Homemade Oreos

Sometime I get the urge to bake something and recently that urge lead to these homemade Oreos. So I grabbed my favorite little helper and got to work making these. The cookies were supposed to be thinner, but it was really hot that day and the oven was on in the kitchen so even though the dough had been refrigerated to firm up it was hard to slice thin wafers that would stay together. We had to use our hands to form them together.

I'd have to say the best part of making your own Oreos is that you get to control how much filling you get. The creme filling definitely my favorite part of an Oreo, and apparently it's also my niece's favorite part.  You can see that the cookies got a bit messy. That's because creme filling was disappearing from the bowl as I was assembling the cookies. I had to work fast!

If you make these cookies watch out for little creme filling monsters.

Dutch Baby Pancake

I get bored of certain foods after eating them a few times, so I'm always on the lookout for new meals. We were in a breakfast rut of the usual waffles, pancakes, cereal, oatmeal variety so I needed something to change it up. I was flipping through my copy of Cook’s Country 2010 Annual when I came across this pancake. I thought it would be worth a try.

The pancake grew way taller than we were expecting, and it was great. We've done this a few times since then. You can use any kind of milk, but low fat or skim milk is preferably. The original recipe says that higher fat milk affects the crispiness of the pancakes. We've done it once using 1 % milk and another time using whole milk. I didn't see a major difference in the crispiness, but I think the pancake did rise higher with the low fat milk.

DUTCH BABY PANCAKE

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp. canola oil

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 tsp. grated lemon zest

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. salt

3 large eggs

1 cup milk (preferably skim)

1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tbsp. powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Brush the skillet with the oil. Place skillet in the oven and heat for about 10 minutes, until the oil is shimmering.
• In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, zest, and salt.
• In a different small/medium bowl, whisk the eggs for about 1 minute, until they are frothy and light.
• Whisk the milk, butter, and vanilla into the eggs. Pour about 1/3 of the milk mixture into the flour mixture and whisk until completely combined.
• Add the remainder of the milk mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until the batter is smooth.
• Pour the batter into the skillet. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and crisp.
• Place the skillet onto a wire rack. Sprinkle the powdered sugar and lemon juice over the Dutch baby pancake. Cut into slices and serve.

Source: Cook’s Country 2010 Annual

Link ups:

Table for 7

Portuguese Rice with Lima Beans

This is a very common variation of Portuguese yellow rice.  It's an easy way to add some vegetables to your meal. In addition to lima beans you could add carrots or peas.

Portuguese Tomato Rice

I've said before that Portuguese rice is an important part of Portuguese cuisine. It makes an appearance at just about every meal (if you're not having rice you're having potatoes). Having plain rice regularly can get boring so it's nice to put a little variety into your rice. I don't enjoy tomatoes, but I like this rice. This is a good way to sneak some lycopene into your or your kid's diet.

Croissant Breakfast Sandwich

A simple breakfast sandwich. This is great for busy mornings. You can easily adapt this to fit your taste. For me,  I prefer the sandwich with a fried egg and no cheese.

Super Mario Birthday Party- Cloud Jello

For a quick treat for my niece's Mario birthday party we whipped up some cloud jello. It's a quick and simple treat that fits the theme of the party nicely. 

Homemade Fudgesicles

This is a guest post by my wonderful sister. She's been pestering me to let her post something so here is her post on some homemade fudgesicles that she made recently. Having been part of the unofficial taste testing panel I give these my stamp of approval. This the popsicle mold used to make these fudgesicles.

Hi There!!!I am guest posting today and I am very excited!! Woot Woot!! I have never blogged before in my life.  So growing up, these were one of my favorite ice cream pops to eat. I am a chocoholic and love anything flavored with chocolate.Any who, as a mom, I try to make anything and everything possible from scratch.  I have made chocolate and vanilla ice cream at home and the results exceed anything store bought.  It's a win win situation when I can make something homemade,  the quality of the flavor can't compare and you know what is going into what you are making.  I first saw these on Brown Eyed Baker, one of my favorite blogs, and I couldn't wait to try them.   I substituted a couple of things because I used what I had in the kitchen.  It was daughter and kid sister approved, it doesn't get any better than that :).