Christmas coffee cake

Add all ingredients, in order to your bread maker in order given.  I use the 2 pound list to make 3 coffee cakes in 8 or 9 inch cake pans.  Stop at the orange line!  This is where the filling ingredients start with this recipe book.  This is where I stop following directions.  Set bread maker to dough cycle and run.

When dough is finished, turn out onto counter while you assemble the ingredients for the next step.

1 cup of chopped walnuts (or whatever you have)

3/4 C of white sugar

1 generous teaspoon of cinnamon

fresh ground nutmeg if you have it around 1 teaspoon

Mix all this in one flat dish such as a pie pan

1/2 C of melted butter in separate pie pan

Grease or spray 8" or 9" cake pan to coat.

Divide dough into 3 equal parts.  Cut off pieces a little smaller than golf ball size (about 1 1/4") and roll in palms to form a finger sized length of dough.  Dip first in butter to coat and then sugar/nut mix.  I like to use tongs, one for butter, one for sugar to handle dough to keep my hands clean for rolling.

Start in center of pan and keep adding pieces until pan is filled.

Cover with cloth and let rise for an hour or so until dough has doubled.  Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Put coffee cakes in and bake for around 25 minutes or until center is browned and baked.  Rotate pans as needed to bake evenly.

Remove from oven to cool for 5 minutes before turning out of pan to finish cooling on wire rack.  Enjoy alone or with butter.

I make mine up the day before and reheat for 10 minutes on Christmas morning on a cookie sheet so we can enjoy a warm treat.  

My mom made this coffee cake for bake sales and our family.  It is easier than rolling out, filling and cutting dough for traditional cinnamon rolls as well as that it doesn't need frosting to look nice on the table.  They are great for gift giving.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do! 

Party leftovers and all the produce coming in

We had our party and now there is all the leftovers.  Since we had a salad bar, there are lots of chopped up vegetables and fruit. I sent some things home with my sister's who helped clean up and take everything out of cars when we got home, but there still was lots of containers in my frig.  

We ate salads for a couple days until all the lettuce and spinach was eaten up.  We also wound our way through other veggies that were not going to freeze such as cucumbers.  I started with a few trays, some sheets of waxed paper, and the most time sensitive vegetables first.  I was able to freeze lots of cut up produce to use in future cooking.  Here's a list of things that will freeze well after such a party:

• onions
• mushrooms
• black olives
• carrots
• celery
• peppers, all kinds
• meats, in meal size containers
• kohlrabi
• berries
• watermelon

I now have so many options to grab out and add to dishes for a quick meal.  My peach tree that I just planted also came in with fruit this week.  After the first peach fell, I took off the net and picked the rest.  Ripe peaches will go on you quickly.  After just a day or two, many started getting brown spots.  Tonight I peeled, sliced, and froze those for future smoothies.  I only had about 15 peaches, but they are so delicious and sweet.  I look forward to spreading out their flavor just a little longer.  

Tomatoes are coming in so salsa will be on the schedule for canning soon.  It is a big job cutting everything up, but I do love the taste of summer all winter long.  Homemade salsa is so much better.  I read recently that heat releases lycopene in tomatoes.  Canned salsa is actually more healthy than fresh according to the article.  Who am I to argue.