CEiMB- Almond French Toast Bake

I have had this wonderful little cookbook by Ellie Krieger called So Easy for months and although I have looked through it several times, until last week it was mostly just keeping my other cookbooks company. No longer! I had come across a group called Craving Ellie in my Belly a few weeks ago and decided if I joined the group, then maybe I would actually use this wonderful cookbook. And that is just what happened :D I have now made my first delicious and really very healthy Ellie Krieger recipe. YAY!
It truly was a success in my opinion. My kids loved it, and while it wasn't my hubby's absolute favorite, he enjoyed it, and for me, two of my most favorite foods on the planet are french toast and bread pudding so, heck yes I am a fan. The other really winning quality: it was truly "so easy" to make. Isn't it great to actually find truth in advertising!
I followed the recipe pretty exactly. I only made 3 changes. The first one was to use frozen blueberries instead of fresh. The second change I made was that I didn't use real maple syrup, I just used the pancake syrup I had on hand. The last change I made was to use fewer eggs than called for. The recipe called for a whopping 8 whole eggs and 8 egg whites, that seemed like a lot for one loaf of french bread. After checking some comments on the Food Network link for the recipe, I saw someone suggested using only 5 whole eggs and 4 egg whites. That is what I did and for me it turned out great. Not soggy and just slightly crispy on the edges.
See how everyone else fared here and to try this recipe yourself, head on over to our hostess, Heide's blog, Chez Zero.

I heart cooking clubs- Dining with Dad

Here I am posting on the last day of the week, again! Hmmm, I need to get more organized. We have so many things going on during the summer that posting gets pushed to last.
Okay, so this week I made two recipes from How to Cook Everything. The first one is Everday Pancakes with one of his variations, and the second recipe was The Best Scrambled Eggs.

The Everyday Pancake recipe is a really great basic pancake recipe. It will probably be my go-to recipe for pancakes because it is so versatile and quick to whip up. I love all of the add in suggestions and look forward to trying a lot of them. Some of them sound so good, like substituting coconut milk for regular milk (love coconut milk) and some of them sound intriguing like spooning the batter over cooked bacon. I didn't pick anything as exciting as either of those two suggestions this time. My husband is a big fan of grains so we added one cup of cooked wheat berries to the batter. He liked it a lot and everyone else seemed to enjoy them as well (particularly my littlest guy). The wheat berries kind of give the pancake a chewy texture but it worked. Here is the recipe-

Everyday Pancakes

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar, optional (I left it out)
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons melted and cooled butter (optional), plus unmelted butter for cooking, or use neutral oil

Method

• 1. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-low heat. In a bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Beat eggs into 1 1/2 cups milk, then stir in 2 tablespoons melted cooled butter, if using it. Gently stir this mixture into dry ingredients, mixing only enough to moisten flour; don't worry about a few lumps. If batter seems thick, add a little more milk.
• 2. Place a teaspoon or 2 of butter or oil on griddle or skillet. When butter foam subsides or oil shimmers, ladle batter onto griddle or skillet, making pancakes of any size you like. Adjust heat as necessary; usually, first batch will require higher heat than subsequent batches. Flip pancakes after bubbles rise to surface and bottoms brown, after 2 to 4 minutes.
• 3. Cook until second side is lightly browned. Serve, or hold on an ovenproof plate in a 200-degree oven for up to 15 minutes.

My second recipe, The Best Scrambled Eggs, was also pretty good. They take quite a long time to cook but they have a very creamy texture. I probably won't make these too often. They were tasty but not enough to justify the extra time they took. One of the things I love about scrambled eggs is that they only take about five minutes to whip up so this just isn't as useful to me but for a special occasion they would be a yummy addition. The recipe only makes two servings so I doubled it. I also didn't have cream on hand (well actually I did but it was put in a part of my fridge that freezes and was totally solid) so I used 3 tblsp. of whole milk with 1 tblsp. butter. Here is this recipe doubled-
The Best Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients

• 8-10 eggs
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons of cream
• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

Method

• 1.Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them just until the yolks and whites are combined. Season with salt and pepper and beat in the cream.
• 2. Put a medium skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add the butter or oil and swirl it around the pan. After the butter melts, but before it foams, turn the heat to low.
• 3. Add the eggs to the skillet and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. At first nothing will happen; after 10 minutes or so, the eggs will begin to form curds. Do not lose patience: Keep stirring, breaking up the curds as they form, until the mixture is a mass of soft curds. This will take 30 minutes or more. Serve immediately.
  

SMS: Orange Blueberry Muffins with Pecan Crumble and Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there who work so hard! And a special wish for happiness to my own sweet Mother. Being a mom is a really tough job and some days there seem to be few if any rewards. On a related note, I have two pretty cute little boys here that I might be willing to part with for the right price (i.e. if you pick them up they are yours). I am just kidding (mostly)! But if anyone has any ideas how to get kids to stop fighting, I am all ears.
Okay on to the recipe. These muffins were so yummy! I loved them and, in my opinion, the pecan crumble really is what separates these muffins from any other blueberry muffins. I could have eaten the whole bowl of that pecan crumble plain (or maybe with a bowl of ice cream) . Luckily I resisted, and I am so glad I did because the synergy of the crumble with the muffin was better. These were really pretty easy to make and I was able to get a dozen regular sized muffins as well as a dozen mini muffins. The only problem I had was the amount of liquid in the batter. Melissa mentions in the recipe that you will need to adjust the amount of liquid in the batter depending on the moisture of the fruit you use. Well blueberries are not as moist as, say, peaches, so I guess I should have used more liquid, but she doesn't specify how much more. Anyway, after I had everything mixed together, I realized it was more the consistency of bread dough than muffin batter, so I added more liquid and because of that I think the muffins were slightly over mixed. Ah well, I will know better next time and this time they still tasted pretty great. Find out how the other SMS bakers did and be sure to check out the wonderful blog of this week's host, Chaya of Sweet and Savory.

I heart cooking clubs-(and I heart) breakfast in bed

I really love making (and eating) breakfast! It is my favorite meal of the day and I think breakfast foods are a completely viable option for any meal of the day. I missed last weeks IHCC theme because I had a house full of sickos and just never found the time to devote to cooking what I had planned to make, so maybe for potluck this month... Anyway, because of that I had a real hankering to make something for this weeks IHCC theme. When I woke up this morning I was so excited because I already had been eying a breakfast recipe, Swedish Pancakes, and knew I even had all of the ingredients, mostly because they are really basic ingredients.
So here it is, hope you enjoy, I know we really did! They were really rich but my kids still managed to eat an unholy amount of these. My littlest guy ate them plain (I am not a fan of sticky) but the two older ones had powdered sugar at first and then tried them with maple syrup. Both ways were great but I will have to pick up some lingonberry preserves to try them with next time. My middle guy told me these were so much better than regular pancakes because they were yummy and cute and tiny (who doesn't love mini). Anyway these were so fluffy and light, from the egg white, and they were really sweet enough to eat plain. I got the recipe from the NY Times.

Mr Bittman offers some advice:

Don’t stir the batter any more than is necessary to combine the ingredients; it will make the pancakes tough. Cook them, over fairly high heat, in a lot of butter. These are so rich and delicious they can be served with nothing more than a dusting of confectioners\' sugar. But they are sweet enough so that you can serve them with lingonberry or other tart preserves or even a little lemon juice. Yogurt or sour cream also complement the pancakes nicely.

Ingredients

3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
3 tablespoons melted butter, more for cooking
confectioner's sugar for dusting

Method

• 1. Separate eggs, and beat yolks in a medium bowl with sugar and salt. Add milk and flour alternately, stirring gently after each addition, to form a thin, smooth batter. Stir in melted butter. (Batter can be covered and refrigerated at this point for up to a day.)
• 2. Beat egg whites until they hold stiff peaks. Gently stir them into batter; do not worry about fully incorporating them.
• 3. Heat a cast iron or nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat; when a drop of water skips across it before evaporating, it\'s ready. Melt some butter in pan, and, using a tablespoon, scoop up a bit of batter and put it in pan. Cook as many pancakes at once as will fit comfortably, turning them when they are brown. Total cooking time is less than 5 minutes per pancake.
• 4. Serve immediately, sprinkled with confectioners\' sugar.

My Baby turns 9

It was my oldest "baby" boy's birthday this past week. We haven't had his birthday party yet (that will take place on Saturday) so no cake, but I let him pick what he wanted to eat for breakfast and lunch on his birthday. Dinner, we surprised him with Chuck E Cheese, so no choice there, he got pizza, but he said it was the best surprise ever. Afterward we took him out for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. The most difficult thing I made was breakfast, and it was super easy. I made what our family calls Hootenanny, also known as German Pancakes or Puff Pancakes. They are so simple and a great way to use up some extra eggs. You can go traditional and top them with syrup or just about anything else you can think of. I like mine with peanut butter and a little maple syrup. Yum!

Hootenanny

Ingredients:
1 cube butter
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar

Heat oven to 425°F. Put a 9x13 pan in the oven with the cube of butter. Allow butter to melt, being careful not to burn. Put eggs in a blender; beat 3 minutes on high. Add milk, flour, salt, and sugar. Beat 3 more minutes. Pour egg mixture into melted butter in pan. Bake 20 minutes. Serve at once.
Optional- I find it easiest to cut with a pizza cutter.

Coffee Break Muffins

I don't drink coffee but I like the smell and have been wanting to try Dorie Greenspan's recipe for these muffins, with a little tweaking of my own. The only thing I changed was that I used Postum instead of espresso. I liked them and will make them again but I think next time I will add a tablespoon of cocoa powder just because I personally felt like they needed a little something extra. I thought about adding chocolate chips but I think that might make them a little too sweet and I liked the fact that they were not overly sweet first thing in the morning.
Here is the recipe with my changes...

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp. postum
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup hot water with 1 tbsp. postum, cooled
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare a muffin pan.
In a large bowl whisk together the first 6 ingredients. Add the brown sugar. In another bowl whisk the remaining ingredients. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients. Whisk gently but quickly to blend. Do not overblend. Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups.
Bake for 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.