Dutch Babies (German Pancakes)

4 Eggs
½ c. Milk
¼ c. Flour
4 T. Butter (use less)

Pre-heat oven to 425. Place butter in skillet and melt in oven. While melting butter, mix eggs, milk, flour, and salt with beaters until foamy. Pour into skillet and bake.
Serve with lemon juice and powdered sugar.
When I was on my mission, my companion, Elder Brown, made German Pancakes for us once. I’ve been making them a lot lately.
The recipe above is copied directly from Grammy Marian’s recipe card. I didn’t know until this year that this was something she loved.
The picture on the right shows a Dutch Baby with pureed frozen strawberry. It’s best to add some sugar to the strawberries, as they’re a bit tart otherwise.
Lemon is a great topping for these. One time, I also made an orange sauce that was really good too. I just juiced an orange, put in a little bit of orange zest, sugar, and cornstarch, and left it on the stove on low for a some time, while I went and did other things.
I usually just bake my Dutch Babies in a Pyrex dish or something. Sometimes I do it in the toaster oven, but then I have to be careful that it doesn’t puff up so high that it makes a mess inside there.

Chard Potato Soup

Tamara came up with this recipe all on her own. Today was cold and rainy, so it was time for soup. Our superfluity of potatoes was the genesis of this idea. We also had Swiss Chard in the garden, ready for harvesting, that we had never yet used.

2 very large potatoes

onion and garlic, sautéed

@1/2 lb cheese

chicken bouillon to taste

Several large leave of Swiss Chard

Sauté onions and garlic until onions are thoroughly soft so they don’t give Jack a headache. Boil potatoes in water with onion, garlic, and bouillon. While potatoes are boiling, send your husband out to harvest Swiss Chard and make sure he washes the chard before letting him cut it into bits with scissors. When the potatoes are soft enough to eat, add the chard. Let boil just a couple minutes then remove from the heat. Ask your husband to go back out and harvest another chard leaf to be cut into garnish. Make sure he gets one with a pretty red stem. While he’s doing that, add the cheese to the soup. This will help it cool down to eating temperature (especially if the cheese had been inhabiting the freezer up until this point.)

Serve soup in fancy Christmas dishes and garnish with ground sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and cut chard. Sour cream adds to the luxurious texture and gives it a certain je ne sais quoi. Don’t be surprised if this fabulous dish pops up at your favorite fancy restaurant as the soup of the day. It’s really good.

Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies from Pillsbury.com

INGREDIENTS
1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated sugar cookies
1 container (16 oz) chocolate creamy frosting
Candy corn
Orange decorating icing
Black decorating gel
Miniature candy-coated chocolate baking bits

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Bake cookies as directed on roll. Cool completely, about 20 minutes.
2. Spoon chocolate frosting into resealable food-storage plastic bag; seal bag. Cut small hole in bottom corner of bag. On each cookie, pipe frosting on outer edge of half of cookie. Arrange candy corn over frosting for feathers.
3. Pipe orange icing onto each cookie to resemble turkey face and feet. Use orange icing to attach baking bits to turkey face for eyes. Pipe black gel on baking bits for centers of eyes.

Mixed Veggies with a twist!

Broccoli and Squash Medley from pillsbury.com

INGREDIENTS

2	bags (12 oz each) Green Giant® Valley Fresh Steamers™ frozen broccoli cuts
2	cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled butternut squash (1 1/2 lb)
1/2	cup orange juice
1/4	cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2	cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/2	cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
1	tablespoon grated orange peel
1	teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1.	Cook broccoli as directed on bag; set aside.
2.	Meanwhile, in 12-inch skillet, cook squash in orange juice over medium-low heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender but firm.
3.	Stir in butter, broccoli, cranberries, pecans, orange peel and salt; toss to coat. Serve immediately.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft):

Increase orange juice to 1 cup. Cook squash 18 to 20 minutes.

Favorite Pumpkin Dessert

1 ½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
4 large eggs
4 cups pumpkin puree (~32 oz can)
2 cans evaporated milk
1 yellow cake mix
1 cube of butter or margarine softened

Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
Pour into 9x13 baking glass.
Cut butter into cake mix (like when making pie dough. Use a fork or pastry blender.)
Top batter with cake and butter mixture.
Bake in preheated 425⁰F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350⁰ F; bake for 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.
Serve warm or cold. Goes great with vanilla ice cream.

Tomato Salad

One of the things that Grammy like to eat is fresh tomatoes from the garden with chopped basil, also from her garden. Tamara and I also like to eat this. We cut the tomatoes in quarters because their cherry tomatoes.
Not only has Grammy passed on her enjoyment of this favorite dish, she also passes on fresh tomatoes and basil from her garden every week or so. We love it.

Grammy's Chicken Piccata

I love Grammy's Chicken Piccata.

Tamara and I made some last week and it turned out really well. We made 8 breasts and it we ate it all before the next day was done.

I found this picture online. It is at least similar to how ours looked, but I used Grammy's meat hammer that I bought her and our chicken was thin.

The recipe comes from The Frugal Gourmet pg 133.

1 small yellow onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 green onioins, chopped
8 chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (Who ever heard of using so little?)
1 tablespoon capers, chopped??? (that's not near enough, try 4)
2 tablespoons chicken stock (optional)
8 thin lemon slices
2 tablespoons chopped pasley

Sauté the yellow onion, garlic, and green onions in the olive oil just until tender. Remove from the pan, and set aside.

Remove the skins and bones from the chicken breasts, and oind them flat with a fancy meat poinder of with two pieces of wax paper and a two-by-four. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper together, and place in flat bowl. Dip the chicken slices into the glour mixture. Lightly brown chicken slices in butter, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Add the sautéed onions and garlic. Over high heat add the sherry, lemon juice, and capers. This should thicken to make a nice gravy for the chicken; if the gravy becomes too thick, ad a bit of chicken stock.

Garnish with thin slices of lemon and the chopped parsley.

Begin the meal with Pasta Primavera, and then move on to the chicken, along with a salad and perhaps Zucchini with Fresh Rosemary.

Lemon Chicken Stir-fry

NUTRITION PROFILE:Low Calorie | Low Carb | Low Sodium | Low Sat  Fat | High Potassium | Heart Healthy | Healthy Weight VIEW COMPLETE NUTRITION GUIDELINES » Spiked with lots of zesty lemon, this delectable chicken stir-fry has a colorful mix of snow peas, carrots and scallions. But feel free to substitute other thinly sliced vegetables, such as bell peppers or zucchini. Serve with: Rice noodles or bro wn rice. Makes 4 servings, about 1 1/2 cups each ACTIVE TIME: 40 minutes TOTAL TIME: 40 minutes EASE OF PREPARATION: Easy 1 lemon  1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce 2 teaspoons cornstarch 1 tablespoon canola oil 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces 10 ounces mushrooms, halved or quartered  1 cup diagonally sliced carrots (1/4 inch thick) 2 cups snow peas (6 ounces), stems and strings removed  1 bunch scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces, white and green parts divided 1 tablespoon chopped garlic 1. Grate 1 teaspoon lemon zest and set aside. Juice the lemon and whisk 3 tablespoons of the juice with broth, soy sauce and cornstarch in a small bowl. 2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate with tongs. Add mushrooms and carrots to the pan and cook until the carrots are just tender, about 5 minutes. Add snow peas, scallion whites, garlic and the reserved lemon zest. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds. Whisk the broth mixture and add to the pan; cook, stirring, until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add scallion greens and the chicken and any accumulated juices; cook, stirring, until heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. NUTRITION INFORMATION: Per serving: 225 calories; 6 g fat (1 g sat, 3 g mono); 63 mg cholesterol; 14 g carbohydrate; 27 g protein; 3 g fiber; 448 mg sodium; 796 mg potassium.  Nutrition bonus: Vitamin A (110% daily value), Vitamin C (60% dv), Potassium (23% dv), Iron (15% dv). 1 Carbohydrate Serving Exchanges: 2 vegetable, 3 lean meat, 1 fat