The Dutch Baby: easier than crepes, plus you don’t have to slave over the stove for 20 minutes cursing yourself for inconsistent crepe thickness. It’s the ultimate mix, pour, walk away breakfast recipe that isn’t from a box.

1/4 cup butter*
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
powdered sugar & lemon juice

*you can either use salted butter, or add a pinch of salt

Heat oven to 425 degrees.
Cut up butter (if straight from fridge) and melt in the oven in a 9×9 inch casserole pan or oven-safe skillet.*
Beat the eggs with a whisk for 30 seconds.
Mix in milk, vanilla, and flour, one at a time, continually whisking the mixture. Add flour slowly to avoid clumps.
Pour mixture into the warm casserole dish full of melted butter.
Bake for ~12-15 minutes.

To serve, dust with powdered sugar and a squeeze of fresh lemon.

*you can use any similarly sized oven-safe dish, it will still taste awesome.

Also, if you only have 2 eggs, just reduce milk and flour to 1/2 cup each.

Desserts, Parties, Petit Bites

Chocolate Chip Cookies (with or without oats)

If adding oats, make sure that they are somewhat small (like 1-minute oat sized). If you’ve only got classic rolled oats, blend them in a coffee grinder to chop them up a bit.

If you are using chocolate bars, chop them up so the largest pieces are chocolate chip sized. If you are using chocolate chips, use 2 cups. The best version is to use 2 Ghiradelli chocolate bars.

Mix together flour, salt, baking soda, and oats if using. (In a separate bowl.)
Beat butter and sugars together until lighter in color and fluffy-ish.
Beat in eggs, one at a time.
Add vanilla extract.
Stir in chocolate.
Stir in flour mixture until just combined.
At this point I make some cookies, cover the bowl in plastic wrap and keep the dough in the fridge. Ideally you should chill the dough for 30 minutes before forming the dough into balls, then bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are just turning brown

I’m going to scoop these onto a cookie sheet, flash freeze them, then put them all in a ziploc freezer bag and keep them in the freezer.

Desserts, Petit Bites

Caramelitas

Finally! A pinterest recipe that isn’t a terrible disappointment.

Ingredients:

1 small bag of caramels (~15)
1/3 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3 – 6 oz semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 pan, or line with foil/parchment.
Mix melted butter and sugar. Add flour, oats, baking soda and mix well.
Press half of the mix into the pan to form an even bottom layer.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Over med-low heat, combine heavy cream and caramels (unwrapped). Stir until uniformly melted and smooth.
Remove bottom crust from oven and let cool slightly. Top with pecans and chocolate chips, pour the caramel sauce over it all.
Crumble the second half of the cookie dough on top.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until edges are slightly browned.
Cool completely before cutting.

Recipe adapted from: Made from Pinterest

I used foil for this batch. I also added the pecans to the cookie dough, which I won’t do again because it causes the cookie dough to crack and it’s more difficult to keep in bar form.

Petit Bites, Salads, Sides

Potato Pickle Salad

This is totally a pregnancy craving recipe, but it’s awesome and easy. It’s nice when the potatoes are warm when you eat the salad. Super yummy

Ingredients:

small Yukon gold potatoes
pickles, chopped (I used cornichons)
mayo, 1/2 cup
sour cream, 1/4-1/2 cup
dijon mustard, 1 tsp
optional add-ins: pickle juice, chopped hard boiled egg, fresh chopped dill, horseradish/wasabi

Method:

Steam the potatoes and quarter or dice.
Mix together mayo, sour cream, and mustard.
Toss potatoes and pickles in mayo mix, season with salt & pepper.

Petit Bites

Broccoli Cabbage Salad

Pasta, Petit Bites, Vegetables

Artichoke Pasta

1 can artichoke hearts, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 tbps butter
olive oil
lemon juice
fresh pasta/egg noodles

Make pasta.
Saute garlic and artichoke hearts in a skillet with melted butter and olive oil.
Add fresh lemon juice to taste.
Toss in pasta. Add more butter or lemon juice to taste.
Finish with salt and pepper.

Mains, Petit Bites

First Anniversary Fish n Chips

Fried Fish:

3/4 cup Flour, plus some extra for dousing
3/4 cup corn starch
1 tsp baking powder
~ 1/3 cup Murphy’s double stout beer
water
pepper
1.5 pounds Atlantic cod filets
oil for frying

Mix flour, corn starch, baking powder, pepper. Add beer and enough water to make a thick pancake batter.
Refrigerate batter for 30 minutes.
Pat dry fish filets and season with salt. Douse with flour. Shake off excess.
Heat the oil to 375 degrees.
Batter fish and deep fry for 7-8 minutes. Be sure to gently place the fish in oil with tongs –hold it for about 3 seconds, don’t just drop in it the oil or it will stick to the bottom of the pot.

I didn’t like the chips I made so I’m not including the recipe. Next year I’m going to buy them frozen and bake them.

Appetizers, food notes, Parties, Petit Bites

Generic Borek {food notes}

saute onion & greens in olive oil & butter. Add chopped nuts. Mix in 1 egg, feta, crushed red pepper.

Filo, melted butter layer, filo, 2 eggs + ~1/4 cup milk, filo…

Roll, seam side down. 375, 30-45 minutes.

Desserts, Parties, Petit Bites

Chocolate Covered Eclairs

PASTRY: 1 cup water, 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 4 eggs.

Melt butter, water, salt over heat. Remove from heat and stir in flour until it forms a ball. Add eggs one at a time. Pipe on a foil/parchment lined and oiled baking sheet. Bake (convect) at 450 for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 325 and bake for 20 minutes. Cut steam vents in the sides immediately and let cool to room temp on a rack.

CUSTARD: 4oz box vanilla pudding, 2 cups whole milk, 1 cup heavy cream, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/8 tsp salt

Mix pudding mix and whole milk until smooth. In a separate bowl, whip the cream, sugar, vanilla, and salt until soft peaks form. Fold 1/3 of whipped cream into custard to lighten. Then fold in the rest of the whipped cream. **You may add 1 tsp of matcha powder to make green tea flavored custard, which is DIVINE**

CHOCOLATE SAUCE: ~1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, 2 tbsp butter, 1/2 – 2/3 cup powdered sugar, ~3 tbsp hot water, 1 tsp vanilla extract

Microwave chocolate and butter until chocolate is soft, stir until smooth. Stir in sugar. Add hot water 1 tbsp at a time until you get the right consistency (your taste). Add vanilla.

Notes:

a) pipe choux pastry/cream with plastic ziploc bags

b) to avoid grainy chocolate: after microwaving the chocolate and butter, stir in a few pieces of solid chocolate until it’s all melted, then add sugar etc. Doing this will ensure that the chocolate doesn’t turn out grainy–it’s science 🙂

recipe from hidden ponies

Petit Bites

Fettuccine with Sausage, Bell Pepper, Arugula

Petit Bites

Turkish Salad

tomato
cucumber, partially skinned
serrano/jalapeno pepper (can serve on the side or omit)
romaine lettuce
olive oil
lemon juice
salt

Dice the tomato and cucumber into small pieces (1/4 inch cube).
Lay 3 lettuce leaves on top of each other and thinly slice/shred (1/4 inch). Start from the white part and move up the leaf.
Mince the serrano/jalapeno pepper.
Toss veggies with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.

Side note: it’s important to make the veggies small. While I was there, I was once asked to make an “American” salad. As I was preparing the salad, the woman I was cooking with kept saying, “no, make a NICE salad, make it NICE, do it right”, meaning I wasn’t making it right because the veggies weren’t chopped small enough. Clearly, no one was interested in eating an American salad.

Petit Bites

Okra & Carrots in Tomato Sauce

Interesting Tips on Cooking Okra:

The problem with okra is that, like aloe vera, it’s slimy. I got frozen okra (whole and sliced) so I’m already at a disadvantage. I’m going to soak the okra in 1:1 water to vinegar for an hour, then dry it off well (salad spin, paper towels, dry out at room temp) and saute it over high heat. Apparently, the trick is to cook it quickly at high heat, then add it to the stew at the end. NO SALT should be added to okra until it’s ready to eat.

There are two ways I make this recipe: the weeknight version and “good” version. Weeknight version: fry tomato paste, add water, carrots, and okra. I suggest you use the “good” version even though it creates more dishes to wash and takes longer to make. Below is the “good version”.

~ 1 lb. Okra, whole
1 lb. Carrots, cut up in roughly same shape as the okra
3 tbsp tomato paste
butter
oil
~tbsp cornstarch or ~ 2 tbsp flour
1 fresh tomato, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
pinch of cumin (to taste)**
red chili pepper flakes
salt
water

Soak and dry okra.
In a soup pot, saute garlic in oil.
Add tomato paste and fry for 3 minutes. (continuously stirring)
Stir in the flour/cornstarch, cook 1 minute.
Add water gradually, stir vigorously to ensure there are no clumps.
In a skillet, saute the carrots in butter.
To the pot, add the sauteed carrots, tomatoes, and water enough to just cover it all.
Add cumin, red pepper, & salt.
Bring to a boil and simmer until the carrots are five minutes shy of cooked.
In a skillet, saute the okra over high heat.
Add okra to pot and cook for 5 minutes more.
Adjust the seasonings.
Serve with rice.