Puffy Oven Pancakes

Puffy Oven Pancakes 

(aka Dutch Babies... you can't make that kinda thing up!)

This is absolutly one of my favorite breakfasts to make.

It's Oliver approved too, always a bonus!

Plus, there are a bunch of different variations you can make on it. Here we go:

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Bake Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

2 eggs
½ c milk
½ c flour
dash of cinnimon
dash of nutmeg
3 tbsp butter, cold
1 tbsp brown sugar (optional)
pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 425°F. Place 2 tbsp cold butter into a glass pie dish, and place in the oven to heat while you make the batter (about 5 minutes, until the butter is melted and some brown bits appear). In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon, set aside.

2. Beat the eggs, milk, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg together until smooth. Pour the mixture into the heated pie dish. Some of the butter will end up on top. This is glorious, don't worry! (Note: I doubled the recipe, that's why there are two pie plates)

3. Bake for 8 minutes, then remove from the oven and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place 1 tbsp butter in the center of the pancake, and return to the oven for another 8 to 10 minutes.

 

Enjoy!

NOTE: When cooked, the center will be a little custard-y, that's exactly what you're looking for!

VARIATIONS: There are a bunch of variations you can do here, basically anything you can think of. Here are a few of my favorites though:

1. Toss apple or pear slices in the sugar mixture and place on the pancake (either at the start to bake it, they just won't puff up, or after 8 minutes).

2. Top with Jam at the 8 minute mark

3. Bake plain, the spread a little bit of dulche de leche and some banana slices on top. Mmmmmm

Ugh.

I have been just so, so sick this week. I came down with something Friday night, and it's just gotten worse, so nothing's been updated.

(sorry)

I do have a couple waiting in the wings though, and I'll get them up as soon as I can say supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus without starting a coughing fit.

I'm hoping tomorrow?

Get ready for a 5 minute, 4 ingredient, pineapple cream pie, corn flake cookies, and how I make Ragu a little more fun with just a few quick additions.

For now: back to bed!

Then to the doctors.

Then to the other doctors.

Then to garbage night.

Crap, I totally forgot that it was garbage night. Help me.

If you're bored, make the chocolate sheet cake that I got from The Pioneer Woman, it'll change your life!

Or the butter tarts, they're faster and ohhhhhh so good!

Show Stopper Roast Chicken

I call this my show stopper because is tastes like I put hours of planning and effort into figuring out the perfect combination of accouterments to highlight the bird, when really, I got lucky about 5 years ago on my first shot and haven't looked back. Sure, I've tried variations, but I always come back to this.

Unless it's summer time.

Then it's all about the beer can.

Or the rotisserie!

Did I mention that this is a breeze to pull together too?

No?

It's a breeze to pull together!

Show Stopper Roast Chicken

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 2 hours +/-
Serves: 4, but they'll fight over it

Ingredients:


1 lemon, sliced into ¼" rounds
8-10 sprigs fresh rosemary (just buy a pack at the store and use it up)
1 medium sweet onion, sliced in half, then each half into 4 chunks
6 tbsp butter, softened
garlic powder
salt
pepper
olive oil

Spice Rub:
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp old bay seasoning



Directions:


1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and mix together your spice rub.

2. Rinse your chicken, then pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle the cavity of the bird liberally with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Stuff the cavity with 1 tbsp of butter, 3 sprigs of rosemary, and some lemon slices and onion chunks (roughly 2 of each).

3. Loosen the skin from the breast meat and the legs. Rub ½ tbsp of butter under the skin of each leg, and 1 tbsp of butter under the skin of each breast. Rub the remaining two tbsp of butter all over the outside of the skin. Finally, rub the spice rub over the buttered skin. Yumm.

4. Place the remaining onion chunks, lemon slices, and rosemary sprigs around the perimeter of your roasting pan. Place the chicken, breast side up, onto a roasting rack in the pan. Sprinkle a bit of kosher or fresh ground sea salt over the top of the chicken.

5. Bake at 350°F until the thickest part of the breast registers 180°F on a thermometer. Half way through baking (1 hour in), drizzle some olive oil over the top of the chicken (1-2 tbsp). Be sure to let the chicken rest for 15 minutes before carving or else the meat will lose its juices and you'll be eating dry bird.

My Cheddar (not Bay) Biscuits and My (not Bisquick) Biscuit Mix

 

So, I'm pregnant, and being so I get cravings. Frequently this time around, and a couple of weeks ago all I wanted were the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits. I'd been down this road before, and I've tried many of the online versions only to be disappointed, so at least I knew what not to do.

I pulled out the standard ingredients, including biscuit mix, only I didn't have any biscuit mix. Dun dun dun.

Panic like whoa.

See, I live in a small town. We have 2 restaurants that are really more like diners (and one of them only sells chicken wings, but there's a third going in now, woot!). To actually get to a red lobster is a 30 minute drive each way, and I was already in my pajamas (something I tend to get into 0.34 seconds after getting home from work). So, my only option was to make the biscuits from scratch. Or go to the grocery store (please recall pajama statement above).

So, I started hunting online for a biscuit recipe, but instead of finding a biscuit recipe, I found a biscuit mix recipe, and it ended up being awesome! I would link it, but I can't remember where it was, and I forgot to favorite the page. I'll try to figure this out later though, because they deserve all the credit!

Enjoy! I have 3 times since I figured this out (please remember I'm pregnant), and now because I'm typing it out, I'm pretty sure they just got added to the menu tonight. I'm sure they'll work with Asian marinated pork tenderloins!

Cheddar (not Bay) Biscuits

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 17 minutes
Makes: 12 large biscuits

Ingredients:

Biscuits:
2½ c biscuit mix
4 tbsp butter, straight from the fridge cold
¾ c whole milk, cold
½ tsp garlic powder
1 heaping cup grated medium cheddar cheese

Topping:
4 tbsp butter, melted
½ tsp dried parsley flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp salt

Directions:


1. Preheat your oven to 400°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Combine the biscuit mix, butter and cheese with a pastry blender (or cut in with a couple of knifes or forks, I highly recommend getting a pastry blender though!). You want the butter to be in pea sized pieces mixed with the flour.

3. Gently stir in the milk and garlic powder. Don't over mix this or the biscuits won't be fluffy

4. Use a ½ cup measuring cup to scoop up the mix and place onto the prepared baking sheet (you're hands will get a little messy here.

5. Bake for 15 - 17 minutes, until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn a light brown

6. While the biscuits are baking, mix all the topping ingredients together. As soon as the biscuits come out of the oven, use a pastry brush to brush the topping onto the top of each biscuit. Don't be shy here!

NOTE: You can also make smaller, ¼ cup sized biscuits. Just decrease the time in the oven by a few minutes and keep your eye on them. I like the big ones because then I say that I only ate 2 (or 3, or 4) of them, instead of 4 (or 6, or 8).

Pantry Biscuit Mix

This is fantastic because you just store it in a large airtight container in a cool, dry place, or the freezer, for up to 8 months! I found this mix to make biscuits far superior to the store-bought brand...but that's just my humble opinion.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Makes: 11 cups of mix

Ingredients:


9 c all purpose flour
¼ c baking powder
1 tbsp salt
2 c shortening

Directions:


1. Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Store until needed.

Nan's Buttertarts

Buttertarts

This is my great-grandmothers recipe for buttertarts, and it's so simple that I almost feel like they can't possibly be as good as they are. And they are good. I'm currently trying to find a fair to enter them in (because yeah, on my bucket list, right next to making it into the Guiness Book of World Records for anything, is to win a blue ribbon at a country fair. I think these are my ticket).

I made these a week and a half ago, and I know that I've got at least one more pack of frozen tart shells in my freezer, so it's been a battle of the wills to not make at least another dozen. Can this (with it's butter and milk) count as a serving of dairy? Half a serving?

Oh yeah, these are definitely Oliver approved too!

Without further ado...

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 28 minutes
Makes: 24 tarts (standard size)

Ingredients:



2/3 c butter, softened
2 c brown sugar
2 eggs
4 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
walnut pieces (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 450°F and prepare your tart shells.


2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy


3. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla and mix until well combined.


4. Drop a few nuts (if using) into the bottom of your prepared tart shells (or your tenderflake ones from the freezer, like I do). Fill each shell with 1 tbsp of filling

5. Bake at 450°F for 8 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (do not remove the tarts) and continue baking for another 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.


NOTE: At 15 minutes, your filling will be runny, at 20 minutes it will be firm. I'm a firm filling person (as were the folks here at the office, who have been harassing me all week to bring in more), so I strongly suggest going that route.

Funny Story

First of all, I suck, because I don't update this. And that's a horrible thing, because I have a terrible memory, so besides not keeping a record of my favorite recipes, I'm also losing that record of all the mundane things that go on in our house.

Not today though, because last night something so ridiculously cute happened that if I don't write it down I'll hate myself forever. Or as long as I can remember to.

Any way...

Wednesday night is garbage night, which you've heard me complain about millions of many times before. Oliver's usually my little "helper", trekking around behind me from room to room. I start upstairs, master bedroom, Oliver's room, guest room, then into the upstairs family room. Here's where I lost my little helper. He found Chuck the talking Truck and I was forgotten, so I continued downstairs, and had been cleaning out the fridge when I realized it had been at least 5 minutes since I'd heard anything.

ANYTHING.

Not a peep, not him walking across the floor. Not him trying to turn the TV on, or climbing onto the table, or knocking over a picture. Nothing. And this was very concerning, because when he's that quiet he's into something he KNOWS he shouldn't be.

I tried calling him, still silence.

I crept up the stairs, jumped around the corner thinking I'd catch him painting on the walls or something. But from across the room, all I saw was my little angel sitting on the couch, looking at me.

Then I saw the Oreo bag.

I walked over to the couch, and Oliver, panic in his eyes, stretched out his arm to offer me the last eighth of an Oreo cookie, with all the filling licked off.

"Hey Mom, I was just getting this cookie for you, but I wanted to test it first to make sure it was fresh"

Sure you did Oliver.

Then, when I said "No thank you", trying to act all stern, he slowly, while still looking at me, tucked his arm under his bouncer, and "hid" the cookie. This is when I couldn't take it any more and just burst out laughing. I told him he could finish the cookie, but he acted like he didn't know what cookie I was talking about, and he jumped off the couch and headed downstairs to help me finish the garbage.

I have no clue how many Oreo's he went through before I got up there, I'm only glad that he'd already eaten dinner so it didn't ruin his appetite. Judging by the amount of crumbs stuck to his face and hands, I'd guess at least a few.

An hour and a half later, when we went back upstairs to watch some tv, the first thing he did was bee-line it to his bouncer and eat that last bit of cookie.

I love this kid so much!

mmmm

So, pregnancy is apparently making me not update this very often.

Truth be told, I don't think it's the pregnancy, I think it's the impending Christmas.

You see, I'm hosting Christmas dinner, and I thought this was fantastic, until it started getting close. And I remembered that I had a 17 month old. And then I got pregnant, which made me tired. Always. Tired.

So, I'm starting to get quite panicked about Christmas dinner, and every time I go to post here, I think "I should probably finalize that menu and work out a timeline so I know what I can make ahead of time".

Then, instead of doing that, I stalk other blogs, stare off into space, and dream of what food I'm going to go out and buy for lunch.

Speaking of, does anyone know where I could buy some Welsh Rarebit.

Anyone?

All I want is some toast with cheese sauce.

Anyone?

Damn.