White Bread/ Cinnamon Bread

Since I've started baking my own bread, I have always made a yummy Whole Wheat bread. This past weekend as I started my "baking marathon", as Hubbie calls it, I thought something different might be nice! I got out a cookbook that I rarely use and decided on the white bread recipe and went ahead and made 2 batches of it. The second batch I made into cinnamon bread! So good! I won't ever buy cinnamon swirl bread from the store! Mine is so much better! Both recipes come from the Better Homes and Gardens The New CookBook.

Perfect White Bread

1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 cup of warm water
2 cups of milk, scalded
2 tblspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tblspoon shortening
5 3/4 to 6 1/4 cups of sifted all purpose flour

Soften yeast in warm water. Combine hot milk, sugar, salt and shortening. Cool to lukewarm.

Stir 2 cups of the flour; beat well. Add the softened yeast; mix. Add enough of remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough. Turn out on a lightly flour surface. Knead until smooth and satiny. Shape into a ball; place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to greased surface. Cover; Let rise in warm place until double (about 1 1/4 hours). Punch down.

Cut dough into 2 portions. Shape each in smooth ball; cover and let rest 10 mins. Shape into loaves; place into greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise til double (45 to 60 mins). Bake in hot over 400 degrees or until done. Makes 2 loaves.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Make the perfect white bread, increasing sugar to 1 1/3 cups and shortening to 1/4 cup. After first rising, roll dough to two 15 x 7 inch rectangles. Combine 1/2 sugar with 1 tblspoon of cinnamon. Spread over each rectangle. Sprinkle 1 1/2 teaspoons water over each. Roll into loaves. Continue as for Perfect White Bread. Bake at 375 for 30 mins. Makes 2 loaves.

Tater Tot Casserole

When I heard of Tater Tot Casserole I wasn't really impressed. I'm not a big fan of tater tots, but Hubbie was very excited so we tried it. The recipe was so -so, but I could take it or leave it. I never made it again. One day while surfing the net I came across the Duggars website. They have mentioned their Tater Tot Casserole on their show. After looking at the recipe (and seeing that it was quite different from the one we had tried) I decided to try it again. If you go to the Duggars website, it'll show their recipe yields 2 9 x 13 pans. I just divided their recipe. Oh so yummy!

Tater Tot Casserole

1 lb browned ground beef
1 bad of tater tots
1 can of cream of mushroom
1 can of cream of chicken
1 can of evaporated milk

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Brown ground beef. Mix soups and milk together in separate bowl. Once the meat has browned, pour into greased casserole dish and spread. Layer the tater tots on top of the meat. Pour the soup and milk mixture on top evenly. Bake in oven for one hour.

Serve with a yummy green veggie! Enjoy!