Cowboy HorseShoes or A Really Big Pig In A Blanket

 I haven't posted in awhile and its about time I got my creative juices flowing.  I had a large unthawed Texas roll bag in the fridge.  You can tell this was the third day of unthawing because it was as fat as a Buddha belly.  

I needed something for a quick dinner and wanted to utilize these 

and this.  We love Kielbasa at our house.  I use it with steamed vegetables, rice, macaroni and cheese, top ramen, and pasta.  However, I digress, this is not the Hillshire Farm Diva blog.

I knew it was alot of dough, so I took scissors and divided the dough in half.

 I kneaded one into a ball and unrolled it into an oval.  I did not have a plan for this, so I was making it up as I went.

I folded it over and pinched the edges.  It looked like a taco, so I figured I'd make the next one like this and stop at this point to let it rise and bake. 

I took scissors and cut up the middle of the Kielbasa.  That's when I started thinking about a horseshoe shape.

I pinched all the sides together.  It also looks like cowboy chaps.

I preheated the oven to 350 and left the shapes to rise a bit on parchment paper.

 These are looking huge.

At the last minute, I decided to sprinkle them with cheese.

 This is how they came out...very fat and making me wish I had made the taco shape into an "S."  Rhodes dough for US!!!!!  Horray for the U.S.!!!!!

 When I sliced the Horseshoe it looked like this. I paired it with steamed vegetables for dinner.  My kids loved it.  

If you just start kneading the dough, an image will come to your mind of what to make.  Trust yourself. See where the dough will take you.

Orange Roll Hearts

I like orange rolls - a lot.  They remind me of some elusive memory from

my childhood that must have been very good, because sometimes I crave them.

I thawed the dough overnight in the fridge so it would be workable.

Take one of the orange rolls and unroll it.  Press and knead to make all edges even.

Take each end in separate hands and roll toward the center.

Pinch the bottom so it looks like a heart.

Let rise.  Once again, I got distracted by a sick child, laundry, a child whose cast had to be redone today, a preschooler picked up, and the piano teacher arriving, so I let them rise too long.  If I hadn't, I think they would have been perfect.  Next time, I would have more distance between them on the cookie sheet and I probably would have pinched the bottom of the heart to be more distinct. 

However, this blog isn't about perfection.  This blog is about making food for your family that smells good when they walk in the door after school and work.

What do they care if it you let it rise too long when it ends up looking and 

tasting like this??

LOVE IS COMING...

Just wanted you to know that orange rolls are thawing in the fridge and should be whipped into something interesting tomorrow.....stay tuned.

very blurry, but understandable jpeg, for your pleasure.

Sunday Morning Banana Blues

Some clever child of mine changed my "Merry Christmas" blocks to say this.. I had to take a picture.

We made it through Christmas!  Since the holidays are over so it is time to stop thinking of Rhodes dough shapes and sculptures for a little while. I really wanted to use up some thawed dough that I had in my fridge without taking too much time.  It was Sunday morning and I looked around my kitchen for something to use.  I came across two bananas that probably would not be eaten even by my children and a bag of dates. I love desert type bread so this got my mind churning.

1) Step one - take out of the fridge an unthawed loaf, 9 Texas rolls, or 12-15 regular rolls, and knead them into one large dough ball.  

Step Two:  Using your fancy Paula Dean Acacia Wood Rolling Pin roll out dough into a flat rectangle or in this case, oval.

Step Three:  Mash two bananas, 1 Tlbs. orange juice, and as many chopped dates as you want into a bowl.  Don't make it too runny.  Get your brown sugar ready.

Step four:  Butter inside of dough lightly, sprinkle with brown sugar, and spread mashed banana mixture on bread, leaving two inches on edges.

Step five:  Pinch two edges together. Realize as mixture is coming out the edge, that maybe one to one and half bananas would probably have been better.

Step six:  Fold ends up and pinch well.

Step seven:  Place upside down in greased loaf pan.

Step eight:  Forget to take pictures of it rising in warm oven.

Step nine:  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or so.  Keep checking it.  I wish I would have baked it two minutes or so more because the inside lower section was a bit runny.

So pretty.

Step ten:  Beat off the husband and son as you are trying to slice it for dinner.

I couldn't keep them away.  They loved it.

Oh, Christmas Tree! Oh, Christmas Tree!

This recipe is straight out of the Rhodes cookbook, page 140.  However, I think my tree looks better than theirs...ahem.   The recipe calls for 8 Texas rolls, thawed, but I believe you should use 10.  I like a tall tree.  Press all the rolls into a ball and then roll it out flat into a rectangle.  Spread with a mixture of 1/3 cup butter, softened, 2 tsp. cinammon and 1/3 cup sugar.  I like to add cardamon and a bit of clove too, but its up to you.

Fold the dough like the start of a paper airplane, two corners down into the middle, leaving one inch uncovered at the bottom.  Cut this off and roll it for the tree trunk. Position at the the base of the triangle.  Cut into each side strips 1-inch wide.  Twist each branch several times and curve upward.  Cover and let rise for 40 minutes.  Bake 15-20 minutes. 

Make icing and drizzle over the warm tree; sprinkle with almonds and maraschino cherries or grapes.  

I love how it turned out!!!!!! Rhodes makes true Christmas comfort food.

Candy Cane Sprinkled Wreath

This Christmas wreath is directly out of the Rhodes cookbook...sorry, no creative imagination on this one...well, maybe the bow.  

It is really simple to make.  You cut the Rhodes rolls in half and layer them to make a wreath.  While baking, make a sugar icing.  When out of the oven and still semi-warm use a spoon to drip and pour a design over the wreath.  Crush candy canes and sprinkle over the top.  

Hey, why not let it harden and put it on your front door?

Candy Canes with Cinnamon Rolls

My brother asked me to make something with color.  This isn't easy because Rhodes dough is already kneaded, so to add color you need to figure out a different way than putting it inside the dough.  There probably is a way, but I haven't figured it out yet.  But, since I am the Rhodes Dough Diva, I will.  Just give me time.  Today I decided to make colored candy canes using Rhodes cinnamon rolls.

This is what they come out of the bag looking like.  I thawed mine in the fridge for about three or four hours.

Unroll the roll.....I like that sentence. Once it is unrolled, fold it in half so you have equal sides.  Cut the roll in half at the midpoint so you have equally long strips.

Melt butter and put in about 4 or five drops of red food coloring. If you don't have a pastry brush in your Diva arsenal, you MUST go get one.  Next to a spatula, it is the one tool I consistently use in the bread kitchen.

I found some colored sugar in the cupboard I decided to use.

One of the two strips has more cinammon on it than the other.  With the less cinammony strip (yes, I was an English major), spread the melted red butter all over it on both sides.  Then sprinkle with the red sugar.

Push the painted strip and the regular strip side by side.

Twist and twist.  Remember, you are making a candy cane.  This is a messy process, but look how pretty?....okay, unfocus your eyes and you will see that it looks really pretty.

Form your candy cane on a cookie sheet.  Since you are using sugar, BE SURE to spray your cookie sheet with PAM or some kind of cooking spray.  When the sugar is in the oven, it will carmelize and harden on to your cookie sheet.

Here is what they look like before they went in the oven.  I did a cinammon twist without the food coloring just for fun too.

350 degrees for 20-22 minutes.  I did mine for 25 minutes and it was too much.  I should have checked on them at 20 minutes, but I was watching "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and seven ax-swinging, dancing red-headed men will throw any Rhodes Diva into a stuporous state.  

Remember the dough is thawed, so it doesn't take as long to cook as when you pop frozen rolls in the oven.

Brush rolls with the included glaze.

These candy canes will last only a minute at your house, as they did at mine.