Little Apple Cinnamon Puff Pancakes, or Autumn, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."

Labor Day is tomorrow. Summer is over. No more linen. No more white loafers (sorry John E. Rubb, you can get them out again next spring). No more "Sorry, it's cold cereal for dinner again...you know how I hate to heat up the kitchen."

The evenings are getting cooler. Soon the mornings will be brisk enough to run with a jacket. Two of the four girls are back in school. Number three starts on Wednesday.

And it's time to start baking with apples.

Little Apple Cinnamon Puff Pancakes

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into small pieces (about 1 pound)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 T lemon juice
5 T butter, separated
2/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
5 T granulated sugar, plus more for muffin tin
3 eggs
3/4 cup half and half

This recipe makes 6 individual pancakes, but luckily we doubled it because the cyclist ate 3 of them himself.

Preheat oven to 450.
Melt 3 T of the butter in microwave.
Brush cups of a jumbo muffin tin with 1 T of the melted butter (set other 2 T aside for pancake batter), coat with granulated sugar.
Toss apples with brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice.
In a 10-inch, non-stick skillet, melt remaining 2 T of butter over medium heat. Add the apples and saute, turning occasionally, for 10-12 minutes, until caramelized. Remove pan from stove and let cool about 5 minutes. Divide apples among muffin cups.
Place flour, salt, granulated sugar, melted butter, eggs and half & half in the bowl of a food processor. Process for 3 minutes.
Pour batter over apples. Place tin in oven and lower heat to 400. Bake 15 minutes. The pancakes will puff up in the last 5 minutes of baking.
Remove from oven. Let sit three to four minutes. Loosen sides with knife. Remove from tin (you may need to coax them a bit). Dust with confectioners sugar or dollop with a spoonful of whipped cream and serve.

Summer Lime Pie

This is one of my favorite summer dessert recipes. Preparation is quick and easy (and your kitchen stays cool). The result is sweet and tart and refreshing.

1 (14 oz) can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
4 oz (1/2 cup) frozen limeade concentrate, thawed
8 oz cool whip
9" cookie crust (I like the Nilla Wafer one)

Combine condensed milk and thawed limeade. Fold in Cool Whip. Pour into crust. Chill until firm. I usually make a day ahead and chill overnight.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and key lime slices.

Yogurt Waffles

Another waffle recipe?

These were rich, moist, and "melty" as blond bob #2 so eloquently described them. (They do melt in your mouth).

The girls topped theirs with peanut butter, the cyclist liked syrup, I enjoyed mine with fresh, ripe melons.

2 C flour
2 T sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t nutmeg
1 3/4 C plain yogurt
2 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
3 T butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Preheat a waffle iron. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the yogurt, egg yolks and butter. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring with a few quick strokes to form a lumpy batter.
In a third bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, gently but thoroughly fold the egg whites into the batter.
Cook the waffles according to the manufacturer's instructions for your waffle iron.
Transfer the baked waffles to the oven, placing them directly on the rack so they stay crisp.

Enjoy!

Carrot Cookies with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Don't let the fruit and veggie title fool you into thinking these taste "healthy". They melt right in your mouth.

1 cup butter (room temp)
¾ cup sugar
½ t lemon extract
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 cup cooked, mashed carrots
1 t salt
2 t baking powder
2 cups flour

Cream together butter, sugar, lemon extract, egg and vanilla. Add carrots. Sift and add dry ingredients. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375* for approximately 10 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Frost with orange icing while warm.

Orange Icing (you'll have some leftover)

4 T Butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 T orange zest
about 2 T orange juice
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Whip butter and cream cheese. Add zest and juice. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until you get a good consistency.


Enjoy these moist little cookies. We did.

Morgan's Chunky Marinara

This last Christmas, we received a very tasty present. A jar of homemade pasta sauce from my sister-in-law's sister, Morgan. She was generous and shared the recipe with me as well. It's the kind of sauce that makes your kitchen smell wonderful. And it tastes so good, it is hard to not eat it all straight out of the pot.

Thanks Morgan.

Morgan's Chunky Marinara

About 2 T Olive Oil

2 small onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped

1/2 tsp sea salt, plus more for seasoning

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper, plus more for seasoning

2 (32 oz) cans crushed tomatoes

2 dried bay leaves

Sprig of fresh rosemary

In large pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute until onions are tender and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add celery, carrots, salt and pepper. Saute until all vegetables are soft, about 10 more minutes. Add the tomatoes, bay leaves and 1 whole branch of fresh rosemary (the leaves will mostly fall off on their own and you will remove the branch later). Simmer over low heat until sauce thickens a little, about 1 hour. Remove the bay leaves and rosemary branch. Season the sauce with more salt and pepper to taste.

It's Too Hot for the Oven

Anything the cyclist decides to do, he does well. Including dessert making. Between this dutch oven cake and his chocolate chip cookies (I'll post someday), he's baked his way right into my heart.

Dutch Oven Chocolate Cherry Cake

1/2 stick of butter, cut into 1/2" cubes
2 cans pie filling (we like cherry)

Cake Batter: we mixed in half of the chocolate chips, and sprinkled the rest over the top.

Sprinkle butter cubes in the bottom of a clean, seasoned dutch oven (ours is a #12). Cover bottom of oven with pie filling. Spoon cake batter over all.

Light the charcoal (we used our metal fire-pit) and wait until it starts to ash over a little bit. Put twice as many charcoals on top of the lid as there are under the dutch oven. We used 4 on bottom and 8 on top. Cook for about 30-40 minutes and then take off the lid and check the cake with a toothpick making sure it comes out clean. Be careful when taking of the lid not to spill ash in the cake. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

When it's hot outside and you don't want to heat up your kitchen, this is the perfect way to have a homemade cake. It's also a great recipe to take camping. With the new baby, we've been doing all of our camping in the back yard.

However, this can also be made indoors using your dutch oven. Preheat your regular oven to 350. Assemble the cake. Put the dutch oven into your oven and bake as directed.

P.S. For all you trivia buffs, the Dutch Oven is the state cooking pot of Utah. Who knew?

Decadent French Toast, or "The Merry Parry’s Come for Brunch"

The Merry Parry's.  For those of you who don't know them, that’s Lindsey, Layla, and Long John Leather Couch himself. 

Lindsey holds a special place in my heart because she is the only person I know of to have accepted "the challenge".  

Plus, they drove 8 hours from Lake Tahoe, so John could spend another 5 plus hours in the car, handing out water & Gatorade for the cyclist on his 100 mile bike ride. 

 How do you repay that kind of devotion? An invitation to brunch and some tasty French toast. 

This is another brunch recipe with the prep work all done the night before.  

Company French Toast

16 slices bread

6 oz cream cheese

cinnamon/sugar mixture

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup real maple syrup

1 stick of butter

6 eggs

1 3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

sour cream

fresh berries

Spread 8 slices of bread with cream cheese.  Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar.  Top each slice with the remaining bread.  Cut each sandwich in half on the diagonal.  

Melt butter, brown sugar and syrup in the microwave.  Pour into a rimmed cookie sheet (jelly roll pan).  Place bread in pan on top of syrup mixture.  

In a medium bowl, blend eggs, milk and vanilla.  Pour over bread.  Cover and let sit overnight in the refrigerator.  

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes rotating pan halfway through.  

Remove French toast from pan and flip so that the caramel side is up.  Top with sour cream and sliced berries.

Johnny Rub enjoyed the breakfast but Layla was much less impressed by the whole thing.