Strawberry Shortcake

This is one of my favorite desserts! It is so fresh and tasty. All of the farmers markets have the best strawberries right now. I like my strawberry shortcake to have more of a biscuit for the bread. and I don't like it overly sweet, I like the fresh strawberries to give it the sweetness.

recipe

biscuits
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup milk or cream
1/4 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sugar for sprinkling on top

Toppings
Fresh Strawberries

1 cup whipping Cream
1 tablespoon sugar

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the butter. Use your hands to mix this all together. You want it to look crumbly. Add milk, yogurt and vanilla. Mix it well. It should start to form a nice dough. If it is too sticky, add a little flour. Once combined place on a piece of floured parchment paper. Work the dough into a square.

It should be about an inch thick.

With a knife cut into 6 pieces. Try to cut straight down.

Brush each with a little butter and top with granular sugar. Bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes.

They will come out of the oven looking delicious! Now it's time to whip up some whip cream. I don't know why anyone would buy pre-made whip cream. It is so easy to make your own and it tastes a million times better. Simply pour some whip cream into a bowl and mix on high speed. Sprinkle in a little sugar. Keep whipping until it is nice and fluffy. taste and see if you need to add more sugar.

Chop up some strawberries and you are already to assemble.


I hope you enjoy this delicious summer treat. Also, since the biscuits aren't too sweet. I used the leftovers to make egg sandwiches for breakfast, talk about good.

Sweet Potato Chili

Usually you don't think of Chili as something you make in the summer. But this one is delicious and has a nice smokey flavor! I like making chili when I have a lot of people coming over. It is so easy for people to just scoop up. For my 30th birthday this year, my entire family surprised me with a visit to Chicago. I was in complete shock. Of course I invited them all over for dinner the next night. I wasn't sure what to make for about 15 people. I made 1 meat chili and 1 veggie chili. This chili was raved about by the vegetarians and the meat eaters. I hope you enjoy and there will be some more summer foods coming soon!

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 cup canned vegetable broth or water

1 10-ounce red-skinned sweet potato (yam), peeled, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

1 14 1/2- to 16-ounce can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes

1 15- to 16-ounce can pinto beans, drained

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pinto-Bean-Sweet-Potato-Chili-266#ixzz0q06ei0x5

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 cup canned vegetable broth or water

1 10-ounce red-skinned sweet potato (yam), peeled, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

1 14 1/2- to 16-ounce can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes

1 15- to 16-ounce can pinto beans, drained

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pinto-Bean-Sweet-Potato-Chili-266#ixzz0q06ei0x5

Recipe
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons chopped chipotle adobo and 2 teaspoons sauce
1 large sweet potato peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cup vegetable broth
1 can mexican-style stewed tomatoes
1/2 box of Pomi chopped tomatoes
1 15 ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

Toppings
chopped fresh cilantro
crumbled queso fresco

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 cup canned vegetable broth or water

1 10-ounce red-skinned sweet potato (yam), peeled, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

1 14 1/2- to 16-ounce can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes

1 15- to 16-ounce can pinto beans, drained

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pinto-Bean-Sweet-Potato-Chili-266#ixzz0q06ei0x5

Heat olive oil in pan add the onion and saute until golden brown. Add in chili powder, adobo and sweet potatoes. Stir until combined and then add the broth. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for about 10 minutes until the potato starts to get tender. Add the tomatoes and beans. Simmer for at least 20 minutes. Serve with cilantro and cheese on top.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 cup canned vegetable broth or water

1 10-ounce red-skinned sweet potato (yam), peeled, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

1 14 1/2- to 16-ounce can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes

1 15- to 16-ounce can pinto beans, drained

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pinto-Bean-Sweet-Potato-Chili-266#ixzz0q06ei0x5

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 cup canned vegetable broth or water

1 10-ounce red-skinned sweet potato (yam), peeled, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

1 14 1/2- to 16-ounce can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes

1 15- to 16-ounce can pinto beans, drained

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pinto-Bean-Sweet-Potato-Chili-266#ixzz0q06ei0x5

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Perfect Hamburger Buns

Hopefully you will be grilling up some tasty burgers this weekend! This is the perfect bun recipe for your burgers! Well, I have been searching for the perfect hamburger bun for along time. The buns at DMK burger bar are pretty perfect. I like a bun that isn't too bready, I want the meat and toppings to stand out, not this big bulky bun. And they should be nice and soft inside and a tad crusty on the outside...but not overly crusty! Just so you know you aren't eating wonder bread. ha! anyhow, this recipe turned out great. It is based on a recipe from King Arthur Flour. The recipes on their site are great. It is our go-to for anything flour related. I hope you have a great memorial day weekend! We are headed to northern MN for some time on the lake!

Recipe
3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
3 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon yeast

Mix all ingredients together. Either by hand or in a mixer with dough hook. I used my favorite appliance, my Kitchenaid mixer!

This dough will be very soft and smooth. Place dough in a bowl. Cover and let rise for about an hour. You want the dough to double in size.

Once it has doubled. Punch the dough down and divide into 8 pieces. Shape them so they are about 1 inch thick and 3 inches wide. Once you have them all shaped cover with a light dish towel and let rise for another hour.


Once they have doubled in size, brush them with an egg wash. Egg wash is 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water. You can also add sesame seeds as well.

Bake at 375 degree for 12- 15 minutes.

You will never want to buy buns again!

Pizza for Breakfast. No. Breakfast Pizza.

I have never been able to eat cold or leftover pizza for breakfast, just can't do it. But the other night I went to dinner at La Madia with my friends Josh and Colin and we had the most delicious pizza with egg and prosciutto. I immediately thought, I should make a breakfast pizza with egg and bacon. I like to make a double batch of pizza dough about every other week. It's nice to have in the fridge for quick dinners or a quick and tasty breakfast.

recipe

For the crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Toppings- these are just suggestions, feel free to get creative.
olive oil
parmesan cheese
some other cheese- feel free to use anything!
3 cloves garlic minced
4 eggs
5 slices bacon cooked and chopped
mushrooms- we put them on half, cause I don't like shrooms :(
goat cheese

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Then add the water and olive oil. Now you want to try and mix this up into a ball. Then knead it on a floured surface for a few minutes and keep working it into a ball. If you get frustrated, just put it down and let it rest for a couple of minutes.

Pour a little olive oil into the bowl you were using. Then roll the ball of dough around to get a nice coating of olive oil all over.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 1-2 hours.

Open it up after the hour and roll it around a little to get some air out and then reshape into a ball. Place it back in the bowl for another 20 minutes.

I usually double this recipe and use 1 dough immediately and then wrap the other up for another day. Store in the refrigerator until you are ready to use. Take dough out of refrigerator 1-2 hours before you want to use it.

Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees. Roll the dough into a pizza shape.

Poke holes all around with a fork, this will prevent bubbling. Spread olive oil, garlic and parmesan cheese all around.

Top with some more cheese!

Add eggs, bacon, goat cheese and mushrooms. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Enjoy!

Pretzel Rolls

I am a little addicted to pretzel rolls. I love sandwiches on these little suckers. There is a great sandwich place in my neighborhood called Jerry's Sandwiches, they use the most delicious pretzel rolls. I have tried making regular pretzels and they turned out great! So of course, I needed to try my hand at making rolls. I was so surprised when I opened the oven because I saw all these cute little pretzel rolls. I think I actually screamed "I made pretzel rolls!"

Recipe
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
2 and 3/4 cup bread flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt, plus more for sprinkling
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cups water
1/4 cup baking soda

Place water in a bowl and sprinkle yeast on top, gently stir. Set aside for about 5 minutes. You want the yeast to get foamy. If it doesn't, it means the water wasn't warm enough or the yeast was old. Make sure it foams and if not then start over.

When the yeast is ready add the flour, sugar and salt. I used the dough hook on my mixer, but you could easily knead this by hand. Mix until the dough is smooth and elastic. If using a dough hook you can mix for about 8 minutes. Once it is done, place in an oiled bowl (olive oil) and roll the dough in the oil, cover and let rise for about 1 hour. You want the dough to double in size.

Once the dough has doubled, punch it down and knead for about 1 minute. Now you can divide the dough into about 16 rolls. Mine turned out a little small, next time I will make them bigger. Place the uncooked rolls on the parchment paper.

Cover the rolls with a dish towel and let them rise for another 30 minutes or until they have doubled in size. After they have doubled you will want to slice an x on top of each roll (I forgot to do this, until Chris came over and did it to a few and they turned out much prettier). Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees. Also bring 6 cups of water to a boil. When the water is boiling add the baking soda to the water.

The water will get nice and bubbly. Drop a few of the rolls into the water. Boil them for 2 minutes a side. You will need to do this in a few batches.

The water will start out nice and calm, but mine got a little crazy!

Once you have boiled them 2 minutes a side, take them out and place somewhere to dry. If I had one of those cooling racks, I would have used that, but I don't so I just placed them on some parchment paper.

When you have them all boiled. Brush them with the egg wash. For the egg wash, just whisk up an egg and add a little water to it. After you have brushed them with egg wash, sprinkle a little salt on top of each roll.

Place them in the oven for 10-12 minutes. I baked mine on a pizza stone. You can bake them on a parchment lined baking sheet as well.

As I said earlier, I was so excited to see that I made pretzel rolls. They were delicious too! We ate them plain as well as made little sandwiches with them.

Bacon, tomato and guacamole on a pretzel roll! yum yum!

Chipotle Pork Burgers

I love trying new recipes for burgers and this is my new favorite! We recently joined a new CSA (community supported agriculture), Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm. In our first batch we received ground pork. The one thing I love about getting meat from CSA, is that I am always challenged to cook with new ingredients and I see what meat should look like. I think it is wrong that food companies have changed the way meat looks. Enough of my rant, I could go on forever. Back to the burgers, these burgers get a delicious smokey flavor from the adobo and a nice sweet tang from the tomatillo.

Recipe- based on Gourmet magazine
makes 4 burgers

1 lb ground pork
2 teaspoons minced chipotle in adobo sauce plus 1 teaspoon adobo sauce
3 garlic cloves minced
4 slices Muenster cheese
4 hamburger buns, toasted- I used onion rolls.
1 large tomatillo, husked, rinsed and then sliced
1/2 small avocado, sliced

I just started using tomatillos in my cooking in the past year. They are so flavorful. First peel the husk off and then rinse well. With this recipe, simply slice them just like a tomato. Set aside.

Mix together pork, adobo, garlic and a little salt. It is easiest to use your hands. When mixed thoroughly, form into 4 patties.

You can either cook these on the grill or in a pan. Cook for 4 minutes on 1 side, flip and cook for 1 more minute, then top with cheese, and cook till the cheese is just melted.

Place on a toasted bun and top with tomatillo and avocado.



I served them with roasted potatoes, so delicious!

What does Sangamon mean?

Many people ask what Sangamon means? When we started this blog we brainstormed for days on what to name it. We live on Sangamon street in the west loop and the word Sangamon comes from a Pottawatomie word Sain-guee-mon (pronounced "sang gä mun") meaning "where there is plenty to eat." And Chris comes from Sangamon County, so it seemed to fit.