Microwave popcorn. Make your OWN microwave bagged popcorn, 3 minutes to glory! Cheap, easy and the kids can do it! It's a short post, I was too busy eating popcorn

I love popcorn. I love popcorn.  I love popcorn.  I have tried the flavors but nope, I'm a true salt and butter popcorn gal.  I have all the popcorn gadgets.

I have the Whirly Pop for fabulous retro popcorn.  I have the standard deep pot with a lid and oil for my teenaged version of popcorn. I (used to) buy microwave bagged popcorn for the convenience, ease and deliciousness.  I like PopSecret Butter Flavor, yeah, that's my secret guilty pleasure.  I have a hot air popper which is fabulous and we use it whenever there's a teenaged crowd of gamers in my house.

When it's just me, or just kiddo and I want a single bag of microwave, no fuss, no muss, no mess popcorn do I reach for a $$$ box of brand name microwave stuff?  OH NO, I reach for my $.50 pile of 50 brown, flatbottom, lunch bags and a 1/2 cup of the loose popcorn I buy at $.75/bag.  That's a lot of microwave bags of popcorn for free, c'mon, that's free.

Don't blink, this goes fast:

Grasp your packet of lunch bags, place within it 1/2 cup of the cheap stuff popcorn kernels.  Double fold the top and pop it into the microwave
   
Set timer for THREE minutes... stand there and watch it.  When the popping slows, stop it.  Seriously, no oil, no fat (yet) and hardly any steam when you open it so no risk to short kid-like people making their own.
   
Salt at will, flavor at will.  Connor likes some Parmesan cheese on his sometimes.  Add butter if you must, oh and you MUST, and look!  PERFECT popcorn, light, crunchy and crispy and completely non greasy (except for the butter)  Perfect every time.

OH and if you do add butter and it seeps through the bag, just pop the whole popcorn bag into a Ziploc bag or dump it into another bowl.

IF you have some time, you can prefill the brown bags with the right amount of popcorn, and keep them ready for anyone to grab and nuke.  You can write the instructions on the outside of the bags if you want to remind kids or anyone else how long to cook and remember to tell them to pull when the popping stops even if it's less than 3 minutes.

This is Super quick, super easy, super delicious and one of my (many) quickie secret pleasures.

Go make some cheap cheap easy popcorn

/enjoy

It's about the Bread, how to store it and my fabulous linen bread bags. A little bit of information, blatant self promotion and a great idea.

BLATANT SELF PROMOTION ALERT! 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/156065863/linen-bread-bag-by-tracycooksinaustin?

BLATANT SELF PROMOTION ALERT! 

Well, come on now, I cook and I sew, it was about time I put the two together. 

I have been fighting with storage issues for the bread, ciabatta, pretzels, croissants and anything else I've made lately with flour and yeast.  I will confess (purists, avert your eyes) that frequently, I wrap my bread loosely in a plastic grocery bag and leave it on the counter.  *shame*

I refuse to put it in the fridge for the obvious dryness problem but I will freeze loaves when they're cool then bag them in Ziploc. 

I have been reading about linen bread bags.  Seriously?  How on earth will that make it NOT go stale?  Well, I'm here to tell you, it doesn't.  They are great.  They are seriously great.  I sort of became a line convert when I treated myself to a hideously overpriced linen bread cloth.  Really, a hunk of linen that I could have made myself but, hey, sometimes you want someone else to make it.

I made linen bread cloths for friends and I am going to start selling them on Etsy.  I just made one for my International tester as a surprise.  

Then, I started making bread bags.  I made the bags for me, for friends, for use as delivery vessels when I arrive at whatever location I'm invited to with my bread.  I have made bread some bags now and they ARE on Etsy, my link is above.  They are big and even though there's draw string closures, I find I just put the bread in and fold the end of the bag underneath, it sure looks prettier on the counter than a bunch of grocery garbage bags or veggie plastic bags from the store.  Yeah, you do too! 

  

  

*this is the "best white" farmhouse loaf,  it's 7 inches tall!!

 
IF you don't want to go play on Etsy, you can, however, just email/message me here and we can bypass Etsy all together.  

I think they're great, they are handy, pretty, light, soft and they keep fresh bread fresh for a period of time longer than a bag or just sitting on the counter.  Remember, however, fresh bread needs to be eaten in a timely manner just by virtue of it's freshness but this is really, truly a way to keep it around that extra day before it becomes food for chickens, hamsters or the local squirrels. 

Even if you don't buy one of mine, go get yourself a linen bread bag.  You'll be pleased you did.

IN case you didn't notice the link above, here it is again! :)  *cheeky aren't I?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/156065863/linen-bread-bag-by-tracycooksinaustin?

/tracy

Biscuits baked in sweet milk . Completely old fashioned comfort food and the best, sweetest, breakfast treat or dessert EVER.

We all know I love a good 'old lady' recipe.  I read antique cook books all the time.  I have a stack of old cookbooks ranging from 1890 and onward on my kitchen table at all times.  Whenever I can steal away a moment, I will sit and browse through them with a quiet glass of wine, enjoying the simple pleasure of them OR I will read them voraciously if I am in search of something new and fabulous.

A few years ago, I came across a recipe for biscuits baked in sweet milk and it tweaked my curiosity.  It is a breakfast item?  Biscuits?  Is it dessert?  It's sweet?  Is sweet milk regular milk?  I make a rather killer biscuit, can I use MY biscuits for this?  Cinnamon?  Oh wait, I LOVE cinnamon rolls... is this a cinnamon roll in milk?  OH OH this is EXACTLY the sort of recipe I needed in my repertoire. 

I started playing with the recipe and tweaking and pulling and pushing and came up with my own version that I present to you here.  It's lusciously old fashioned feeling.  It's rich and creamy and light and airy and tender and there's little crisp bits and the milk becomes thick and unctuous like a custard and you pour it over the biscuit.  There are few things I make regularly that I like better than this.  Seriously, I thought about holding this one close to the chest as my own but then I realized that you need to be as happy as I and my local tester.  It's full of nursery memories.  It's as good on a cold winters day to warm up as in the middle of Texas heat in July.  It's happiness making food 

I made it today and took it, straight from the oven to her house and had coffee and a visit and the children all had heaping helpings of it.  It confirmed to me that you need to be able to produce this at your whim.

The recipe is painfully simple but so complex and divine in it's simplicity.  It's almost the perfect example of why I read the old old old cookbooks.  They absolutely, completely, totally knew what they were doing.  

Make this, you'll feel the happy.  I promise. 

TRACY'S BISCUITS BAKED IN SWEET MILK

Biscuits: 
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup milk (plus a teaspoon or two if you need it to make a lovely dough)
Middle bit:
1/2 cup butter/margarine combo
handful of sugar for coating (1/4 to 1/3 cup?)
cinnamon, the amount you want to shake on
Sauce:
2 cups milk
2/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
healthy dribble of vanilla

QUICKIE instructions: 

Make biscuit dough.  Roll it out and cover with butter/margarine.  Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and roll up.  Cut into 1 inch pieces and arrange in a lightly greased dish.  Heat the milk/sugar/vanilla to boiling point (small bubbles around the edge) and pour over the biscuits.

Bake 350 for 30-40 minutes.  Allow to sit about 10 minutes before diving in and completely devouring. 

LONG winded, play by play, with commentary pictures and method:

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly grease a 8x8 (I use round) baking dish.

Combine the flour and shortening.  Mix with your fingertips until it looks like wet sand.  
   
Add 1/2 cup milk, all at once, and mix with a fork until it's a lovely, soft, dough.  It should clear the side of the bowl and come together without being sticky.  You can add a little dribble of milk more if you need.
   
Put dough on lightly floured surface and roll to about 10x10?  Don't measure, here's my hand as a indication of the size.  Mix butter and margarine on a board with a fork.
   
Spread the butter/margarine on the dough, all the way to the ends!  Sprinkle with sugar, relatively generously.  I think it's about 1/4-1/3 cup's worth.
   
Ahhh, sprinkle action shot.  Then shake on cinnamon.  Not too much, not too little, just a nice light coating unless you're a cinnamon freak then have at it!!  Start at one end and start to roll, relatively tightly but don't fret about it,
   
Roll it and seal the edge if you feel the need.  I don't usually bother.  With the seam side down, cut the roll into 9-10 1 inch pieces, look at those lovely biscuit sugar cinnamon butter beauties!
   
Arrange them in the dish, in a single layer, feel free to squash them in to fit.  Heat the milk/sugar/vanilla in the microwave until little bubbles appear on the sides, I do 3 minutes.
   
Stir the hot milk and pour it over the biscuits, yeah, really!  It should perfectly cover them.  I had 2 that were a bit small so they floated, don't worry about it.
   
Bake it in the middle of  the oven (with a pan underneath because sometimes it boils over) and set timer for 30 minutes.  Check it, mine needed another 10 to brown up and be worthy of being taken for a coffee meeting with a girlfriend.
   
Let it rest about 5 minutes. Then DIVE IN!  The biscuit is light and tender and crisp on top.  The milk is sweet and thickened from the flour in the biscuit and is almost custardy.  

It's my most most favorite thing as a sweet treat.  Seriously, really and truly.  It's my dessert island treat.

I didn't get great pictures because, well, we were all trying desperately to get our own pieces and slather it with the thickened, sweet, milk to pour over top and I also wanted to eat mine as quickly as possible :)
  

I took it to my friend's house today and she and I devoured our hunks of it.  

The 2 teenagers loved it, the 10 year old loved it, and the 5 year old had seconds and thirds.  The 2 men working upstairs also cleaned their bowls.  I love a houseful of willing testers!

It's a solid hit and my gift to you :)  Go make it, you're going to love it! 

/enjoy