Fried Apples

It's a great fall morning, I am up early than necessary to await on a repairman who will show up between 8 and 5. Since I have to be up, I might as well be productive and making something yummy to eat.

Upon inspection of a mostly empty fridge, I decided on some buttermilk pancakes topped with fried apples. I know you can open a can and just heat them, but homemade fried apples are just so amazing! You must make them!

Caramel Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

Two of my favorite foods combined into one delicious breakfast? Yes please!

Combining delicious cinnamon rolls with caramel and a few pecans is a wonderful start to the month of December and what I expect to be a rather lazy Sunday.

Cinnamon Roll Bread

A month ago, while visiting my parents, I went to one of the largest grocery stores I have ever been to. They have just about anything you could ever want. While there, I picked up a loaf of this amazing cinnamon roll bread. The loaf I purchased lasted less than 2 days, so I had to find a recipe to make this at home.

This is the BEST cinnamon bread EVER. It is delicious toasted. However because of the way it is made, you must slice it thick and put it in the oven or toaster oven to make toast. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get out of the toaster.

Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Rolls

This morning's breakfast is the result of a quick look on Pinterest for some inspiration.  One of the first pins that popped up when I looked at the site was for Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Rolls. Since it is a chilly and rainy day, I had no hesitation with turning on the oven and baking up these delicious little treats.

Cinnamon-Raisin Noodle Pudding

Whenever I go to visit my parents, my mother always has a stack magazines that she's been saving for me to look at. She reads the articles, I only care about the recipes. Some of them sound horrible and some of the pictures look even more disgusting.

I often think that some magazines are out of ideas for good. One recipe combined spaghetti squash, spaghetti noodles, marinara, green olives, and raisins. Green olives and raisins aren't a flavor combination that I care to experiment with. The picture was even less appetizing.

I did find a few recipes I'm looking forward to trying out. My breakfast this morning was one of those recipes. Cinnamon-Raisin Noodle Pudding. My mom turned her nose up at the name of the recipe. It is not the normal combination of ingredients but definitely worth a try!

This could easily be breakfast or dessert. I chose to make it for breakfast. It was delicious.

Baked Porridge with Pear

I am moving in slow motion this morning. I know it's Sunday, a day to rest but I spent almost 4 hours making and eating breakfast. If you aren't moving as slow as molasses in the wintertime, you could easily make and eat this breakfast dish in under an hour and a half.

I saw this recipe from Panna about a month ago, however even with my pantry well stocked with various grains and flours, I had no semolina. I figured that any plain porridge would do, so I made a mixture of Cream of Rice and some wheat bran to use as the porridge base. Oatmeal would not work well for this however because of the texture.

This is going to become one of those recipes that I make often, especially in the fall and winter when hot cereal becomes the common breakfast of my house and there always seems to be about a half serving left over that is too little to save for the next day's breakfast but yet too much to throw out without feeling wasteful.

French Breakfast Puffs

Wow! Has it really been two weeks?

A trip to Myrtle Beach and then a trip to Ohio to visit my cousin who was visiting from England, now I'm exhausted. I'm unpacked, laundry is done, and my house is far from clean but that is a problem for another day.

This morning is the first time I've taken time to actually cook something for over two weeks. It is good to get back to a normal, healthy routine, even though I was spoiled letting my parents do the cooking while I was in Ohio. There is never anything quite like your momma's home cooking...

My breakfast this morning is a result of a Taste of Home cookbook that my parents picked up on sale ($2) at some point between Easter and now. My mother is still under the impression that I don't know how to cook and that I starve when I'm at my own place.

There looks to be TONS of delicious recipes in this book however, so I'll enjoy experimenting and trying out a bunch of new things. However since it's me, I started with the breakfast recipes. Most were slight variations on traditional pancakes and waffles...nothing too unique. Then I saw this recipe for French Breakfast Puffs...I don't truly think there is anything "French" about them but they were a tasty breakfast treat, for those NOT on a low calorie diet.

Almond Streusel Popovers

It's Monday.

That means in four days, I'll be relaxing on the beach. Nice and stress free. I need that.

When I come back, I need to find a job. One where nobody pees in their shoe and carries it around with them. I love teaching but I need some time away from it. I am out of patience and passion for it. I don't want to deal with people peeing on random things anymore. Can you really blame me?

I am also a week behind on recipes to post on here. I made these popovers a week ago. Today I made porridge, inspired by Panna L. It was delicious. I'll post that recipe eventually. You'll want to try it. Trust me.

These popovers are great too. You should try them too. Because I said so.

Daddy's Peach Cobbler

I was at Wal-Mart and they had the best smelling peaches. Maybe it was because it was the first ripe peaches of the season. Maybe it was just because I wanted something semi-healthy for dessert. Either way I came home with a lot of peaches. 

This is a fairly simple recipe that my dad has used for peach cobbler since I was little. Nothing fancy, just simple goodness. 


Daddy's Peach Cobbler
serves 6 (I cut the recipe in half since I didn't need to eat 6 servings by myself)


Filling
4 C Peaches, peeled and sliced (about 7 or 8 peaches)
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
2 tsp Lemon Juice
1 1/2 Tbs Cornstarch

Combine all the ingredients in a medium sauce pan.

Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Boil for 1 minute. Pour into an ungreased 2 quarter casserole dish.

Topping
1 C All-Purpose Flour
2 Tbs Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
Dash Salt
3 Tbs Unsalted Butter, chilled
1/2 C Half and Half
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Tbs Unsalted Butter, melted
2 tsp Sugar


 Preheat oven to 400.

Combine flour, 2 Tbs sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in 3 Tbs of butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in cream and vanilla until all ingredients are moistened.

Drop by 6 spoonfuls onto peach mixture. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown.

Serve warm with vanilla whipped cream.

Rice Cakes

Have you ever seen a cookbook from 100 years ago?

First off, if you can get past the huge difference in formatting and wording, you need to rely on Google so that you can figure out what in the heck some of the measurements are. Things are measured by the pound, by gills (pronounced "jill"), glasses, teacupfuls, pints, quarts, and spoonfuls.

I've made European recipes that use weight as the measurements. I have made older recipes that measure flour and sugar by the pound. I have NEVER once used a "pound of eggs."

The basis for today's recipe is from page 103 of a 1832 cookbook entitled Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats by Miss Leslie, of Philadelphia. 4th Edition.

RICE CAKES FOR BREAKFAST.

 Put half a pound of rice in soak over night. Early in the morning boil it very soft, drain it from the water, mix with it a quarter of a pound of butter, and set it away to cool. When it is cold, stir it into a quart of milk, and add a very little salt. Beat six eggs, and sift half a pint of flour. Stir the egg and flour alternately into the rice and milk. Having beaten the whole very well, bake it on the griddle in cakes about the size of a small dessert-plate. Butter them, and send them to table hot.

Sounds interesting. Also sounds like it would feed a lot of people. Just out of curiosity, I cooked a half pound of rice, it cooked up to over 4 cups. I foresee rice pudding and fried rice in my near future....


These turned out very good, almost like a pancake version of rice pudding.


Rice Cakes
1 C Cooked Rice (I use a long grain white rice)
4 Tbs Unsalted Butter
2 Tbs Sugar
Dash of Salt
1 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Egg, Beaten
1/2 C All-Purpose Flour
3/4 C Milk

In a medium bowl combine rice and butter. If the rice is hot, just cut the butter into bits and stir in. Otherwise, melt the butter and add to the rice. All this mixture to cool to room temperature.

Add in the sugar, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Stir until well combined.

Stir in the egg and flour. It's very important to beat the egg before you add it to the mix. Add the milk in parts until a batter with the texture of pudding is formed. More or less milk may be required.

Cook in a lightly greased skillet over medium-low heat. These seem to absorb the oil so it is important to use only what is necessary to keep them from sticking.

These don't get nice little bubbles on the surface. They don't dry out around the edges. They just get browned on the bottom. You have to watch them carefully.

They were absolutely delicious though! It made 6 medium sized pancakes.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Who doesn't love to go to the mall, walk past the food court and see those oh so gooey cinnamon rolls sitting there, covered in mass amounts of cream cheese frosting, waiting to be eaten?

Then you think of the extra calories that you're about to indulge in. You blindly turn your head and walk the other way. Or, you vow to skip a meal and give in.

My solution is to turn all that ooey-gooey goodness into a breakfast. You can eat 2 or 3 of these pancakes and still have consumed around 100 less calories than you would eating that one cinnamon roll. A Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll, according to Cinnabon.com, contains 880 calories and 36g of fat. These pancakes 614 calories and 30.9g of fat per serving. Plus you eat them for breakfast, as a meal. It should be a decent amount of calories to keep you going until lunch.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

The Filling

4 Tbs Unsalted Butter, melted

1/2 C Packed Brown Sugar

1 Tbs Ground Cinnamon

Mix it together until smooth, pour into a pastry bag and set aside.

The Frosting

2 oz Cream Cheese, softened

1 C Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 Tbs milk

Mix it together until smooth, pour into another pastry bag and set aside.

The Pancake

1 C All-Purpose Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

Dash Salt

1 large egg

1 C Milk

1 tsp vanilla

In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Whisk in egg, milk and vanilla.

In a large non-stick skillet or on a griddle, over medium-low heat, ladle out about 1/4 C batter at a time. Snip the tip off the pastry bag containing the Cinnamon Filling. Swirl it around in the batter in a spiral pattern. Cook until the surface is bubbled and bottom side is golden brown. Flip and continue to cook the second side until lightly browned.

When ready to serve, snip the tip off the pastry bag containing the frosting. Swirl it over the pancakes.