Raising Olives is a blog that I follow, she has excellent tips for Moms. I came across this recipe on her site called a Dutch Puff. Sounded good, perfect for an easy, super quick warm breakfast. Today is the 3rd time I have made it and we love it.
Toppings we have tried:
A dab of yummy fruit yogurt in the middle
Fresh cut strawberries and cantaloupe with a sprinkle of white sugar
Powdered Sugar and Maple Syrup
The possibilities are endless. One comment on her post is from someone in the UK and this is like Yorkshire Pudding except with sweet instead of savory.
fresh out of the oven
The first time I made it, I did so in a 9×13 pan however we had alot left over, and like her recipe says it is best fresh, hot out of the oven. The next 2x I have halved the recipe and used a 9″ glass pie dish.
Puffy and Yummy
You really can’t beat it for a quick, easy breakfast option. I think I might try to top it with crunchy bacon and grated cheese. We’ll see how that goes…
I love Joy the Baker, she has inspired in so many ways. She comes up with such yummy, interesting recipes. A couple of weeks ago she made Homemade Almond Joy candy bars. Simple recipe, super delicious. Although they are super rich, must have coffee or milk with one. Her’s turned out looking perfect, mine did not. They were still yummy.
Freshly Toasted AlmondsCoconut with AlmondsDab of Chocolate to hold the almond in placeFreshly dipped, this is where it gets messy!After being chilledI decided not to completely cover in chocolate because it is so rich, hence they do not look as pretty
Even though mine aren’t that great looking, they did taste delicious. Also, with the leftover chocolate I coated some almonds, huge hit with my boys!
On a side note: I almost didn’t post this because I don’t like the way mine looked… but then I was thinking that that is reality. I don’t want to put up any false fronts, like everything is always peachy and perfect. So here I am exposing myself… in all my chocolate messi-ness.
I love chocolate and I love muffins, so why have I never made chocolate chip muffins? Well now I have and I found an excellent recipe on Allrecipes.com. These turned out good, with some modifications. My kids and husband gobbled them up.
Here is the recipe in it’s original form, I improvised based on some reviews I read, I will post my changes in parenthesis.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar (+ 1/4 cup brown sugar)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk (1 cup of milk)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
(2 tbsps of cocoa powder to the mix)
In a large bowl, combine the first four ingredients. In a small bowl, beat egg, milk and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees F for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.
One other change: I made mini-muffins so I adjusted time and temp.
In my family, the Fall means more than beautiful trees, colors, apples, pumpkins and cider. It also means it is time for green chiles to come up from Southern Colorado and New Mexico.
My mom used to get to actually go pick em with her parents but we just venture down the street to a temporary produce stand. The smell… AMAZING! Have you ever had fresh roasted chiles in your car? It is quite heavenly!
This year we chose a mix of Pueblo Mosca Hot and a Hatch Medium, we had them fired and bagged together, it makes for a nice mix.
The boys really enjoyed watching the process, we got to pick our chiles out and then the lady put them in the roaster and fired them up. Then we watched her pour them into a bag, then into our car. When we got home we bagged them, about 5-6 per bag, then froze them.
nice variety!yum!freshly roastedOliver watching the roasting
I happened to be making french bread pizza that night so I took a couple of chiles, chopped them up, added garlic salt, then spread on the bread after the sauce and before the cheese……. yum!
There are so many things you can put green chiles on, the possibilities are almost endless. I will be sure to post some recipes once I start pulling them out of the freezer.
Some more shots of the produce stand – the boys got to pick out a mini-pumpkin to decorate.
Chile Stand in SW DenverOliver found his pumpkinBoys with the pumpkins
We love chocolate chip cookie dough. Now, thanks to Joy the Baker we can eat it on stick, and not worry about Grandma’s warning about raw dough! Thanks Joy!
By the way, you MUST visit her blog, Joy has the best food blog ever!
eggless batterbefore freezingdipped in semi-sweets
skittles
As I mentioned in the previous post, my sister-in-law’s baby shower was today. I made chocolate covered pretzels and then added store bought candy to the table and made what I call a mini candy buffet. I have seen some amazing candy buffets on the web and was really wanting to try one. It is not as grand as I would have liked but it seemed to be a hit.
My sister-in-law is due in December, tomorrow we celebrate with a baby shower. Her sweet friends are putting the shower on and I asked if I could contribute with a “mini” candy buffet. I will take pictures and blog about the buffet later. Tonight I made chocolate covered pretzels. I looked up some recipes but the first few I found called for a double-boiler, which I do not have.
I finally came across this recipe ,it allows for microwave chocolate melting. I used butter Crisco which gave the chocolate a smooth, buttery taste. They are using the colors purple, lime green, orange and black for October so I added sprinkles I picked up at Walmart.
the ingredientschocolate chips with criscoon the cookie sheet
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
1 package (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp shortening
2 dozen pretzel rods or large pretzel twists
Assorted sprinkles or small candies (optional)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)
Preparation:
1. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil.
2. Combine the chocolate chips and the shortening in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave until melted, stirring after every minute.
3. If dipping pretzel rods, hold a rod by one end and dip it in the chocolate, leaving an inch or two uncovered. If you are dipping pretzel twists, drop the whole pretzel in the chocolate and submerge it slightly. Use a fork to pull the pretzel out of the chocolate. Shake the chocolate-dipped pretzels several times to remove excess chocolate, and place it on the prepared baking sheet. If you are using sprinkles or small candies, sprinkle them on when the chocolate is still wet. Repeat with remaining chocolate and pretzels.
4. Place the pretzels in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set the chocolate.
Lunch. Lunch can become boring for kids and they become uninterested and picky. At least that is what has happened to my kiddies. While browsing blogs I came across 2 really cute blogs FULL of ideas on making fun lunches. They are:
Inspired by other blog moms once again, I set out. I had cutters so I didn’t need to get any. I did pick up the muffin tins at the Dollar Tree and then some cupcake liners at my local grocery store. I picked up 10 packs of fruit leather (.50/each), pretzels, crackers, cheese, almonds, turkey and cookies.
Our Muffin Tin Lunch:
Cut Fruit Leather into Rectanglesuse small cutters to punch out shapeOliver helping outfun muffin tin lunch
3-Cheese Cheese Slice, cut out with extras chopped up… Fruit Leather cutouts… Almonds, Turkey Rolls on fancy toothpicks… Goldfish and Mini Oreos
lunchtime
**In this last picture I show my 2-year old with fruit leather – MISTAKE! Do not give to toddlers, trust me**
It was fun and the kids were so excited when they came to the table, that is a first! Thanks for the inspiration ladies!
My first Apple Pie and the 2nd pie I have made in my entire life. Last year I made a crust at my former Mom’s group , I made the Libbys pumpkin pie recipe with it.
Did I mention this was a trial run for a Pie Baking Contest I decided to participate in? Recently we went to a local city cultural and history center, it was really cool, I plan to blog about it soon. While we were there I picked up some brochures and one was advertising ‘Cider Days’.
Here is what the city website says:
Celebrate the autumn season at the 35th Annual Cider Days harvest festival! Cider Days includes booths serving cider by the glass or gallon. Festival-goers can also bring apples (or buy them at the event) and use our presses to make fresh apple cider to take home.
There is the bake-off, demonstrations, hayrides, petting zoo, arts and crafts, bands and more.
Who could resist? The event sounded so fun, so Fall! A Bake-off… what a fun experience! I am game. I set off to research crusts, pies, apples, everything! Not that I expect to win or even come close but I want to do for the fun of it all. Experience some Americana, if you will.
I originally was going to use 1 recipe but wanted to do my own thing too. In the end I took ideas from several recipes and took what I like, left out what I didn’t. I came up with some ideas, made a game plan and tonight it was time to get to work.
I posted pictures below, against my husbands better judgement *laughing*. I told him I wanted to keep it real and hopefully it would get better as I blog about making another practice one and then one for the Bake-off, at least that is my plan right now.
So here it is…
Getting started on the crust, then the applesGranny Smith Apple slices before I sprinkled them with cinnamon
OK, so far so good! At this point I have a sugary mixture simmering away on the stove-top, looking good still….
Timing is everything and as an amateur I simply didn’t have my lattice work done in in time for my stove-top concoction to be ready. I had my husband keep stirring it while I rolled out more dough and cut the strips. I was in such a hurry when I pulled them up quickly most of them broke, I threw them on anyway. At this point all I keep saying is, “Well at least it will taste good!” and giggling nervously.
I put it in the oven without taking a picture, this is what came out:
Critique: few spots are burnt, mixture didn't spread, it had already hardened by the time I put it on the pie, no lattice is apparent _lol!
Then I cut a piece out, it didn’t look so great on the plate, but let me tell you it was so very tasty.
Fell apart, but was very good! Very, very good!Side view after cutting …Ooey gooey, crispy, carmel-ey
Stayed tuned for parts 2 and 3! Happy baking! Happy Fall!
The best green chili is here in print, something that has been hard to obtain even though the recipe has been in the family for generations. In fact, I was flipping through our family recipe book and this one is not in there!
Being 5th generation Coloradoans we have a rich tradition of food and family. Try this recipe and enjoy the flavors of Colorado and New Mexico cuisines.
1 lb. of cubed pork
1 tsp of garlic powder/ 1 crushed clove
3 tbsp. of flour
1 can of Rotel with green chilis
1 1/2 cups of diced green chilis
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 cup onion
6 cups of chicken broth
In a sauce pan, heat 1 TBSP of oil then add pork (I prefer tenderloin, some prefer fattier pieces) add garlic. After pork is cooked add flour, stir and cook until the flour is brown, I remember my Grandma always saying the browning is the most important part. Blend Rotel (a new twist to the family recipes, saves time!), water, onions and green chilis in a blender. Add to pan of browned flour, add salt, garlic salt and simmer for at least an hour, add water to desired thickness. Also, delicious the next day too! Serve with tortillas, beans, cheese or over a tostada or burrito.
