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Sunday breakfast: Baked Apple Pancake

26 Feb
Slice of baked apple pancake

Baked apple pancake is great with or without maple syrup, and great with a dollop of whipped cream if you like it!

I don’t know about you, but on the weekends I look forward to having a big family breakfast. Usually it’s the typical pancakes, french toast or waffle breakfast, but every once in a while we do something special. In the past I’ve posted a couple of baked french toast recipes, but today’s is slightly different: Baked Apple Pancake. I love this recipe and not only is it good for a weekend breakfast, it’s also good if you’re hosting a brunch. We used to have several “Bickford’s” restaurants near us, all of which have now closed. However, they used to have a similar menu item, the Baby Apple and the Big Apple pancakes. This recipe always reminds me of Bickford’s.

Two baked apple pancakes

Watching these puff up when they cook is fun for the kids. They do deflate slightly after they come out of the oven and cool down a bit.

The recipe is somewhat involved, so give yourself some time if you’re making it. I usually make two for our family. It’s enough for everyone to have seconds and then there’s a bunch left over for a special mid-week treat for their breakfast or mine!

Below is the single recipe:

INGREDIENTS

6 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 cup flour
3 Tbl. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c. margarine or butter (I use one stick of butter.)
2 apples peeled and thin sliced (at least two, depending on size. You want them to cover most of the bottom of the pan.)
4 Tbl. brown sugar  (at least, I think I use a bit more until the top is generously doused in brown sugar)

Make sure your pancake is cooked all the way through before letting it cool.

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt margarine, don’t brown, in 10×10 or 7×12 dish (I use 11 x7 or 9×13 because that’s what I have) coated with nonstick spray.

Peel and slice apples while butter is melting.

Add apple slices to pan, spread out so they cover the bottom (which has the melted butter in it.)

Return to oven til butter sizzles.

In bowl, mix eggs, milk, flour, sugar salt, vanilla and cinnamon. Batter should be slightly lumpy.

Remove, pour batter over apples, top with brown sugar.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until puffed and lightly browned. Make sure the center is solidly cooked before you take it out to cool.

Serve with whipped cream if desired.

Serves 4-6.

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Valentine’s Day: Oh the pressure!

15 Feb

Gifts lined up and ready to go for our Valentine's morning

Valentine’s Day can be a lot of pressure, especially for someone who is crafty, loves to cook, bake and eat, and then write about what she crafted, cooked, baked and ate. Like Christmas, people wait (or at least they tell me they’re waiting) to see what I’ve produced for cards, for cookies, for meals. It’s a lot of pressure and I set the bar high for myself.

Valentine’s Day also comes right on the heels of Christmas. It’s not supposed to be a huge gift-giving event, but there’s pressure to make it that way. I do try very hard to make our gifts small token gifts, a treat they want. I try not to do any candy since we get a truckload, or rather, a school busload of it at 3:30 on Valentine’s Day afternoon. Being on a budget, I struggle with what to give, what to buy, what not to buy. What I want to buy is often not what is in the budget. I’d love to say, “Instead of giving gifts this year, we’re going overnight to an indoor water park for the weekend!!” But, giving token gifts is cheaper. The indoor water park is not in the budget. Maybe next year. Since having kids, Don and I haven’t exchanged gifts on holidays. We focus only on the kids, and we figure we’re showing our love for each other in little ways all year long instead. We know our time will come around again when we’ve got an empty nest and we’ll wonder then where this time went.

No matter what, they always love their gifts.

I try to make my budget as equal as I can per child without spending too much more on one than another, but so they each have the same amount of items to open in the morning. And no matter what, they always love their gifts, hopefully because I spent so much time thinking about them and choosing them.

I actually don’t make their Valentine’s Cards anymore. We’re huge Snoopy fans, we had a Snoopy nursery, Snoopy birth announcements and parties when they were babies, so I have tried the past few years to get them each a Snoopy card for Valentine’s Day, to provide balance between giving them handmade items and giving them the “popular” items they also love.

This year we celebrated Valentine’s Day as a family at 7:00 am since Don had a 7:30 am meeting. He also had an after school meeting and a night time meeting, so we thought we wouldn’t be seeing him at all. But, later that day, we were thrilled to find out his after school meeting was rescheduled and it meant he’d get to come home for dinner after all, and then go back for the night time meeting. So we were blessed. His 14 hour day was now only 12 hours and we’d get to spend dinner time together after all.

Each year I try to think of the perfect meals and snacks to make the day special. I love hearts so I have always had tons of heart shaped items from dishes to platters to bakeware.

For breakfast, I toyed with the idea of cinnamon buns with pink icing, pink pancakes or pink waffles. I looked on Pinterest and pinned a ton of things that looked great but just weren’t it. I just wasn’t feeling it, no matter what I saw.

In the end, I chose to get up early and make muffins, something I used to do for them all the time when they were younger and less of them were in school. It’s a nice treat on a school day to have a hot muffin right out of the oven. I even thought of making them last night but I don’t like them when they’re cold. A little pink food coloring in them and we were good to go. I even put pink food coloring in their milk and gave them red apples for their fresh fruit.

By 7:15 am Don was gone, the gifts were opened, and by 7:25 am one kid had already lost her bedtime by getting in trouble. I won’t say who or why, to protect her privacy. But that’s the way things go sometimes, Valentine’s Day or not.

After School Snack: Valentine's Monkey Munch!

By 8:40 am they were on the bus, I’d taken Motrin for my headache and I had the rest of the day to type my stories for this week’s papers, and to plan out my after school Valentine’s Day snack and our Valentine’s Day dinner, both of which are new recipes I’ve been wanting to try out. (Remember my Monkey Munch recipe? The snack was a  Valentine’s version of that!)

Despite all of the pressure, I try to remind myself that it’s the little things that matter and the little things they’ll remember. I remind myself that the more I make the holiday out to be, the more of a precedent I’m setting for myself for the future.

Hopefully when they think back on their Valentine’s Days growing up, they’ll think that they were absolutely perfect.

Pink muffins and pink milk for my little Valentines.

Everyone got a treat they'd really been wanting.

Valentine's earrings on, off to school!

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Overnight French Toast-Holiday Morning version

5 Feb

Holiday Morning French Toast...it must have been a holiday somewhere.

So you all know by now I love french toast. I especially like the convenience (as well as all the brown sugar) of an over night french toast. A while back I posted my cousin Kim’s version, which we’ve made for years, and today I’m posting her mom’s version, my Aunt Fran. I’ve had this recipe so long, it’s dog-eared, and yet I’ve never made it myself. I’ve only ever had it when she’s made it. But, it’s got all my favorites in it: brown sugar, cinnamon, apples and craisins, so I have been wanting to make it myself for quite some time now.

Friday night was that time, but by the time we got home and got everyone to bed and I got started it was late, 10pm. Note to self: Don’t try a new recipe late at night. I made several mistakes in my night time prep, which I’ve noted below. And, we ended up sort of combining the ending steps of Kim’s recipe with Fran’s, which I’ve also noted below.

Either way, Saturday morning it was great to wake up to an already almost finished breakfast. We just had to throw it in the oven and we were good to go.

Everyone gave it a thumbs up, always a good sign.

Here’s the recipe including my mistakes and adjustments at the end.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter melted

3 tsp cinnamon DIVIDED into 2 tsp and 1 tsp. (FYI:  I totally missed that and didn’t divide mine. Still fine, but you’re supposed to use it separately.)

3 Granny Smith apples peeled, cored and thin sliced. (Note: Peel them either before you melt your butter or while you’re melting it if you’re a fast peeler. I didn’t do that.  Also, I used Macintosh apples because that’s what I had.)

1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins. I used craisins.

1 loaf Italian or French Bread (I used a loaf of Texas French Toast bread.)

6 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1 TBL vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Combine brown sugar, butter and ONE TSP Cinnamon in a 13×9 dish. (This was my first mistake, I didn’t read well and put in all 3 tsp. cinnamon.)

Here is my version of apples and craisins "tossed" in the butter and brown sugar. Slice early for better tossing!

Add apples and craisins. Toss to coat well. (This was my second mistake. My butter and cinnamon had hardened back up again before I got done slicing my apples so it wasn’t really tossing, more like, spreading. Sort of.)

Spread apple mix evenly over bottom of baking dish. Arrange bread on top.

Mix eggs, milk, vanilla and remaining TWO TSP Cinnamon until well blended. (This brings us to mistakes three and four. Did I mention yet how tired I was when I made this??  Mistake three was the cinnamon again, I hadn’t done a little last time, I’d done all, so this step, I opted to omit the cinnamon. Then I misread the vanilla as a teaspoon not a tablespoon. I’m getting new glasses, seriously, next week.)

Pour mixture over bread soaking bread completely. Cover and refrigerate 4-24 hrs.

Bake covered with foil in a preheated 375 degree oven for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake five minutes.

**Here is where we combined the two recipes. We squirted maple syrup over the top of this one, even though it doesn’t call for it, baked it for a few more minutes, and then broiled it for about 5 minutes to crisp it up.

Remove from oven, let stand five minutes.

Serve warm. Whipped cream optional.

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Resolutions and Recipes: Basic Pancakes

22 Jan
Basic Pancakes

It's good to have a variety of different syrups on hand for pancakes. We often have maple, blueberry, strawberry or boysenberry.

Last weekend I posted my recipe for Hot Blueberry Compote, and I showed it over homemade waffles. However, it’s also delicious over pancakes. We always make our pancakes from scratch and the recipe is super easy. You can put anything in them or on top of them and we vary them with toppings and fillings such as: blueberries, strawberries, bananas, chocolate chips (of course) and craisins. My absolute favorite combination is a “pancake sandwich” of two banana pancakes stacked with a chocolate chip pancake in between them. Butter, syrup…mmmmm…..

Here is our recipe for Basic Pancakes, which uses very basic ingredients that you probably already have on hand. As usual it’s the recipe I grew up with. We keep it taped into the front cover of our recipe tin so that all we have to do is lift the cover, and there it is (Don’s idea.)

BASIC PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs

2 cups Buttermilk (2 TBL white vinegar and enough milk to make 2 c.)

1/4 c. canola oil (or vegetable oil)

2 cups flour

2 TBL sugar or honey

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl. Pour onto hot frying pan or griddle.  Add desired fillings and/or toppings.

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Calling all Crock Pot Cooks!

19 Jan
Crock pot

Shhh.....all's quiet on the appliance shelf in my closet. My crock pot is ready and waiting for your recipes!

I have had a crock pot since I had my bridal shower in 1995. I love it, or should I say I love the IDEA of it.

I love the IDEA of my house smelling fabulous all day long.

I love the IDEA of dinner cooking without me while I’m at work.

On occasion, those wonderful ideas actually come to fruition. For example, yesterday’s crock pot oatmeal, that’s a good one and in the winter we have that a few times a month for breakfast on a school day. I’ve made a crock pot applesauce but other than the fact that it cooked while I was gone, it’s faster to cook it on top of the stove. The Hanukkah brisket, always delicious when we make it…every once in a while. We make a great pulled pork in the crock pot for our birthday party feasts, and next week during Superbowl Recipe Week (gasp…. I told!!!!) you’ll see that Don makes a great crock pot chili.

I have several crock pot cook books, but I just haven’t found “the” recipe or recipes for a regular night’s dinner, something I could do on a regular basis once or twice a month. First off, I hate the ones where you have to cook it all first on the stove and then just throw it all in to the crock pot to cook for 3 hours. That doesn’t seem all that helpful to me really. Second, I hate beef stew. Third, how many cream of mushroom soup recipes are there? Tons. And, I’m not knocking them because I happen to like cream of mushroom soup recipes (I posted one today, non-crock pot, but still…) And last….I hate my food to touch, so that presents a problem. Some foods are supposed to go together, others, not so much. Very tricky….ever see on my dinner plate photos just how far apart my foods are from each other? Uh huh.

So. Where does that leave me? It leaves me asking you for your help. I’ve been providing you with tons of recipes as the days and weeks have gone by on this blog, and I’ve got TONS more that I haven’t even touched yet. But, they aren’t crock pot recipes.

Where do you get your best recipes for the crock pot?

What good ones have you tried and loved?

Send them to me at jenniferlcowart@gmail.com and if I try them and like them, I’ll feature them on my blog in the future.

In fact, let’s make this worth your while. I’ll throw in a little prize for one lucky person who sends me a recipe. On February 2 I’ll use a random name generator to pull one name from all of the people who email me their favorite crock pot recipe(s) between now and the end of the day on February 1, and send one lucky winner a treat. I won’t say what that treat is, but it’ll be a little treat from me. (Don’t go crazy it’s not going to be a brand new crock pot or even a crock pot from 1995.)

Thanks for your help and good luck!!

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Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Recipe of the Day: Crockpot Oatmeal

17 Jan
Overnight Oatmeal in the crockpot

My family loves this recipe so much, I double it.

As I write this, today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a day to remember and reflect, and and a bonus day for us to spend together as a family. Of course, by the time you get this post, it will be the day *after* MLK Day. I hope you were able to take at least a minute to reflect on the legacy of Dr. King and all that he did.

We had to laugh the other day when our youngest came home from school and informed us that today was Dr. Martin “Looter” King Jr.’s birthday and it was a sad day because “he got shooted.” As I listened to her speak though, I was impressed and pleased that she retained so much of what she’d heard in the story they read in class, and I was glad that they took the time to remember him.

The recipe I’m sharing with you is one that my family loves. I found it last year on Weelicous, a foodie website I follow. It’s a recipe for Overnight Oatmeal in the Crockpot. It’s fantastic for a cold winter day and I made it again just last week as the weather has begun to change here. It’s so cold right now, I’d love a big bowl of it right now! Last week on Weelicious, she even posted an update to this recipe, Pumpkin Spice Crockpot Oatmeal. To see that recipe, click HERE. I haven’t tried it yet, but I plan to! In the meantime, below is her original version of the recipe. As an added piece of information, Steel Cut Oats tend to be expensive in the bigger stores. However, last week a friend of mine found them at Aldi’s, and other friends have found them at Ocean State Job Lot, so look around for the best price before you buy.

Oatmeal in the Crock Pot (Serves 4-6)

1 Cup Steel Cut Oats (not instant)

2 Cups Water

2 1/2 Cups Milk

1 Tsp Cinnamon

Desired accompaniments: honey, maple syrup, walnuts and or raisins, etc.

1. Place the first 4 ingredients in a crock pot and stir to combine. (I add diced apples to mine as well.)

2. Cook the oatmeal on low heat for 6-9 hours (the amount of time can vary depending on your crock pot. Some crock pots that don’t have non stick surfaces can get hotter then others).

3. Stir in desired accompaniments and serve.

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Resolutions, TWO Recipes and a New Waffle Maker!

15 Jan

This whole month I am focusing on budget-friendly recipes and tips for eating in without sacrificing your love for good food. Being a Sunday morning, today’s recipe is a great one for Sunday Breakfast (or Saturday for that matter) and if you have leftovers, it makes a great special treat for a weekday breakfast as well.

Each year my parents ask us for a couple of wish list ideas for Christmas gifts and this year  I suggested two items that we were doing without since they’d broken. The first one I featured this week, the food processor, and the second one is today’s feature:

Cuisinart Waffle Maker

This was our other wish list gift from my mom and dad this year.

We’ve always liked to make our waffles homemade and we had a waffle maker for the longest time. Ours broke in September after a long life, and we had not yet replaced it. We missed our homemade waffles on the weekends. Therefore, I was excited that my parents got us this Cuisinart waffle maker for Christmas and I could not wait to use it. Included with the box was a recipe my mom gave us for the waffles she makes so we tried that out this past weekend.

Growing up my mom often made a hot Blueberry Compote to go on top of our waffles or our pancakes.

Hot blueberry compote on waffles with whipped cream

This is one of my favorite breakfasts, after french toast.

It was, and still is, one of my favorite weekend breakfasts. It’s easy to make and delicious to eat. If you like whipped cream you can add it on top.

Therefore, on this lovely Sunday morning, I’m passing along both the waffle recipe and the Blueberry Compote recipe. Enjoy them both!

Cuisinart waffle maker

Brand new and ready to go!

All-American Waffles

serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

1 egg, separated (put yolk in two quart bowl and white in small bowl.)

1 cup plus 2 TBL milk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 TBL canola or vegetable oil

1 cup plus 2 TBL flour

4 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS

The waffle iron gets hot, so younger kids can't help out with dropping the batter onto the squares, but older kids can. Plenty of mixing and measuring for the younger kids to do though.

Separate the egg,  putting egg white aside in small bowl.

In larger bowl, combine the egg yolk, milk, vanilla and oil. Blend together, by hand, with wire whisk.

Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to the liquid ingredients and blend with wire whisk. (There will probably be some lumps.)

Beat the egg white with electric mixer until stiff. Fold into the batter with wire whisk until just blended.

(Do not beat egg whites into batter,  just fold in.)

When waffle iron is ready, drop batter into the four squares and use according to directions.

Hot blueberry compote

This is what the hot blueberry compote looks like when it's done.

The hot blueberry compote is kind of a neat recipe to make. It looks completely different from beginning to end, and I find it interesting to watch it go from a bright red color when you start,  to a deep purple color when it’s done.

HOT BLUEBERRY COMPOTE

INGREDIENTS

2 cups cold water
2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (I usually do one frozen 16 oz bag unless I’ve got fresh on hand.)
2 1/2 TBL cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 TBL Lemon Juice

Hot blueberry compote

Here's what the compote looks like when you first begin.

DIRECTIONS

In large frying pan combine all ingredients.
Bring to a boil over medium heat.
Stir constantly until it boils. (You’ll see the mixture change from a bright red to a deep purple and thicken when it’s about done.)
Simmer for a few minutes over low heat.
Serve hot (warm).
Whipped cream on top is optional.

ENJOY!

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Resolutions and Recipes: Overnight French Toast

8 Jan
Overnight French Toast

This is the version o overnight french toast that we make most often.

Those of you who know me, know that French Toast is one of my all-time favorite breakfasts. I like thick, thin, cinnamon, stuffed…..you name it, if it’s french toasted, I generally love it.

A few years back on Mother’s Day, my cousin Kim brought an Overnight French Toast to the brunch that was just amazing. I had to have the recipe. Ever since then we have used it almost any time we have a brunch here. Most recently we had it last Monday as our “last hurrah” breakfast before going back to school.

The recipe is quick and easy, and inexpensive to make which are my top qualifiers for a good recipe. We often host a birthday brunch for our family birthday parties since it’s a less expensive option than dinner, and this is a recipe that we use each time.

In the future I’ll also be sharing a couple of other Overnight French Toast recipes that I’ve had and are delicious as well. Today’s recipe I have shared on Facebook before, but the other two I have not shared before, so be on the lookout!

OVERNIGHT FRENCH TOAST

Mix and put on bottom of 9×13 pan:
1 1/2 sticks melted butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar

Layered and ready to go into the fridge overnight.

Layer Pepperidge Farm Big Bread or Texas style French Toast Bread 2 layers deep and fill in the spaces. (I get my Texas style bread either at PriceRite or Walmart. The one at Walmart is made by Wonder.)

Mix 6 eggs and 2 cups milk and pour on top.

Into the fridge it goes.

Leave overnight in fridge.

Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes.

Top with maple syrup (generously) and broil for about 10 minutes until lightly browned and slightly crispy.

When we serve ours we usually cut the pieces in half since each half is two slices high.

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Palooza BONUS: Triple Recipe for Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

18 Nov

Last week I posted a recipe for Pumpkin Cranberry Bread. It’s a recipe from my mom and I make it every year. Last year I think I doubled it and this year I tripled it. It made five regular sized loaf pans and the Pampered Chef mini loaf pan, which is four mini loaves. It was SO easy to triple the recipe and I literally used just one dry measuring cup (the one cup measure) and one wet measuring cup, with a couple of measuring spoons and one big spatula/scraper, so despite yielding so many breads, the cleanup was minimal. I took a ton of photos, so I thought I’d share the triple recipe with you and show you photos of the process as well. Recipe first, photos at the end…

TRIPLE RECIPE for PUMPKIN CRANBERRY BREAD

*I used a lobster pot type of stock pot (we registered for it when we got married, but we never do make lobster!) to do my mixing and one large Pampered Chef scraper. I don’t think my Kitchen Aid stand up Mixer could fit the amount of ingredients in the bowl, nor could it have mixed them.

INGREDIENTS

3 cans Libby Pumpkin (equals six cups of pumpkin, each can is 15 ounces)

6 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups water

12 eggs

1 1/2 cups canola oil

12 cups flour

12 tsp or 4TBL baking powder

3 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp grd. ginger

3/4 tsp grd. cloves

3 packages cranberries

The directions remain the same, but I’m pasting them here anyway. A couple of tips: I mixed all the wet ingredients in the pan together first to make sure the eggs were well-mixed. Then I mixed again after I put in six cups of flour, then added the last six and mixed again. Then I added in my spices…mixed again, and the cranberries…mixed again and then portioned it all out. Super easy.


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan(s). You can either use two large loaf pans or 3 mini loaf pans.

Beat together pumpkin, sugar, water, eggs and oil.

Sift in remaining ingredients except cranberries. Mix just until smooth.

Gently fold in cranberries.

Pour into loaf pan(s) and spread evenly.

Bake in the center of oven for 60 – 70 minutes for large loaves, less time (40-50 minutes for smaller loaves) or until toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Do not overbake or bread will be dry.

Cool in pan on a rack for 10 – 15 minutes. Turn bread(s) out onto rack and finish cooling.

Bread may be made in advance, covered and chilled for up to four days.(When I make two loaves for us I often save one to eat and keep one to freeze to eat at a later date.)

PHOTOS

Pumpkin is in the pan, ready to go.

All ingredients are mixed, except the cranberries.

Three bags is a lot of cranberries!

I did NOT lick that. Well, that one swipe up the side, I licked that, but the rest...

Ready for the oven.

Done....

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Old Fashioned Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

30 Sep

Best.Banana.Bread.Ever.

As I begin moving all my chocolate chip recipes over from my Facebook Page to here, I thought I’d move this one over first. This recipe is by far the best banana bread recipe I’ve ever had and it was given to me by my cousin Tina. The secret is the cinnamon and sugar that she sprinkles on the tops of the breads before baking.

I love the smell that fills my house when I make this bread and I think of Tina and how she’s so much more than a cousin to me, she’s a wonderful friend as well. That’s why I chose this recipe to be the first chocolate chip recipe that I posted on my new blog. This one is dedicated to Tina and to good friends.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2T milk

1 1/2 c. mashed bananas (I use two.)

I add in chocolate chips, of course, about 2/3 cup or so.

Directions:

Mix all ingredients and pour into greased glass loaf pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

Lower to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 45 minutes.

 

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