Cheese danish

I may have missed this somewhere on this site, but I’m looking for Sue Morrow’s cheese danish recipe. Does anyone have it?

healthy breakfast

Breakfast for Erin is always a challenge. She doesn't always like to eat unless. She does like pancakes and waffles but not the frozen kind and I don't have time to make them often. Did I mention that she is not a fan of fruits and veggies. We started the school year with a new agreement. She needed to find healthy breakfasts with fruit that she could make herself and would eat. She did a great job. Last week she made Pumpkin waffles. Made the batter at night cooked up a big batch, froze the extras and has been eating them all week. Last night she mixed up Mary Fran’s scones using mixed dried fruit, she not a fan of raisins but likes dried cherries and strawberries. I think she still has plans for some pumpkin pancakes. We'll see what else she comes up with.

To make it easier I am editing the post to add to more links, thanks Bridget, Katie and Caitlin.

Breakfast cookie

On the go options

Breakfast cookie option 2

Sarah's Cinnamin Rolls

Therese and I made these last week and they were so yummy:)
Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
courtesy Sandra Lee

1 loaf frozen white bread dough, thawed in refrigerator
Flour, for dusting surface
Filling:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2/3 stick butter, softened
Icing:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to form a 15 by 7-inch rectangle. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside. Spread 2/3 cup softened butter over dough and then evenly sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Starting at the long edge, roll up dough as for a jelly roll. Cut roll into 16 slices and then set aside in a warm place and allow dough to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Divide rolls among 2 lightly buttered round baking pans. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden on top. While the rolls are baking, combine the icing ingredients with an electric mixer until fluffy. Frost the warm rolls with the icing. Serve warm.

Oatmeal Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes

On a long holiday weekend what is better than homemade pancakes. Here is a link to Oatmeal Blueberry ones that are very good. They take extra planning, start the night before but well worth the effort, and not difficult. Erin made them for us.

All Things Pumpkin

So, I admit it, I’m in Fall Mode. I am going to start wearing sweaters and browns and oranges and pick apples and pumpkins and make crisps and pies and pumpkin scones. You may have made one variation of my cousin Mary Fran’s scone recipe: traditional, cinnamon, cranberry-orange, blueberry, double chocolate, but now I want to make pumpkin scones from that standard recipe. (You may know I love a standard recipe that is versatile enough to become several different recipes. Fewer things to remember, but you still get to experience variety.)


Pumpkin scones
makes 12 large or 18 medium scones

2 sticks butter
1 t salt
4 t baking powder
4 c flour
1 c brown sugar
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
1 t ground cloves
1 t ground ginger
1 c canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1 c milk (I prefer buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine dry ingredients with butter into a coarse mixture. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, and milk. Make an indentation in the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Stir together with a fork to moisten. The less stirring the better, stirring makes for tougher scones. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Serve warm.

How well are you treating the Moms in your life?

We will be going to my sister in law's to celebrate Mother's Day and my brother in law's Bday tomorrow morning. My s-i-l is making a Potato and Chorizzo Torta, a Tomato and cheese Pie, French Toast and Fruit Salad. I will be bring an Apricot-Peach-Cream Cheese Coffee Cake (original calls for Raspberry, http://www.bbonline.com/recipe/prairiepath_il_recipe2.html) and Pumpkin Bread (both are always a hit:). Then we'll head over to my folk's house to join my sister and her family in celebrating with my mom. Dad is in charge of the entree, so it'll most likely be beef and potatoes. Regina is taking care of appetizers and the non-chocolate dessert (for Dad and I). I'm excited as she always comes up with yummy delights:) I'm bring a side, a salad and a chocolate dessert. The side turned into Seasoned Salmon fillets cooked in wine (it's what I felt like:) and dessert is Samoa Kiss Brownies. http://www.girlscoutsww.org/cookies/recipes Even I'm looking forward to trying them, and I can't wait to hear Mom and Reg's opinion! Happy Mother's Day to you all! Enjoy your day and your families!

My youngest son had a sleepover last night. Usually his breakfast of choice is poached eggs, and he is usually the chef. But, he and his friend were involved in a videogame battle when I can downstairs, so breakfast wasn't yet a thought. I started the bacon, and asked what they'd like for breakfast, the friend asked for pancakes. Great! But, I had no pancake mix, not great. My friend, Lynne, and her family, always makes her pancakes from scratch (stems back to when her son had a milk allergy and this recipe worked for him). When her husband has made these for me, they were the lightest, fluffiest pancakes ever. But when I try them myself, they just don't work. So, I went (not too optimistically) to allrecipes.com this morning. I found a recipe that started with self-rising flour, which I don't keep in, so I searched for how to make my own self-rising flour (very easy, in fact, for each cup of all-purpose flour, add 1½ t baking powder and 1 t salt—thus the measurements below). Then I made a few pancakes, the batter was a little thick to work with, so I added a little more buttermilk (the original used just milk, but I love buttermilk pancakes). They also needed a little sugar. The resulting pancake recipe appears below. Really, it wasn't much more work than a traditional pancake mix (yes, more work than the "just add water" ones). I would usually add blueberries or chocolate chips while they're cooking, but I was out of blueberries and we used up the chocolate chips in cookies last night—gotta love the eating that goes on at sleepovers! Buttermilk pancakes

1 c flour
1½ t baking powder
1 t salt
1-2 t sugar
1-1¼ c buttermilk*
1 egg
2 T vegetable oil

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar, and set aside. Beat eggs, oil, and milk together, and add to flour. Stir until just combined, pancake batter should always be a little lumpy. Heat a greased griddle until drops of water sprinkled on it evaporate noisily. Pour 1/8 to 1/4 cup batter onto the griddle. Turn over with a metal spatula when bubbles begin to form on top. Cook second side to a golden brown color.

*If you do not have buttermilk available, you can combine 1 c milk and 1 T white vinegar and let stand for 10 minutes.

Crockpot Banana Bread

OK, I was thinking today as I was cleaning up from the holidays, getting rid of the tree, and the decorations, and finally giving the place the cleaning it didn't get when I took all the decorations out in a rush, that generally if you give more, you get more. Not necessarily material things, but that if you put more effort in, you reap greater reward or satisfaction. That said, isn't everyone always looking for the quick fix? Myself included. So, when this arrived in my email inbox this week I was intrigued. I love anything you can put in a crockpot and forget about and come back later to just enjoy. I do stews, sauces, chilis, soups, chowders, ribs, pulled pork or chicken or beef. I've even done meatloaf and baked potatoes with moderate success. However, I'm not sure if I believe that you can get sweet treats from a crockpot. Here it is: Crockpot banana bread. Let's give it a try and weigh in on the results.

At lunch yesterday, a woman said, “When I have a cup of coffee at someone else’s house, it always tastes better. When I even have a cup of tea at someone else’s house, it tastes better.” That confirms two of my “food beliefs” ­— food always tastes better when someone else has made it, and it always tastes better when it’s shared with someone else.

I’m always surprised by the number of people who say they can’t cook. I’ve eaten at a lot of tables, and I’ve never sat down to something inedible. When there’s good company, laughter, fun, and love, the food always tastes good.

It doesn’t need to be fancy or pretentious, in fact, it’s better if it’s simple and from the heart. Make brownies or a cake from a box, put on a pot of coffee or a kettle for tea, and invite a friend to sit with you. You’ll both enjoy the company and the food.

When I’m having a friend for tea, I make these scones. The recipe originally came from my cousin, Mary Fran. One of the nicest things about this recipe is its flexibility — it can be changed based on tastes, or what you have on hand. I adapted it to chocolate scones when my son was in 3^rd grade because he wanted “something chocolate” for his teacher, and I’ve made them with dried cranberries or dried blueberries or whatever I have. My neighbor Lynne has made it her own cinnamon scones recipe by substituting cinnamon chips (in the baking aisle, with the chocolate chips, but they’re hard to find, if you see them, buy two!) for the raisins. Today, I’m making them with cranberry relish I’d made for Thanksgiving, and it never got eaten, so it went into the freezer. Now that I’m baking for Christmas, I need freezer space — yet another repurposing of leftovers. Also, I'm feeling inspired, so I think the teachers are getting an assortment of scones with a pound of coffee as gifts this year.

Mary Fran’s scones
makes 12 large or 18 medium scones

2 c raisins, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes to plump them (or 2 c dried cranberries or dried blueberries or currants) (Don’t do what one of my sisters did, I won’t name names, and boil the raisins in the water, and leave them on, and ruin your best saucepan ...)
2 sticks butter
1 t salt
4 t baking powder
4 c flour
½ c sugar (or less)
2 eggs
1 c milk (I prefer buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine dry ingredients with butter into a coarse mixture. In a separate bowl, combine eggs and milk. Make an indentation in the dry ingredients and add the eggs and milk. Stir together with a fork to moisten. The less stirring the better, stirring makes for tougher scones. Add raisins and stir just until they’re combined. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Serve warm.

Will’s chocolate scones: Replace raisins with 2 c chocolate chips and add 3 T good-quality cocoa powder to the dry ingredients.

Lynne’s cinnamon scones: Replace raisins with 2 c cinnamon chips

Katie’s cranberry-orange scones: Replace raisins with 2 c cranberry-orange relish.

Sour-Cream Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Anyone have the recipe handy? I can't find mine and am having a coffee/playdate tomorrow morning.

Update: Eileen shared the recipe with me, so I am adding here on the front page so it is nice and easy to find. A family favorite!

Chocolate Chip coffee cake
!/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs 
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp Vanilia
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Topping
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 tsp cinnamon

Cream together butter,sugar,eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Combine 2 mixes. 
Spoon 1/2 batter into pan. Top with 1/2 chip mixture. Cover with rest of batter. Top with rest of chip mixture.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Mom always does her in a fluted pan but I have trouble getting it to cook through in that pan so I do a 9x13. So you may need to adjust baking time.