Our good friend, Hilarie, introduced me to this recipe which was taken from a Cooking Light cookbook. It is especially good with chicken; Payton and I like it on grilled chicken while Will LOVES dipping his chicken nuggets in it.

2 cups fresh blueberries
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. ketchup
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Let cool. Use a blender or food processor; process until smooth.

"TO DIE FOR BLUEBERRY MUFFINS"

I got this recipe off the allrecipes.com website. I don't know that there's any food I'd actually "die for," but I will confirm that these muffins are extremely good--quite possible the best blueberry muffins I've ever had!

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries (I used 1 1/2 cups)

Topping:
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. butter (softened)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

2. Combine 1 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil in a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with the flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Pour batter into 12 regular sized muffin cups or 6 jumbo sized cups. Sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

3. To make crumb topping: Mix together 2/3 cup light brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon and 2 tbsp. softened butter. Mix well with a fork until the mixture is a crumbly consistency; sprinkle over muffins before baking.

4. Bake at 400 degrees F for 18-20 minutes for regular sized muffins or 20-25 minutes for jumbo sized muffins. Recipe yields 12 regular size muffins or 6 jumbo muffins.

Labels: blueberries, bread, breakfast, fruit

Posted by kristy :: 1:40 PM :: 1 comments

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Saturday, June 7, 2008 Banana Pancakes (Esperanto Cafe Style)


So, this seems like the perfect post for a Saturday morning. I've made banana pancakes before, but they always involved mashing up the bananas & I could never really taste the banana part once they were done. This recipe is more along the lines of pancakes banana fosters style - the bananas sort of caramelize inside the pancake & it's fabulous! Here goes:

1) Mix up Regular Pancake Recipe (I use the Bisquick one with the variation at the bottom, I think it's called supreme - pretty much it's the normal recipe + vanilla, sugar & baking soda)

2) Slice up a couple of bananas pretty thinly. Cover the banana slices with sugar & cinnamon (not too much cinnamon, I think it's best used sparingly).

3) Pour pancake mixture into a buttered skillet (like you normally would). HERE COMES THE IMPORTANT PART - while the top side is still liquidy, place the banana slices into the top, mushing them down a little bit so that they're embedded in the pancake. Don't push them down too hard, or it will mess up the bottom cooking side of the pancake. Flip the pancakes when they're ready so that the banana side is now down.

If you've done this correctly (make sure you keep the skillet greased), the bananas should be nice and caramelized - YUM - and the pancake golden delicious!

Serve warm, banana side up with your favorite syrup.

Labels: breakfast

Posted by Katy :: 9:29 AM :: 0 comments

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Thursday, May 29, 2008 Girlville's Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

Hello, all! This is Page again. One of my blog friends, Girlville, mentioned that she made this during her recent beach vacation. I begged for the recipe and she posted it up on her blog. Let me tell you, this recipe is super easy to make, relatively healthy (whole wheat AND applesauce instead of oil) and DELICIOUS. Rob and I nearly ate them all after I baked them yesterday. Oh, and it makes enough for twelve regular size muffins.

Here is Girlville's recipe from her blog:

1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour ( Please note: I couldn't find pastry flour, so I just used whole wheat and I think they turned out well.)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon*
¼ tsp allspice
¼ tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
½ cup applesauce
1 cup dried cranberries
½ to 1 cup white chocolate chips

In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients. add eggs, pumpkin and applesauce and stir until mixed. fold in cranberries and chocolate chips. put in greased or cupcake liner lined muffin pan and bake 20-25 minutes at 350 until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (Also note: I had to cook mine for about 30 minutes). let cool a bit before eating or cool completely and freeze.

Note from Girlville - regarding cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg…sometimes I experiment and put pumpkin pie spice or cloves, etc. you can put whatever spices you have/like/prefer.

Enjoy!

Labels: breakfast, chocolate, cranberry, muffin, pumpkin

Posted by Page :: 11:12 AM :: 3 comments

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Monday, April 28, 2008 Breakfast casserole

Some of our very dear friends came down to visit this past weekend. Knowing things would be busy Sunday morning before church (we leave the house around 7:30 am), I made a breakfast casserole on Saturday and kept it in the refrigerator until it was time to cook it on Sunday morning. I can not express how great it was to be able to have a warm, yummy breakfast without having to spend all morning in the kitchen! I HIGHLY recommend this dish when you're going to have company and would rather visit with friends/family than spend an hour or so cooking breakfast.

Ingredients

• 6 slices of bread, cubed
• 8 eggs, beaten
• 1 pound of sausage, cooked, drained and crumbled
• 8 slices of American cheese
• shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 cups of milk
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• pepper to taste

Grease two 8x8" Pyrex dishes with butter or butter-flavored Crisco. Spread cubed bread evenly over both dishes.

Sprinkle evenly with sausage.

Place 4 slices of cheese over the top of the sausage in each dish (8 slices of cheese total).

Mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour evenly over ingredients in each pan.

Sprinkle each dish with Mozzarella cheese

May cover and chill overnight. (If left overnight, remove from refrigerator 15 minutes before baking.)

Bake @ 325 degrees F. for 45 minutes or until set. Cut into square and serve. Serves 8 adults.

Labels: breakfast, casserole, eggs, sausage

Posted by kristy :: 10:51 AM :: 2 comments

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