Robert Forto

Recipe Rants

Blueberry Cinnamon Ring and The Perfect French Toast

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Blueberry Ring Cake and French Toast

This is the way and you can trust me on that!

Isn’t this gorgeous? This breakfast treat is a 2-for-1 not only is it excellent as cake but it also makes the perfect French toast. Trust me! Another recipe inspired by Sam the Cooking Guy!

INGREDIENTS

  • 4-10 ounce cans (5 each) buttermilk refrigerator biscuits

  • 3/4 cup frozen blueberries, small berries if you can find them

  • 1/3 cup lemon juice

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon

  • Melted butter

SERVES 8

Made with frozen blueberries – this crazy little ring kills (that’s a good thing).

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 375

  2. Butter bundt pan really well

  3. Mix cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl, set aside

  4. Place about 1/2 the berries in the bottom of the pan

  5. Separate biscuits – dip in lemon juice, then in sugar mixture and stand them up on their sides on the blueberries in the bottom of the pan – I ended up using only 17, they would all fit.

  6. Scatter remaining berries on top – but push some of them through into and between biscuits

  7. Bake approximately 30 minutes, or until brown and firm-ish to the touch

  8. Loosen edges carefully, put a large plate on top and turn over to unmold

  9. Voila – it’s gorgeous, and don’t forget to make French toast out of it too!

FRENCH TOAST

The next day, yes, tomorrow, take a couple of slices add it to a two egg and a little milk mixture, and no reason to add nutmeg or cinnamon since it’s already on the cake. . Let them soak for a few seconds and flip. Add to a non-stick pan and you just make French toast as normal. Swath with a little extra melted but, because, why not!

Enjoy!

Citrus Paradisi

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A complex mixture of vodka, fruit, bubbles, rose water, and citrus green tea. A slice of springtime paradise. Michele and I had one while watching Saturday Night Fever!

Ingredients

2 oz vodka

3/4 oz citrus green tea-grapefruit syrup

3/4 oz lime juice

2 dashes rose water

1 1/2 ox aromatic tonic water

Method

Shaken into a collins glass

Instructions

  1. Add, vodka, syrup, lime juice and rose water to a shaker. Fill the shaker with ice and shake for 30 seconds or until ice cold and frosty.
  2. Strain the shaker’s contents into a collins glass over fresh cubed ice then top with about 1.5 oz of tonic water – we recommend using your bar spoon to force the carbonation all the way down to the bottom of the glass.
  3. Enjoy.

Grandma’s Rolls

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Grandma’s Rolls

These Appalachia milk rolls were made from my grandma Wilson’s recipe and we had them at every Sunday dinner during my childhood. While I have made them from time to time as an adult, this is the first time attempting them in more than 20 years and the first time, Michele has ever made rolls from scratch.

Recipe

1 package Yeast (not fast rising)

3 T Sugar

4 Cups Flour

1 tsp Salt

1 Cup Milk

1 Cup Water

Directions

Mix yeast, 1/4 cup water (100-110 degrees), 1 teaspoon of sugar and let the yeast bloom for 10 minutes.

Mix together the remaining ingredients and heat the milk up just a bit.

Use a stand mixer with a dough hook and mix until ready. You may need to add two tablespoons more of flour.

Place in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and a towel and place in a warm place. Let rise until double, at least 1.5 to 2 hours. Since we live in Alaska we have to place it near our wood stove. In order for the dough to rise you need a mixture of moisture and warmth an internal temperature of 75 degrees for the dough to will tell you if the yeast is working.

After have allowed the dough to rise, grease a muffin tin and place a large dollop of dough in each cup. Brush with butter.

Preheat oven to 375 and bake for around 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Here is the handwritten recipe (with our adjustments)  from my mom, who passed away last year. This post is to honor her and my grandmother.

What are your favorite roll recipes? Please share in the comments and maybe we will give them a try at Forto’s Fort!

 

Bacon Beer Cheese Dip

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Bacon Beer Cheese Dip Forto's Fort

Bacon Beer Cheese Dip

Since the lockdown occurred in March, Michele and I have up’d our cooking game. We have tried many new recipes and spent a lot of time together in the Kitchen. Many of those recipes were inspired by Sam the Cooking Guy who we stumbled upon when everything was closed. Tonight we tried our hand at a Bacon Beer Cheese Dip with chicken and shrimp skewers and a sourdough baguettes.

Recipe

6-7 pieces of bacon
8 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. Velvetta
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
6 oz. beer
2 tsp. Montreal steak seasoning.

Directions

Sauté bacon about 3/4 done and drain fat.
Mix in remaining ingredients.
Whisk and simmer until desired thickness.

Skewer chicken and shrimp with a dash of salt and pepper and avocado oil. Drizzle bread with oil.

Cook flattop for just a few minutes.

Enjoy!

A new Christmas Eve tradition at Forto’s Fort!

Chicken in the Smokehouse

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We have had our smoke house for three years. We have smoked our fair share of sockeye salmon every July that we catch dip netting in Kasilof. We have done chicken wings and a beef brisket on a Super Bowl Sunday but we had never tried a full bird.

We decided that we would give it a try while we used the smoke house for this year’s fish catch.

We went with a maple sugar brine and it turned out great. Here is how we did it.

We picked up a box of Hi-Country custom formulated seasoning for making game birds at Sportsman’s Warehouse. It cost just $7.99 and includes everything you need. In the package is the brine solution, two cure packets and detailed instructions. We deviated a little from the instructions since we were using a smoke house instead of one of those portable metal contraptions that most people use.

We used the immersion method. You can also use the brine pump method but our fish had to be the the fridge for three days anyway so we thought we would get better results using the immersion method.

1. We mixed the brine and 1 1/2 cure packets into one gallon of water.

2. we placed the chicken in a jar pot so that the water and mixture covered it completely. We placed a small plate on top of the bird to keep it from floating to the top and put on a cover.

3. We placed the bird in the fridge for the next 72 hours, stirring occasionally.

4. On day three we removed the bird from the solution and flushed (do not soak) in fresh water to remove excess brine. Always discard the brine solution after use.

5. We allowed the bird to drip dry for 30 minutes.

6. We used a beer can stand and a can of Denali Brewing Company Ale as our beer of choice.

7. Our smokehouse reached a temperature of 190 and we used hickory pellets.

9. We left it in the smoke house for 6 1/2 hours.

10. When the bird was done it was a beautiful golden brown. We let it rest for 30 minutes before cutting it up.

We served it with a slab of ribs and some crusty bread. It was wonderful!

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