Puffed Oven Pancake

This is one of my most favorite recipes ever! I recently made it with sauteed cinnamon apples. This was my first time using fresh peaches.

Oh my goodness! It was excellent!

The wonderful thing is the recipe only requires a few basic ingredients and the oven does the rest.


It's a great dessert or breakfast or Sunday night dinner. We love breakfast for dinner. Today, I made it for breakfast with some scrambled eggs. If I had bacon, I would have served that too. Oh well!

Really though, you can use any fruit, hot or cold. You could use syrup (I don't feel the need), sprinkle it with powdered sugar, or leave it plain. Just be sure you have enough because everyone fights over it.


First we start with a 425 degree oven. Preheat the oven. Put 1-2 Tablespoons butter in the pan and put it in the oven to melt.


Meanwhile, in a bowl, blend 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, 2-3 beaten eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 2 tsp sugar. (I use agave nectar for all my sweeteners. It has VERY low glycemic index, perfect for Bill's diet).


Pour the mixture into the HOT skillet, use oven mitts!


And watch it grow and bubble, but don't open the oven door too much, it will flop. If you have a light and see-through door it helps. Otherwise just peek!


Bake 15-20 minutes till it looks like this picture, lightly browned.


Take the skillet out of the oven...


And pour on your fruit...


Sift some powdered sugar on it, OOooohh so pretty!


Lukie loves it.


Shovel it in boy!


I made a smaller one for me :)

Crazy climbing boys...

Here's Logan, my recently turned 7 year old. For some un-explainable reason, my children have decided that they like to climb on cars...


He decided to climb on his Oma's car. (Oma is the Dutch word for Grandma.) Anyway, I don't get it, but they LOVE to do it.



And they love it (did I mention that already?) Oma doesn't mind, it probably just cleans the car for her and gives me a little MORE laundry (as IF I NEED more laundry...)



They haven't fallen off yet...


Don't you love the way he is looking so intently in the lens? Show off!

But at least he takes his shoes off first.

Pasta and fresh sauteed veggies

I think my next favorite thing to Summer Salads is Summer Pasta. It's not a cold pasta salad. It's HOT and yummy with whatever veggies you have on hand. I just happened to go to my local farmer's market and got fresh corn on the cob and zucchini. Come to think of it, I got the corn from down the street at the "egg farm" that I go to.

It's owned by a Mennonite family with 5 adorable kids. They are so cute in their pigtails and long dresses and bare feet. I have buying my eggs from them for almost 2 years now. During the summer, they have a little stand and sell all sorts of fruits and vegetables. And the prices...4 cucumbers for a dollar! A quart of perfect tomatoes for 2.00. It's so fresh and yummy. Anyway, I digress...

So, a got a dozen ears of corn for 3.00. For this recipe I used 4 ears of corn, a small eggplant, 1 green zucchini, half a yellow zucchini, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs from my garden. The pasta I used was penne, Brown Rice Penne to be exact. Good stuff, it's whole grain with the white pasta taste. And it's organic!

So, here's that zucchini and summer squash. So pretty! Chop it into cubes.


I put all my veggies in a bowl till ready to sautee.


I skin the eggplant and chop it into cubes.


Into the bowl it goes...


I have this great gadget (thanks mom!) to scrape corn off the cob, but really, any old knife will do.


Oh, shallots, I forgot to mention the shallots! I LOVE shallots. Since I have moved to PA over 2 years ago, I have NEVER seen shallots in the local store. I was SO excited when I went to the Green Dragon Farmer's Market and saw shallots. I bought two bags!


So, shallots...sweet yummy onion. Dice finely.


Throw them in the bowl. Add salt and freshly ground pepper. Now, don't add any old salt. Do yourself and your family a favor and get Sea Salt.

Sea Salt is much better for you. It's unrefined and minimally processed so it retains it's natural goodness and wholeness. The ancients called it the "fruit of the sea." After it's harvested from the sea it's dried in the sun for a few weeks to evaporate the rest of the water and this drying maximizes the magnesium and iodide content. Try it for yourself. Your body will love you for it.


Cook your pasta according to the package directions. Go for "al dente" with a bit of chew on the pasta.


Drain the pasta. Cover and keep warm.


Heat up your pan to saute your vegetables. We use "Extra Virgin Organic Olive Oil" liberally in our home. It's SO good for you. It's a "good" fat.

If you don't have a cast iron pan. Get one! Bill bought me one for Christmas 2 years ago and it's my best friend! It was pre-seasoned. It cooks like a charm (whatever that means). It also gives you that extra iron that all of us ladies can use. I tend to get iron-deficient and it helps.


Dump those veggies in. Stir around and let them heat up till slightly tender. A little bit of crunch is okay!


Garnish with a bit of fresh basil. I added a bit more olive oil to the pasta, dumped the veggies on top, and added some fresh herbs...thyme, oregano, and basil. You can add dried if you don't have fresh.

I also sprinkled some Pecorino Romano cheese on top. (Parmesan is good too).

Oh, and for color, it's all about looking pretty, you know, I added a fresh tomato.

Enjoy!

Summer Salads

Summer is definately my favorite season, "food-wise" anyway. Bill and I (and the boys) love light summer fare. We eat a lot of grilled chicken, some pasta or potatoes, and SALAD. We all just love salad.

When Liam (now 10) was 3, it was his favorite thing. It still is. And the funny thing is, they all fight about the red bell peppers in it. Last week, one of the boys was even crying, yes, crying, because there wasn't any salad left for seconds.

So, yes, it is just a simple summer salad. But, I really wanted to share it with you so you can make your own version of it with the ingredients you have at home. Plus, it is SO good for you. Especially if you make your own dressing...


I love Romaine lettuce because it's crunchy and soft. A nice combination, something to sink your teeth into. I chop it up with my bread knife, it happens to be serrated which works great on Romaine. Slice it very thinly.


Next, I put it in my awesome OXO Salad Spinner. (Thanks mom!) I wash it in here, and sometimes rinse it 3 times if it's really dirty. That's only when I get the lettuce from our local farmer's market and it's really fresh and not store packaged.

Push that button to spin and dry it! My momma always says to dry it well. I always hear her voice in my head when dry my lettuce... Of course, it's usually speaking Dutch because that's her native language. Come to think of it, it's mine too, but I don't think in it.


Then, hit the brake button! I do this a couple of times so it REALLY dries.


I dump the clean and dry lettuce in a bowl and load it with veggies. My favorites are cucumbers, red bell peppers (or any color but green), fresh tomatoes, carrots, oh, and hard boiled eggs. Yum! I have sneaked in raw zucchini before and avocado. The boys haven't really grown into eating those yet.


Or, I plate the salad...

The point is, eat raw fresh salad! Buy local ingredients if you can. There are many more nutrients in our local produce than in the store bought stuff. Do yourself a favor!

Next up will be salad dressing, the homemade version.

Have a blessed day!

Beet relish

Okay, I don't ever know what to do with the beets I buy. I finally decided to check out my favorite recipe site www.allrecipes.com and found a beet relish there.
Here are the pictures and step by step...


Chop up about 8-10 beets into nice little cubes. Scrub them first and then give the tops to your bunny!!! Mine was in "hog heaven" oh, make that "bunny heaven".


Chop an onion. I used a sweet onion, and only about half of one. Again, cut into to nice little cubes...


Then, chop up a squash. I used a yellow one, but you can use zucchini. Everything turns "beet red" anyway!! Oh, chop it in, you guessed it, nice little cubes...


Next, chop up a carrot or two. Slice down length-wise so you can chop it into uh, um, nice little cubes...


Now, combine all of them so they are all mixed up and pretty.


Next, Mix salt, sugar, mustard seed (notice, I used mustard, didn't have the mustard seed!)and celery seed.


Add the vinegars. I just love white balsamic vinegar. That's my favorite thing to make salad dressing with, but that's for another day.


Stir it up and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer till all the veggies are tender 30 minutes (or more) depending on how small you chopped those nice little cubes.



Beet Relish

10 medium beets
1 cup chopped onion
1-2 chopped squash
1-2 chopped carrots
1 1/2 Tbsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. mustard seed (I used mustard)
1 Tbs. celery seed
3/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup cider vinegar

In a large pot: Combine beets, onion, squash, and carrots.
In a bowl: combine salt, sugar, mustard and celery seed.
Stir in the vinegars.
Pour over vegetables in the pot.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer. Stir occasionally till veggies are tender 30 minutes or so.

Keeps in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.
I think I'm going to can the leftovers!
Serving size is about 1/2 cup, it is relish after all, can't eat too much!

Outside, the garden....

I love summertime; the flowers, the garden, kittens romping about, and the BERRIES. Wild raspberries and blackberries all over my property. My hands are perpetually scraped up from picking them. It's worth the pain and anguish (well, not really anguish) to eat these delicious berries.

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