Pigs in a Blanket with Whole Grain Roasted Garlic Mustard

Pigs in Blankets Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons toasted wheat germ

1/4 cup chilled vegetable shortening

1/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt

1 large egg yolk

10 frankfurters, ends trimmed and frankfurters halved crosswise

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 375F, and grease a large baking sheet.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and wheat germ. Blend in shortennig with a pastry blender or yuor fingertips, sitrring until mixture just forms a moist dough.

Knead dough 4 times on a floured surface and with a floured rolling pin roll out into a 12-inch square. Cut dough into 1 1/2 inch wide strips and roll a strip around the middle of a frankfurter until dough just overlaps. Cut pig in blanket free from strip and make 19 more pigs-in-blankets in same manner, arranging them, seam sides down, as they are made on prepared baking sheet. Pigs-inblankets may be prepared up to this point 1 day ahead and chilled, covered.

Bake pigs-in-blankets in upper third of oven until pale golden, about 15 minutes.

This recipe can be found at: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pigs-in-Blankets-10176

Whole Grain Roasted Garlic Mustard Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cups whole yellow mustard seeds

3/4 cup whole brown mustard seeds

2 1/2 cups cider vinegar

1 1/2 cups water, and more as needed

1 head garlic

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

2 tablespoons salt

This recipe can be found at: http://www.cooking.com/recipes-and-more/recipes/Whole-Grain-Roasted-Garlic-Mustard-recipe-12579.aspx

On Thursday, May 12th, our class made mustard. The next day, to go with the mustard, we made pigs in a blanket. Our dough for the pigs in blankets, was a bit hard to work with. I think we had too much flour on the counter when we were rolling it out, which caused it to fall apart a little bit, and didn't keep its shape. Although, when we got the strips wrapped around the hot dogs, they were fine. We had extra dough, so we made biscuits by making the pieces into little balls then flattening them a bit. While the pigs in blankets and biscuits were baking, there was something in our oven that was smoking, but we didn't know what it was. But everything was okay. Our pigs in blankets turned out really good and weren't burnt, they were just right.

Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

3/4 cup dry bread crumbs

2 tablespoons melted butter

8 ounces macaroni

2 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, minced

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

1 1/2 cups milk

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 2 quart casserole dish. Place the bread crumbs into a small bowl and mix well with the melted butter, set aside.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add macaroni and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, then place in casserole dish.

While the pasta is cooking, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the minced onion and cook until the onion softens, and turns translucent, abdout 5 minutes.

Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and dry mustard until incorporated, then pour in milk and bring to a simmer. Simmer, stirring constantly until the milk has thickened, about 10 minutes. Take the milk off the heat and stir in the cheddar cheese until melted. Pour cheese sauce over pasta, and sprinkly lightly with bread crumbs.

Bake until the top is golden brown and bubbly, about 20 minutes.

On May 6, our class made macaroni and cheese. Our group was doing pretty good the whole time, the only thing that didn't turn out as well as it should have was the sauce for the macaroni. Ours wasn't thick enough. We still used it and it turned out just as good. Our macaroni and cheese turned out really good.

Easter Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup water

1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line one 12- cup cake tin with paper liners. (To avoid cupcakes sticking if they overflow slightly spray tops of the pans). Put tins on a baking sheet. Set aside.

Process butter and sugar in a mixer until creamy, scraping sides as needed, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the egg and yolk, one at a time, pulsing after each addition. Add the milk, vanilla, and water and process to blend.

Whisk both flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients, in 3 batches to the wet, pulsing, and then scraping butter off the sides of the processor as needed. Process until the batter is very smooth and pourable like pancake batter, about 2 minutes.

Evenly pour the batter into the prepared cups, filling them 3/4 the way full. Bake until the cupcakes are just firm and spring back when gently pressed, and tops are golden, 18 to 25 minutes. Cool slightly in tin, and turn out of tin when cool enough to handle. Cool cupcakes completely on a rack before frosting.

On the last day of school before Easter holidays, our class made vanilla cupcakes. We spent one class making the cupcakes, then the next class was spent decorating the cupcakes. Our group's cupcake batter didn't quite seem right when it was mixing, it didnt seem thick enough, and we did add every ingredient. We kept on mixing it and the batter got better. We poured the batter into the cupcake pans and put them into the oven to bake. We watched them and the cupcakes seemed to 'sink in' and they weren't rising. We kept them in until they were golden brown but they still didn't rise at all. They were still okay to decorate, though, and tasted good too.