Dutch Pancakes

Call them what you want, crepes, German or English, at our house they are Dutch pancakes.  That is what my Grandpa and Grandma Mines called them  With a name like Mines you would think they would call them German pancakes.  (Especially since I don't have Dutch ancestry)  When I would stay at my grandparents for a few days, Grandpa would always make Dutch pancakes for breakfast. Served with syrup, powdered sugar or jam and rolled up they make a yummy breakfast.  My favorite!

John and Lizzie enjoying the Dutch pancake tradition!

Dutch Pancakes

1 egg
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup water - plus maybe a tablespoon or two more
Butter

Heat up a skillet/fry pan on medium.  Mix the egg, flour and water until a fairly thin consistency. Melt about a teaspoon of butter and pour in a pool of pancake batter, roll the pan around until it fills the pan and let cook for a few minutes.  Flip it over and let it cook for a minute more.  Serve.  One egg makes 2 - 3 pancakes.

Easy Ranch Cheese Ball

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 ½ T. ranch dressing mix

3 green onions, chopped

Bacon, cooked and crumbled

Chopped nuts, pecans or toasted almonds

Mix all ingredients together.  Shape into a ball and roll in chopped nuts.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.  Serve with your favorite crackers.  

From the blog: It's Always Autumn
Heather brought this Sunday and it was delicious.  It disappeared!  Ashley Olson made it first from Pinterest and it's so delicious - no need to look further ~

Blueberry Pie

Sweet, juicy berries baked in a flaky crust.  Delightful.

4 cups fresh blueberries
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 t. fresh lemon zest
2 T. fresh lemon juice

Pie dough

Preheat oven to 400º.  Roll out crust and fit into a pie plate.  Roll out the rest of the crust and cut into 1/2-inch wide strips with a pizza cutter or knife.

In a large bowl, toss the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and lemon juice.  Let stand 5 minutes.  Pour berry mixture into the pie shell.  Weave a lattice over the top with the pastry strips. Trim and crimp them to the bottom crust.  Brush the top with milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 400º for 15 minutes.  Reduce the heat to 350º and continue to bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the berries are bubbly and the crust is golden.  Tent with foil if the crust is getting too brown. This pie is like apple pie, when the filling bubbles up and over (and makes a mess of the oven) then it is finished.  I like to put a baking tray on the rack below to catch drips.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Thanks, Heather, for another great recipe.


Just so you know:

Before it's rolled: DOUGH
After it's rolled: PASTRY
After it's baked: CRUST

Yummy Apple Dip

Heather made this yummy apple dip that you might like to try.  It is EASY.  For one Sunday dinner, Chelsea brought apples and dip for the appetizer and it tasted very refreshing.

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. lemon juice

Beat cream cheese well.  Add sugars a little at a time.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
Optional: add toffee bits.

Gingersnap Coconut Creams

"When Christmas is around the corner, we want gingerbread and macaroons.  I combine the two for gingersnap sandwhiches filled with sweet coconut." Darlene Brenden Salem, Or field Editor TasteofHome.com  Dec. 2014  pg. 44 recipe

I was curious about this recipe since I love gingerbread and Matt loves coconut.  Also this recipe is smaller scale than my normal gingersnap cookie with a kiss that dad likes so much.  Win - Win
I loved the sandwhich cookie idea and filling inside is GOOD.

 Prep: 35 Min.
Bake: 10./batch + cooling
Makes: (I made about 18 complete cookies using small cookie scoop...recipes says 4 dozen?)

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup molasses (I used dark molasses and I think that is why my cookies turned out darker than magazine pic)
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

FILLING:
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp. orange extract (didn't have orange but used coconut and it was great - a citrus hint would be fun to try too, but I think I'll stick with coconut extract!)
1/4 cup flaked coconut

1) Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and molasses.  In another bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves; gradually beat into creamed mixture.

2) Drop dough by level teaspoonfuls 1 in apart onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets.  Bake cookies 6-8 minutes or just until edges begin to brown.  Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

3)  For coconut filling, in a small bowl, mix butter, confectioners' sugar and orange extract until blended; stir in coconut.  Spread on bottoms of half of the cookies; cover with remaining cookies.

per sandwhich cookie 58 cal., 3 g fat (2 g. sat. fat), 10 mg. chol., 50 mg sodium, 8 g carb., trace fiber, 1 g pro.

Gingerbread Houses

Gingerbread houses and Christmas just go together and making them is lots of fun for young and old, with lots of candy snitching!  Here is the recipe for gingerbread and the frosting.  The cookie cutters are from Wilton and can be purchased at Michael's at the beginning of the season.



Gingerbread

1 cup molasses

1 cup shortening

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1 t. vanilla

2 t. soda dissolved in ½ cup warm water

6 cups flour

1 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

½ t. cloves

½ t. ginger

Bring molasses and shortening to a boil and simmer 2 minutes.  Cool.  Cream egg, sugar and vanilla.  Add soda and water.  Mix flour, salt and spices.  Add dry ingredients and molasses mixture alternately to the sugar mixture.  Mix well.

On a floured surface, roll out dough to ¼ inch thick.  Cut into desired shapes and place on greased baking tray.  Bake at 375º for 6 to 8 minutes.  If making house pieces, bake 10 minutes.

This recipe makes enough for 1 large house.  If the dough becomes stiff while rolling it out, put it on a plate and warm in the microwave for 30 to 60 seconds.

 Hard Royal Frosting

4 egg whites (about ½ cup)

1/8 t. cream of tartar

5-7 cups powdered sugar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until very stiff.  Add the powdered sugar a little at a time until the frosting is firm but not too stiff.

Company Carrots (from Aunt Shell)

Company Carrots

turn these into a fancy dish!

one of my favorite Thanksgiving/fall/holiday dishes

Easy - healthy - and quite easy

2.5 lbs. carrots whole (baby okay too)
     save quarter cup of the water you cooked the carrots in
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1T. minced onion
1 T. prepared horseradish (awesome little kick/secret ingredient!)
salt and pepper to taste
quarter cup of saltine crackers / crushed (I personally use more)
2 T. butter or margarine melted
a little bit of chopped parsley on top
a little bit of paprika on top

Directions:
cook carrots until tender, save a quarter cup of the water, if doing long carrots cut lengthwise, put in a 9x9 dish, then combine mayo, horseradish, salt and pepper (the sauce), put over the carrots, crackers/butter mixture on top.  (Sometimes I sprinkle more minced onion on top of the crackers.)

Bake @ 375 for 20 min.

Enough for 8 people