Warm cereal for cold mornings

I love to breakfast on steel-cut oats and long cooking multi-grain hot cereals on cool mornings. But they have a long cooking time and are not convenient when everyone is trying to get out the door on an early schedule.

This technique will solve the time-crunch problem on busy fall and winter mornings.  My friends Cindy from my knitting group and Becky from Vintage Mixer both use a similar method to make oatmeal.  I adapted the short cut instructions on the back of the McCann's Steel Cut Oats can.

Here's what you do:

The night before you want to serve the oats:

Measure out 1 cup of water and bring it to a boil.  I like to add a pinch of salt to the boiling water.  Add 1/4 cup of cereal and stir in. Let the cereal cook for 4-5 minutes.  I like my oatmeal creamy so I simmered mine for 7 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and refrigerate the mixture overnight. In the morning,  remove the oatmeal and either heat it in the same pot or heat it in the microwave.   This makes one generous individual serving.  I make two servings for B and I.

We  put the oatmeal in our bowls, sprinkled some brown sugar, spooned on some applesauce and a few chopped roasted pecans and then topped it with a dollop of cream.  We were inspired by Das Cafe's 5 grain oatmeal.   You could cook the cereal with milk or almond milk instead of water, and serve it with fresh fruit. Add some honey or agave... whatever you like.

This is so good and easy on a busy morning.
Try it and experiment with your own version.  You can't go wrong.

Hash Brown Potatoes With Fresh Farm Eggs

If you follow along here, you may remember that I do lunch for a group of Young Single Adults from our church every month.  Last Sunday we had a baked potato bar and there were leftover baked potatoes. They had been scrubbed, rubbed in oil and salted before baking them in aluminum foil. They were begging to made into has browns.

So made them and they were delicious.  DELICIOUS I tell you!

 I also bought some Farm Fresh Eggs from Pat this week and they were in my fridge. 

So after eating these potatoes for dinner with a piece of grilled chicken, we made some for breakfast too.
They were THAT GOOD.

Can you believe that beautiful orange yolk?  You only get that color from free-range chickens.

The recipe for the hash browns is below.  Add or subtract ingredients depending on what you have in your fridge. I happened to have a teeny tiny patch of parsley growing in the herb garden so I used that in the hash browns but chives would be excellent as would any fresh herb you have on hand.

Hash Browns with a Farm Fresh Egg

4 or 5 leftover baked russet (Idaho) potatoes, cut into cubes

1/2 of one yellow onion, chopped

1/2 of a bell pepper, any color (I used red bell)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons of butter/olive oil combination

Handful of chopped flat leaf Italian Parsley (chives would be good too)

Salt and Pepper to taste

6 eggs

Melt the butter and oil in a skillet.  I use a combination because butter tends to burn on its own.

Add the chopped onions and peppers and sprinkle with some salt.  Let cook until the vegetables become translucent.

Add the garlic and let cook for 30 seconds or so to coat in the oil.

Put the potatoes in and stir into the vegetables.  Add a little sprinkle of salt to the potatoes. Let them cook until they are heated through and they get a bit golden brown on the edges.  Stir frequently and gently so as not to break up the potatoes.

After the potatoes have warmed through, sprinkle with the parsley.  Taste and add more salt and some pepper as needed.

Pile on a plate and top with a fried egg.

You can also add any kind of pre-cooked meat to the potatoes.  Bacon, ham, or even corned beef would be excellent.

Homemade Granola

My girls have been raving about their homemade granola for a long time.  When I asked for the favorite recipe, Erin said, "Oh I just throw in this and that.  Whatever you like".  But she suggested that I start with this one and Rachel seconded the motion.

So today we made this slightly sweet, crunchy granola in our kitchen.

We started with the Smitten Kitchen recipe and changed it up a bit.  It was determined by what we had in the pantry (or the lack thereof).  Am I "smitten"?  YES I AM.

I like that this granola is chock full of nuts and dried fruit.  The recipe calls for olive oil, which is healthy oil so I like that too.
Just a note here; I thought the olive oil might impart too strong of an "olive-y" flavor but it doesn't. You won't discern any difference between the olive oil and soy oil which is used in many commercial recipes.

I had some beautiful Pure Vermont Maple syrup that I bought as my "souvenir" from a trip to Vermont (it's a luxury).  But I also remember Erin saying she liked honey in it so I replaced about 1/4 cup of the syrup with clover honey.  I also chopped up some dried mangos and apricots to add with the suggested dried cherries.  And lastly, I don't like walnuts so I substituted pecans.

Our version is delicious.  I had to keep swatting hands away from the sheet as it was cooling.  This might be a staple in our house.  And I think I'll make it just the same next time.

Click on the link above for Deb's Original Recipe.

Heirloom Pioneer Wild Plum Jelly

We had a bumper yield of heirloom Pottawattamie Plums this year.  The branches were weighed down with plump, big (for Pottawattamie plums) fruit.  They reminded me of grape clusters hanging on the tree.  These wild plum trees (more shrub-like) originated along the Mississippi and were brought here by the Mormon Pioneers.  Our tree has to be over 100 years old.  We baby it along.  It is an OLD tree.

 We picked about 5 gallons of fruit from our little tree.

Be sure to wash the picked plums very well to remove any bird leavings and sort through the washed fruit and cull out the damaged, mushy fruit. Some of the plums were smashed after the ride back to the city.  I removed these along with some twigs and leaves.

   The skin of this plum is tough and the pits hang to the flesh and are hard to remove so my big steamer makes short work of juicing them and I make jelly instead of jam.  It's much less labor intensive.

Be sure to use a large, heavy bottomed pot and a long handled wooden spoon to make jelly.  The jelly needs to come to a rolling boil that you can't stir down and you don't want the jelly to boil over or to burn yourself.  See that rolling boil?  The heavy bottomed pot ensures that the jelly won't scorch.  I used an 8 quart stockpot for 5 1/2 cups of juice. You need a very deep pot!

Jars of jewels!

Our tree yielded enough juice to make 32 assorted jars of jelly and 2 pints of syrup.  I just followed the instructions on the pectin package.  Easy!!!

Breakfast will taste like a summer morning when we pop the tops of these jelly jars on a cold snowy winter day.

Linked to Garden Tuesday.

We love Banana Bread

 I love banana bread.  These beautiful loaves are ready for gifting (with a few leftover for our freezer).

There's nothing better with a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter morning.  This bread has a moist crumb. You can add nuts to your loaves if you like (we don't), but this bread is delicious either way.  Make sure your bananas are very ripe and check for "done-ness" about 10 minutes before the specified time.  You don't want your bread dried out.

Bonnie’s Banana Bread

Makes One Loaf

½ cup of butter

1 cup of granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup of very ripe mashed bananas

¼ cup of buttermilk

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder

½ teaspoon of baking soda

¼ teaspoon of salt

½ cup of chopped nuts (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 350º F.

Grease and flour one 8x4x3-inch loaf pan or use four small loaf pans.

Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated.  Add the bananas and buttermilk.  Sift the dry ingredients and add to the mixture.  Fold in nuts if using them. 

Bake for one hour, checking with a toothpick at 50 minutes.  Decrease time for smaller pans (about 30 minutes).  Let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack,  and then turn out of the pans onto the rack to cool . Cool completely before slicing with a serrated knife.

This bread is best eaten one day after it's made.

One of my favorite things.

Oprah has her favorite things and I have mine.  Now... I know there would be no comparison if you were invited to Oprah's Favorite Things show or to my house for breakfast.  I'd take Oprah over me too.  But you might have a higher chance getting invited to my house.  And if you did come to breakfast, I'd serve you a bowl of beautiful  citrus fruit supremes.  I don't just make these for just anyone; only for my favorite people because they do take a bit of work.

Years ago, a good friend gave us a jar of  hand cut grapefruit and a small bottle of raspberry sauce for Christmas.  One of the best neighbor gifts ever!  Since then, I often serve these at brunch and keep a jar in the fridge for breakfasts in a hurry.

If you'd like to know how to supreme citrus you can go here.

Be sure to squeeze out all the juice from the leftover peels and membranes.  I pour it over the fruit so it stays moist and you can always drink in in a juice glass if there are leftovers.

Challah for the holidays.

Rachel made Challah bread with a dried fig filling.  The recipe came from the new Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  #1 Sister gifted it to Rachel and she immediately started putting sticky notes on recipes to try first.

This challah loaf won out.
I love this cookbook and just might have to purchase it for myself.  I wanted to add my own sticky notes on the pages of Rachel's book (but that would have been a bit pushy, don't you think?).
The directions are well written and the photos are just gorgeous.  The Challah had a nice crumb and it was utterly delicious.  Good job Rachel!
I can see slightly altering the filling in many different ways and you have to agree that the presentation is stunning.  I love the swirls of fig in the ropes and the sprinkling of course salt on the top was a nice flavor touch.  This would be a superb bread for New Year morning, but we'll have to make more if we want some.  This loaf won't last that long.  Aren't we fortunate that our girls are talented cooks and bakers?  I will be well taken care of in my old age (and quite possible very rotund).

We got about 12 inches of new snow and the sun is shining and the world is white, blue and sparkly.The family is all home and the everything in our world is just right.  I am grateful.
Hope your Christmas holiday was Merry and bright.  Ours sure was. 

Premium Cocoa Mix (or Witches Brew on Halloween)

Many years ago (my recipe says 1986), my friend Marjorie shared this recipe in a church cookbook. 

We moved to San Francisco and I left the book boxed up in storage.  One misty, chilly, foggy day, nothing but a steaming cup of hot chocolate would suffice.  When I couldn't find the recipe, and since no other hot chocolate compares to this one, I called Marjorie Long Distance to request the recipe.  She was a bit surprised but kindly repeated the recipe over the phone.  26 years later, it's still our favorite cocoa.

For a church meeting this month, I shared the recipe and served the cocoa as our refreshment.  I calculated the cost of one serving of premium cocoa mix from the market compared to the cost of this recipe.  The home made mix was about half the cost per serving.   It tastes just as good (some ladies declared it even better than premium cocoa). 

Package it up in a cute container and give as a neighbor or teacher gift.  I've made fabric bags, used antique canisters, and even canning jars over the years.  Include a seasonal mug or two.  Tie a sprig of holiday greenery and a pretty ribbon on it and be sure to include the recipe for the mix.  They'll want to replenish their supply when the container is empty.  Some years I've included my homemade marshmallows in the package.  Embellish the mallows with seasonal sugar, colors, and flavoring.  That recipe is coming soon.

Brew up a pot of coca this Halloween.  It'll be a hit with party guests and Trick-or Treaters.

Winter Warm Up

2 cups of instant (dried) milk

¾ cup of Non-Dairy Creamer (such as Coffee Mate)

¾ cup of sifted cocoa

¾ cup of granulated sugar

Mix all ingredients together. Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 10 servings.

To make one serving: Mix 6 oz. of hot water with 1/3 cup of mix.

My New Favorite Fall Breakfast

Early mornings are a bit nippy now that Fall is just around the corner.  I love hot cereal for breakfast this time of year.  Whole grains are healthful and I love the nutty texture and flavor,but cereal can be a bit boring.

A new cafe opened in our small town and they serve breakfast.  I didn't want a heavy serving of pancakes or french toast or the Farmer's breakfast; a gigantic plate of eggs, potatoes, and MEAT, so I opted for the hot cereal.  I must admit I didn't have extremely high expectations.  Hot cereal is pretty predictable and a bit boring, after all it's just grains.  It certainly didn't look like much.  What I got was a delicious blend of textures; slightly sweetened from the applesauce and the pinch of brown sugar. It was unexpectedly (and surprisingly) delicious. 

Das Cafe serves theirs with a squirt of whipping cream; I leave it off. 
Try it and be pleasantly surprised.  It might even become your new favorite breakfast.

Hot cooked Applesauce 5 Grain Cereal

Purchased 5 Grain Cereal Mix (I like Bob's)
Applesauce (I use my own homemade apple/cinnamon sauce)
brown sugar
whipped cream (optional)

Cook your cereal according to the directions on the package (I use the Microwave).  It's so easy to make one or two portions.
Ladle into serving bowls.
Top with a small portion of brown sugar and applesauce.  Garnish with a squirt of whipping cream if you like.

Eat warm.

Home made Yogurt

I love yogurt.  I even remember when I first tasted it.  I was 16 years old and working in a small store and I had forgotten my dinner.  I went to the market next door to try and scare up something to eat and the clerk told me to try yogurt.  It was new and strange and I loved it immediately.  Fast forward some ....years later and I am buying yogurt for my family.  School lunches, breakfast; we all eat yogurt.  Well, my daughter sent me a link about what not to eat and our yogurt was on the list.  I never stopped to look at the label and see all of the sugar it contained; pretty stupid, I admit.  No wonder we loved it.  Then I discovered Greek yogurt, my new favorite.  I'd been seeing recipes and posts about homemade yogurt for the last few years so today I tried making my own.  I don't know if I will ever buy yogurt again.   I love that it cost just a fraction of what I pay for it in the market and it was so easy and quick.  I don't know if I will ever buy yogurt again.

Hmmm....homemade yogurt with just a drizzle of honey; just the amount that I want.  The yogurt has no added sugar so it can be sweetened to your taste while you eat it.

There are a lot of recipes for making your own yogurt. Here's the link I liked best and the one I used as my guide.

I love the 6 oz. jars that came with my yogurt maker.  The lids have a movable top so that you can set your expiration date.  So handy.

Pumpkin Spice Scones

It's been a while since I last posted but I'm making up for it by sharing with you a winner of a recipe.  Two of our daughters came home for the weekend which warranted some seriously good breakfast food and these Ginger Pumpkin Scones were a hit all around.  They would be perfect for Easter Brunch.


Let me say right up front: I AM NOT A SCONE LOVER (or even a scone liker)!  I find them dry, heavy (think hockey pucks) and bland.  I always pass scones up for anything else, but these scones made me change my tune.  My friend Cristie, one of the best cooks I ever met, always brings something wonderful to the table.  Her scones are made with crystallized ginger, pumpkin, and cinnamon chips and they are packed with flavor and moistness.  So I begged Cristie for the recipe and asked if I might share it with you.  Cristie said, "Sure, it originally came from King Arthur Flour".  And I will tell you that the one scone that was leftover was still delicious the next morning.


Think you're not a scone lover?  Try these and be ready to change your mind.

Cristie’s Pumpkin Spice Scones

(original recipe from King Arthur Flour)

2 ¾ cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon allspice

½ cup minced crystallized ginger

½ cup cinnamon chips

½ cup butter

2/3 cup pumpkin

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 tablespoons sugar & ½ teaspoon cinnamon

coarse sugar

milk

Prepare crystallized ginger* and set aside. Place all dry ingredients into large mixing bowl and whisk together. Cut butter into dry ingredients until evenly crumbly (as a pie crust). Add crystallized ginger and cinnamon chips. Mix pumpkin and eggs together and stir into dry ingredients until all is moistened and holds together. Transfer dough to a floured surface and divide into two pieces. Pat each piece into a circle that is 6 inches round and about ¾ inch thick. Using a bench knife cut circle into half, then divide into 6 wedges. Remove to parchment paper, leaving them in the shape of a circle.

Once dough is to this stage it is best to FREEZE to get optimum texture and highest rise. The dough can be frozen for up to 1 month. OR, if you choose simply prepare as follows:

To bake, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare scones by placing them on a sheet pan and sil pat or parchment in the shape of a circle leaving a bit of space for the scones to rise between each one. Brush tops with milk, sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar mix and following with coarse sugar. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

* Place crystallized ginger in freezer overnight, or store it there to keep it from going rancid. When ready to chop put in zip lock bag and pound with a meat pounder or tenderizer. It makes tiny pieces of the ginger with little mess.

Apple Pancakes with Apple Cider Syrup

One of the best things I ate at the Quilt Retreat last week was an apple cider syrup over pancakes.  Many of the quilters voiced the opinion that we would eat that syrup over cardboard.....it was just that good.  It was made from fresh/pasteurized apple cider.  I buy fresh pasteurized apple cider year round from here and also in my local supermarket.  There was a promise made to share the recipe and that will happen but I couldn't wait, so I came home and GOOGLED apple cider syrup.   I found a recipe at Cooks.com that I modified slightly.   I think it is almost identical to the one we had at Bear Lake and it was a hit at my house last weekend.

I didn't use the pancake recipe from Cooks but made up my favorite recipe, to which I added  a grated Fuji apple.  I also melted a tiny bit of butter and sauteed some apple slices with cinnamon in a skillet and spooned them over the pancakes to kick up the apple flavor.  Was I happy with the results? 

I sure was!!!

Apple Pancakes with Apple Cider Syrup
(syrup modified from Cooks.com)

For Syrup:
1 cup of granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons of cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
2 cups of fresh Apple Cider (I used this brand) or apple juice
1/4 cup of butter
2 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

Mix the sugar, cornstarch, and spice together and add to a saucepan.  Pour in the apple and lemon juices.  Stir to blend and bring to a boil.  Boil the syrup until it thickens (about 1 minute).  Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until melted.

Bonnie's Apple Pancakes:


2 eggs
1 Tablespoon of granulated sugar
4 Tablespoons of butter
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 cup of milk
3/4 teaspoon of salt
1 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour
3/4 of a large, tart apple, peeled, cored, and grated (more or less to your taste)

Preheat a griddle to 350 degrees F. or heat a skillet until water dances on it, then lightly film with oil or butter.


Beat the eggs in a bowl until blended. Put the butter and milk in a pan and warm over low heat on the stove top or in the microwave until the butter is melted. Cool the mixture a bit. Stir the butter mixture into the eggs and mix well. Put all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir only until the ingredients are well moistened. Don’t over mix.

Drop 2 or 3 Tablespoons of batter onto the griddle and cook until bubbles break on the surface of the pancake. Turn the pancake over and cook until the bottom is lightly browned.

Serve pancakes topped with apple cider syrup and sauteed apples.

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

Pumpkin...Love it and this is the season of the harvest.  Nothing says fall like Pumpkin (unless it's zucchini and I know that you gardeners still have some of that).  Instead of sneaking zucchini into your friends' cars when they happen to leave them unlocked, make this bread.  No one will know you "snuck" the zucchini in here instead.  The three younger daughters were home for the weekend and we made 4 batches...some to freeze, some to eat, and some to share with friends.

 

We made 4 batches of mostly mini loaves.  Then we put them in cellophane bags with some of that great Bell'Occhio twine. They also freeze well wrapped in aluminum foil and freezer bags. 
You will get two large loaves from this recipe as written or 8 mini loaves.

Zucchini Pumpkin Bread

2 cups finely grated zucchini

3 large eggs, beaten

½ cup of melted butter

½ cup of vegetable oil

1 cup of pureed pumpkin

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

3 cups of all-purpose flour

2 cups of granulated sugar

2 teaspoons of baking soda

½ teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

¾ teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg

1 ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1 cup of nuts, chopped (optional)

Butter two 8-4 inch loaf pans generously and set aside.  Preheat the oven to 350º F.

Combine the zucchini, eggs, butter, oil, pumpkin and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir well. In a separate bowl, add the dry ingredients and whisk well to blend together until there are no lumps of flour.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until well combined. Fold in the nuts if using. Do not over mix.

Scoop the batter into the pans and bake for 50-60 minutes until the bread is golden brown and a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the middle of the bread comes out dry. Cool for 10 minutes and remove from the pans to a wire rack. Let cool completely before cutting.

Yield: 2 loaves

High altitude changes:

Add 2 to 3 Tabs. more liquid (I used the juice from the pineapple can).

Decrease sugar to 1¾ cups.

Decrease baking powder to a scant ½ teaspoon.

Decrease baking soda to 1 ½ teaspoon.

Linked to Friday Potluck.

If using small baking pans, bake for about 35 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean.

Zucchini Pancakes

Our neighbors Lothar and Anita grow the most beautiful garden. Every summer Lothar tells me about his wife Anita's zucchini pancakes.  I don't know what Anita puts in hers but I decided to try making my own version.  I had some pepper jack and Parmesan cheeses in the fridge, some Panko bread crumbs, and 1/2 of a cut onion.

I grated my zucchini on my hand grater for this small amount so why not just grate the onion along with it.  Saves time and mess.  Be sure to squeeze most of the liquid from the grated veggies or your cakes will fall apart when it cooks.  I just grab it in my IMPECCABLY clean hands and squeeze the life out of it.

Use white bread crumbs instead of Panko; substitute chives for the onions.  Change up the cheese and add your choice of fresh herbs or garlic.  I left them out this time because of the pepper jack cheese.  I also had an open jar of my homemade tomato sauce open in the fridge to sauce these with but you could top this with lots of other things.  Use what you have.  That's what this recipe is all about.  AND WAS IT EVER GOOD!!!  I wouldn't lie to you about that.  I ate three (I know!, but they were little).

Zucchini Cakes

2 cups of grated zucchini, squeezed dry

2 eggs, beaten

¼ cup of grated yellow onion, squeezed dry

½ cup of Panko bread crumbs

½ cup of grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup of grated Pepper Jack cheese

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon of freshly ground pepper

1 ½ tablespoons of vegetable oil

1 teaspoon of butter

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh herbs (optional)

1/4 cup of fresh tomato sauce for dipping the cakes into

Heat the oil and butter in a non-stick skillet until it shimmers. Set the pan over medium heat.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Stir just until blended.  Form into patties and carefully drop them into the skillet. Shake once to dislodge them from sticking. Let them cook for several minutes on each side until the cakes are golden brown. Drain on a paper towel.

Serve hot with fresh tomato sauce, applesauce, ranch dressing, sour cream, pico de gallo or some pesto.

Gold Rush Bread (Not the Same Old Zucchini Bread)

Do you grow zucchini in your garden?  If  you answered yes, then you surely have gone out one morning and found a baseball bat-sized zucchini.   What to do with it?  Scrape out the spongy center, grate it up, and make this bread.

This is not the same old same old zucchini bread.  It's pure gold.  I grow Gold Rush variety zucchini in my garden, so I thought, "Why not add some pineapple too kick the yellow color up a notch?" Of course you could use green zucchini.

Gold Rush Bread

2 cups finely grated gold or green zucchini

3 large eggs

½ cup of melted butter

½ cup of vegetable oil

10 ounces of crushed pineapple, drained but not dry

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

3 cups of all-purpose flour

2 cups of granulated sugar

2 teaspoons of baking soda

½ teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

¾ teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg

1 ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1 cup of nuts, chopped (optional)

Butter two 8-4 inch loaf pans generously and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350º F.

Combine the zucchini, eggs, butter, oil, pineapple and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir well. In a separate bowl, add the dry ingredients and whisk well to blend together without lumps.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until well combined. Fold in the nuts if using. Do not over mix.

Scoop the batter into the pans and bake for 50-60 minutes until the bread is golden brown and a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the middle of the bread comes out dry. Cool for 10 minutes and remove from the pans to a wire rack. Let cool completely before cutting.

Yield: 2 loaves

French Toast with Raspberries

Mr. City Home made french toast while I was in the garden.  You'll never guess what he topped it with.

I picked another 5 pans of berries, but I gave up before I got through the patch.  I was tired, so I went in and made myself some french toast.  I deserved a reward.

French Toast

Day-old or slightly stale ciabatta bread (or any bread you have on hand), sliced

Large eggs

pinch of ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

milk or cream

(The amount of eggs and milk you need vary depending on the amount of bread slices you have.  I guess.)

In a flat bowl big enough to fit the bread slices, whisk the egg, salt, and cinnamon until the yolk and white is smooth and combined.   Add a bit of milk to thin the egg.  (We are not making toast coated with a scrambled egg so do thin the egg a little bit).

Lay the bread slices in the egg mixture for about 15 seconds per side or until the bread absorbs some of the egg mixture.  Let the excess egg drip off.

Butter or spray a skillet, griddle or pan and let it pre-heat slightly.  Lay the bread slices in the skillet and cook on Medium heat until the bread is golden brown and slightly dried out.  Flip and cook the other side.

Serve warm with butter, pure maple syrup and fresh fruit...we used raspberries, of course.

You could also top this with bananas, or any other fresh fruit you happen to have around; maybe even a dollop of sour cream.

Marion's Classic Waffles

Do you know Marion Cunningham?  Not Richie's mom from the Happy Days TV show (now I'm just showing my age); but Marion Cunningham, the cookbook author.  Her Breakfast Book is by far my favorite cook book for a hearty country breakfast.  I mean, How can you not love an a cook who includes fruit pie recipes for breakfast?  That's permission in my opinion.

We have been using this waffle recipe for years.  While we don't eat waffles often, sometimes on a lazy weekend they are just the ticket.  This is my favorite waffle recipe in Marion's book, and it's easy and fast too.  Drizzled with some real maple syrup, or homemade raspberry or plum syrup from the orchard/garden, or fresh fruit (that makes it health food).  Even eaten the next day out of hand from the toaster; these waffles are "to-die-for".   What you won't see in the photo is a butter pat.  The recipe has enough in the batter to satisfy my family.  But hey, you can melt some on your waffle if you like.

Make these waffles next weekend.  Your friends and family will thank you.

Winter Warm-Up and a Giveaway

Grab a beverage, pull up a stool and get comfortable, because there are some good things on the blog today, and a little surprise for you at the end of this post.

Ok, got your beverage?  If not...you could be drinking this one.  It's called Winter Warm-Up or more commonly know as Hot Chocolate, and I've been making it forever.  Chances are you probably already have the ingredients in your pantry.  It's so much less expensive to make your own than buying the premium cocoa mixes in the store.  I whisk up a big batch in early winter so my girls can grab a cup and go.  We needed it this morning; just look at the snow we woke up to.

A Trip up North and Aebleskivers

Today we hopped in the car and drove up north for a trip down Memory Lane, searching for cherries and a little piece of my childhood.

My Mother was raised 2 hours north of us in a little town named Smithfield, which is situated
in a lovely valley called Cache.  Beginning in the 1820's, fur trappers and mountain men would bring their pelts there to trade when they rendezvoused in the spring after a winter of trapping, which is how it came to be named Cache Valley.  This historic barn in Logan is the only barn in our part of the country that advertised Dr. Pierce's tonic, a patent medicine.  Barns were the "country billboards" at the turn of the century.  Going to Cache Valley is a step back into childhood for me.  I spent many happy days there with my grandparents, doing things that we never did in the city, like playing in my great-grandfather's barn, which was directly behind my Grandparent's house.  We loved the rope swing in the hay loft, the tower lookout built by my Mom's cousin,and the small single engine airplane that he stored there.  He still owns the barn.
We rode horses, milked cows, and picked raspberries and peas from the field.  It was an idyllic place, and my grandparents made sure we got a taste of everything that we missed by living in the city.  Today we went to the cemetery to visit the resting place of my ancestors.

On the way there, we also stopped by The Fruit Way looking for cherries; unfortunately they are late this summer.  And...we shopped at one of our favorite stores of all time, Smith and Edwards.  This is a HUGE and I mean HUGE store;  171,000 square feet HUGE.  It started as a warehouse full of army/navy surplus after WW2.  Incredibly, you can still buy a used WW2 army tank there.  You can also buy just about everything and anything under the sun; food, camping supplies, saddles, children's toys, garden supplies, work clothes, shoes, cowboy boots, hardware, canning supplies, cooking tools, camp-cooking supplies, guns, and knives; even fishing boats.  You can also buy an old tin cantine or a $9.00 cotton desert head scarf in case you're going on a little jaunt to the Middle East (although I am not planning a trip to Afghanistan anytime soon, I almost bought one for a table cover).  You name it, they probably have it. 

This is one row of the many in the store.  There are 21 aisles branching off to the right of this one row.  You could stay here for days and not see everything.  And don't go with a friend and split up unless you have some bread crumbs to drop and follow like Hansel and Gretel did in the forest.  You'll need them to find each other again.   Not kidding.  Don't go there without your cell phone or a GPS system!!!

I bought a Lodge cast iron aebleskiver pan (my favorite brand of cast iron cookware).  A WHAT?, you ask.

My second parents, (you know...those best friends of your parents who you grew up with) were from Idaho and Yvonne was raised by her Danish grandmother.  Yvonne made aebleskivers and my Mom learned how to make them from her.  Aebelskiver translated directly from the Danish language means apple slices.  Aebleskivers were traditionally eaten at Advent with Glogg. We ate them with applesauce, not glogg.  I don't know how this happened but one of my sisters somehow got my Mom's aebleskiver pan (she claims that Mom likes her best).  I have toyed with the idea of buying one for years so when I saw them at Smith and Edwards I splurged and brought one home.

I guess I never told my children about aebleskivers, because they were a mystery to Abby.  I'm not sure why I haven't because we ate them often when I was young.  I used a recipe I found on the Internet from Williams-Sonoma.  Of course, because I decided to make these at 7:00 pm, I didn't have buttermilk.  What I did have was a lot of yogurt, so instead of adding lemon juice to milk to make my own buttermilk, I substituted part vanilla yogurt and part skim milk.  This turned out to be fortuitous...that vanilla yogurt was wonderful in the aebleskivers.  I've adapted the WS recipe and made the changes to the recipe below.  The yogurt gave these aebleskivers another flavor dimension. 

I had some berries in the fridge so I put them on top of the batter in the pan.   These are just about ready to turn.  See the bubbles just starting to break on the top?  As soon as they "set" and dry a bit just like pancakes, give them a turn, which we did with two wooden skewers.  You could also use a fork or chopsticks.

Dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled ever so slightly with cinnamon cream syrup, they were TO DIE FOR; even softer and lighter in texture than I remember.  We will be playing around with this basic recipe for a long time.  Maybe I'll add some lemon zest to the batter and top them with lemon curd for a homey dessert.  Or...add some cinnamon or nutmeg and nuts.  The possibilities are endless.
My husband said that they reminded him of a fat, puffy beignet, except they're less greasy.



 Maybe next time we'll eat them with applesauce.

Bonnie's Aebleskivers 

(adapted from Williams-Sonoma's basic batter)

2 eggs, separated

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1 cup skim milk

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 Tabs. granulated sugar

4 Tabs. melted butter

Separate the eggs; beat the whites until stiff.  Mix all the other ingredients together one at a time and beat until smooth.  Fold in the egg whites.

Heat the cast iron pan in the oven until it is hot, then set on stove top and turn heat to medium-low.  Put about 1/2 tsp. of butter in each well and let it melt.  Pour batter in almost to the top.  If desired, add 1/2 tsp. of jam, or pieces of fruit on top of batter.  Cover with a small amount of batter.  When the batter has bubbled and set , turn the ball over with a skewer or fork.  Continue cooking until golden brown and until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Serve warm with powdered sugar or syrup.

This post was submitted to Two For Tuesdays.