My new favorite pancake recipe

Hi.  My name is Sarah and I am a pancake snob.  

No, seriously, I'll tolerate pancakes from a mix, but pancakes from scratch are SO much better and really not very time consuming.  My favorite recipe for my entire life, up until about a month ago, was the one I grew up on.  I'm pretty sure the recipe came from my mom's old Betty Crocker cookbook that's falling apart at the seam.  I don't know for sure that's where it came from because I memorized it so long ago.  Every Saturday morning while my parents were milking cows I would make pancakes for the family.  Except back then we didn't buy buttermilk; my mom would just add some vinegar to the whole milk before she headed to the barn so when I got up it was good and thick for pancakes.  Anyways... I digress.

Recently, in an attempt to make the recipe more healthy, I made a few changes and I'd like to share that recipe with you now.  It's even better than the original!  The major change I made was to use oatmeal and white whole wheat flour rather than regular white flour and added flax seed.  If you've never used white whole wheat flour, I encourage you to give it a try.  It seems as though you can substitute it for 100% of regular white flour in recipes (I haven't had any trouble doing this) and it has the same nutritional benefits of whole wheat flour.  

I apologize for the lack of mouth-watering photos, but the light just wasn't up to par this evening as I made pancakes, eggs, and sausages for supper.  :)

Whole Wheat Pancakes

2 eggs

2 c. buttermilk

1/4 c. oil

1/2 c. instant oatmeal

2 T. ground flax seed

1 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour

2 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

Grease and heat a griddle.  Beat eggs in a bowl.  Add buttermilk and oil; mix just until blended, being careful to not over mix.  Add oatmeal and flax seed; mix just until blended.  Put the remaining ingredients into a sifter or separate bowl to mix together.  Add to liquids and mix just until blended; be careful to not over mix.  Test the griddle by tossing a few droplets of water on it.  If the griddle is hot enough, they droplets will jump, sizzle, and evaporate.  Spoon pancake batter onto the griddle and watch for the sides to become slightly set.  They won't form bubbles like they do with regular flour, so you just need to periodically check the underside and flip when it's medium brown.  Cook the other side; remove when medium brown.  I like to serve the pancakes with strawberries, raspberry sauce, blueberry sauce, or real maple syrup.

Here's a link to a printable page with the recipe.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I got a hankering for one of my favorite cookies today...Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.  Believe it or not, my memories of the cookie start with school cafeteria food.  In high school we could get shakes and I loved eating a Chocolate Crinkle Cookie with a chocolate shake.  Yes, it is true; the more chocolate, the better.

I tried the Betty Crocker recipe found on the Betty Crocker website.  They turned out better than the recipe I usually use, which was a pleasant surprise.  I also tried a new little trick.  Rather than rolling the dough into balls and rolling each ball in a bowl of powdered sugar, put about 5 balls of dough in a ziplock bag of powdered sugar and carefully shake it up. 

There will be excess powdered sugar so shake each one a bit as you pull it out of the bag.  Also, a small scoop works slick to portion out the dough and make it into a ball shape.  No more hands covered in sticky dough!

Halloween Costumes

I can fondly remember making Halloween costumes when I was a kid.  Other than a mask here or there, we didn't go buy a costume from the store.  Rather, we used our creativity and things laying around the house to create our costumes.  Here's a couple photos I found from the "good ol' days" with my brothers and me.

I hope to continue the tradition with our children to make their costumes.  I look forward to when they are a bit older and can take a more active role in creating their costumes.

K was a doctor today.  It's the same costume that Santa "contracted" me to sew last year as a dress-up costume.  I used two patterns, a costume pattern by McCall's for doctor scrubs and a pajama pattern by Butterick.  The scrubs were made as the pattern instructed.  The doctor coat was made from the pajama pattern; I used the pattern for the button-up jammie top.  I also used the special stitches on my machine to add her name to her pocket. 

B was Superman and I owe most of his costume to Dana at http://www.dana-made-it.com/ and all of her awesome tutorials.  I used the 90-minute shirt tutorial to make the top.  I also added a yellow felt belt (Ha ha!  That rhymes.).  The Superman logo was painted on the shirt using a freezer paper stencil (a.k.a. Poor Man's Screen Printing).  Click here for a tutorial about using a freezer paper stencil.  The pants were just traced from a pair of pants B wears, but here's a tutorial for making your own pants pattern.  There are also tons of patterns for a basic pair of pants, including both of the patterns listed above.  B's cape was a piece of red cotton with a casing on one side to gather it by his neck.  I ended up tacking it on to the shirt rather than having a string tied around his neck to keep it a bit safer.

Now that I spent my spare time during the weekend making B's costume and spent last night trick-or-treating, I better get working on the never ending job of correcting papers!

Apple Bars

You know your recipe is a keeper when your cookbook looks like this.

Since much of what I bake is seasonal, I'm going to share some of my favorite recipes here as their season is upon us.  Fall... APPLES!  This recipe is a family favorite, and as you can see from the cookbook, it's a well-used recipe.  If I have nice round unbruised apples, I have an added bonus of being able to use my handy-dandy Pampered Chef apple peeler/corer/slicer.  That's always fun.  :)  As far as apples are concerned, I usually use Granny Smith or Haralson for baking. For a list of common Minnesota apples and their best uses, click here.  I hope you enjoy these as much as my family and friends do!

Apple Bars

2 1/2 c. flour

1 t. salt

2 T. sugar

1 c. shortening

1 egg + milk to make 2/3 c.

6 c. apples (peeled and diced)

1 c. sugar

1/3 c. flour

1 t. cinnamon

1 c. powdered sugar

2 T. hot water

Crust:  Combine 2 1/2 c. flour, salt and 2 T. sugar in a bowl.  Cut in shortening with a pastry blender.  Beat egg in measuring cup and add milk to make 2/3 c.  Mix well.  Stir into flour mixture.  Divide crust mixture into two piles, one slightly larger than the other.  Take the larger pile of crust and pat it into the bottom and up the sides of a 15.5 x 10.5 inch baking pan (I like to use the Pampered Chef bar pan).  Add a little flour if needed to get it to not stick to your fingers.  Reserve the other pile of crust mixture for the top crust.

Apple Filling:  Mix sugar, 1/3 c. flour and cinnamon.  Add apples and stir to coat the apples.  Dump the apples onto the bottom crust.

Top Crust:  Divide the remaining crust mixture into two equal amounts.  Lightly flour your counter and roll one of the pieces into a rectangle that will cover half the pan.  I usually hold the pan next to it to check that the size is right.  Carefully fold it into thirds to make it easier to pick up and place it on the apple filling, unfolding it so it covers half the pan.  Do the same for the other amount of crust mixture.  There will be a seam down the middle of the crust, but no one will care.  Trust me. :)

Baking:  Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is a little golden.  Cool completely.

Frosting:  Combine powdered sugar and half the hot water.  Stir it up really well so there's no lumps.  Add just enough of the rest of the water so it will pour off a spoon, but keep it pretty thick.  Drizzle it over the top of the cooled apple bars.

Enjoy!

Click here for a printer-friendly version of the recipe.  :)

Back to School

Though I'm excited for a new class of 6th graders, I'm very sad to see all my time for hobbies gone.  You probably won't see me here much for awhile.  But I'll leave you with a link to THE MOST FANTASTIC homemade granola bars ever.  During the school year I make a batch each weekend so I have them for the drive to school each morning.  I like to also add ground flax seed, Rice Krispies, chopped almonds, dried cherries, raisins, and dark chocolate (add the chocolate after you've spread them out in the pan).  Happy granola bar eating and happy new school year!

Photo from Happy Abode's blog.

Curtain 9-1-1

I recently painted the kitchen.  Out with the green and in with the off-white.  I realized quickly that I would need to be purposeful about bringing in color since the walls were looking a little boring.  The kids and I hopped in the car and headed for Crafty Planet, my new favorite fabric store (when they should have been napping, I might add).  Since the curtains on the sliding door shrunk even more when I washed them, I decided to add some fabric to them.  I chopped off the bottom of the curtains so I could add a foot-high piece of fabric along the bottom.  Once I sewed it to one curtain and hung it up, I knew I needed to change it so the fabric would be on the top.  The tabs on the curtains came off and I sewed tabs to the fabric panel.  Viola... flip the curtains up side down and we have new-and-improved curtains for less than $10.

Oh, wait, it wasn't that easy.  When I cut the bottom off the curtains, I kinda sorta didn't cut it straight.  Boy, was that obvious once they were hanging up!  Ribbon to the rescue.  I bought a roll of 1 1/2 inch wide brown ribbon and sewed it over the seam between the curtain and the fabric panel.   Viola... curtains that look good!

I avoid pinning whenever possible, but when attaching the ribbon it was important to pin enough so the ribbon wouldn't shift.

My Favorite Raspberry Dessert

Every summer during raspberry season we eat raspberries with every meal.  I'm going to share one of my favorite raspberry desserts with you here.

Crust: 

1  1/4 cups flour

1/4 cups brown sugar
1/3 cups walnuts, chopped
1/2 cups butter, softened

Mix together and pat into a 9x13 inch pan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 18 minutes, until the crust is a nice golden brown.

I dump the crust mix into the pan, spread it out, and pat it in with my fingers.  Make it go up the side of the pan just a little.

Filling:
8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 ounces Cool Whip (1/2 of a regular tub), softened

Mix the cream cheese and powdered sugar together.  Fold in the Cool Whip.  Spread over the crust when the crust is completely cool.

Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 cup water
3 tablespoons raspberry jello
raspberries, washed and dry (I don't measure mine.  I'm guessing 4 cups.  It needs to be enough to cover the filling.)

Mix the sugar and corn starch together in a saucepan.  Add the water and stir.  Cook over medium heat until it's thick and gets more clear.  Add the raspberry jello and stir.  Carefully cover the filling with raspberries. Drizzle the jello mixture over the raspberries.  Cool and store in the refrigerator. 

ENJOY!


btw... Don't throw out that extra raspberry Jello.  Next up will be the recipe for Fresh Raspberry Pie!