Apple and Walnut Pancakes

I love apples! I love walnuts! I love pancakes! So when I came across this recipe I decided that I had to give it a whirl.

I have eaten pancakes all my life, but the most exotic pancakes I have eaten are blueberry pancakes. Usually it is just plain pancake with maple syrup. It's kind of sad when I think of it. So it was time to step out of my box and try a new experience.

My only concern with this recipe was that the apples would stay too crisp or maybe even raw, I wasn't sure if they would cook long enough to soften up. But that wasn't the case they were very tasty. I used  red delicious apples for this batch of pancakes. The next time I make them I will use a baking apple such as a Macintosh, I think it would be a better fit for this recipe.

I have to say to my surprise that these pancakes were delicious. I loved the taste of the apple and the walnuts along with the maple flavor from the maple syrup. What a great combination!

Apple and Walnut Pancakes
(Recipe adapted from Recipe for a Country Inn by Donna Leahy)

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
6 large eggs, separated
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
3 apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
Whipped butter
Maple syrup

1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat in the sour cream until smooth. Beat in the egg yolks and melted butter until smooth.

2. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter. Fold the apples and walnuts into the batter.

3. Heat a lightly buttered griddle or skillet over medium-high heat, and ladle on the batter to form 3- to 4-inch pancakes. Cook until small bubbles form and edges begin to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side for 1 to 2 minutes, until just cooked through. Repeat until twelve pancakes are completed.

4. Serve with whipped butter and warm maple syrup. Enjoy!!

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Peanut Butter Cream Pie (With Pretzel Crust)

A while back I was waiting for an appointment; I was thumbing through a magazine while I waited. I came across a recipe for a pretzel pie crust. Wow, pretzel pie crust, I had to give that a try. Actually the one that I saw in the magazine wasn't quite to my liking, so I decided to make my own version of the pretzel pie crust.

After I decided to make this pie crust the wheels started turning. I wasn't quite sure what I should pair with my new discovery. While thinking about it I thought of the Take 5 candy bar, this is the candy bar that has peanut butter chocolate, pretzels and caramel.  Peanut butter and chocolate sound like the ideal pie filling for this pretzel crust.

A little bit of salty flavor along with the sweet taste of peanut butter and chocolate. I don't know what it is but there is something about these two flavors that they really compliment each other.

To say the least this pie was a hit with my family! Except for Mike, he is not a lover of peanut butter. It didn't take long and every crumb was gone. I hope you enjoy this as well.

Recipe:
Pretzel Crust (Dawn's recipe)
Combine 1 1/4 cups fine crushed pretzels, 1/4 cup sugar, and 6 tablespoons butter, melted. Mix all ingredients together. Press into a 9-inch pie plate. Bake at 350 degree oven for about 6 to 9 minutes, or until the edges start turning a little brown. Cool.

Filling: (Adapted from Mrs. Fields I Love Chocolate! Cookbook)

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

One 14- ounce can sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup of heavy cream

Prepare the filling:

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in the condensed milk, peanut butter, and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture. Pour the filling into the crust.

(For the topping a used about 1/4 of milk chocolate chips with a teaspoon of shortening and melted the two together in the microwave. Then I took about a tablespoon of peanut butter and heated that up in the microwave just so it was a little runny. I then took the melted chocolate and the melted peanut butter and drizzled it over the top of the pie.

Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

Enjoy!

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Wild Blueberry Scones

I grew up on home made bread. So needless to say I love bread; maybe not only love bread I adore bread.
I could never be one of those people that go on a low carb diet... no way!!!

My mom baked bread every other week when I was a kid. She would make 14 to 17 loaves of bread each time. Imagine the size of the bread pan she had to have to make that much bread. It was big, believe me! She always amazed me, she never used a recipe and her only measuring utensil was her hands. It was a whole day's process.

I still remember the aroma of that bread baking in the oven; how good it smelled. Especially when we would be coming home from school and she would be just taking it out of the oven. The first thing she would do was cut each one of us a thick slice of bread and top it off with some sweet butter. Yum, it still makes my mouth water.

When I was about 16 my mom had to have surgery on her hands, so she was not able to bake bread for some time. So she decided that my sister and I would be the ones to make the bread. We each made about half the batch that she usually made. There she sat at the kitchen table giving us instructions on what to do next. I have to say if I remember correctly that bread turned out quite well.

So there began my love of bread making. And as the saying goes the rest is history.

These days I like to make all kinds of yeast breads and quick breads. I found this recipe Wild Blueberry Scones in a great cookbook called Recipe for a Country Inn by Donna Leahy.

Recipe:
3 cups all-purpose four
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups wild blueberries, frozen (I did not use frozen wild blueberries)
3tablespoon heavy cream
1 tablespoon sanding (decorative) sugar (I used granulated sugar)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet with solid shortening.

2. Combine the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a food processor. Add the butter in bits and process until crumbly. Turn the mixture into a large bowl, and stir in the buttermilk until just combined. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and fold in the frozen blueberries by hand. Divide the dough in half and form each half into a ball. Press the balls out to form 8-inch circles. Cut each circle into twelve wedges. Brush the tops with a little heavy cream, and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Place them on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden. Cool slightly on wire racks.

Note: Using frozen blueberries prevent the berries from "bleeding" and turning the dough blue.
I did not use frozen blueberries, I used fresh and was just careful folding the blueberries in; this worked just fine.

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Summer Vegetables

We went to our friend's house for dinner a  couple of month ago and Theresa made a mixed vegetable that was just delicious. It was a simple dish of vegetables, butter, and herbs; baked in the oven. I remember taking a second helping, because I enjoyed them so much.

 Now that the garden vegetables are in full swing, I thought I would make some of my own mixed vegetables, using the vegetables from our garden. Nothing tastes quite as good as fresh vegetables that are picked from the garden.

Even if you don't have fresh vegetable from the garden there are always farmers markets that provide great vegetables to pick from. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of summer vegetables you throw together they always taste great.

Recipe:

1 lb of baby red potatoes

2 cups of green beans

3/4 cup of zucchini

1/2 of a medium onion

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon basil

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt to taste

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

Cut the potatoes into quarters. Cut ends off of the green beans and cut into 3 pieces. Slice the zucchini in thin slices. Chop onion.

Mix all vegetables into a casserole dish with the thyme and basil. (I used fresh basil and thyme from my garden, but dried basil and thyme will do nicely).

Pour olive oil over vegetables and mix all together until the oil covers all the vegetables.

Salt to taste.

Bake in the 350 degree oven until vegetables are tender, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

Marinated Pork Tenderloin

It has been a hot sticky mess this summer. Grilling has not been at the top of our priorities. Who wants to be standing over a steamy hot grill when you could be sitting in a nice air conditioned house?

It is silly how we in the north complain all winter long about how we can't wait for summer to come and then when summer finally gets here all we can do is complain how hot it is. Well today was not one of those days that we complained about the heat. It was a perfect summer day. One of those days that you would like to spend the whole day outside.

A perfect day for grilling... And since we had a pork tenderloin begging to be grilled we had to fire up the grill.

I like to marinate pork that is going to be grilled. It gives it a wonderful flavor and is so effortless to do.  Just throw everything into a Ziploc bag and you are good to go.

 The smoky flavor that the grill give the meat; what more could you ask for! That is what I call deliciousness!!
Recipe:
2 to 3 lbs Pork Tenderloin
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 of a green pepper cut into strips
1 clove garlic crushed and minced
1/3 cup of chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper

1. Mix all the above ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

2. Place the pork tenderloin into a 2 gallon Ziploc bag. (I cut the tenderloin into 2 pieces so that it would cook a little faster.

3. Squish the bag around so all the flavoring work through the meat.

4. Set in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours

5. Once your grill is hot set the tenderloin in a pan and baste with the marinade that is left in the bag. (Save some of the marinade so that you can baste the tenderloin as it cooks on the grill.

Zucchini-Carrot-Apple Bread

There is a feel of autumn in the air in Minnesota these days. Which means there is an over abundance of zucchini in our garden. I thought this was truly a good reason to make more zucchini bread.

Simply this is the reason why I was looking at recipes in a book that I found at our public library. More Minnesota Mornings and Beyond  A Cookbook & Travel Guide from the Minnesota Bed & Breakfast Association. I wrote about this book in a previous blog post.

When I noticed the recipe Zucchini-Carrot-Apple Bread in the book it popped out at me. Not because it was like oh my goodness this sounds like a wonderful recipe or not even because they had great looking pictures of the bread. I would never have thought of pairing zucchini, carrots, and apples together.

Remember I grew in rural Wisconsin where meat and potatoes were the staple. So to say the least this recipe was a little out of my cooking comfort zone. Needless to say my curiosity was peeked, so I had to bake a recipe of this bread, just to see what this combination of ingredients would produce.

Much to my surprise this bread was quite tasty. It was incredibly moist but I really don't think that I could taste the apples or the carrots. Maybe the flavors all blended together or maybe they were added for their moistness.

I guess I need to step out of my cooking comfort zone more often!!!

Baking Time: 25-30 minutes
Baking Temperature: 350 Degrees
Recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups grated zucchini, with skin on
1-1/2 cups grated carrots
1 small apple, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat loaf pans with shortening and flour. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, baking soda, and nuts. Lightly mix to ensure even distribution of dry ingredients.

Grate zucchini and carrots into a small mixing bowl. Peel and chop apple.

In a large mixing bow, combine sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. Stir mixture just until combined; do not over mix. Fold in zucchini, carrots, and apple. Fold in dry ingredients mixture just until combined; do not over mix. Pour batter evenly into 5 mini loaf pans. Bake 25-30 minutes, checking regularly to confirm loaves are done. Place on cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pans.

Slice loaf and serve slightly warm. Enjoy!

Tips:
I did not have 5 mini loaf pans, so I baked them in one large loaf pan and two mini loaf pans. I would say that it would be best if you baked this recipe in one large loaf pan. The loaves were very small even in the mini loaf pans. If baking in one large loaf pan baking time should be expanded to 40-50 minutes or by sticking in a tooth pick and if it pulls out clean it is done.

It's Finally Here!!!

It is finally here, the time of year that we can pick our first zucchini from the garden. We have been making the daily journey to the garden to check to see if they were big enough to pick. Finally today was the day that we picked our first zucchini. Actually we had two that we were able to pick.

It is funny how you wait and wait for that first zucchini to get to that right size to pick it and then a week or two later you find yourself up to your ears in zucchini. I need to start doing some research on new ways to encompass zucchini into more of my daily recipes!

This is the day that Mike has been waiting for. You see he loves zucchini bread. Nothing too fancy just simply - zucchini bread. A hint of cinnamon is added to this bread, so as it bakes it envelops you with the sweet aroma of cinnamon and sugar leaving your mouth watering for that first anticipated bite.

What I like about this bread that it is a very moist bread and like I said that it has that hint of cinnamon. Let's just say it is yummy, I think that sums it about right. Also if this bread is not eaten in the first day that it is baked it will continue to get a little more moist and it keeps for a long time. I am not sure that the zucchini gives the bread a whole lot of flavor, but it sure gives it moistness.

Zucchini Bread adapted from:
allrecipes.com
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teasponns vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

2 Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.

3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the cream mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who can resist a delicious chocolate chip cookie?  I know in my house there are never any complaints when I mention that I am going to make chocolate chip cookies. They are probably on the top of the list for favorite baked treats.

My children's friends have been known to raid the freezer looking for chocolate chip cookies that I may have stored in the freezer. My one son's friend has moved away from our home town and has given my son his new address in hopes that I will bake him cookies and mail them to him.

I am not sure if my recipe for the chocolate chip cookies is that much different from other recipes for these yummy treats, but it may be the way that I bake them. Especially if you like a chewy cookie like my family does. When I bake my cookies I bake them only to the point when they are starting to get a little bit brown, kind of to the point where the tops and the sides are baked, but the centers are not quite baked. You have to remember that even though the cookies are taken out of the oven they will continue to bake on the hot cookie sheet. Taking the cookies out before they are golden brown will give you a moist chewy cookie.

Also I like to add additional flour; to me it seems that when baking any kind of cookie the recipe never quite has enough flour. Which leave the cookie a little flatter and more crunchier. Which is fine if you like that kind of cookie.

Recipe:

3/4 cup butter (I use half butter and half shortening)

1 1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar ( I use 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/3 granulated sugar)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips (I use about 1 1/2 of chocolate chips)

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, blend in eggs and vanilla, gradually add flour, soda, and salt. Once you have these ingredients blended together add your chocolate chips. Use a teaspoon to spoon cookie dough on to a greased cookie sheet. Bake a 350 degree oven about 7 to 10 minutes or until the cookie tops are baked and just getting lightly golden brown.

French Puffs

A couple of days ago I took a trip to my local public library. I wanted to see if I could find something inspirational for writing some rousing post for my blog.

 It seems the last couple of weeks since I started my blog my mind has been consumed with thoughts of my blog, what recipes I should add next, how I can get  people to become followers of my blog... I wake up at night thinking about this. Oh well I am sure as time goes on my mind will slow down and hopefully people will start viewing my blog, more than just my family.

Well  enough about that. Let's return to my trip to the library. I headed straight for the section that houses the recipe books. I found several shelves filled with all kind of recipe books, but one caught my eye right away.
The title of the book was More Minnesota Mornings and Beyond. A Cookbook & Travel Guide from the Minnesota Bed & Breakfast Association.

It featured recipes from Bed and Breakfast Inns from all around the state of Minnesota. Most of the recipes were for breakfast foods. I decided to make one of the more simpler recipes; I would like to share it with you on my blog now.

Mathew S. Burrows 1890 Inn Bed & Breakfast
French Puffs
This is an easy; tasty recipe! Makes 12 muffins
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
      2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
   1/2 teaspoon salt
   1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
   2/3 buttermilk
     1 egg
   1/2 cup melted butter

Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter
While muffins are baking, mix sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Melt butter.

Baking Time: 20-25 minutes
Baking Temperature: 350 degrees

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and nutmeg. Make a well in the center of dry mixture.

In another medium mixing bowl, lightly beat egg. Add buttermilk and melted butter. Place wet mixture in well of dry mixture; combine only until moistened. Do not over mix.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes. Top should be golden brown.

When baked muffins are cool enough to handle, dip tops in melted butter and then in cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Tips
Don't worry if you don't have buttermilk. I did not have any buttermilk so I substituted the buttermilk with milk and vinegar. (I took about 2/3 of a teaspoon of milk out and replaced with the vinegar. Let this mixture set for 5 minutes before adding it to the other ingredients.) I had learned of this substitute for buttermilk several years ago and it works well.

I used baking cups for the muffin tins, this made it easy to remove the French Puffs from the tins.

My muffin tins are a little smaller so I think that filling the tins 2/3 of cups was a little bit too much. If you have smaller tins fill only 1/2 of the cup.

Over all I think the French Puffs turned out well. My family enjoyed them and I think that I will make them again.