German Pancakes

Ingredients:
2 cup of milk
4 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
8 eggs (one at a time)
1 cup of flour

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients in a blender.  Pour mixture into a 9x13 greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.  Then turn up the heat to 400 degrees F for 6-7 more minutes.  This makes them puffy and brown.  Serve with powder sugar and syrup.

*Thanks for sharing this, Emily!  Of course, anything that is eaten with syrup is a hit at our house.  Jacob had at least 4 servings.  If you like eggs, you'll like these.

Chocolate Applesauce Cake

½ cup shortening
1 ½ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp soda
2 cups applesauce
½ tsp. cinnamon
6 oz chocolate chips

Cream sugar, shortening, and eggs. Sift flour, salt, baking soda, cocoa and cinnamon. Add applesauce and stir. Pour into a 9x13 pan. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp sugar and chocolate chips. Bake@ 350* for 40 minutes.

*There is a new frame of mind at my house--not something that comes easy for me, in fact, I've been resisting the change--but nonetheless, my chief consumer has decided to get into shape.  That means less cooking and more exercise at our house.  However, yesterday I took it a little too far when there wasn't a treat for Family Home Evening.  To make up for my folly, I promised chocolate cake for dessert tonight, but to please the calorie counter, I opted to try this lower fat recipe.  It was pretty good for only 1/2 c of shortening!  I liked what the sugar and chocolate chips did to the tope of the cake.  It turned out very moist.  Now I just need a family to help eat the leftovers!

Simple Syrup

1 c water
1 c sugar
6 strawberries, sliced (optional)

1. Bring water, sugar, and, if desired, strawberries to a boil in a saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves; boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. If necessary, pour syrup through a wire-mesh strainer into a bowl, discarding fruit; cool. Makes about 1 ½ cups.

*The strawberries make this syrup, yum!  We used frozen berries and didn't strain them (as you can see in the photo--and don't worry, we didn't drink it straight, the glass was merely to show the beautiful pink color of the syrup).  I did think it was a little runny, so after trying it, I returned it to the stove and added 2 t cornstarch mixed with an equal amount of cold water.  This did make it a little more syrupy.  Simple and easy, I'll never let having no syrup in my pantry stop me from making breakfast again.  See also French Toast.

Bagels

1 ½ cups warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
4-5 cups flour

Mix together. Raise 20 minutes. Shape into bagels (this works best to stick your thumb through a ball)
In boiling water, cook bagels for 30 secs on each side. Bake 350* for 10-15 minutes

Makes 12 small ones or 6 large ones.

*This was the first time I made bagels--something I never thought I'd be able to do.  It was surprisingly simple.  They reminded me of the bagels I used to eat at college made by the culinary students (they were such a temptation as their aroma drifted into our classroom where we sat hours on end).  I do have a few notes I'd like to remember for next time:  (1)  I let the yeast and water sit for 5 minutes before adding the other ingredients.  (2)  I added just barely over 4 cups of flour.  (3) As soon as I was done kneading the dough, I separated it into 13 balls so I wouldn't have to work it as much after it had risen.  The smoother the ball, the smoother and more attractive the crust will be.

(4) After forming the balls, I lightly rolled in oil to prevent sticking--not sure if that was needed--I'll skip that next time.  Now is the time to let the dough rise.  (5)  Next time I'll try adding 1 T sugar and 2 t salt to the boiling water (to help brown the crust).  The longer you boil the bagel, the denser and chewier the bagel with be.  Boiling them for just a brief amount of time will still allow the crust to be elastic and the bagels will rise slightly.  (6) Remove from water and drain or lightly pat dry.  (7) Use parchment paper to cook on.

I separated half the dough (for cheese bagels), and mixed in 1/2 cup raisins and 1 tsp cinnamon in the remaining dough.  Before baking, I sprinkled the plain bagels with cheese and the cinnamon bagels with 1/2 tsp of brown sugar each.  Yum!  My kids loved them.  We'll be trying blueberry next!

Chicken and Rice

1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups instant rice
2 chicken breasts (uncooked or cooked; cubed)
1 pkg onion soup mix (optional)
  -- we use, dry onions and some chicken season
1 cup shredded cheese (sprinkled on top)

Mix soups, rice, chicken & one can of water in 13x9 pan. Spread cheese on top. Cover with foil and bake 350* for 45 minutes. Remove cover the last 5 minutes.

Waffles

*Thanks, Em!  I've been looking for a waffle recipe made with egg whites.  These were tasty--the kids ate the first half dozen without butter or syrup (I did add blueberries and raspberries to the batter).  If only I had a larger waffle iron that wasn't so hard to clean, I'd saw goodbye to Eggo's and make this more of a regular at my home.

3 ½ cup of flour
6 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs yolks beaten
3 ½ cup milk
1 cup oil
4 stiffly beaten egg whites

Mix together everything except egg whites.  Mix well.  Fold in egg whites and bake.

(Old) Cragio’s Breadsticks

Jacob says, "This makes the picture look better!"

These were huge!  The kids and I had them for lunch (the spaghetti sauce has to count as a veggie, right?)  2 1/2 breadsticks fed us all (1 mom, a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a 17 month old).  The breadsticks made me reminisce about the good 'ol college days with my sister Amber--you know the days when I spent about $25/week on groceries and then considered it really splurging to spend $5 to get a box of breadsticks from Craigo's to share.  Yum!

3 cups of flour
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ Tbsp yeast
2 ½ cups HOT water

Mix dry ingredients, then add water. Kneed with 1 ½ to 2 ¼ cups of flour. Let rise.

Roll out into a rectangle. Put butter, garlic salt, all season salt, and cheese. Twist and bake at 400* for 20 minutes.

*I may have needed to clarified this recipe with Emily, but here's how I made this delicious find.  I put all the dry ingredients in my Kitchen Aid then added the water.  After kneading with my dough hook, it was very wet so instead of adding 1 1/2 to 2 1/4 cups of flour; I think I ended up adding just over 3 cups of flour.  I kneaded it with the dough hook for approximately 10 minutes in all and let rise until it doubled (1 1/2 hours).  Then I punched down the down and rolled it out (using more flour).  I divided the dough into 9 sections and with my hands rolled them out to about 18 inches.  I then braided each piece on top of itself and let them rise in the pan for 45 min.  Looking back, I probably didn't need to add as much flour.  Next, I spread about 1/4 cup of butter on the bread sticks and sprinkled lightly with garlic salt.  Baked them for 12 minutes, removed, added about 1 1/2 cups pizza/mozzarella shredded cheese and sprinkled parmesan cheese, and cooked 8 minutes more. 

**A late note:  After making these a couple of times, I have a few pointers.  Made as directed above, the breadsticks look just like Crago's, but I've had trouble with them being a little on the doughy side in the middle.  I suggested using a large cookie sheet (they will still raise and touch each other) and divide into at least 12 breadsticks.  We love these!

Play Dough/Fun Dough

Play Dough
by Emily
1 cup flour
½ cup salt
1 Tbsp Cream of tarter
1 cup of water
1 Tbsp oil
8-9 drops of food coloring

Mix flour, salt, and cream of tarter. Boil water, oil and food coloring. Pour over flour mixture. Knead.  Store in Ziploc bags.

Fun Dough
Prep 20 min

½ to ¾ c warm water, divided
1 t white vinegar
2 c all-purpose flour
1 c salt
Food coloring paste

1. Stir together ½ c warm water and 1 t vinegar

2. Combine flour and salt in a large bowel. Slowly stir in water mixture with a wooden spoon until a stiff dough forms, adding up to ¼ c more water, if necessary. Knead until smooth and workable. Divide dough into portions, and add desired amount of food coloring paste. Shape dough portions into blocks. Store in refrigerator in a sip-top plastic bag.

Makes about 2 ½ c nonedible dough.

Crepes

1 ½ cups milk
1 cup flour
2 eggs
3 T melted butter
2 Tbsp sugar
1 t vanilla
Mix in a blender and pour a couple of tablespoons of batter into a greased skillet and cook.

*This is a slightly adapted version of crepes from my sister Emily.  Lovely.

Harvest Soup

By Emily and Anne Evans


This is a soup that we made up one day and it turned out pretty good. But of course we didn’t measure anything.

3 celery sticks with leaves
3 peeled carrots
Onion
1 cup barley (cooked according to bag)
1 garlic cloves
A couple of potatoes
8 oz beef stake (we use the cheep kind which was good) cut into cubes when slightly frozen
Brown gravy mix (we have a big bottle from sam’s club, but could use a package)

I have a pot in the back with oil in it and a skillet with oil in it. I cut the onion and garlic up. Put a little in each pot and skillet. Cut up celery and carrots and cook in pot. Also be cooking barley right now.

Brown cut steak in skillet. Peel potatoes and cut them up. Put into the back pot with water. Then put the barley and steak into pot. Mix in gravy to thicken soup. I of course added too much and used V-8 to thin soup. Season to your liken.

Emily’s Sweet and Sour Sauce

Great with meatballs, chicken, and anything!


1 cup pineapple juice
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vinegar
2 T soy sauce
2 T corn starch

~Mix and boil for 2 minutes. Add pineapple and green peppers, carrots, and onions. So good!!