Triple Berry Cherry Pie

With Christmas fast approaching, I am beyond ready to be stuffing my face with Christmas dinner and all the wonderful desserts and treats that go along with it. Tonight, I tried out a delicious pie that incorporated a variety of "left over" fruit I had in the freezer. It seems like although I freeze things in 1 quart containers, I always end up with about 3/4 cup left in the containers. This pie is a great way to use up those little odds and ends hiding out in the freezer. I used 3 types of berries and some tart cherries, but you could use any fruit as long as the total comes out to the 4 cups.

Lemon Blueberry Sticky Buns

Let's start this week with a smile and a delicious sticky roll!

It is Monday and Monday's require an extra dose of motivation to get up and get the week started. My motivation today happens to be Lemon Blueberry Sticky Buns. Let me tell you, these little rolls are absolutely AMAZING.

I am not typically a fan of making any kind of rolls just because I can never get my dough to rise properly (mostly because I am impatient), but this dough was fool proof. It came out perfectly with little work.

Fried Polenta

I woke up before my alarm went off this morning. Maybe it was in anticipation of being able to fry up yesterday's left over Creamy Brown Sugar Vanilla Polenta. It definitely wasn't in anticipation of it being Monday. I like to hide from Mondays, hoping that it won't be able to find me if I just put my pillow over my head and lay in bed for just a little longer.

The thought of being able to make this fried polenta this morning was definitely the motivation I needed to remove the pillow from over my head and crawl out of bed. Take that you evil Monday!

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes

The one thing I absolutely love about my work schedule is that once a month I have a 4 day weekend. These weekends are often spent visiting friends and family that live in different states. This long weekend was spent at my parents', helping with some gardening and a little furniture building. My dad is amazing at what he does with some plain boards and a few screws. I have a long list of birthday and Christmas presents that I am anxious for him to build me. What can I say? I'm a spoiled only child.

One thing that has always been a part of weekends at my parents' is sitting down for a family breakfast on weekends. While I continue to make delicious breakfasts almost daily, there is something special about the times I can still do this with my parents. I guess I am getting sentimental in my old age.

This morning, before I set off on my 7 hour drive home, my dad whipped up a batch of these delicious pancakes while I attempted to gather my belongings that seemed to have spread across my parents' entire house.

Lemon-Berry Baked French Toast

It did something amazing here in NC yesterday. It SNOWED!

While I dislike the cold, there is something magical about watching the world around you turn white.  I watched from the windows at work as these beautiful little white flakes started floating down from the sky around 9am. I sat in a semi-dazed state, staring out the windows, wishing I could go out and play in it. I also watched snowplow after snowplow made its way down the road in front of my work.

I was thrilled at 2pm when work announced we were closing 2 hours early. By the time I left work there was about 3/4 of an inch of snow covering everything.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Baked French Toast

I have a new addiction. Pinterest. It is becoming a new obsession. I used to follow a lot of blogs however most of them are beginning to seem rather repetitive any more and became un-inspiring to me.

Now that I have found new inspiration, I figured I will make another attempt at blogging.

This recipe is inspired by a recipe I found on Pinterest. It looked delicious. Then when I looked at the recipe,  I was shocked. 12 eggs?!?!

The original recipe came from Chef-in-Training. I'm sure it was great the way it was. I didn't have a dozen eggs to use and I didn't have the entire night to let it set. I needed it immediately. So I changed it. It was still yummy!

Banana-Blueberry Breakfast Cakes

Today got off to a very slow start. Maybe it was the three day weekend. Maybe it's the dreary, depressing, rainy weather outside. Whatever the reason, I was not moving very fast. Neither was my oven.

Two months ago I found this recipe for Blueberry Buckwheat Breakfast Cakes. I have regularly been stalking Panna's blog as well as several other European blogs that focus on breakfast foods. Breakfast cakes, such as these, are apparently a very common dish.

I have spent several months visiting various grocery stores, trying to fill my pantry with all the different types of grains that appear in many of these recipes.

It has not been an easy task. Apparently the majority of Americans do not eat these things. I however am falling in love.

Healthy and delicious?!? What more could a girl want?

Blueberry Popovers

If you want to have a good day, you need to have a great breakfast.

This morning there was a pack of fresh blueberries staring at me from my fridge. They were on sale. Buy one pint, get two free. I have a lot of blueberries to use. I hate to freeze these wonderful little fruits until there is no other choice.

Even though they freeze fine, I feel compelled to use as many while they are still as fresh as possible.

This morning I went back to a favorite breakfast recipe. Popovers.

Lemon Glazed Blueberry Biscuits

I am behind on my reading.

I always try to read the book before seeing the movie.

I took my lazy butt to the bookstore the other day. I picked up copies of Beastly, Something Borrowed, and I Am Number Four.

I started with Beastly by Alex Flinn since the DVD becomes available through Netflix on 6/28. I'm too poor to afford real movies, so I'm left with my Netflix account. It works out well though. I don't have to get dressed up. I don't have to worry about my hair or makeup. And I don't have to spend $20 just to get some popcorn and a drink. Yes, I'm cheap.

This morning I woke up craving blueberries. I did not want pancakes. Blueberry pancakes are boring. They've been done before. A million times. Nothing unusual or new about that.

Granted Blueberry Biscuits aren't really unusual either, but they are different. At least different from my normal breakfast.

I didn't borrow or steal this recipe from anywhere. The drop biscuit recipe was my grandmothers. I changed it a little to suit my needs.

Lemon Glazed Blueberry Biscuits
1 C All-Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs Unsalted Butter, slightly softened
1/2 C Milk
1/2 C Blueberries

Preheat oven to 400.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut in the butter until incorporated into the dough.

Stir in the milk in parts, adding more or less as needed to make a stiff dough.

Fold in the blueberries.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Lemon Glaze
3/4 C Powdered Sugar
1 1/2 Tbs Lemon Juice

Mix together in a bowl until the consistency of a glaze.

Drizzle over the biscuits while they are still warm.

Yogurt Pancakes with Blueberries

I have learned two things this week so far. The first being that pistachios are irresistible. I've eaten a lot. I mean A LOT. The second, that nobody what, I am NOT a photographer. My pictures come out the same rather I take them with my phone, my cheap pink camera, or with my friend's thousand dollar camera that does everything but aim itself. I give up. You'll have to deal with my inability to take pictures. At least my finger isn't in the picture. Thats a plus.


This morning's adventure? Pancakes when there is no milk in the house. I substituted yogurt in place of the milk. I was very doubtful at first. The pancake batter was very thick.



I put two spoonfuls in the skillet. It looked like I just put two spoonfuls of biscuit mix in my skillet. I had to spread the pancake with the spoon. It puffed up nicely though.


Then I went to turn it....that was tricky. The batter melted. The pancake ran off the side of the spatula. My skillet ended up with pancake batter cooked to the sides. What a mess!

But you know what? It tasted delicious! It has that wonderful, melt in your mouth texture that is so comforting when you're forced awake earlier than you'd like by the obnoxious alarm clock that didn't get set correctly.


Then I had to add blueberries to it. What's a comforting pancake without blueberries?

The end result was a not-so-attractive mess where the juice from my frozen blueberries swirled into my batter. It wasn't the prettiest pancake, but oh my did it taste heavenly!

Yogurt Pancakes-With Blueberries
1/2 C All-Purpose Flour
1/4 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
Dash Salt
1 Egg
1 C Vanilla Yogurt (or Plain and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)
3 Tbs Unsalted Butter, melted
1/2 C Blueberries, thawed if frozen

Put a skillet on to heat over medium low heat. Slow cooking these pancakes helps them to set up.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Stir in egg and yogurt. Mix well. Stir in cooled butter. Fold in blueberries.

Cook 1 pancake at a time in your skillet as these spread as they warm up. Make sure your skillet is warm and well greased. Cook pancake until bubbly on top. Mine never set up on the edges, so I had to check the bottom multiple times to make sure it was appropriately browned. Turn carefully and cook until both sides are golden brown.

Serves 2.

Fluffy Blueberry Pancakes

Overslept this morning, so I had to keep it simple.

1 C All-Purpose Flour

1 Tbs Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

3 Tbs Vanilla Yogurt

1 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

3/4 C Milk

1/2 C Fresh or Thawed Blueberries.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, whisk in everything else but the blueberries. In a skillet over medium heat, pour in 1/4 cup of batter, arrange blueberries in pancake. Cover the berries with a dot of batter. Turn when bubbly on top and browned on the bottom.