Cooking with Kenjin

Now that it's getting colder outside and the holiday season has started, it's time to start baking. Here's a recipe based on one that we found on the Internet--Apple Roses by Manuela.

Ingredients to make 6 roses:

• 1 thawed Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry sheet
• 2 red delicious apples
• 1.5 table spoons lemon, juice
• flour, to sprinkle the counter
• 3 tablespoons of apricot preserve
• cinnamon sugar
• powdered sugar for decorating (optional)

Directions:

Cut the apples in half and remove their cores. Cut the apples into thin slices. Put slices into a bowl with water and lemon juice (to prevent browning). Microwave the apples in the bowl for about three minutes to make them soft.

In a bowl, prepare the apricot preserve. Add three table spoons of apricot preserve with two tablespoons of water. Microwave for about a minute and mix together.

Roll out the thawed pastry puff on a lightly floured counter. Cut the dough into six strips. Each strip should be about 2” x 9” in size.

Spread the apricot preserves onto each pastry puff strip and sprinkle cinnamon sugar.

After draining the apples, place the apples on the dough. About half the apple slice should be on the dough and each apple slice should cover about half the slice under it.

Fold over the dough leaving half the apple slices exposed. Roll each slice. Each apple rose should fit into a greased muffin pan.

Cook at 375 degrees F for about 40 to 45 minutes until fully cooked.

Sprinkle with powered sugar when finished.

Developing T-Shirt Designs

Every now and then, my style preferences in T-shirt fashion seems to change. The cycle includes plain shirts, skateboarding brands, sports teams, Ed Roth designs, and surfing culture designs. Now, I’m just interested in designing my own shirts.

I’ve created two stores to create and sell my designs. I originally started by using the Café Press Web site. Now, I’ve been spending a lot of time using the Zazzle Web site. Each Web site has its advantages, and each design on those sites are a little different due to the design applications that they use.

The most important part of the design process starts with my camera, scanner, photo editing applications, and art program. Most of my images are eventually opened in Microsoft Paint for various simple image manipulation tasks. The final image is then used in Café Press or Zazzle. From there, I can add additional text to the designs.

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

It’s been a while, but I started baking again. I found my old recipes and I tried some new ones. I’m going to post some of the recipes so that I can always find them in one place. Right now, most recipes are printed out and stuck in one of my baking books. Below is a recipe for pizza dough.

Basic Pizza Dough 
Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen 

Yield:  2 (12-inch) pizzas 

Ingredients 

• 1 3/4 cup warm water 
• 1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons) 
• 2 teaspoons salt 
• 4 1/2 to 5 cups bread flour  2 cups bread flour and 2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for bowl 
• Cornmeal, for pan 

Directions 

• Preheat oven at 450 degrees F. 
• Measure out 1 3/4 cups warm water (it should be pleasantly warm on your wrist). Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and allow it to activate, about 10 minutes. 
• Put the salt and 2 cups of the flour into a food processor. Pulse 5 times to blend. Pour in the yeast and water and pulse 5 times. Add the olive oil. Add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time, pulsing and scraping the sides of the bowl until well blended. As soon as the mixture is combined, dump it out onto a well-floured board and knead for 15 turns, until the dough is smooth and elastic. 
• Place the dough in a greased bowl and turn to coat all sides. Cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes, until doubled in size, then punch it down. Divide it in half; each half will make 1 (12-inch) pizza. 
• Place on a cornmeal-dusted pizza stone, pizza pan, or cookie sheet. Roll up edge slightly to create a ridge around the pizza. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until crust is light brown. 

If using only half dough, freeze the other half. Place the dough in a resealable freezer bag. To thaw, remove the bag from the freezer and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Roll the dough out while cold then allow it to come to room temperature before adding toppings. 

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/basic-pizza-dough-recipe.html?oc=linkback