Dutch Baby, Baby

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend.  We enjoyed a very relaxing Saturday and Sunday, and then had a fun-filled Monday. It was really nice getting so much family time in. We also did quite a bit of cooking. We grilled enough stuff Sunday evening to last us a few meals, and then I decided to make us a Dutch Baby for breakfast Monday morning.

A Dutch Baby is a German pancake.  It's usually made in an iron skillet and puffs up quite a bit when cooking, but then deflates a little when you pull it out. I also noticed that a lot of people serve them with lemon and sugar, but I was out of lemons so I just served mine with the choice of strawberries and whipped cream or butter and syrup.

  

I also felt that I needed to double the recipe to have enough for all my hungry boys. And since I didn't have another iron skillet, I did mini ones in my muffin tin like the ones I found on makeandtakes.com.

The best thing, for me is that this took a little less work than regular pancakes and there are no weird ingredients involved, just usual stuff that most of us have. And if you don't have an iron skillet, you can just use the muffin pan or a deep baking dish. Yum!

Dutch Baby

(adapted from twopeasandtheirpod.com and bluejeangourmet.com)

1/2 cup flour

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

3 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 400

Place butter in skillet and put in oven to melt.

Meanwhile, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Remove pan and add batter to pan. Butter may be brown and foamy, and that's ok, just pour batter over the butter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until pancake is golden and fluffy.

For Mini Babies..

Instead of butter, just spray muffin tin with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly among the pan and bake for 10-15 min.

Serve with your toppings of choice.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

With rhubarb in season, I've been dying to make something with it.  I remember having rhubarb pie when I was pretty young and liking it, but haven't had it in a really long time.


I decided to make this cobbler recipe from the Taste Food blog. I was excited, not only that it has strawberries, but some lemon as well.  It has lemon in the fruit mixture AND the crust. Plus a good amount of butter to go with it. YUM!  Hope you like. :) Here is the recipe.

Huevos Rancheros

Guess I'm on a Mexican food kick.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I'm always on a Mexican food kick  I just love it, and I make it for my family at least once a week.

Well, last night I had some taco leftovers from the night before and on a whim, decided to make my own huevos rancheros. I just love the combination of different flavors and textures of this dish.  I had it for dinner this time, but it would be such a yummy break from the usual Saturday morning breakfasts we make.You should give it a shot too..it's incredibly easy and delicious!

Now, I just ask that those foodies out there forgive my "over-cooked egg"  I personally prefer my eggs over-easy, so that's how I made it.  I also used black beans instead of refried beans since I like them better. And you can also make adjustments where you like.  Here's what I did...

Huevos Rancheros

1 soft corn tortilla

1/2 tablespoon butter

cheddar cheese, shredded

pico de gallo or salsa

black beans, warmed

1 egg

Heat a small skillet on medium heat. Lightly fry the tortilla in butter until slightly browned on both sides.

Remove to a plate and sprinkle cheese on top.  

Reduce heat slightly and fry egg to desired doneness and place on top of cheese.  Add beans and pico de gallo and serve.

Cooking with Friends

One of my favorite things to do is cook with my friends.  It just so happens that I go to church with my closest friends and we get to cook together for a few church functions through the year. It usually requires a lot of work, but it's so worth being able to spend the day with some of my favorite people, while doing something nice for others.

Last Sunday, we cooked for the High School Sr. Banquet. My friend, Stephanie usually heads these up and does such a great job.  She is so good at adding little details that make it really fun and special.  This year the menu consisted of Chicken Parmesan or Chicken Scaloppine, salad, bread and the best part was dessert...

We made little chocolate graduation hats..

That were flipped over and filled with chocolate mousse and berries...

See how clever Stephanie is?

Well, needless to say they were a hit and worth every bit of the work that went in to them. This is the recipe we used for the mousse, and here are some more pics from our day...(I didn't get pics of everything cause I was BUSY!)

Making the chocolate bowls...

Workin' in the kitchen

Nachos Carnitas

I am a very bad girl....

I fried up my leftover corn tortillas and made chips...

For nachos.

And here is the recipe...

corn tortillas

canola oil

carnitas

black beans

shredded cheese

other toppings of choice

Pour oil into pan until it goes up the sides about half an inch and heat on med-high.

Cut tortillas into wedges.  When the oil is hot (drop a small piece of tortilla into oil, if it floats and bubbles the oil is ready) place tortillas in oil in a single layer. Fry until golden (only a minute or two), and remove with tongs onto a plate lined with a paper towel.

Top with leftover carnitas, black beans and cheese and microwave for about 30 seconds or until cheese is melted. Top with other toppings you like and enjoy!

Carnitas with Mango and Avocado Salsa

I found a recipe online for carnitas and couldn't wait to try it. I was actually wanting a recipe that was more authentic, but got stuck on this one. It wasn't very authentic, but looked really good so I decided to give it a try anyway. 

It was REALLY good!  

The spices+marinade+browning+slow cooking gave it such depth of flavor.  It wasn't hard, but there were several steps and took some planning to get it done, but it was totally worth it. 

Here is the link if you would like to take a look.

I also made an Avocado and Mango salsa that was inspired by Pennies on a Platter, which was the perfect addition to the pork.  I can't wait to have the left overs for dinner tonight!

Avocado and Mango Salsa

2 ripe avocados, diced

1 ripe mango, diced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup red onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

the juice of one lime

salt and pepper

Mix first six ingredients together and salt and pepper to taste.

Tres Leches (Three Milks Cake)

Today we had a little Cinco de Mayo feast at work.  Clara, a sweet lady who was born in Mexico, said she wanted to make us her homemade tacos (yay!) and I decided to make Tres Leches. Tres leches is a vanilla sponge cake, that you pour a milk mixture over after it has cooled and top with homemade whipped cream.  You refrigerate the cake over night and it soaks up the milk and the result is a decadent, refreshing dessert. It was the perfect compliment to the spicy salsa we had on our tacos. I found the recipe on the internet and didn't change anything, so here is the link. Hope you like it!

Pineapple Margarita Popsicles for Cinco de Mayo

I'm making carnitas (pork tacos) for cinco de mayo tomorrow and was looking for a little treat to go with them when came across margarita popsicles.  They sounded great and I loved the idea of making some for my boys (non-alcoholic, of coarse) and for the grown-ups as well.  My only problem was that I was feeling a little lazy and didn't want to do everything that the recipe required, so I decided to see what I could do with what I had.  Instead of making a simple syrup, I decide to use some frozen pineapple concentrate that I had in the freezer. I think they turned out pretty good!  The only thing I would change, is I would use dixie cups instead of my little popsicle mold.  Since alcohol doesn't freeze, they were a little soft, which made them a little more difficult to get out.  If you use the cups, you can just peel them off and they will stay together better.

Enjoy!

Pineapple Margarita Popsicles

4 tablespoons frozen pineapple juice concentrate

1 cup water

the juice of two limes

2 tablespoons tequila

2 tablespoons orange liqueur ( pineapple or orange juice can be substituted for the alcohol)

Combine all ingredients and pour into popsicle molds or dixie cups.  Freeze for at least 4 hours. (if using dixie cups, after freezing for 2 hours, add popsicle sticks then freeze for at least 2 more hours.)

Remove from container and garnish with kosher salt if desired.