Pancakes (Dorthy)

 A couple weekends ago, we made pancakes from a mix.  They seemed to hit the spot and we both liked the from-scratch pancakes we had at Grandma's house the weekend of the 4th, so we thought we'd try some the next morning.  We found a recipe in Rory's "How to Boil Water" cookbook.  They tasted good and they turned out good considering I have a tendency to burn pancakes.   Rory ate 4 1/2 of them all by himself. 

I tried a Mickey Mouse pancake with the last of the batter.  I did fairly well, but I needed a bigger spatula considering how big I made the pancake--Mickey's ears tore a little when I went to flip it.  We gave it to Rowan, who was impressed by the shape, but he wouldn't eat the thing.  Rory cut up the ear so he could have some, but Ro got upset and pieced it back together.  He just sat and looked at it until breakfast was over.

I guess the recipe is a little more involved than some others, but we didn't feel like it took too long.  The recipe stated that it makes 8 large or 12 small pancakes.  I told Ror how many pancakes we got depended a great deal on how they defined "large" and "small".  I made them using about 1/3 cup of batter and got 10 good sized pancakes, so I think they meant pretty big.  If you feel inclined to try it, here is the recipe:

Pancakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine salt (we used regular table salt)

Pinch of nutmeg (optional, we put it in.  It gave the pancakes kind of a holiday flavor.)

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/4 cups milk

About 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Neutral flavored oil for cooking the pancakes

Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Beat eggs in a medium size bowl, then whisk in about half the milk and all the vanilla.  In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter with the remaining milk, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat.  Stir or whisk into the egg misture.  Pour wet ingredients into the dry and whisk just until a thick batter forms.  Heat skillet or griddle over medium/medium high heat (350 degrees if using an electric griddle with temp control).  Brush with a little oil.  ladle desired amount of batter onto skillet, spacing pancakes evenly.  Cook until bubbles break the surface of the pancakes, the batter loses its shine, and the undersides are golden brown (about 2 minutes).  Flip pancakes and cook for about 1 minute more.  Serve immediately or keep warm in oven.  Repeat with remaining batter.

It also lists a couple of tips that I found interesting:

-Batter is best slightly lumpy (I already knew this one, but I have found it to be true)

-Don't smash or push down on the pancakes while they cook; it makes them dense.

-Straight to plate is best, but if you need to wait, keep them warm in a 200 degree preheated oven.  Lay them out in a single layer, stacking steams them and makes them tough.

Wedding Luncheon

When Charles became engaged, I knew that we would have to provide a luncheon for the family and guests who could come, so I asked him to let me know what he wanted.  He thought about it for the next few days, and he wanted chicken salad sandwiches and salad.  Anything else, he said would be up to me. (He is really big on salads). I wanted to make it nice and have a variety of food, so I came up with this menu:

                Chicken salad sandwiches (Have to get a recipe)
                 Green salad (just as the freeze hit and lettuce became like gold)
                  w/ croutons, sunflower seeds, and choice of 3 dressings
                 Potato salad (Charles and Chris loved this idea)
                 Seafood pasta salad ( My favorite for a special event)
                 Spinach Strawberry salad ( just to round things out)
                 Carrot sticks, celery sticks, olives, pickles
                 cantaloupe, and pineapple
                 Sparkling white grape juice to drink
And dessert - what for dessert?  I came across this dessert recipe  while I was going through some recipe books one day.  I chose it because I could make it a week before and it had chocolate and ice cream.  You can never go wrong with chocolate and ice cream. So, dessert was Frozen Ice Cream Delight  ( thanks TOH magazine). It was the hit of the day and I had requests for the recipe. So here are the recipes for some of the items at the wedding luncheon.  I will give you dessert first, since life is short.

FROZEN ICE CREAM DESSERT
2-1/2 cups cream filled chocolate cookie crumbs, divided
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream, softened (use any flavor you like)
1/2 to 1 cup salted peanuts
1 carton (8 ozs.) frozen whipped topping, thawed
CHOCOLATE SAUCE:
2 cups confectioners sugar
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 can (12 ozs.)evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp. vanilla extract
     Combine 2 cups cookie crumbs with butter and sugar.  Press into the bottom of a 9X13 pan.  Freeze for 15 minutes.  Spread ice cream over crumbs; freeze until firm, about 3 hours.  Meanwhile, combine first four sauce ingredients in a sauce pan; bring to a boil. Boil for 8 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla; allow to cool to room temperature ( I stirred it while it was cooling.  Try not stirring it while cooling and see if it freezes harder).  Spoon sauce over ice cream; sprinkle with nuts.  Freeze until firm.  Spread whipped topping over nuts and sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs. Freeze at least 3 hours before serving. Can be stored in the freezer for a up to a week.  Yield 12-16 servings.

There were a couple of requests for the seafood salad. So here it is:

SEAFOOD PASTA SALAD
1 lb. imitation crab ( if you like real crab, use it. We like the imitation because it has a milder flavor.)
1 (24 0z.) package of large shell macaroni
1 package of celery roughly chopped, leaves and all
1 1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup lemon juice ( Fresh is best, but the concentrate is just fine.)
1 Tbsp. onion powder ( you can adjust to taste)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cook, drain and cool pasta according to the directions on the package. Chop celery roughly. Chop crab roughly. In a smaller bowl, combine sour cream, mayo, lemon juice and onion powder.  Pour over pasta, crab and celery. Add salt and pepper. Combine thoroughly and chill.

Now for the chicken salad.  This recipe is for 50 small croissants.  Good for a crowd.  I doubled it for the luncheon and there was plenty.
15 cooked and cut up chicken breasts
1 cup chopped celery
2 Tbsp grated or minced onion ( I grated it and added 1 Tbsp onion powder.  If you don't like onion, don't add the onion powder)
2 cup mayonnaise
4 cup whipping cream
1 (8oz.) pkg. cream cheese
sliced almonds ( I didn't add these, but it would be very good)
2 Tbsp chicken broth paste
1 tsp. salt ( or to taste)
1/8 tsp. pepper ( or to taste)
Mix together whipping cream and softened cream cheese until cream peaks.  Add onions, mayonnaise, broth, salt and pepper.  Mix well. Add remaining ingredients.  Will make salad filling for 50 small croissants.

SPARKLING WHITE GRAPE JUICE
2 cans frozen concentrate White Grape Cocktail Juice, slightly thawed
1 1/2 liters club soda
ice
Combine slightly thawed juice with club soda.  Pour over ice.

Chili Cookoff 2010, continued (Dorthy)

Mel and Sarah started off the night decorating cookies Mel and Steph made earlier last week.  I, of course, had to muscle in on the action because I have a habit of doing that sort of thing (just let me finish that knitting for you....Sorry, guys. I'm trying to be better.)

Some of my favorites included Frankenstein's monster,

witch's boots,

and cute little owls.

Tim and Rory talked some sports before dinner, since their wives wouldn't let them play video games.

 And here are Steph's yummy pepper jack corn muffins.

Before we sat down to eat, Mom brought out some little cups so we could taste a little bit of each of the different chilis.  Everybody's was really good and a few people ended up mixing a couple different kinds in their bowl so they didn't have to choose just one.  For some reason, I didn't think to take pictures of the actual entries, but Mel had that covered, so we're good.

After dinner we played Hedbanz, as Mel said earlier.  It was a lot of fun and even Abi got in on the action.

Here's my recipe for Sweet 'n' Tangy Chili, as Mel has dubbed it.  Ror and I kind of made it up as we went along, so some measurements are guesstimates.

1 lb stew meat (I used part of a bottom round roast)
1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 jalepenos, diced

1 small can tomato paste

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 can of beef broth

2 cans diced tomatoes (we used the kind with green chiles in them)

1/4 to 1/3 cup brown sugar, to taste.

1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

salt and pepper, to taste

In dutch oven, sear meat.  Remove meat and set aside.  Saute onion until translucent, then add garlic and jalepeno.  Saute a few more minutes.  Add tomato paste and seasonings, allow paste to carmelize a little.  Add beef broth, diced tomatoes and brown sugar.  Stir in meat and beans.  Let simmer until meat is tender (we let ours go about 4 hours).  Serve with your favorite chili toppings.  We like lime juice and a little Tabasco.

Chili Cookoff 2010 (Mel)

Sunday was the second Annual Schmidt Family Cookoff and I have to say I'm surprised Mom or Steph hasn't jumped on posting about it before now. Dorthy will probably add to mine, she took a lot more pictures than I did, so she probably should, but lets get to the chili

 Mel and Tim's "Ghost" White Chili, in light of the "fall"iday (thanks for that new phrase Dorthy, I'll be using that a lot!) I didn't intentionally post this picture first it just sort of happened that way.

 Steph and Kevin's Roasted Red Pepper Chili. They also made yummy cornbread muffins with pepper jack cheese in them. They were good, and that's saying something cause I don't usually like cornbread!

 Mom's Wheat Chili in front, Charles' Loaded Chili to the left and Dorthy and Rory's Sweet n' Tangy Chili in the back. Yeah I know you all like those names, so feel free to use them on your recipe cards.:)

 We played games Headbandz and I think they played Cranium, but I was watching a movie with a screaming baby so, I didn't get to play.

 We also frosted Halloween Cookies cause I wanted to and when people saw what we were doing they HAD to be apart of it. But I think they turned out pretty good.

More games. Riley thought she needed to be on someone's lap all the time all night long. It got a little aggravating and special note, this is the first picture I have seen that Charles isn't suffocating Amber! Way to Go! All in all I think we all had a pretty good time even without video games (boys) another successful third Sunday dinner with little to no blood shed. We're getting better!

First annual Chili Cook off

So  it is official!  We will be having our own Chili cook off at  our third sunday dinner this month.  (That is October 17 th).  Be looking for a new or old recipe to try.  I'll make some too along with some bread bowls and we will have all the fixin's for chili.  Anyone who wants to make some can, just be sure you write the recipe down so we can put them on the blog.  Ready, get set, cook!

Guacamole Chicken Wraps (Mel)

Any time I cook is reason to blog about because it doesn't happen very much. Tim took my car to work today so I couldn't be distracted with anything else this afternoon, so I begrudgingly got stuff out to get dinner started. I had planned a menu on Monday using recipes from on of the 5 cookbooks I have and tonights meal was Guacamole Chicken Wraps and Refried Bean Soup. So... that's what we did, although Tim took FOREVER to come home from work, so it may have been a little on the cold side when he was eating but mine was nice and hot and delicious. I first thawed two chicken breasts and patted them dry so I could decide what to rub them with. salt and pepper is always nice, but since these were Gaucamole chicken wraps I thought they should have a little southwestern flair. I made a dry rub out of the following:

Paprika (a lot) for good color
cayenne pepper not too much cause I didn't want to burn my lips off
Parsley (because it's the best flippin' seasoning on God's green earth)
onion powder
garlic powder
salt
black pepper

Then I rubbed the (now dried) chicken down with this mixture which I mixed together with a fork and put it in a 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. When it came out, the chicken was juicy and the rub had made a nice crunchy skin on the outside of the chicken.
Then for the guacamole I used:

1 ripe avocado
1 ripe (but not too ripe) tomato
1/2 small white onion
1 small clove minced garlic
1/2 small minced cucumber (wait for it, the reason is coming)
salt
pepper
dash of lime juice

I stirred it all together, but was careful not to mush it up and started to make the soup. For the Refried Bean Soup which, yes sounds pretty lame and kinda gross, but it's not; I used the following ingredients:
1 can of refried beans (duh)
1 can of chicken broth
1/2 small white onion
1 small hand crushed ripe tomato
dash of parsley (seriously I put parsley in everything and my life is better for it)
seasoning to taste

I dumped it all in a saucepan and let it simmer and cook down a little bit and when it was done I topped it with cheese and sour cream and it was DELICIOUS. Try it and tell me it's not. Oh yeah the reason for the cucumber... because I felt like it and it was soooo good. It made the whole guacamole just chill out. Tim loved it too. Which is the reason why we don't have any pictures of it.

So I was talking to my mom yesterday at Sarah's soccer game and we decided that we would like to read easy reads like Fablehaven, and that kind of stuff. Any who objects can write a comment below and we'll decide if we care enough or not to think about your suggestion.

Salsa Chicken (Mel)

So I thought I would contribute to this even though I wasn't really INVITED, but whatever I have the password and stuff so I can write about whatever I want. Last night I made Salsa Chicken and I wondered why I had never done it before. Tim loved it and it tasted so good over hot rice. And it's so EASY!
In a crockpot put as many pieces of chicken as you're going to eat and dump enough salsa over it to cover the chicken. I put in hot sauce on top of the salsa because we like things a little spicy but you don't have to add that, if you don't want to . I let it cook for about an hour on High and when we got home all I had to do was cook some rice and throw some frozen pepper strips in on top of the salsa and chicken which was already cooked. When it was all done I served it over rice and topped it with cheese and sour cream and it was delicious. Easy and tasty is the best way to cook at my house.  I would have a picture but we ate it too fast to get the camera out. Whoops!:)