J’s Valentine’s Day Party

J decided that she wanted to make a Valentine’s Day party for all of us.  I helped her with some things, but most of it she did on her own. 

She made paper boats and masts with sails for the place names. 

She made a “Happy Valentine’s Day” sign and I helped her hang it.

She hung paper hearts from the chandelier. 

She baked brownies and Ruby Tea Biscuits (from the Anne of Green Gables cookbook). 

Then she and her friend, N, cut the biscuits with heart-shaped cookie cutters.

J set and decorated the table so beautifully.  She really went all out for this party.  We had brownies, the tea biscuits, Aussie Bites (we get them from Costco) and hot tea with sugar and cream. 

We all had such a good time eating the tasty goodies.  I’m so proud of her!  She was exhausted by the time it was finished.  But look at that satisfied smile! 

Coffee Cake Muffins

 

These muffins are so delicious!  We have been eating them in my family since I was young.  I can remember my sister and I making them for breakfast when we were teenagers and then we would sit out on the patio and have tea, muffins, and fruit.  It was so much fun!  Now I do this with my girls. 

Sometimes we have Coffee Cake Muffins for breakfast and sometimes we have them for “tea”, when we eat them in the afternoon with a cup of hot or iced tea.

I have made these muffins for brunches and bake sales and given them to friends.  Now they are a regularly requested item!  Anytime there’s a function going on someone asks me if I will be bringing my Coffee Cake Muffins. 

Here’s the recipe if you care to make them yourselves! 

Prep: 20 minutes   Bake at 400 degrees     Makes 12 muffins

Topping:

3/4 c flour

3/4 c brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 c butter or margarine

3/4 c chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Muffin mix:

3 c flour

1 c granulated sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 c butter or margarine

2 eggs beaten

1 c buttermilk or sour milk (to make sour milk:  for each 1 c needed: 1 T vinegar or lemon juice in a cup measure; fill measuring cup to 1 c line with milk;  mix and let stand 5 minutes.)

Grease a  12 cup muffin pan or line with paper bake cups.

Topping:  In small bowl mix all topping ingredients except butter.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add nuts if desired.  Set aside.

Muffin mix:  In medium bowl stir together muffin mix ingredients except butter.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Set aside.

In another medium bowl combine the egg and buttermilk or sour milk.  Add egg mixture all at once to the dry muffin mixture.  Stir just till moistened (batter will be lumpy). 

With a tablespoon, spoon half of batter into each of the prepared muffin cups, filling about 1/2 full.  With another tablespoon, spoon half of the topping mix.  Add another layer of the muffin mix and then remaining topping mixture.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 15-18 minutes or till golden.  Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes.  Remove muffins from muffin cups; serve warm.  Makes 12 muffins.

Check this out!

After I made this post about the Oatmeal Pancakes, I received an email from Brian Bradley, the content editor at DishiWiki.  He requested permission to re-post this blog entry and photo on his website!  So exciting!  Published again! 

Check out Brian’s website, though.  It’s pretty interesting.  The caption says, “Everyday cooks sharing recipes.”  You can create an account and share recipes with other people.  That’s my kind of site!  And no…I’m not being paid or compensated in any way for mentioning this site.  I just truly think it’s a cool site. 

A Recipe to Share

Now…I have shared a few recipes with you on my blog from time to time before.  However, I must tell you…I would share more recipes and photos of me making them except for the fact that I am a terribly messy cook.  There it is…out in the open now.  Whew!  I feel so much better. 

Seriously though, when I get flour out of the bin, for instance, inevitably more gets onto the floor, the counter, and me than into the bowl…or so it seems.  I am also very accident prone.  I spill this and knock that over, bonk my head, stub my toe.  Just ask my hubby.  His famous words about me are, “That’s my wife!”  Needless to say, it’s not a pretty sight…nor does it make for photo op moments. 

I do, however, have a lot of recipes that I would love to share, so for me it is just better if I show you the end result.  Then we all win.  And I don’t have to worry about making my cooking scene look good in the process.  Now…if I can just remember to take the picture!  That’s happened before too.  I remember after dinner that I wanted to photograph that pie or casserole, etc.  If fact that was just about the case in this situation with this recipe I am going to share today.  I was half-way into eating and remembered that I wanted to photograph it.  So I took another helping to prepare it for the photo and then I couldn’t finish eating it…I was too stuffed! 

So on to the recipe!

Pancakes! 

But wait!  These aren’t your every day, run-of-the-mill pancakes.  These are special.  Maybe you’ve come across them before, but I hadn’t until my friend E told me about them recently and now they are a permanent breakfast fixture in our house.  We call them Protein Pancakes or Oatmeal Pancakes (that certainly sounds more appealing than “protein pancakes” I think).  They are super easy to make and so full of flavor!  Here’s how we do it:

In the blender mix well:

1 egg per person eating – so if you have 4 to feed, use 4 eggs, etc.

1/4 cup oatmeal per egg

1/4 cup cottage cheese per egg

1 tsp sweetener per egg + 1 tsp – again, if you have 4 to feed, use 5 tsp sweetener; use your favorite sweetener, sugar, honey, etc.

cinnamon to taste

vanilla to taste

 

Cook on a hot griddle the same way you would with traditional pancakes.  These pancakes take no time at all to make and our family just loves them!  Seriously, I looked at the clock this morning when I was making them and it took me no longer (maybe even less) than 10 minutes from the time I started mixing the batter to the time we sat down to eat.  You can also use anything you like for topping - syrup, fruit, but our favorite right now is butter and honey. 

The nice thing about this recipe, also, is that you can tweak it to your personal taste.  You can add other ingredients or change the ones already listed.  They are super filling too.  And I love knowing that I’m not just feeding my family empty carbs and tons of sugar for breakfast. 

So I hope you get to try these!  Let me know in the comments section how you like them!

Artisan Bread

I wanted to share with you a wonderful site I just happened to come across some months ago on artisan bread.  It’s the most amazing bread!  I love home made bread, and so does my family, but the time it takes, several times a week to make it, just doesn’t fit into our schedule.  So when I came across this recipe for bread where I can make the dough ahead of time and use over a couple weeks’ time, I had to check it out! 

It literally takes less than 5 minutes of my time whenever I want to make a loaf of bread.  After I make the big batch of dough (which takes maybe 10-15 minutes) and keep it in the refrigerator, each day that I want a loaf, I just grab about 2 lbs of dough, dust it with flour, (no kneading required…ever!) and toss it into a greased bread pan.  It rests for about 1 hour and 40 minutes before going into the oven for 1 hour.  It comes out perfect every time!  There is nothing you can do to this dough that it will not work!  It’s fool proof!  

We have also used the dough for making pizza.  Absolutely wonderful!  It’s always all ready to go, so we just grab out a hunk of it and press it into the pizza pan, add our toppings and bake for about 10-15 minutes.  Literally about 20-30 minutes until mealtime! 

The dough is a type of sour dough with a very mild, nutty taste.  You can add any fresh or dried herbs and/or garlic to the dough as well for a fabulous herbed bread.  My family loves this bread so much that I’ve had to limit my kids from getting into it without asking.  They would eat a whole loaf for snack! 

Do any of my readers have recipes like this that have just grabbed you and made your life easier and tastier?  I’d love to hear about them!

Happy Valentine's Day

Wishing you all a wonderful, love-filled day! 

 

The girls decorated these cookies with food-coloring pens we found at the grocery store.  What a fun little project!

Making a Chocolate Wacky Cake with J

For the 4H Foods Fair this year J chose to make a Chocolate Wacky Cake, one of our family favorites and super easy to make. So I got out my camera and she put on her apron and away we went.

To begin with, you must have measuring cups and spoons.

Then, using a spatula to level off the top, you scoop the flour.

Next, you add the sugar...

...salt...

...baking cocoa...

...baking soda...

...and white vinegar. Yes, I did say vinegar. That's why this is called a "wacky" cake. Fun, huh?

Then you add the vanilla...

...and the oil...

...then the final ingredient...water.

Next, you put on the flat beater.

Then you let it mix up and stop to scrape the sides of the bowl once in a while.

Then you turn to Mama and give her a cute little look. Mind you, this is the most important part of making this cake! It won't turn out right without "the look".

When it's all mixed up and there is no more flour stuck to the bottom of the bowl because you did such a good job scraping, you pour it into an ungreased baking pan.

Now for this part you absolutely have to stick out your tongue. Another crucial part of this recipe.

Now it's ready to put into the oven. What a proud girl we have here. Making a cake all by herself at 6 years old. Pretty impressive!

Now comes the part that is arguably the best part of making a cake of any kind, but especially chocolate...

...licking the bowl! It's just the best! I remember how much I looked forward to this part when I was her age. But of course I don't do that anymore...you know, now that I'm a grown up. Yeah...right!

You just can't lick the bowl without getting it all over you either. It just doesn't work.

And the grand finale! A beautiful, yummy cake that the judges rave over! Great job J!

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Just in case you would like to make this cake, here is the recipe:

Chocolate Wacky Cake

In a large bowl mix:

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup baking cocoa

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup oil

2 cups cold water

*Pour into ungreased 9x13 pan, or two 8" rounds. Bake 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees. Bake 15 minutes for cupcakes.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

6 tablespoons softened butter

Baking cocoa - 1/3 cup for light flavor

1/2 cup for medium flavor

3/4 cup for dark flavor

2 2/3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

*In small bowl, cream butter. Add cocoa and sugar alternately with milk. Beat to spreading consistency. Blend in vanilla.

Raspberry Sorbet

My daughter K (age 11) made this Raspberry Sorbet the other day using some of our raspberries we picked last week. It is so yummy!

Here is the recipe from the Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker recipe book:

2 c water

2 c sugar

12 oz (aprox. 1 cup) raspberries - pureed and strained

4 tps. lemon juice

Combine sugar and water in medium saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heatto low. Simmer until sugar disolves, about 3-4 minutes. Cool completely (place mixture in covered container and store in refridgerator overnight - or chill over an ice bath for 30 minutes if using right away).
When cool, add raspberry puree and lemon juice; stir to combine. Pour into ice cream maker's freezer bowl, turn machine on and let mix until mixture thickens, about 25-30 minutes. If desired, transfer sorbet to an airtight container and place in freezer until firm.

Delicious!