Blueberry Crepes

We will celebrate 5 birthdays in our house in the next 29 days, and Adia is the first of these, turning 6 today! The kids get to pick their birthday breakfast, dinner and cake and Adia chose blueberry crepes this morning.

Crepes:
1 c flour
3 eggs
1 1/2 c milk
pinch of salt
1/2 t sugar
1/2 t vanilla
4 T melted butter

Blueberry sauce:
2 T Orange juice
2 T cornstarch
1/2 c water
2 T butter
1/3 c sugar
4 c blueberries (or other summer berries)

Cream cheese filling:
8 oz cream cheese
2 T powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla

Fall Update

Apparently fall is when I often return to my blog to share updates and recipes. Must be the extended time indoors and the urge to keep my house warm and oven on!

The past year been full of change and transition. Bobby stepped out of his position in vocational ministry and started a new job/new career in financial advising. It has been a really great change and he constantly amazes me with his ability to master yet another skill set. Though he never took a foreign language in school (how does that even happen?!?) he can speak multiple languages when it comes to all the things he knows! He is already becoming a master of the financial world :)

All of my children are in school now, which means I have a little extra time to do fun things work. I love a good routine though and it seems we have our new normal down. And I do enjoy the work I get to do, so I suppose it could be categorized as fun ;)

As we lead up to Christmas, we have been following @100dayswithJesus on instagram which gives a new name for Jesus each day (e.g. Amen, Baby, Lion, Rock). It has been super fun to discuss as a family at breakfast each morning and is building our anticipation of celebrating Jesus' birthday in just over a month!

In case you were wondering, our kids are still growing like weeds. Here are some sweet pics of our giants taken by the lovely @libbyasaystudio

Cornmeal Pancakes

This post is mostly for Bobby's sister Cathy, who requested this recipe be shared many months ago. Sorry I'm so slow to share! It's not a secret recipe, so here you are :)

Cornmeal Pancakes
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 c cornmeal
1/2 t salt
3 T baking powder
1/4 c sugar
1 1/2 c milk
1 c plain yogurt
2 eggs
1 T vanilla
4 T butter, melted

Mix dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients together except butter. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in melted butter. Cook pancakes over med-low heat. Serve with lots of butter and real maple syrup. Your husband will thank you (or at least this is what happens in my house!).

Carrot Bacon Hash

A good friend of mine passed this recipe to me and it is a breakfast treat around here! Bobby eats it most mornings for breakfast, so I make one batch of this and it lasts all week for him.

2-3 lbs carrots, chopped into tiny pieces
1 lb bacon
1 onion (preferably red), minced
salt
pepper
garlic powder
onion powder

Cut bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp. Remove the bacon and cook the onion and carrots in the bacon fat. Add salt, pepper and garlic and onion powder (I use twice as much onion powder as garlic powder). Cook until soft, add back the bacon and serve with an over easy egg on top!

When preparing ahead, I just put all of the carrot/bacon mixture in a large glass container, reheat the amount I need in the frying pan, cooking an egg next to it and serve :)

Beer Cheese Soup with Ham

My children call this "cheesy soup" :) It's good with or without the ham!

Beer Cheese Soup
6 c potatoes (chopped, julienned, cubed - which ever you prefer) or 24 oz frozen hash browns
1/2 c celery, chopped
1 c carrots, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 c water
1 can beer
1 lb cheddar cheese (or velveeta)
3 c milk
2 t parsley
1 t salt
pepper to taste
1 1/2 c ham, cubed/chopped

Cook vegetables in water and beer. Melt cheese in the milk. Add together along with parsley, salt, pepper and ham. Simmer 10 min until heated through.

Since you're already eating super healthy with this soup, you might as well serve it with Beer Bread :)

Double Chocolate Biscotti

Over the past few months I've made biscotti a few times for an event at our church called CREATIVE. Basically it provides a space for people to share the ways that God has made them creative from visual art to music. It's pretty cool! And I'm proud of my husband for getting it going!

In addition to the Almond Biscotti I shared a few months ago, I made this Double Chocolate Biscotti. I'd recommend making it a day in advance as I thought it was better the second day!

1 3/4 c + 2 T flour
1/4 c + 2 T cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
1/2 c butter, room temp
3/4 c + 2 T sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-2 T powdered sugar for dusting

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and chocolate chips. Stir until just combined.

Dust a work surface with flour. Turn dough onto floured surface and dust the top with flour. Shape the dough into a rough ball and cut in half. Form the dough into two short logs by rolling back and forth. Place logs on parchment covered baking sheet and back at 350 for 35 minutes, until firm to the touch.  Cool for 5 min or until just cool enough to touch. Slice the biscotti into 3/4 inch slices. Turn the biscotti on their sides and bake for another 10 min. When cool, dust with powdered sugar and serve with coffee, tea or milk!

Cinnamon Rolls

In typical Maria fashion, I've been reminded that maybe I should post a recipe or two every now and then so I'll just post several in one day :) At least I'm consistent in my irregular posting?!?

Before I share this easy cinnamon roll recipe, I do have to mention that four years ago TODAY we welcomed Owen home! He is such a joy and obviously a very special boy to me. Love him!

I tried these cinnamon rolls this week after a friend had shared it more than once. I followed the freezer directions so I could just pop them in in the morning and eat them fresh out of the oven! I've just copied and pasted the roll recipe from here. I used this frosting recipe.

Fast Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Dough:
2 c warm water
1 T honey
1 T yeast
1 t salt
2 T butter
1 T vanilla
5 c flour

Filling:
1/2 c softened butter
2 handfuls brown sugar, or more
sprinkling of cinnamon

Pour warm water and honey into mixing bowl. Stir.
Sprinkle yeast on the honey water.
Mix remaining ingredients in a mixer. Add wet ingredients. Mix with dough hook until combined.
Dump sticky dough into buttered bowl. Cover and let rise 20 min.
Roll dough out into large rectangle on well floured surface.
Spread softened butter, then brown sugar, then cinnamon on your rectangle of dough.
Roll up and cut into 12 equal pieces. Place in greased 9x13 pan.
Cover and let rise 10 min.
Bake at 400 degrees fro 20 minutes until golden and bubbling.
Flip rolls upside down, out of the pan, onto a cutting board.
Ice them or eat them hot!

Freezer Directions:
After you put the 12 rolls in the greased pan, cover and freeze. To bake, put your pan of frozen rolls into a cold oven. Preheat the oven to 400 (the preheat will both thaw and rise the rolls). Once the oven is heated to 400, bake rolls for 20 min.

Frosting
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 c butter, softened
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 1/2 t milk
1/2 t vanilla

Beat until well mixed. Frost those rolls!