Cornmeal Pancakes

I was out of ground flour and yes, was too lazy to grind more at 6 AM, and wanted to make pancakes that have a little more nutrition than just white flour- so I added some cornmeal. They were quite tasty!


Cornmeal Pancakes

Mix together:
2 c. white flour
1 c. corn meal
1/4 c. sugar
2 T. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. powdered milk
Add:
2 1/2 c. water
1/3 c. oil
2 eggs

Mix thoroughly. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a hot griddle. When you see bubbles form flip the pancakes and cook for another minute.

Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce

Jesse made this a few months ago for one of his dinners and he really liked it, so he requested it for his birthday dinner. I just used 1 1/2 TB garlic powder and it seems like quite enough to me.

Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce

The chicken was marinated in olive oil with just garlic salt and then grilled.
This is a good basic sauce- I think it would taste good with some sun dried tomato and shrimp mixed in. I doubt I will try that any time soon though-- as I rarely buy shrimp.

Birthday Cake and Birthday Pie

No... they aren't twins. They are 12 months and 3 days apart. (Like the kitchen supplies in the background... they are all over the house, because yes, it's still torn apart.)

Tradition: Pick the type of birthday treat you want. That has not always been easy. I've done double layer cheesecakes, triangle shaped cakes and truck cakes with a bed full of candy. This year was a little easier. :-)

Luke wanted Vanilla- Raspberry with Lemon icing...
I used this recipe to start with- but changed some things, so here's my version:

Vanilla- Raspberry Cake

2 1/3 c. flour
1 TB baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. oil
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 c. frozen raspberries*

Mix everything except the raspberries about 1 minute, stir in the berries then pour into two 8-inch round, greased and floured pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes then remove cakes from pans (place 1 hand on top of cake, flip over, so cake "falls" into hand, remove pan, gently turn right side up again onto wire cooling rack) and place on wire racks until cool.
*Next time I will let them thaw while I mix the cake so they are a little more dispersed/broken up in the cake- or just use fresh.

Jesse (who takes after me and doesn't really care for cake & icing) decided on a Peanut Butter pie. Jesse and I browsed allrecipes.com looking for a good peanut butter pie. He didn't want something too rich and he finally decided on this one:

No Bake Peanut Butter Pie
It was really good, and like one person commented on allrecipes.com, it only needs 3/4 of the 16 oz container of whipped topping.

Blueberry Sauce

Luke's birthday was yesterday and our tradition is that they pick their birthday dinner. Luke loves waffles, so he picked waffles with a blueberry sauce. Good choice! :-)


Blueberry Sauce

2 c. water
3 TB cornstarch
1/4 c. sugar
3 c. blueberries (fresh or frozen)

In sauce pan over medium heat, stir water, corn starch an sugar. (A wire whisk works best) Stir constantly until the mixture changes- it goes from a watery white to a thick semi-clear. Add the blueberries and stir until they are a dark blue- if frozen this takes about 3 minutes, so fresh would be less time. Take off heat and serve warm over pancakes or waffles.

You can also pour this over warm cheesecake and let set up in the fridge.

Camping...

This last week we went camping with my family- 27 of us were there, missing just 5. Next year we'll be bigger, as 2 of us are expecting right now. Only the 4 older siblings are married and have children, so in another 15 years we are going to be one huge family. Here is just us outside our cabin, we had a good time. It rained and snowed and then finally the last day we were there the sun came out and the guys caught some fish- so we were able to have our fish fry after all. :-)
We each ate our own breakfast and lunches and then met at my parents cabin for dinner, we took turns cooking and had quite the tasty variety.
We had:
Green chili enchiladas
Spaghetti and french bread
Chili and corn bread
Tortilla soup (going to have to get this recipe!)
Fish fry and hot dog roast

One sister-in-law made some great salsa and another one made some brownies that really impressed me- it was just a boxed chocolate cake and a 15 oz. can of pumpkin. It was nice and warm and was very close to a traditional brownie. Apparently low fat as well- but how nice to not have to take eggs and oil along!
We didn't have to rough it too bad- our cabin had 2 double beds, a fridge, electric oven/range and a wood cookstove for heat. We did have to walk to the bathrooms, but other than that it wasn't rough.
I will admit that I packed bagels and cream cheese for breakfast (ok- I brought 2 pancake mixes, that I mixed before we left- but that's all the cooking I did!) while my s-i-l's showed me up with pancakes, bacon and eggs. At least we couldn't smell it or my family would have been jealous!