Menu Plan Monday: April 17

Last week's menu plan was one of those rare plans where I made everything I said I was going to make, when I said I was going to make it. It doesn't happen very often where nothing changes, I'm not running late or forget to take something out to defrost.

I'll try to do better next week. (Yes, I'm kidding!)

Sunday: Prime rib chili with tortilla chips and fixins (based on Tyler Florence's recipe found on page 60 of Dinner at My Place)

Monday: crispy baked chicken with mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes (I'm trying out a frozen potato product for mashed potatoes, which I will blog about later.)

Tuesday: blueberry cake french toast with bacon (I'm skipping the crumble topping and am not doing the "icing" I initially saw served on this.)

Wednesday: broccoli stuffed chicken breast with noodles and peas

Thursday: Hubby cooking pasta

Friday: Rib eye steak in whiskey cream sauce (from Pioneer Woman, recipe in her cookbook)

And that's the plan for this week, being submitted to Menu Plan Monday.

I Heart Cooking Clubs - Mark Bittman Edition: Potluck snack

It's Potluck time at I Heart Cooking Clubs (and thank goodness it is!) I've been busy, busy, busy, and while I've done a tonne of cooking, none of it has been for home.

Muffins are always a great thing to make and have on hand when you are pressed for time. They take minutes to come together, bake while you are showering, and are great warm right out of the oven, or at room temperature later on when you finally get a chance to eat one. Add in the flexibility of muffins, your choice of fillings and toppings, and they are the perfect choice for this week's Potluck.

I threw these together this morning, Mark Bittman's blueberry muffins, using local blueberries we picked ourselves (we like to pick here - don't forget to grab and ice cream while you are there.) Within minutes the house smelled of freshly baked goodness, always a nice smell, and there was a child standing over me, waiting, waiting....

I haven't tried one yet, but am already thinking that next time I will use buttermilk instead of regular milk in the batter. And double the recipe.

Foodie Fans of the Pioneer Woman: It's a Wild Card

This week Debby called it a Wild Card, and Muneeba was absent, but probably enjoying her new baby and very short on sleep. Very good reason to be absent.

Since we could make anything we wanted from Ree's book or website, and Debby mentioned Muneeba having a baby, I was thinking back to when my boys were babies.


I used to make them alot of pancakes, something they still love to eat.

Recently we ran across a video clip of my oldest son, as a baby, sitting in his high chair, eating. Hands on, messy as can be, shoving his food into his little mouth.

And singing as he ate. "Mmmmmmm mmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmmmm......"

He's outgrown that habit, but still loves to eat pancakes. Breakfast is his favorite meal of the day. So last weekend I made them a double batch of these, Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes, found on page 76-77 of The Pioneer Woman Cooks.


He went back for thirds of these pancakes. His brother went back for seconds.

I admit, they didn't really "do it" for me - they start out so light and fluffy, but as they cool, they seem to collapse slightly. And I've noticed, over years of making pancakes, that the person making the pancakes never gets to eat them when they are at their best, fresh, hot and fluffy.

Hey Ree! Can I come visit the Lodge and have you make these for me please? I bet they taste even better coming from your griddle.

Tyler Florence Friday: Its been fun Tyler!

Its that time. The last Tyler Florence Friday.

What fun it has been, exploring a new chef and his recipes, meeting so many new bloggers.

Rather than end with a bang, I thought I would end with something simple and worth keeping in your repetoire: Tyler's basic crepe recipe.

Crepes are such a worth while item to learn how to make. They are a blank canvas for just about anything you want to fill them with. Smear them with a bit of jam and sprinkle them with icing sugar, and they look impressive. Or saute them in butter sauce and flame them for major wow. Skip the sugar and fill them with chicken and spinach for a fancy main course.

Really, you can do anything you want with them!


I threw these together one Saturday morning, a quick whirl in the blender, then cutting some fruit while the crepe batter rested. My filling of choice that day was sauted peaches in a creamy caramel sauce (brown sugar and butter with a touch of cream), and a drizzle of cinnamon honey yogurt.

The husband had thirds.

Thanks for all the new recipes Tyler! And big hugs and thanks to the lovely ladies who host Tyler Florence Fridays each week, for their hard work and inspiration!

Tyler Florence Fridays: Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day!

This is going to be short but sweet this week (kinda like this breakfast was!)

Caramel apple croissant French toast.

Do I really need to explain more?

No, I didn't think so.

Wow! It was divine. I loved it, my kids loved it. My poor hubby, he didn't get any.


I made half the caramel and apples, mostly because I only had a few apples on hand. And they were Gala, not Granny Smith. Which was fine with us. And half was plenty as well.

I made one or two more croissants than the recipe called for, but that's because the kids asked for seconds and I had some egg/milk mixture left.

This beautiful, tasty breakfast is my submission to this week's Tyler Florence Fridays, and I'd tell you which book it came from but I can't remember right now.

The library, breakfast and Dorie

This breakfast started at our local library. I know, odd place to start a breakfast.

Actually, now that I think about it, it really started right here, on my computer, while I searched the library database for books.

You see, the little area that I live in doesn't have much. It has a convenience store. A bar. A cemetery and a little church. And a tiny branch of the City of Ottawa library, build inside an old, old church. So I can't buy more than bread, milk, or a beer here, but I can get a good read from the library.


If you've read my blog for awhile, you know I like Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours. I was even part of Tuesday's with Dorie for awhile (but could not keep up with one extra sweet recipe a week on top of what I was already making for the family.) Dorie's cookbook is one of my most favored and used books - if I could only grab one cookbook from my house (aside from my grandmother's hand written notes), it would be this one.

Dorie has other books too, but oddly, I have never seen any of them in any book store. I've looked. New or used, I've looked.

So I went to the library and found one, Pancakes from From Morning to Midnight.

I admit, I also ordered a bunch of other cookbooks, so Pancakes has not gotten my full attention yet. I have looked at it long enough to make one recipe though, Oatmeal-Raisin Pancakes with Cinnamon Sour Cream.


Quick to put together, I assembled the dry ingredients while my sous chef measured the raisins. Then he put together the Cinnamon Sour Cream (we used plain yogurt as I had no sour cream on hand,) while I assembled the wet ingredients and finished up the pancakes.

My little sous chef is having an 'I don't like raisins this week' thing right now, which is actually not like him at all, so while he liked the 'sauce' he objected to the raisins inside the pancakes and has requested I make them again with blueberries. This brother, however, went back for seconds (this picture is my plate, with 3 little pancakes - his brother ate 5 that morning, after a bowl of cereal, and finished off the last 3 this morning.) So I'd say they were a hit.

Oatmeal-Raisin Pancakes with Cinnamon Sour Cream
from Dorie Greenspan's Pancakes From Morning to Midnight

1 cup old-fashion oats
1 cup all - purpose flour
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 2/3 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla
1 cup plump raisins

Cinnamon Sour Cream (recipe to follow)
maple syrup

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients to blend thoroughly. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry and mix gently with the whisk, just until combined. With a rubber spatula, gently fold in the raisins.

Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat (to 350F if using an electric griddle) and lightly butter, oil or spray the surface.

Spoon the batter, 1/4 cup at a time, onto the griddle for each pancake. Use a spatula or the back of a spoon to light spread the batter into rounds. Flip when the undersides of the pancakes are golden and the tops are speckled with bubbles that have popped. Flip the pancakes and cook until the other side has been browned.

Serve immediately or keep in an oven that has been preheated to 200F.

Cinnamon Sour Cream

1 cup sour cream, full or nonfat (we used plain yogurt as it is what we had)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Mix together in a small bowl until well combined. Store covered in the refrigerator for about 1 week.

Menu Plan Monday: Can it really be summer?

Technically the first day of summer was yesterday, Sunday, June 21st.

Which means we got some rain.

Now it did eventually warm up, the sun came out, and it became hot and humid.

Summer was teasing us, saying, "Here I am! Now I'm gone. I'm back! Oops, you looked, gone again. Oh, I'm back!"

The weather for this week, however, looks like it might actually be warm out, summer like, so I'm going to plan appropriately for the week.

Sunday: We had a very heavy and unhealthy lunch, so we had a very different dinner. Fruit surprise pancakes (using Tyler Florence's Batter 3 ways) with fruit smoothies. My sous chef made the smoothies, two kinds: strawberry-kiwi-banana, and mango-blueberry-banana. Must remember for future reference, don't let him put a full pint of blueberries in the blender, the smoothie gets very, very thick.

Monday: Cilantro shrimp skewers with grilled pineapple. No, my bbq has still not been either fixed or replaced, I will use my indoor grill.

Tuesday: Texas beef on tortillas with salsa.

Wednesday: It is our 14th wedding anniversary, so we are celebrating by going out to dinner, Thai food, with the children.

Thursday: Last day of school. Last year I made funnel cakes for the kids for dinner. We can't decide what fun and outrageous thing I should make this year.

Friday: Chili lime cumin steak, with corn.

Last week's plan had at least one derailing, but I did not resort to take out for that night. Instead I made an extra stop at the grocery store and bought frozen hamburgers for the hubby and I for dinner. Much cheaper than picking up Chinese food.

I like participating in Menu Plan Monday. It is my blogs way of reminding me to plan ahead, and it gives me a reason to post each week. It also gives me a chance to put up totally random and non-food related items, just for the fun of it.

So this week you get something ridiculous, but fun:

After many tries, I finally managed to sing my way to 5 gold stars for Carry On My Wayward Son, on Rock Band for the Wii!

Now I apparently need to go back to a track pack and do it on Foreplay/Longtime, the "impossible" song by Boston.

Wish me luck!

Happy Father's Day

When my children were smaller, breakfast for their dad on Father's Day involved me doing all the cooking while they took all the credit. I'm one of those mom's who lets her kids get involved in the kitchen, but I'm not crazy, so that's how it had to be.

Not this year. This year, I did some directing from the side, but the actual work was done by the children (with the exception of the bacon, still not willing to let them cook the bacon.) (Oh, and the clean up. Not that anyone is surprised by that.)


My little sous chef isn't ready for stove cooking yet, but he's good for assembly, so he made Daddy a raspberry-yogurt and granola parfait sundae. In one of my good crystal glasses (that are basically never used.) He chose the yogurt, vanilla, and Daddy's favorite fruit, raspberries. Which makes up for him saying that Daddy's favorite sport is baseball (it is anything but), that he looks at the sky all day for a living (he wishes?), and that he's not very good at baseball, all in the same Father's Day card.


My big guy has been slowly learning how to use the stove. He's 10, and he eats enough oatmeal on a regular basis that it really isn't cost effective to let him keep making instant oatmeal, so I've been gradually teaching him how to cook things instead of microwaving things. This morning he decided to try tackling an omelet, which was going to contain salsa and cheese.

It isn't his fault his omelet didn't work - my non-stick pan isn't anymore. He tried, but he just could not get the eggs to not stick. Neither could I.

So Daddy got scrambled eggs instead.


The eggs don't look amazing, but since it consists of eggs, salt and pepper, salsa sauce and melted cheese, I don't suppose they would look good. I understand they were quite tasty.


With the addition of a glass of orange juice, Daddy was served breakfast by his two boys. While I made yogurt-fruit-granola parfaits for myself and the boys.)

Maybe next year I will get to wait in the next room and they will not only make breakfast, but clean up after it also. (Don't worry, I won't hold my breath waiting for it.)

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there, including my own.

TFF: I like breakfast

Breakfast is a good thing.

Make ahead breakfast is a better thing.

Instead of doing my usual Tyler Florence thing, going to the two books I own, or being inspired from someone else's blog with their entry for TFF, I decided to give Tyler's Batter Three Ways, from his recent stint on Oprah, a try. I made half the recipe and only made the waffles, though.

And I have a confession to make.

I don't like chocolate in my waffles.

I know, gasp! the horror of it! I love chocolate, but for some reason, not in my breakfast.

So I split the batch up, made two waffles plain for myself, and added chocolate chips to the rest for the kids. I had mine with some fruit, they had theirs with chocolate.

And this is the only picture I can show you from the kids chocolate chip waffles.


Do you think they liked them?

And that's my entry for this week's Tyler Florence Friday.

Magazine Mondays: Breakfast

I haven't exactly been on a "quest" for the perfect pancake, but I do like to keep my eyes open for recipes that look good. They have to be fairly easy to make, take well to fruit, and make enough that I don't have to double the batch just to feed the four of us breakfast. Reheating well is a plus. As is freezing. And eating cold. (My children like to take little pancakes in their lunches, cold, along with apple sauce for dipping.)

Of all the pancakes I've tried, this is my favorite so far. I found it on one of my regular reads, Stephanie's A Whisk and a Spoon and it grabbed me from the first picture.

The recipe, as Stephanie posted it, calls for raspberries, not blueberries, but I am much more likely to have blueberries on hand than I am raspberries. They are a fruit I try to keep in the freezer at all times, so they are my usual choice for throwing into a muffin, a cake or a pancake. I do want to try these with raspberries, though, but it is March and what raspberries I see in the stores are very, very expensive and not very tasty. (I did manage to find a reasonably priced bag of frozen raspberries, so I am going to try these again with the frozen berries, soon. Note: I tried them with raspberries and liked it better with blueberries - the raspberries want to fall apart, the blueberries do not.)

I am submitting this to Creampuff for her Magazine Monday, even though it doesn't come from a magazine I own. It does come from one that Stephanie has read, though, and that counts, doesn't it?

Oatmeal-Raspberry Pancakes
adapted from a recipe in Sunset Magazine (May 2002), found at A Whisk and a Spoon

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup fresh or frozen (but not thawed) raspberries (or blueberries)
oil or butter for the pan or griddle

In a bowl, mix oats and buttermilk. Let stand for 15-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, beat eggs, milk, and vanilla to blend. Stir in flour and oat mixtures just until evenly moistened, then gently stir in raspberries (or blueberries). (Or do what I did the last time I made it - throw everything into the bowl with the soaked oatmeal and buttermilk, then mix. It worked fine. I was short on bowls at that time.) Let the batter sit while you prepare your griddle or pan.

Place a griddle or a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat (350°F). When hot, coat lightly with oil or butter and adjust heat to maintain temperature. Pour batter in 1/2-cup portions onto griddle and cook until pancakes are browned on the bottom and edges begin to look dry, about 2 minutes. Turn with a wide spatula and brown other sides, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes longer. Coat pan or griddle with more oil or butter as necessary to cook remaining pancakes.

Serve the pancakes as cooked, or keep them warm in a single layer on baking sheets in a 200°F oven for up to 15 minutes. Stack and serve with berry coulis or syrup.

Breakfast and wishing

It is 5:30am right now, and I am about to walk out the door to go swimming. On a Saturday morning. When I'd much rather be sleeping right now.

When I get home, aside from going back to bed, I'd really like to see a stack of these waiting for me, warm with some melted butter.

And while I'm wishing, I'd also like someone to finish my big organizational project, and wash all my floors for me. While I sit on a beach somewhere warm, having that nap.

Perhaps I'd best settle for not drowning in the pool this morning. And make the pancakes myself tomorrow.

Brown Sugar Pancakes

from Baking Bites

1/2 cup brown sugar (pref dark.)
3 tbsp butter, softened
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2 cups milk, any kind
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt together brown sugar and butter. Stir well, then set aside to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking power and salt. Pour in eggs, milk and vanilla extract, along with brown sugar mixture and stir until well combined. No streaks of dry ingredients should remain.
Heat a skillet or griddle over medium-high heat, until a drop of water skitters around when dropped on the surface. Lightly grease with butter or oil, and drop pancake batter by 1/4-cup measures on the pan. Cook until pancake is slightly dry around the edges and small bubbles form in the batter (bottom will be browned). Flip and cook for another minute or so on other side, until bottom is browned.
Serve with Brown Sugar Maple Syrup (below).

Serves 4-6

Brown Sugar Maple Syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup maple syrup

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth. Serve warm, with brown sugar pancakes. This recipe can be halved if you don’t need quite so much syrup.

Magazine Mondays

I missed being able to contribute something to Ivonne's Magazine Monday, so did not want to miss this week. While I can't guarantee I am going to participate every week, I am going to try and do so regularly. If for no other reason than to use some of that stack of magazines I moved with me!

Favorite of my cooking magazines, and the one I have never thrown out an issue of, is Fine Cooking. While I don't subscribe to their online service (yet), it is only because I have so many other online sources for reading and recipes.

This recipe comes from the February 2007 issue, and had been sitting bookmarked since it came through the door. The surprising thing is that I had not yet made it until now.

We love cinnamon buns, and quick cinnamon buns are no exception. I wasn't turned off by the addition of cottage cheese to the dough (though if you'd asked me to eat the stuff outright, that was not going to happen!), so it must have simply been the fact that I rarely, if ever, have that ingredient on hand.

These were quite tasty, though the glaze was too thin for my icing liking and lacking cream cheese, a necessity for cinnamon bun icing, in my very prejudiced opinion. Unfortunately my left over buns suffered a horrible fate - they were partially wrapped in foil on the counter when I accidentally knocked over a gingerale, another terrible loss, and the gingerale seeped into the foil and into the left over buns. As much as I like both those items, together, not so good.

I think I will make these again next weekend, for Sunday breakfast.

Fastest Cinnamon Buns
from Fine Cooking, February 2007

For the dough:
3/4 cup cottage cheese
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour; more for rolling
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

For the filling:
1-1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped pecans (optional, I did not use, but did substitute raisins)

For the glaze:
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
2 to 3 Tablespoons cold whole or low-fat milk (or do as I do and use 1/2 and 1/2 cream)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 400°F. Grease the sides and bottom of a 9- or 10-inch springform pan with cooking spray. (My only springform pan was busy elsewhere, so I used a 9 inch cake pan instead, turning the buns out onto a plate at the end, which worked just fine.)

In a food processor, combine the cottage cheese, buttermilk, sugar, melted butter, and vanilla. Process until smooth, about 10 seconds. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and pulse in short bursts just until the dough clumps together (don’t overprocess). The dough will be soft and moist.

Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it with floured hands 4 or 5 times until smooth. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 12x15-inch rectangle.

Brush the dough with the melted butter, leaving a 1/2-inch border unbuttered around the edges. In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Sprinkle the mixture over the buttered area of the dough and pat gently into the surface. Sprinkle the nuts (or raisins) over the sugar mixture.

Starting at a long edge, roll up the dough jelly-roll style. Pinch the seam to seal, and leave the ends open.

With a sharp knife, cut the roll into 12 equal pieces. Set the pieces, cut side up, in the prepared pan; they should fill the pan and touch slightly, but don’t worry if there are small gaps.

Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch, 20 to 28 minutes. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Run a spatula around the inside edge of the pan and remove the springform ring. Transfer the rolls to a serving plate.

To make the glaze, in a small bowl, mix the confectioners’ sugar, 2 Tbs. milk, and vanilla to make a smooth glaze. It should have a thick but pourable consistency, so add up to 1 Tbs. more milk if necessary. Drizzle the glaze over the rolls. Let stand 15 minutes and serve.

Start your morning out right

I've had the recipe for these pancakes sitting in my in-box for awhile. An email from a friend, with her recommendation for "the perfect pancake mix" that she makes for her family. While we both work to feed our family healthy meals, in a few ways she is a bit more health conscious than I am (and her family will eat things that mine will not, legumes being a prime example.)

This is a two part recipe - part one for the dry mix that you can keep on hand, and part two for actually making the pancakes. A bit heartier than my family enjoyed, they aren't fans of textures inside pancakes, but I liked them. Though I think they need some cinnamon and blueberries. Don't all pancakes need blueberries?

The "Perfect" Pancake Mix

3 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour or oat flour or combo - I used the whole wheat
1 cup 7 whole grain cereal
1 cup cornmeal
4 tablespoons wheat germ (optional) - I didn't use this

Mix together and store in air tight container. If you are using wheat germ, you have to store it in the fridge.

For pancakes for 1 or two - I doubled this and made pancakes for all of us, plus a few left over
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream or milk - I went with yogurt
1/2 cup pancake mix

Melt butter in pan. Lightly beat in the egg and sour cream (or whatever you use). Add mix and blend until smooth.

Heat your griddle and make pancakes, like this:

Good with warm syrup, with yogurt topping, with fruit, with whatever.

Settling in, back to routine and a BLOG EVENT YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS!!!!!

Enough exclamations for you?

Yesterday was back to school for kids everywhere. A new school for my boys, a completely new routine as they are no longer "walkers" but instead are bus kids!

To start their day out right, when I woke them up yesterday, I greeted them with a warm and comfy breakfast, cinnamon sugar french toast.

Your day can never go all bad when it starts out with lots of love, and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.


I know you want a recipe, and I'll provide one, but you are really waiting to hear about my Blog Event, aren't you? Well wait no more!

It's...

A Housewarming Party!

No surprise, I'm sure, but fun all the same. So bring me your best appetizers, your favorite drinks, a tasty dessert, bring me anything you'd like, the more the merrier!

To be part of my housewarming, just send me the link of your post, showing me what you've made, by January 30th. Then come on over on the 31st to see the round-up!

I'll be posting a few things for the party between now and then, in eager anticipation.

Can't wait to see what you bring!

Cinnamon Sugar French Toast

2 eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons sugar
cooking spray
10 slices of bread

Heat a griddle or non stick pan over medium-high heat.

While the pan heats, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream and nutmeg in a bowl big enough to lay a piece of bread flat on the bottom. In a smaller bowl, mix together the cinnamon and sugar.

When the pan is hot, but not smoking, coat with cooking spray. Dunk a piece of bread in the egg mixture, being sure to coat the entire piece of bread. Lay in the pan and repeat until you cannot fit in another piece. Try to leave a bit of room between the slices of bread. Sprinkle a bit of the sugar mixture over each slice of bread, in an even layer.

Allow to cook for about 3-4 minutes, then check to see if the underside is toasted and browned. If not, give it another minute, otherwise turn the slice over and continue cooking for an additional 2-3 minutes.

Repeat until all the egg mixture is gone, which for me was 1o pieces of bread.

Serve warm with maple syrup.

Sneaking in some goodness

We go through alot of milk in my household. Between cereal, cooking and drinking, a 4 liter bag can go quickly. (Or it disappears with no explanation.)

I admit, I don't like white milk. I'll put it on my cereal, but drink the stuff? Ugh. I not only don't like the favor, I really, really don't like the texture of it. However, I can't eat only cereal, and milk is a good way to get some calcium into your diet.

So I sneak it in on myself.

In this case, I use it to make oatmeal. Yes, it is still breakfast, but I already said I can't eat just cereal!

I also used this oatmeal as an excuse to add some extra fruit to the kids diet for the day. Mine too.


Creamy Fruity Oatmeal
makes 4 servings

2 cups water
2 cups milk
3 cup oatmeal
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons brown sugar
6-8 tablespoons half and half cream
lots of fruit, such as blueberries, raspberries, peaches

In a large, heavy bottomed pot, heat the milk and water until almost boiling, over medium high heat. DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM THIS MIXTURE AS IT WILL BOIL OVER VERY EASILY! (Unless you want to clean your stove. Trust me, that's what happens.) When almost boiling, add in the pinch of salt and stir in the oatmeal. Return mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat, and, stirring occasionally, until it is thick and no liquid is remaining.

Spoon into bowls, top with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of cream and a bunch of fruit - for my bowl, I used 1/2 cup of wild blueberries and half a peach, cut into chunks.

Leftover Lunch, just for me

Some of the best meals have no recipes and come from the moment.

Left over grilled veggies: potatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, red peppers, red onions, with a splash of olive oil and a bit of butter.

Add eggs, just a few, mixed well with salt and pepper.

Finish under the broiler for a tasty breakfast, lunch or dinner. Good hot or cold.

Food Porn from my weekend away

We treated ourselves to a sunset dinner cruise for our anniversary.


Beef tenderloin with a red wine reduced demi glaze. Tasty and not over done.


Chef's choice for dessert, a marbled cake with a strawberry coulis.


My favorite on the rare occasion when we make it to Cora's for breakfast - Buckwheat Blessing, sausages rolled in buckwheat crepes with old cheddar and a mountain of fresh fruit. English cream on the side for dipping that fruit.


We decided to try something very different for dinner, Indian Food from a local favorite, Curry Original. This is from the Chef's Special for Two, which we did as take out so we could enjoy from the comfort of our room, relaxing and watching movies. It was an interesting experience, with some good, most iffy, and one really bad (the pickled vegetables, yuck!) Left overs are actually still in my fridge now.

Continental breakfast, delivered to our room, with still warm croissants.

Pan Chancho Bakery came highly recommended and one sniff in the door said why. This bakery was very busy but had lots of staff available to keep the line moving.


We shared this loaf of orange cranberry bread by the water, enjoying the breeze, and sharing some crumbs with some baby ducks.

TWD: Taste of Cinnamon from the past

This week fellow TWD'er Madam Chow, of Madam Chow's Kitchen, chose a great recipe, Pecan Honey Sticky Buns. It comes with a bonus recipe, since you get to make brioche dough the day before and use half of that in your buns.

It also takes a fair bit of time, with an overnight chilling period, plus some rising time, and oops, I would be out of town, so did not have that time to make the buns!

But what's this you see? Lots and lots of pictures?

No, you aren't blind, or crazy, these really are pictures of this recipe being made. You see, I knew this was a great recipe because I'd made it before and just had not blogged about it!

The silky brioche dough, getting ready for it's overnight chilling. My notes on this recipe reminded me for future baking NOT to walk away from the stand mixer as it liked to travel across the counter. Instead, grab a drink and a book, and get cozy beside your mixer, making sure it doesn't take a walk-a-bout when it should be mixing!

I don't like pecans, so I used raisins.

Big difference a bit of time makes, though. Such a nice rise on those buns. See why I left so much space between the buns?
Not to be ignored, the brioche dough that wasn't used for the buns were baked up as a loaf and enjoyed later, plain and toasted with jam.


The buns tasted good but need a bit more time, I think, to get a bit more golden color. There was plenty of honey goodness and gooeyness, and lots of raisins for everyone. I served them with a simple glaze of milk and icing sugar.

Be sure to head over to Tuesdays with Dorie, and check out the buns (hehe) of all the other TWD'ers, and probably a few people who actually post the recipe too! (And get a sneak peek at what we are making next week.... Mmmmm chocolate!)