
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 Tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 2 3/4 cups All-Bran
• 4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

If you are planning to put raisins in your bread, boil raisins in the 3 cups water for five minutes and set aside to cool. Beat eggs, sugar, and butter. Add the flour, All-Bran, baking soda, and salt. Now add the water. If you are adding raisins, add the raisins and the water you boiled them in. Mix well. Split batter between two large, greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes depending of the size of your pans.

***Maybe add a teaspoon or two of cinnamon if you are looking for a comforting, wonderful smelling bread!***

What's New Around Sarah's Sweets and Cooking Spot!

I have spent numerous hours trying to figure out how to organize my blog so that if you want to find a recipe for chicken you can click "chicken" and it will pull up all my recipes for chicken. Every other blog has this feature and I wanted mine to as well! Finally I figured it out with the help of my friend Abby. It is this nice little feature called "labels." After she explained it to me it still took me 20 minutes to figure it out. Now my blog is organized so you can use it like a cookbook. I know that I am super behind on posting recipes. I will try to get caught up so you can start trying new recipes too! Enjoy the new "label" feature and special thank you to Abby to getting me with the times!