Mom baked these crescent rolls for us during Winter holidays, and making them always makes me feel close to her. They’re rich, fluffy, and time consuming to make, so this is generally a once-a-year treat for me. Making them with friends or family is really fun. Mom’s recipes always yield a lot so you’d have plenty to share. This recipe makes 48 rolls, and they freeze well.

Ingredients:

1 package dried baking yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup warm water

3/4 cup evaporated milk (room temperature)

1/3 cup sugar (I use 1/4 cup)

3 eggs (or use two and reserve one egg white)

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/3 stick butter, divided (1 stick softened, room temperature and 1/3 stick melted)

6 or more cups of unbleached white flour (I substitute 1 or 2 cups whole wheat for some white.)

sesame and poppy seeds, about 1-1/2 tablespoons of each

Preparation:

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Set the bowl in a warm place for 15 minutes and let it bubble. In a blender, blend together the evaporated milk, sugar, salt, eggs (sans shells), and the softened stick of butter. Add this mixture to the bowl of bubbled yeast and stir. Add the flour to the bowl a cup at a time. When the mixture gets too hard to stir and begins to look like dough, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Wash and lightly grease the bowl.  Return the dough to the bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume.

Turn risen dough out onto a floured surface and knead a little.

Flatten dough a little with your hands, cover with the inverted bowl, and let rest a few minutes. Meanwhile, put the sesame seeds and poppy seeds nearby.

Melt the 1/3 cup of butter.  Add a little water to the third egg (or to the reserved egg white) and whisk.

Take the bowl off the dough.  Set the bowl aside and roll the dough into a circle.  Divide the circle into six parts.

Roll each part into a ball.  Set five of the balls back into the bowl and cover with the damp cloth.

Keep one ball of dough on the floured surface. Flatten that ball into a circle with your hands.

With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 10-inch circle. Using a pastry brush or your fingers, brush melted butter all over the surface of the circle. With a sharp knife, cut the circle into eight triangles.

Roll one triangle up from the outer edge to the tip.

Shape that triangle into a crescent.

Set the crescent on a greased baking sheet, carefully keeping the tip of the triangle underneath the crescent. (Otherwise, the crescent may unfold as it rises and bakes.) Repeat until you use all the triangles and have eight crescents. With a pastry brush or your fingers, brush each crescent roll with the egg mixed with water. Sprinkle the crescent rolls with sesame seeds or poppy seeds and leave some rolls plain. The egg wash helps the seeds adhere and also enhances the baked rolls’ golden color. Take another ball of dough from the bowl and repeat this process. You’ll end up with 48 crescents. Let the crescents rise on the baking sheets about 20 minutes before you bake them.

You can begin baking risen rolls while you continue assembling the rest. Or you can make some rolls and store some unshaped balls of dough in your refrigerator up to four days and make them later. I’ve also tried shaping the rolls and storing them in the refrigerator to bake later. Results are best, though, I feel, when you bake the rolls and freeze them already made.

Bake the risen rolls in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes.  The crescents are done when the bottoms are golden and the tops are light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cooling racks.

Today I’m testing a new slow cooker by making Mediterranean Chicken from a recipe I found on the Hamilton Beach website.  I chose this recipe because it uses lots of great ingredients, like dried tomatoes.

Eric dried tomatoes last month.  He chose tiny ones from a friend’s superabundant garden.

He halved them and tossed them in a bowl with a little olive oil.  Then he set them onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and peppered them with minced garlic and another little drizzle of oil.

The tomatoes sat inside our oven, turned to its lowest setting, 170 degrees, all day.  Our house smelled delicious!  The tomatoes emerged wizened and reminded me of arrowheads.

The Mediterranean Chicken recipe uses other great ingredients, too, like mushrooms, onions, and zucchini.

These ingredients go into the slow cooker first.

You also need lemon juice, Kalamata olives, garlic, and oregano.  I used dried oregano from our garden.

These ingredients are added to canned, diced tomatoes in a bowl.  If it were summer, I’d use fresh tomatoes instead.

For me, the hard part of the recipe was browning the chicken in oil on the stove.  I usually bake or grill chicken. The recipe called for boneless chicken thighs but organic chicken legs were on sale, so I used those instead.  I skinned them but didn’t bone them, so this will be a messy dish to eat.  I think you could simply leave the chicken out and have a great vegetarian dish, especially because garbanzo beans are another of the ingredients.

You need capers, as well.

The chicken goes atop the veggies in the slow cooker.  The beans go in next, then the tomato mixture.  The capers go on top.

I plan to serve this with penne and parmesan.  Hope it tastes good!  For the recipe, go to Hamilton Beach.

Update: The guys loved this dish.  Slow cooking made the chicken tender enough to fall off the bones, so it wasn’t messy to eat after all.  The flavors melded beautifully.  The zucchini was a bit soggy for my taste.  Next time I might cut it into bigger pieces.

After I left home and moved across the country, my mother made orange waffles when I visited.  She always cooked in quantity. This recipe produces 16 squares (64 quarters), but the waffles freeze well.  Often I make half a recipe, which I did here. Wrap extra waffles when cool, then freeze or keep in the refrigerator for about a week.  Below is the handwritten recipe Mom sent me years ago.

Ingredients:

6 cups unbleached, white flour (I use 4 cups white, 2 cups whole wheat)

2 T baking powder

1-1/2 C sugar (I reduce to ¾ or ½ cup)

1 t salt

2 sticks margarine (I use butter)

2 cups milk (I use skim or 2% milk)

4 eggs

2 oranges, organic, if possible

Preparation:

Remove margarine or butter from refrigerator and let it soften. In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

Drop softened butter into flour mixture.

With two butter knives or a pastry cutter, cut butter into slices.

With fingers, crumble butter into flour mixture.

Cut stems, blemishes, ink or price tags off oranges. Don’t peel. Cut into pieces, removing seeds.

Put milk, eggs (discard shells), and oranges into blender.

Blend until smooth.

Make a well in center of flour mixture.  Pour liquid ingredients into flour mixture.  Stir ‘til all flour is blended.  Bake in waffle iron, following applicance’s instructions. If not serving right away, cool on wire rack.

Serve with fried eggs, sautéed Swiss chard (drained), turkey bacon, and fresh fruit.

Ingredients:

2 T high heat safflower oil

1 lb. ground meat (turkey, beef, or buffalo)

1 medium onion (we prefer purple)

3 large cloves garlic

2 sweet and 1 anaheim pepper (optional)

tomatoes, chopped—28 oz. can or 2/3 box Pomi Chopped or about 8 large fresh

3 – 15 oz. cans mixed chili beans (black, pinto, kidney)

chili powder (according to taste, between 1 to 5 T)

2 t cumin

1 t salt

1 or 2 t molasses

1 shot whiskey (optional)

Preparation:

If frozen, defrost meat.  Coarsely chop onions, set aside.  Coarsely chop garlic, set aside.

Add oil to large saucepot.  Turn heat to high.  Add onion, sauté ‘til tender.

Add meat and break up with spoon.

When meat is just brown but not all the way cooked, push to sides of pan.

Add garlic to center.

If using peppers, chop coarsely.

Add peppers to pan.

Add tomatoes and turn heat to medium low.

Rinse beans.

Add beans to saucepot.

Add spices and salt.  Cover and simmer at least one hour.

Add water, if too dry.  If too liquid, remove lid.

After simmering, add whiskey, if using, and molasses.

Adjust salt and seasoning.

Serve with hot cornbread and green salad.