Grandpa Menlove's Marinade

My dad's side of the family boasts quite a few turkey farmers, so turkey is a fairly common Sunday dinner main dish. Most often is prepared using Grandpa Menlove's famous marinade. He carves a turkey into steaks, soaks it in marinade and then grills it. Side it with rolls and Melt-in-your-Mouth potatoes and you've got my ideal Sunday dinner. I'm usually too lazy to carve a turkey, though, so I just use chicken breasts.

1 cup soy sauce
1 cup cooking oil
1 cup (or 1 can) 7-up
1 tsp garlic powder

Combine and mix in a large bowl. Add turkey or chicken. This much marinade works for about 10 chicken breasts. They don't need to be fully submersed while marinating, just coated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and marinate in the fridge for several hours (or overnight is best) before grilling.

Best Ever Dinner Rolls

Rolls have always been kind of intimidating to me. I guess bread in general has always intimidated, but rolls especially. Unfortunately (fortunately?) for me, my mom's rolls are one of a select few things that just make my mouth water and I couldn't live without them when we moved to Ohio. After nearly a year of craving them every single Sunday, I finally bucked up and tried to make them myself. That first attempt is something that I am not proud of. They were flat, dry and all around yucky. Two years later, I am proud to say that I am a master at making them and they work every single time. The trick is rising time. Don't cut it short, even if it means letting the first rise happen all through church.

1/2 cup potato flakes
1/2 cup water
3 eggs
1 cup milk (warmed for one minute in the microwave)
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp yeast
4-5 cups flour

Combine potato flakes and water in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, warmed milk and butter. Mix until combined. Add sugar, salt and yeast. Mix until combined. Add flour and mix until the dough is slightly sticky to the touch (if you're using a kitchenaid or bosch, this is usually when the dough pulls away from the sides on its own). Don't be afraid to use more flour than called for if necessary, but always err on the side of too sticky rather than overly stiff. Knead for 6-8 minutes and then cover and let rise until doubled in size (1-2 hours). Punch down and mold into rolls (sadly, I'm not going to give instructions, but you can google all the different ways to mold into rolls. I will always prefer the classic pull and pinch underneath into a nice round ball method). Arrange on a baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled in size again (this is where you really don't want to cheat yourself. Give yourself at least forty-five minutes of rising time, even though my mom says you only need twenty minutes).

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, or until golden on top. When you take them out of the oven, immediately baste with butter.

I can usually get twenty four rolls with a little bit of dough left over.

Scotcharoos

Another camping favorite is scotcharoos. I honestly can't remember a camping trip when I was growing up (or currently) with my family that did not involve eating one (or four...) too many of these.

1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup light corn syrup
1 Cup peanut butter
1 box rice kripies
1/2 bag chocolate chips

Heat sugar and light corn syrup in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Add peanut butter and stir until smooth. Pour peanut butter mixture over rice kripies in a large mixing bowl. Mix together. Press into a brownie pan (quickly, before it cools too much!). Melt the chocolates chips in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir to make smooth. Spread the chocolate over the rice krispy. Allow to cool. Cut into squares.

Coconut Chex Mix

We've been gearing up for a fun camping trip with some of the families in our ward. I love camping. Growing up it was our standard family activity. We went on multiple long camping trips every summer and many, many more smaller camping trips. Of all the things I learned from these vacations, the most important was that food is essential. Especially snack food. Coconut Chex Mix is insanely unhealthy, but no camping trip (or New Year's Eve) is complete without it.

1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Light Corn Syrup
2 Cubes Butter
1 tsp coconut extract
1 Large Box Chex Mix
1 Cup Coconut Flakes
Handful silvered almonds

Combine sugar, light corn syrup and butter in a sauce pan. Heat to a boil and let boil for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add coconut extract. Pour sugar mixture over the Chex cereal in a large mixing bowl. Stir in coconut flakes and slivered almonds.

Store in a large tupperware.