Syrian Bread

5lbs All purpose flour
3 envelopes yeast..( i use highly active)
1c sugar
2T salt
6-8 C warm water ( start with 6 and add slowly 1/4 c at a time if dough seems too dry)
1/3c vegetable oil

Mix flour, sugar, and salt together in LARGE bowl! lol Disolve yeast in about 1/2 c of the warm water, then add to rest of the water. Then slowly add to flour mixture. Mix well but don't play with it too much. Cover and put in warm place for 3 hours. Grease pans liberally with oil ( i use 12inch disposable pizza pans, WM sells then 3 for $1.88) If you have Bakers Joy, spray hands with that if not, put soe flour a bowl and dust your hands with it. Grab a fistfull of dough and drop onto pan. you should have roughly 10 fistfulls of dough. They should be around 6ish inches across, some more some less. They wont be perfect. Put those to rise for an hour.

Preheat over to 400 with one rack on bottom and one in middle. Put 1 or 2 pans on bottom rack ( depends on size of oven) for 10 minutes, when ten minutes is up, move those to middle rack and put new ones on bottom 10 more minutes take first ones out and rub down with stick of butter while still hot. Repeat process till all loaves are done. It freezes well!!!

I also flour a surface well and roll out one handfull, sprinkle a cinnamon/sugar mixture over the entire thing, then roll it us and slice it like cinnamon rolls, then place in pan and sprinkle again with mixture, make cream cheese icing for top...YUMMY!!

Pumpkin Muffins

1 Yellow Cake Mix
1.5tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 (15oz) can of Pumpkin Puree
1 egg
1/3 cup of oil

Mix all ingredients together, then put into greased muffin cups & bake! 350* for 20-25m for full size muffins, and 15 for the mini muffins (which I made)

Italian Sub Stoup & Garlic Toast Floaters

Stoup:

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3/4lb hot or sweet italian sausage (we used hot)
1/3lb piece pepperoni, diced
1 ham steak, 1/4lbk-3/4lb diced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 medium yellow onion, quartered and sliced
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
salt & freshly ground black pepper
6 cups chicken stock/broth
1 cup gemelli pasta, or other shaped pasta (we used gemelli)

Croutons:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 large garlic cloves
5 cups crusty bread, cubed
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
4 cups arugula, trimmed & coarsely chopped

Place a soup pot on the stovetop and preheat to medium high. Add the olive oil and the sausage. Bronw and crumble the sausage, drain off excess fat if necessary, then add the pepperoni and ham. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the bell peppers and onions and cook for 2 or 3 minutes more. Add the tomatoes and season with salt & pepper. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Stir in the pasta and cook for 8 minutes.

While the pasta cooks, heat the 1/3cup of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the bread cubes, toss, and toast the cubes for 5 or 6 minutes. Season the toasty cubes with the red pepper flakes, oregano, and grated cheese.

Stir the arugula into the stoup just before you serve it up. Float several bread cubes in each bowl (I let the kids add their own and they thought it was fantastic LOL!)

French Toast Muffins

2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter melted
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Topping
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons chopped nuts
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter

In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine the milk, butter, syrup, sour cream, egg and vanilla. Stir into the dry ingredients just until, moistened. Fill greased muffin cups two thirds full. For topping, combine the flour, sugar, nuts and cinnamon; cut in butter until crumbly. Spinkle over batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 16-20 minutes or until muffins test is done. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Yield: 16 muffins.For those who asked! Now, I made mini ones, and adjusted the cooking time to about 14minutes :o) And I omitted the nuts from the topping.