Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone had a nice Mother’s Day weekend celebrating with the special mothers in your life. Mine was pretty laid back. It started off with my hubby attempting to make these buttermilk pancakes with my tornado daughter. I had to join in the craziness or it’ll be a lunch time before these pancakes were ready 
I stumbled upon these gorgeous stack cakes on Tracey’s Blog a while back, and decided that I had to try them – especially since it had blueberries in them! Obviously, it took me forever before I finally got around to try them. But we’ve been making them for several months now. When I looked at the ingredients and proportions, it appears to be buttermilk pancakes. I know that I have made these Best Buttermilk Pancakes that turned out to be delicious – but a little bit on the thin/flat side. Therefore I wanted to try them and see if having less buttermilk in proportion to the flour would make a fluffier and “cakey” pancakes – and they did. If you see from the pictures above, they rose up to the perfect thickness, and had fluffiness that these Best Buttermilk Pancakes didn’t have. I honestly can’t say which one is better than the other – it really depends on your preference on how you like your pancakes. Flavor wise, they both are wonderful – the biggest difference would be the texture. Since my daughter requests her pancakes to be cut into strips so she can dip her pancake into a small bowl of syrup, I would say that I’m biased more toward this recipe. So this is probably the recipe that I would use more frequently I also have made these with sliced bananas, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, … even sprinkles! They all turned out successfully.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 cups milk
2 cups (10 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 cup fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries, rinsed and dried
Directions
{If you aren’t going to serve the pancakes until you’ve cooked all of them, preheat oven to 200 F. Spray a wire rack with cooking spray and set it inside a baking sheet then place the baking sheet in the oven.}
Whisk the lemon juice and milk together in a measuring cup. Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients. (Alternatively, you can use 2 cups of buttermilk in place of the milk/lemon juice.)
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Add the egg and melted butter to the milk and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisk gently just until combined (the batter will be lumpy, that’s fine).
Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet set over medium heat. Once the oil starts shimmering, use paper towels to wipe the pan so only a thin, even coating of oil covers the bottom and sides. Use a 1/4 cup measure to portion the batter into the pan.
Top each pancake with about 1 tablespoon of blueberries. Cook on the first side until the edges are set and bubbles form on the surface, about 2 minutes. Use a spatula to flip the pancakes and cook for 1-2 minutes on the second side, or until golden brown and cooked through.
{If not serving immediately, transfer the pancakes to the wire rack in the oven.} Repeat with remaining batter, adding the rest of the oil to the pan if necessary.
Yield: 16 pancakes
Recipe printed from Cook’s Illustrated, via Tracey’s Culinary Adventure
Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! As much as I love Mexican food, I just don’t seem to cook them enough at home. It seems like I am always missing several ingredients – and then I get too lazy to go out and pick up the missing ingredients. Recently, I got lucky and happened to be have almost all of the ingredients that I needed to make enchilada, except the enchilada sauce. Normally, I would try to make my own, but this time, I just decided to pick up a can from the store to save me some time (and refused to feel guilty about this!). I know the last time that I made enchilada at home, I felt like I hit a home-run with the recipe; and was really pleased with the result. This time, I wanted something with beef, and this recipe turned out to be another winner although my daughter took one look at it – and refused to eat it. Red and I devoured this regardless
Ingredients
Enchilada Sauce
1 Tablespoon Canola Oil
1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
1 can (28 Ounce) Enchilada Or Red Sauce
2 cups Chicken Broth
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
2 Tablespoons Chopped Cilantro
Meat Mixture
1-1/2 pound Ground Beef
1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
2 cans (4 Ounce) Diced Green Chilies
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Tortillas
10 whole (to 14) Corn Tortillas
1/2 cup Canola Oil
Assembly
3 cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1/2 cup Chopped Black Olives
1 cup Chopped Green Onions
1/2 cup Chopped Cilantro
Directions
Make the Sauce: in a large saucepan over medium heat, add oil and flour and whisk together to make a paste, cooking for one minute. Pour in the red sauce, chicken broth, cilantro, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30-45 minutes.
Prepare the meat: brown the ground beef with onions in a skillet. Drain off fat. Stir in 2 cans diced green chilies and seasoned salt. Set aside.
Prepare the tortillas: heat canola oil in a small skillet over medium heat. One by one, using tongs, fry tortillas in oil until soft, not crisp – about 30 seconds per side. Remove to a paper—towel lined plate. Repeat until all tortillas have been fried.
Assemble the casserole: preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour ½ cup red sauce in bottom of 9×13 baking pan. Spread to even out. Dip each tortilla into red sauce quickly, then remove to work surface. Spoon meat, a little grated cheese, a little black olives, and green onions in the center of tortilla. Roll up and place, seam down, in baking pan. Repeat until pan is filled. Pour extra red sauce over enchiladas. Top with remaining cheddar cheese.
Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Sprinkle cilantro over enchiladas before serving.
Recipe source: Pioneer Woman
I’m super excited that May is a few days away! This means that we’re officially in the spring season, and I can at least be hopeful that summer is around the corner – especially with the gorgeous days that we’ve have had in the past few days. Nothing can lift up my mood better than a summer breeze caressing my toes in flip flops. Yes, I miss wearing my flip-flop. I wish I can wear flip-flops all year. For some of you who are ehmm.. counting along with me, I have less than a month left before my due date (24 days to be exact, but who’s counting right?). I’m pretty sure that random people at work probably secretly started a countdown on my ever expanding belly. Some just can’t help it: “You got to be pretty close right?” And when I say,” Well a few more weeks yet”, they just look at me in disbelief. And then sometimes, I’d let myself be immersed in a 5-minute long conversation about how my belly appears to be the only thing growing , and that I literally have nowhere else to grow. This coffee cake is a perfect item to bake for someone without a lot of time or energy (like me!!). First of all – it doesn’t even require you to break out your mixer (I definitely appreciate not having to pull out my giant mixer our). And second of all, it is one of those items that you can serve at breakfast, brunch, as snack, or even dessert. And finally, those perfect little berries, topped with crumbly topping of lemony sugar …how can that those not make your heart sing? The whole cake just looks so regal (and so perfect for spring and summer!) It would be hard to believe that it is really super easy to put together. If you love other berries, think blueberries or blackberries, or heck combine two or three types of berries, feel free to substitute. I probably won’t use more than a cup of strawberries into the mix though because they seem to be more watery – but other than that, have fun with it!
Ingredients
For the crumb topping
½ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of ½ lemon
4 tbsp. (2 oz.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
For the cake
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups fresh raspberries
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Lightly grease and flour and 10-inch springform pan. To make the crumb topping, combine the flour, granulated sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl and whisk to blend. Add the melted butter and stir with a fork until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside.
To make the cake, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla until well blended. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the liquid ingredients. Fold together gently until evenly mixed and no streaks remain, being careful not to over mix. Spread the batter into the prepared pan in an even layer. Dot the top of the batter with the raspberries. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the berries.
Bake until the topping is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 38-42 minutes (mine actually cooked a lot faster, about 35 minutes). Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. Remove the sides of the spring form pan. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into wedges.
Yield: ~ 12 wedges
Recipe printed from Annie’s Eats
I have a little unusual obsession with bananas. Every week, I feel like something is missing if we don’t start the week with a bunch of bananas ready on the counter. They are great snack for everyone in the family; and make awesome addition to weekends’ breakfast (whether on pancakes or waffles topping). Secretly though, I always like to have extra in hand so that they can turn brown – and then I have an excuse to bake with them.
Instead of my regular banana bread, I thought about making something a little different, and this frosted bar seem like a good choice. I decided to reduce the sugar in the bar to balance the sweet and tangy frosting from the cream cheese and make the bar a little healthier by using whole wheat flour. These bars were dense and moist full of banana flavors – definitely a good change from my regular banana bread.
Ingredients
Bars
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cups sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3-5 medium)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups white whole wheat flour, or whole wheat pastry flour (or, all-purpose)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Dash salt
Frosting
1 package (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese
5 tbsp butter, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 generous tsp of cinnamon
Directions
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until crumbly, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Beat in the bananas, applesauce and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into butter mixture just until blended.
Transfer to a 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack.
For frosting, in a small bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth.
Frost bars. Refrigerate leftovers.
Yield: 3 dozen.
Adapted from Taste of Home
I have been holding out on you guys. I started making lasagna rolls this past fall, but I haven’t had the chance to share them with you. We love lasagna at our house, but honestly, it is a little messy for me. Sometimes if I don’t have the right proportion for the ingredients, it doesn’t cut as well, and it is usually way more than what we can eat for more than a couple of days in a row. And then of course, being the frugal gal that I am, I wind up wanting to freeze the leftover. But then if I freeze them, I have to individually wrap them etc, and it is a bit of a hassle. These days, I try to shortcut things as much as possible. Making lasagna into rolls however, solves the messiness issue. I can freeze the rolls without the sauce, and then cook what I need for two days’ dinners in one dish (I usually use a square 8×8 inch dish when I do this). I played around with the filling a little bit to make sure that it is a little heartier and makes enough for 12 rolls, so that way I can have these for at least two dinners for my family, and then a handful of leftover that we can have for lunch. I think they are awesome for large gathering too – you can easily double the amount. If you have never tried making lasagna in a roll form, give this a shot – you may never go back to regular pan lasagna!
Ingredients
12 lasagna noodles
1 lb ground turkey breast
1/2 cup diced onion
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
4 oz of proscuitto, sliced
15 oz fat free ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and fresh groundly pepper
32 oz tomato sauce
1 cup part shredded skim mozzarella cheese
1 tbsp, plus 1 tsp of olive oil
Directions
In a large pot, boil water with 1 tsp of olive oil. Boil lasagna noodles, about 2 minutes less than what the package suggests. Drain pasta and set aside. The olive oil will help maintain the noodles from sticking together, therefore, they will be more likely to stay intact.
In a meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp of olive in a large saute pan. Saute diced onion until they are soft and slightly brown. Add ground turkey breast, and saute until they are thoroughly cooked, approximately 4-6 minutes. Transfer to a plate, let cool.
Preheat oven to 400°. Combine cooled ground turkey mixture, spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, sliced prosciutto, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.
Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 3-4 tbsp filling mixture and spread evenly over noodle. Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.
Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese. Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts. Makes 12 rolls.
To serve, ladle a little sauce on the plate and top with lasagna roll.
Yield: 12 rolls
Loosely adapted from Skinnytaste
Apparently, I must have developed a slight obsession with trying new brownie recipe; especially for someone who doesn’t really have a sweet tooth. I don’t even think that I posted a brownie recipe last year. But since I can’t seem to keep my thoughts away from brownies, I’m blaming the craving to the fact that I’m expecting a baby boy. I craved super healthy (read: boring) stuff when I was pregnant with my daughter: oranges, skim milk, ceasar salad…. mmm.. yeah, not fun! But, since brownies is generally quick to put together, it is definitely an easy solution to my craving. So I gave in… with the excitement to Red. And my little toddler’s, who has now developed a pretty distinguished vocabulary for baked goods: muffin, cupcake, brownie, cookie, biscuit…. . She even uses this an excuse to stall her bedtime…”No, no bed, I want brownies” while pointing to the brownies in the oven. These brownies were perfect for chocolate lovers – dark, moist, rich, and definitely fudgey. Perfection in a bite!
Ingredients
5 tbs. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 cup of walnuts, chopped
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and either butter the foil or spray it with nonstick spray.
In a medium sized saucepan, over very low heat, combine the butter and chocolates. Stir until just melted and smooth, then remove from the heat. Stir in the sugar, then whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla, and gently stir in the salt and flour just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a tester just about comes clean. Be very careful not to overbake. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely, then use the foil to remove the brownies from the pan and cut into squares.
Yield – 16 brownies
Recipe printed from Baking: From my Home to Yours
Happy Easter weekend my dear readers! I’s either Easter comes early this year, or winter just drags on way too long. I surely hope that there won’t be any snow this weekend so I get to finally take my daughter for her first egg hunt at the zoo. I have about eight weeks left to go until my due date, and my energy level has dropped down significantly. Our plan is to have a quiet celebration at home which includes some yummy dishes on the table and attempt to start converting one of our guest rooms into a nursery for the new baby. I wanted to share with you some of my past fave recipes that would be fitting for your Easter celebration this weekend and hope that you’d find one that you’d enjoy with your family and friends.
Honey Baked Ham - I don’t make ham very often at home. As a matter of fact, this is probably a dish that shows up only during the holidays. I used to just get them at the store until I tried to prepare it myself at home, and of course, I couldn’t go back. The best part of making this ham is the leftover, I get to make a ham sandwich, or throw them into quiche below for breakfast or brunch the next morning.
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes – This is another dish that I must admit that I don’t make too often, since it takes a little longer than myButtermilk Mashed Potatoes. If you love garlic and have time though, this is dish deserving an appearance at your holiday dinner table.
Tomato Cobbler - While tomatoes aren’t in season yet, this is a really beautiful dish that I like to make, since it covers both my vegetable need as well as some type of “homemade” biscuit. Because even if you don’t care for tomatoes, roasting them like this, covered with sliced onions and topped with cheese biscuits… it doesn’t get any better than that!
Golden Potato Latkes - This is another fave that I love to make on special occasions. I love them for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner – nobody can seem to turn down fried potatoes.
Asparagus and Ham Quiche - Aaah… of course, an Easter round up wouldn’t complete with some sort of quiche. And I really love my quiche! This one is my fave because it is a super reliable recipe. You can use whatever vegetables you love and are in season in your area at the moment. I must say that since this dish is not exactly a light dish, I only make this for a special breakfast or brunch. I was never successful in substituting the heavy cream with half-and half or milk to make it “lighter”. So I would say you need to go all out with a bang on this one. It goes great with a light salad for a brunch, and makes a filling breakfast item.
Creamy Egg Salad - This egg salad is a perfect dish for your post egg-hunt activity. I love mine on open-faced, on top of a grilled homemade rye bread.
Berry Rhubard Crisp - I missed out on the rhubarb season last year, but if you are lucky enough to start seeing rhubarb peeking out of local grocery stores or even farmer market baskets, this would be such a beautiful dessert to make. I would even dare you to eat them cold with a big dollop of thick Greek yogurt for breakfast – and you’re all set. After all, it is a holiday weekend – we all need to celebrate a little, right?
Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting - It seems like carrot cupcakes symbolize the spring season for me. I don’t know if it’s because the sound of spring make me think of bouncing bunnies eating carrots. But around spring time, I always think of these cupcakes as dessert to bring and serve during Easter dinner.
I often get asked on what is my favorite way to prepare mashed potatoes. Then I direct them to this Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes. Apparently, buttermilk isn’t an ingredient that is always in everyone’s refrigerator. So then I said, “Well, do you have lemon juice? Because you can make buttermilk with lemon juice.” And I get another no. But guess who ran out of buttermilk recently? ME! Yes, me! I had a pot of boiled potatoes ready to go to make mashed potatoes, and my buttermilk cartoon was expired. WAY expired. So in a whim, I came up with this recipe. Red kept on offering to pick up buttermilk, I think he was secretly worried that I was going to wing this recipe (apparently, that’s one of our difference: recipes are just suggestions for me, not a must!) But the result was beautiful. I didn’t even use whole milk or heavy cream, I used what I normally have at home: 2% milk. At first, I was really worried about the consistency of the mashed potatoes, but it ended perfectly at 1-1/2 cups. I may even have to go back to this recipe in the future since it is so simple. Simple is good, right?
Ingredients
2 lbs Russet potatoes (~ 3 large ones)
1 to 1-1/2 cups 2% milk
5 tbsp of unsalted butter
1/2 tsp of salt, or to taste
1/4 tsp of pepper, or to taste
Directions
Cut potatoes into about 1-1/2 inch cubes, and boil them with a pinch of salt in a large pot. When the potatoes are fork-tender, drain them using a large colander, and set aside.
In the mean time, use the large pot to melt butter with milk together on a low heat, make sure that it doesn’t boil. As soon as the butter is melted into the milk, return the warm potatoes into the pot. Mash them with a potato masher.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Yield: 4-6 servings
I am going to let you in a little secret… I used to love those prepacked frozen TV dinners! There you go! When I was still living at home, dinner time wasn’t usually until about 7-ish or so. Therefore my older sister and I usually would come home from school around 3-4 in the afternoon (and my family lived in the country, where the closest grocery store or anything else was about 20 minutes!), we’d be looking for snacks. We’d try to do all kinds of snacks with our limited culinary knowledge, but sometimes we’d settle on a frozen dinner. If we were to have a frozen dinner, it would be Salisbury steak – hands down. With mashed potatoes drizzled in some sort of gravy, mushy corn, and a beef patty.
It has been a very long time since I have had my share of frozen dinners, but recently I was really craving for a Salisbury Steak. This winter has been pretty cold, and we’ve gotten slammed by a few nasty snow storms – and I couldn’t help but wanting a hearty dish like this. When I told Red, he was all over the idea of having a Salisbury Steak, but when I had ground turkey on my grocery list – he was a little hesitated. He kept on wanting to know why I needed ground turkey to make Salisbury Steak. But after some convincing, he let me make this version that uses a mixture of ground beef and turkey. I can assure you that neither of us could tell the difference – we loved this homemade version of the famous TV dinner! The broth was hearty, chock-full of onions and sliced mushrooms soaked in beefy broth. I also preferred cooking them in the a cast-iron skillet – to both brown the meat patties, and then to make the sauce. Those brown bits etc left on the pan added such a depth in flavor for the broth.
Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp oil
1 cup onions, minced
1 lbs 93% lean ground beef
1 lb 93% lean ground turkey
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
2 medium to large sized eggs
2 cups beef broth
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper, to taste
8 oz sliced mushrooms
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, to taste
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/4 cup water
Directions
Sauté onions in oil over medium heat until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine half of the sautéed onions, ground beef, ground turkey, bread crumbs, egg, egg white, 1/4 cup beef broth, salt and black pepper.
Shape into 8 oval patties.
In a large deep skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of patties. Set aside on a dish.
Add mushrooms to the skillet, season with salt and pepper and sauté 2-3 minutes.
Return patties to the skillet with the mushrooms.
In a small bowl, blend flour and remaining broth until smooth. Mix in remaining onions, tomato paste, vinegar, water, worcestershire sauce and mustard powder.
Pour over meat and mushrooms in skillet.
Cover and cook on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Adapted from Skinny Taste
I have been wanting to try making a Soda Bread for a while now. Every year, I’d keep on thinking that I’d make one for St. Patrick’s Day – but then, time just flew! And then I never get around to making it. This year, I decided that I have to try it. I was going to go with an original Irish Soda Bread – but this recipe where it calls for the butter to be browned is just way too good to pass up. I can’t never resist the nutty flavors that browned butter adds to any type of dishes, so I definitely welcomed that flavor in this bread as well. This was pretty easy to put together, turned out great even without fresh herbs and makes two smaller loaves, so you can serve both, or save one for later. They are wonderful fresh out of the oven without anything. Their rustic texture is even better toasted with a thick slab of salted butter and homemade jam. I was actually surprised that my toddler gobbled this up.
Ingredients
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper plus additional for topping
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1 egg white, beaten to blend
Directions
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Stir butter in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until melted and golden brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
Stir flour, oats, sugar, rosemary, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in large bowl to blend. Pour buttermilk and melted browned butter over flour mixture; stir with fork until flour mixture is moistened.
Turn dough out onto floured work surface. Knead gently until dough comes together, about 7 turns. Divide in half. Shape each half into ball; flatten each into 6-inch round.
Place rounds on ungreased baking sheet, spacing 5 inches apart. Brush tops with beaten egg white. Sprinkle lightly with ground black pepper. Using small sharp knife, cut 1/2-inch-deep X in top of each dough round.
Bake breads until deep golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool breads on rack at least 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Yield: 2 loaves
Adapted from Epicurious
