Cooking and Baking Over the Weekend.

I confess that I haven't really baked much over the past 6 Christmas holidays. There have been a lot of changes in our family and I just somehow lost most of my zeal to bake. But this year, thanks to alot of my blogger friends, I actually feel like baking some things for Christmas.

On Saturday and I made a double batch of chocolate drop dough, that I will freeze. Then on baking day, I will wrap the dough around a rolo caramel chocolate drop and bake for 11-13 minutes. My friend Chris says these are fabulous.

I also made a big batch of chewy oatmeal cookies. They always come out really tasty and are so good with a glass of milk. All my cookies I made with fresh ground whole wheat pastry wheat (soft wheat).

I also made two pumpkin cheese rolls. I've had trouble getting them out of the pan in the past. Susan said to liberally grease the pans and flour them.

Here they are baked and hopefully ready to go for a roll in the sugared towel....




My sister Kelley said to grease and liberally dust powdered sugar on a piece of waxed paper for the "From pan to towel transfer." So there they are, my greased and sugared waxed paper beds, all ready for the pumpkin jelly rolls.....




It was not without a fight and some prayer, but I got them both onto the waxed paper.



And there the little darlings are, all rolled up and waiting to cool, so I can frost them with cream cheese filling. This point was easier than the first time I tried when I actually cried because they fell apart.



They unrolled perfectly (lots of grease and powdered sugar are the key), and they are spread with a mixture of cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and a little butter. Just scrumptious......



On Friday I put this fifteen bean soup in the crock pot with some ham, seasonings, and onions, it actually turned out to be a good soup on a really cold day.



On Saturday I made an awesome beef stew. I used stew beef, with beef broth, carrots, pearl onions, potatoes, a jar of savory beef gravy and a packet of onion soup mix. I mixed together and cooked in the crock pot all day. Twenty minutes before it was done I transferred the whole stew to my dutch oven and while simmering, dropped in fresh ground whole wheat drop biscuits, (just wheat, shortening, salt, and baking powder). I dropped them by the teaspoonful, left them uncovered on the simmering stew for 10 minutes, then coverered them for another ten minutes. Outstanding stew and biscuits. The meat was melt in your mouth good.



I also worked on my knitting project which I can't show pics of because it is a gift, and hopefully it will be done before December 25th!! My track record for that isn't very good. Have a great Monday!