German Pancakes (Hootenany)

Some people call this German Pancakes, some call it Hootenany.  Whatever you call it, it's delicious and easy to make.

German Pancakes

1/4 cube butter
6 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Put butter into 9x13 pan and put in the oven to melt butter.

Meanwhile, crack eggs in to medium size mixing bowl and whisk.  Then whisk in milk. 

Lastly, combine flour, salt and sugar in a separate bowl.  Then add to egg mixture all at once.  Mix thoroughly with whisk or electric beater.

Remove pan from oven.  The butter should be melted by now.  Tilt pan to spread butter around the bottom of the pan.  Pour egg mixture into pan and return to oven.

* I double the recipe for my family and bake both pans at the same time.

Bake for 20 minutes.

 Serve it up with some maple syrup or buttermilk syrup and sprinkle a little powdered sugar over it to top it off.

I like to make up the egg mixture the night before and store it in the fridge until morning.

Creamy Shepherd's Pie

This is a variation of the old stand-by recipe that I'm sure almost everyone has.  My husband prefers things creamy, so a while back I swapped out the tomato paste and substituted either cream of chicken or cream of mushroom.  He loves it and so does my family.  Next time you make this favortie recipe, try switching it up too.

Creamy Shepherd's Pie

1 pound ground beef
1 large onion, diced
4 cups mashed potatoes
1 can favorite vegetable, drained
1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
2 cups grated cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Saute onions in large skillet.  When onions begin to be translucent, add ground beef; salt and pepper to your taste.  Cook until no longer pink.  Drain grease.

In a 9x13 casserole dish, combine vegetable and can of soup.  Add the ground beef and spread into a thin layer.  Finally, spread potatoes over the top of the meat.  Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Serve with salad and dressing.

One of these days I will post about how to make really yummy mashed potatoes.

Porcupine Meatballs

I received this recipe for Porcupine Meatballs from an old friend when I was still in my teenage years.  We did a recipe exchange for a youth activity at church, and this was one of the recipes that she brought to share with everyone.

Porcupine Meatballs

1 lb hamburger
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup rice
1 egg
salt and pepper
1 can tomato soup  - plus a can and a half of water

Combine hamburger, egg, rice, oatmeal, and salt and pepper (to your taste).  Create meatballs by take a portion of the meat mixture and rolling in your hands.

Meanwhile, open the can of soup and empty into a medium size sauce pan.  Add a can and a half of water and bring to a boil.  Once soup is boiling, carefully place meatballs in soup.  Simmer for 1 hour.  Serve over mashed potatoes.


Here are some tips from me for this recipe.

Use your electric mixture to combine the beef and other ingredients.  It is so fast and easy.

Don't worry if your meatballs aren't completely covered by the soup mixture..  Once it starts boiling and the meatballs start cooking you can stir them around a bit and they will all cook.

Here are my meatballs not fully covered by the soup.

And here they are once the soup returns to a boil and they begin cooking.  No worries!

When your meatballs are finished cooking, serve them over mashed potatoes.  Super yummy!

Big Flaky Biscuits

I'm trying to cut back on the amount of processed food my family eats and so cutting out the premade refrigerated Grands biscuits was an easy decision. The problem is that I have struggled to find a recipe that produced what I feel are big flaky biscuits.

I came across this biscuit recipe a little while ago on Pinterest, and wanted to give it a try.  You can find the original recipe here.  I adapted it slightly to make them plain.

Big Flaky Biscuits

3 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cubes unsalted butter, cold
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 450.  Sift to combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

Cut butter sticks into 1 Tbsp chunks and add to bowl.  Using either a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the butter until there are pea-size chunks or smaller.

Add milk and gently combine.  Save the measuring cup you used for the milk.  You will use the small amount of milk that is left in at the end.

Using either a pastry mat or your counter, flour the surface and turn out your dough.  Fold it over and gently knead your dough a few times to finish combining it and make it one complete mound.  Avoid adding any flour.  You want your dough to remain soft.

Use a rolling pin to roll out your dough to about a 3/4-inch thickness.  Use a biscuit cutter and cut out your biscuits and then place them on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Quick tip: If you want crispier edged biscuits separate your biscuits so that they do not touch.  If you want your edges to be soft, place your biscuits on the baking sheet so that they barely touch.

Re-roll the leftover dough and cut out more biscuits.   (I have made this recipe several times and each time I get 11 normal size biscuits and 1 tiny biscuit from this recipe.)

Once all of your biscuits are cut and arranged, use a brush (I usually use my finger) to lightly coat the top of each biscuit with the leftover milk.  (I told you to save it!)

Bake at 450 for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

These biscuits are big, very light and flaky and super tasty as well.  Don't let the time commitment scare you.  After you have made them one time, the recipe and rolling take a very minimal amount of time.  No, they are still not as quick as popping a tube from the fridge, but I feel better about what is in these. 

I think I have found my replacement biscuit!