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!

DIY Oatmeal Packets

My kids love the instant oatmeal that comes in the little packages, but I was getting sick of buying them when I knew I had all of the ingredients in my own cupboard.  I also have been trying to cut back on the amount of prepackaged, processed foods my family eats.  This was a no-brainer for me.

So one saturday, I gathered up my children and told them to form a line at the counter.  

All you need is oatmeal,  brown sugar, cinammon and ziploc bags.

I gave myself and each child a "job". 
I was responsible for putting the sacks inside of a plastic cup.  I did this so that it would be easy to drop the ingredients in and keep them stable.  I was also in charge of putting 1/8 tsp of cinnamon in each sack.
Isaac (in the white shirt) was responsible for putting 1 Tbsp of brown sugar in each sack.
Jared (blue shirt) was responsible for putting a 1/2 cup of oatmeal in each sack.
Amelia (down on the end) was responsible for closing up the sacks and putting them into a black basket that will be in our pantry.

 Our finished product!  When you're ready to eat, just dump the contents into a bowl, add about 2/3 cup water and heat for 1.5 minutes in the microwave.  We are also saving the plastic bags in a bigger plastic bag to use again for next time.

I didn't think about this until after we were all done, but normally my boys will eat two of the packets for breakfast.  Right now we are just letting them still dump two packets into a bowl in the morning.  Next time we make our packets I will just have them double the ingredients in one bag and we will mark those bags as a double batch.

You can adjust the recipe to include whatever you want.  I am thinking about trying dried apple chunks and cinnamon next time.  What do you like in your oatmeal?

Rice Pudding

Rice Pudding

2 cups water
1 cup rice
1 can evaporated milk
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 to 1 cup sugar (depending on your taste)

Put water in a saucepan over high heat and add rice.  Cook according to rice package directions. 
Once rice is done cooking, add can of evaporated milk, cinnamon and sugar.  Simmer on low for 15 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!

Note: The original recipe that I adapted this from used a can of sweetened condensed milk instead of the sugar.  It is super delicious, but I can't always bring myself to use it.

Chicken Crescents

Another recipe I adapted from my friend, Malia.

Chicken Crescents

8 oz cream cheese
1/2 tsp pepper
2/3 cup mushrooms, cooked and chopped
1 can green chilies
2 cups chicken, cooked and cubed
2 can crescent rolls
6 tbsp butter, melted
1 pkg ranch dressing mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk

Combine cream cheese, pepper, chilies, mushrooms and chicken.  Divide dough into 16 pieces.  Put spoon size drops of chicken mixture onto wide end of dough and roll up towards skinny end.  Pinch dough to close up open spaces.  Roll in melted butter, then dressing mixture.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. 

Meanwhile, combine chicken soup and milk in saucepan and heat through.  Serve over top of crescents.

pancake mix and buttermilk pancakes

I got this recipe from a lady in my neighborhood.  She is a legendary cook around these parts and she makes some pretty awesome edibles.

 Dry Pancake Mix

4 cups flour (half white and half wheat flour)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar

Sift all ingredients together and store in an air-tight container until ready for use.

Here is my container of pancake mix with the rest of the ingredients to make pancakes written on the front.

To make the actual pancakes you need the following:

Buttermilk Pancakes

1 cup of pancake mix
1 Tbsp softened butter
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk

Mix all ingredients together with an electric beater until incorporated.  It's okay if the butter is still a little chunky.  If the batter is a little too think, add a little more milk or buttermilk.

This recipe will yield about seven 4-inch pancakes.  To feed my family (6 of us) about two pancakes each, I double the recipe above, meaning I start with 2 cups of the dry pancake mix.

Heat a skillet and start baking.  Do not flip over the pancake until it is ready and bubbles start to form on the surface. 


Pancakes only need to be flipped once!  This will keep them light and fluffy.  VOILA!!

I really recommend making this syrup to go with them.

Buttermilk Syrup

1 cube butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Heat butter, sugar, buttermilk & vanilla until the butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.  Add baking soda last.  CAUTION: the mixture will froth up, so be ready.  I suggest making the syrup in a larger sauce pan than you think you will need.  Makes 2-3 cups.

This will stay fresh in the refrigerator for about one to two weeks.

Chicken and Biscuits (Revised)

I blogged about this recipe a while back but didn't have a picture of my own.  I made this meal again last  and finally got some pictures.  yummy!

Chicken n Biscuits

Ingredients:
1 can (10-3/4 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup

3/4 cup sour cream, divided

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

1 pkg. (16 oz.) frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, corn, green beans, peas), thawed

1 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese

1 cup all-purpose baking mix

3 Tbsp. milk

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 375.  In a 8-inch square dish, combine soup and half of sour cream. Then add chicken, vegetables and cheese.

In a separate bowl, mix baking mix, the rest of the sour cream and milk.  Combine until you have formed a soft dough.

Spoon 6 mounds directly on top of your soup-chicken mixture.  Bake 35 minutes until biscuits are golden brown and soup-chicken mixture is bubbly.

Ok, so a few notes from me.

I use boneless skinless chicken breasts and just boil them right before I start the rest of the ingredients.  Just chop them before you put them in the pot to boil and they will cook super fast!

I double my biscuit recipe because they are seriously my family's favorite part of this meal.  Don't be tempted to make your biscuits too big, because they will not cook all the way through during the 35 minutes.  You have been warned!

The picture below is pre-baking and the big biscuit up front was not cooked all the way through.

This recipe will feed about 4 adults.  If you are feeding a crowd or a larger family, double the recipe for sure.

Taco Bake

I grew up with my mom making this recipe.  I've modified it a little over the years, I'll give you the low down on the changes.

Taco Bake (printable recipe here)

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1/2 package taco seasoning
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 ½ cups water
1 can corn
1(8 oz) can tomato sauce
½ cup grated cheese
2 cups corn chips
1 can diced green chilies (optional)
1 (15 oz) can black beans (optional) 

Directions

Cook beef, drain fat.  Stir in taco seasoning and cornstarch.  Add un-drained corn, tomato sauce, rinsed beans, green chilies and water.  Cook to boiling, simmer uncovered 15 minutes.  Add ½ corn chips; pour into ungreased casserole dish.  Top with rest of corn chips and cheese.   

Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

  

My modifications to the recipe include adding the green chilies and the black beans.  I added the green chilies as a way to add a twist on the taste and the black beans to make it more filling and feed more.

My kids love this dish and it tastes great served with a little sour cream and a green salad.  My favorite part?  the crispy chips and cheese on the top!