Community Crepes Cinnamon Waffles

Sorry there's been no blogs lately, but David's been home, and trust me, I am going to spend every last available second I have with him. But he's working a job today, which is good for our pocketbooks. I'm actually expecting his parents to drop by soon- I have a fresh batch of gingersnaps waiting for them. But Community! There is only ONE episode left before it goes on hiatus. Make sure you watch it and let the people over at NBC know that they better bring this show back!

This week on the show, Shirley and Jeff get some time together, after Jeff discovers that Shirley is an expert at Foosball. He enlists her to help him become better so that he can beat some annoying Germans who are loudly bogarting the Foosball table. There's a really fun, cute twist , but I won't spoil it for you. This is a clip of Shirley teaching him.

Waffles!

2 3/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 T baking powder
1 ts. salt
2 cups milk
3/4 cup oil
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Combine your dry ingredients, and then beat in the wet. Stir in your raisins, if desired. Pour batter onto a hot, greased waffle iron, and cook according to the appliance's specifications.

In all honesty, David made these. He loves to cook, and just didn't have the time when he was working, so I have no problem letting him have some fun in the kitchen....If only he'd clean it! Ha ha. Things are ok here, just hoping to hear from the government. It's frustrating when it could be today, or in 3 months. Just grateful for the time I have with David. Take care, eat some waffles!

Meatball Stew in Whole Wheat Rosemary Garlic Bread Bowls

So, everyone knows we're cranky at my house this week. Poor David is working outside in the cold for 12 hours a day this week, so not only does he  need comfort food, he needs hot, filling, substantial comfort food. And what better than stew? Stew in a bread bowl! David accidentally broke our crock pot this week too, so this is all stove top. Which is fun, since I've never done that before. I've never made bread bowls either, so it was an adventure.

 Stew:

4 cups aromatic liquid*
3 bay leafs
1 tbsp. Cayenne Pepper
1 dozen meatballs**
salt, pepper, to taste
3 carrots, chopped
3 potatoes, cubed
2 onions, chopped
1 head of garlic, chopped
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup H2O

1 cup frozen peas

*Beef Broth is probably best, but I didn't have it, so I did 2 cups chicken broth and 2 cups Dr. Pepper. You could use any dark soda, and even probably beer (and call it Irish!). Just depends on what you're looking for in terms of flavor.


**You can use frozen meatballs here, but homemade meatballs are super easy to make. 1 lb. lean ground beef, 1 egg, 1/2 cup oats, spices (I use sage, oregano, salt, and pepper- plus some Parmesan if I have it.) Shape, and bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes.

Place your aromatic liquid, meatballs, and spices in a dutch oven over medium heat, and allow to simmer covered for at least 30 minutes. Add all except the last 3 ingredients. Cover, and let simmer again for 2 hours (or so! The longer the better.) Stir together your flour and water, and add to the stew to thicken. In the last ten minutes of cooking, add the peas.


Bread:

4 cups AP flour
3 cups Whole Wheat Flour
5 tsp. yeast
1 Tbsp. Sugar
2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 cups warm water
2 Tbsp. EVOO + 2 Tbsp.

2 Tbsp dried rosemary
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
Coarse Salt


Dissolve your yeast in the warm (NOT hot!) water for 10 minutes. Add the sugar, 2 Tbsp EVOO, 2 tsp. salt, spices, and 4 cups of flour. Stir until combined, slowly adding the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time. (This is a lot of flour. It looks ridiculous to me, but it worked.) Knead in the bowl for a good ten minutes until completely combined, smooth, and elastic. Oil your dough ball, cover the bowl with a damp cloth, and let rise for about 45 minutes. It should double in size. After that, pull apart the dough into 6 even sections (I did 8, which would have been good for soup, but was way too small for stew.) and roll into balls. Place them on a greased cookie sheet, cover again, and let rise another 30 minutes. Then top with remaining oil and coarse salt, and bake in a 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, turning half way through. Let cool, scoop out the middle, fill with soup/stew, and enjoy!

This camera is awful. Somehow the bread looks anemic. But David loved it, and that's what matters to me. I hope everyone has a happy holiday!

Community Crepes (Mt. Dew Bacon)

Yes, these are about the unhealthiest pancakes you can make. Yes, I'm cranky, because Dave (unfortunately and unfairly) lost his job. Yes, that means he had to take one with a construction crew, meaning while he's standing outside freezing his tookus off, I'll be home alone....on Thanksgiving. Also, Community isn't coming back after Christmas. It's been 'shelved temporarily' whatever that means, so our nice one little thing has been spat on too. So, I'm less than a happy camper lately, so I saw no reason to have healthy Community Crepes this week.

This week on Community, the Dean decides to update the Greendale Community College commercial that has been in place since the 80's. When former student Luis Guzman decides to come help out, the Dean freaks out in an effort to make 'the perfect commercial' and just about loses his mind. Let's watch, shall we?

 

Recipe!

1 cup flour

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

3 tsp. oil

1 cup (ish) Mountain Dew

3 strips crumbled bacon

Ok, cook your bacon first. Then combine your dry ingredients. Add the oil, stirring to coat, and then the Mountain Dew til your batter forms. Stir in your bacon. Pour the batter into the same griddle or pan that you cooked your bacon in, so that the bacon grease acts as your lubricant, adding lots and lots of bacon flavor. If you don't have Mt. Dew, that's fine, just use milk. The soda adds some of those yummy bubbles as well as some nice height to the pancakes.

Sorry I'm cranky everybody. The good news is I have to move down south in 6 weeks, while we're still waiting on our lawyer to get back to us about David's paper work. Oh wait. I really shouldn't blog when I'm grumpy.

Whole Wheat Ginger Pear Muffins

Tuesday Baking for David's meeting again. I love to cook, but Dave and I are getting admittedly tired of dishes and living on a budget. It's life, and cooking is fun, but every now and then you just get tired of it, and it is so tempting to say to heck with it all, I'm ordering in.  But there always quick choices. I can make these muffins in 30 minutes easily, and they taste just as good as from the store.

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup ap flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. Ginger
1 large pear, chopped
2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cooking oil



Combine your dry ingredients. Make a well in the dry goods and beat in your wet ingredients, then the pear. Divy out into greased or sleeved muffin cups. Bake at 375 for about 15-20 minutes until slightly browned, and a toothpick comes out clean.

News developing here...stay tuned.

Community Crepes! (Whole Wheat Coconut!)

Happy Community Crepe Day! Also Veteran's Day! Also my friend's birthday! Also 11-11-11! etc., etc. Anyway, Community crepe day came at a good time for Dave and I. Dave's been working more and more hours, and it looks more and more like we're going to be apart for at least a few weeks at the beginning of the new year. We've both been down (winter blues, anyone?) and so it was especially nice to just sit and laugh this week. And it was a great episode for that! A really funny one this week.

Annie decides to move in with Troy and Abed, and of course hilarity ensues. Meanwhile, Jeff feigns sick to get out of helping with the move, but gets caught by an unlikely source. I love the clip above where expertly tricks Britta into believing he's actually sick. Lawyer'd!  Anyway, Pancakes!


1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
 1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. oil
1 cup milk (coconut milk if you have it!)
1 tsp. coconut extract
1/3 cup(ish) of coconut



Mix together your dry ingredients. Add your oil until it coats the flour evenly. Add the milk (coconut milk would be so yummy- plus you can whip the top layer into a whipped cream of sorts as a topping- so good!) and extract. Mix just until combined, and add the coconut. Mix until incorporated, and then ladle onto a hot, greased griddle. Let cook a good 5 or so minutes, then flip. Allow another 2-3 minutes, and then serve!

 Sorry about the pictures, had to use the computer camera again. But they were delicious, I swear! Coconut is fairly cheap, too. Very satisfying. Anyway, since it is Veteran's day (which, by the way, is a much bigger deal in Canada) I hope everyone will take a moment to thank the Veteran's in their life, and offer up a prayer to the ones we've lost, no matter what you're personal beliefs are. We owe them a lot. Enjoy!

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

First of all, in the effort of full disclosure, we got the idea for this from this site ( http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/StuffedPizza ) and I probably won't say anything that they didn't. None the less, David and I made a stuffed pizza last night! It was so, so delicious. I took a lot of pictures, so it will be more a step-by-step guide, more than an actual recipe. We used our 9 inch spring form pan, which worked perfectly. Nice chance to get it out of storage. Huzzah!

How good does that look? You know if you've been reading this blog that Dave and I love to cook, but are by no means professionals. That looks pretty awesome to me. In other words, if we can do it, so can you. First, use your favorite pizza dough recipe. Chances are, you could even do this with the pre-made dough, but you are going to have to roll it out. Pull off about 2/3 of your dough ball, and roll it out to about a 1/4 inch thickness. In other words, the dough needs to be fairly bigger than your pan. Then line your (very well greased!) pan with the dough.

It's supposed to spill over. That will come in handy. Then you fill it! Start with a nice layer of cheese- we chose cheddar, because that's what we had. It's a pizza, so the sky is the limit, really. We also added some crumbled bacon. We used 4 slices, if you're curious

Add the rest of your toppings, we cut up 1 large onion, and sauteed it for a bit, and also about 8 cloves of garlic. We really like garlic. Now is also a good time to add some spices. We stuck with the classics, oregano, cayenne, chili flakes, salt and pepper. We topped it off with a giant handful or two of spinach.








Remember again, that this is a pizza, so you can use absolutely anything you want in the filling. This is what we had and sounded good to us, so this is what we used.
Then take the other 1/3 of your dough and roll it out. Place it on top of everything and crease together it and the dough that has spilled over the lip. It doesn't have to look perfect, ours certainly did not.

Poke a lot of holes in the top dough. If you don't, I imagine it could explode and put quite a mess on your hands which would be, well, bad. Very bad. Then top with some pizza sauce and extra cheese!

Throw it in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Everything gets plenty cooked, believe me. You should remove the outer part of your pan immediately, but let the pie sit for a good ten minutes. Our final results was the first picture, and here, cut open:

It may not be the prettiest thing you've ever seen, but I'll be darned if it wasn't delicious. Dave and I liked it especially because we're not huge sauce fans. We love the cheese, and that was there in spades. The extra dough sponges up the extra juices that making it this way creates. It was SO yummy. I hope everyone will give it a try! It's only slightly more labor intensive than a regular pizza, but certainly looks more impressive. Yum. And again, fairly cheap and healthy(ish). We made our whole wheat dough from scratch, and filled it with yummy, cheap veggies. Hope you enjoy!

Sweet N' Spicy Sloppy Joes

Home made Sloppy Joes. Yum. I feel like I don't really have to say anything else. We didn't do Sloppy Joes a lot when I was a kid, but man are they delicious. When you add some veggies, and make the sauce home made, you can even pretend they're vaguely healthy. David even made some more home made whole wheat buns, so we're sitting pretty. But anyway, recipe!

 Sweet N' Spicy Sloppy Joes


1 lb. lean ground beef
1 large onion
3 large garlic cloves
2 tsp. chili flakes

1 small can tomato paste
1 cup water
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 heaping Tbsp. ginger
1 heaping Tbsp. Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. pepper

Chop your onions, chili flakes, and garlic and sautee over medium heat in a little bit of oil until translucent. Add your ground beef, and stir until completely brown and broken up. Press the ground beef with a paper towel to soak up the excess grease. Add the water, paste, sugar, and spices and mix until completely incorporated. Turn the heat to low, and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes until the sauce thickens. Spoon over buns, added whatever accoutrement you prefer (we like cheese and baby spinach.)

I really enjoy the spice and hint of sweetness in this. But you know, this dish can be so easily personalized. Add a bell pepper, leave out the ginger, whatever you like. And it is so, so cheap. It made about 4 big sandwiches, which I think would normally easily feed 4, but my husband really really liked them, so....he had about 3 1/3. But regardless, it streches that 1 lb. of ground beef a little further than say, hamburgers would. And when you add all the veggies, you end up hitting all your food groups. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Community Crepes! (Earl Grey)

So I had some fun this week with the pancakes. One of David's favorite things in the world is a big cup of Earl Grey tea. So this week I incorporated the tea into the pancakes. They were a pretty big hit. He and I are both still pretty exhausted from our trip to Toronto at the beginning of the week, on top of us trying to get everything straightened out with school and immigration. That made it extra nice just to have that 20 minutes to ourselves, to sit and laugh.

This week's Community episode is about Pierce dealing with his racist, old fashioned father. Along with that, Troy is trying to decide what to do with his life, and is being courted by both the air conditioning repair program and a plumber after they discover that Troy has 'a gift.'

Earl Grey Pancakes:

1 cup flour

1 tsp salt
2 tsp Baking powder
3 tsp. oil
1 cup brewed earl grey tea
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup oats (optional)

Mix together your dry ingredients, and then stir in the oil. Add your tea, vanilla, and oats then cook as normal (hot greased griddle, 4ish minutes each side.) Depending on how strong you want the flavour to be, you need to let your tea steep accordingly. I wish I had let mine steep longer, as it was more of a hint of the flavour. The oats aren't necessary, per se, but they do add some texture to these. I also would have loved to add some pecans, but we don't have any.

Anyway, these were a fairly large success, and it might be fun to try other teas in the future. Like I said, we're pretty worn out over here- if you couldn't tell by the picture Dave took. Not sure what's going to be going on here in the near future. We did decide we're going to host a Thanksgiving dinner here for some friends, so I'm looking forward to that. Hope everything is well with everyone out there!

Halloween Treats (Caramel Apples and Tortilla Chips)

Neither Dave nor I are big Halloween fans. In fact, pretty much the opposite. Dave was raised sans-Halloween (and perhaps rightfully so- not a lot um, 'holy' about it) and I am easily terrified by just about everything. Plus, people like to use Halloween as an excuse to act stupid- and then they add alcohol. So, not a lot of celebrations at our house. As a matter of fact, I think about all we did was watch the Community Halloween episodes. They're pretty classic. However, I can not let a holiday (read: excuse to make themed food) pass without making something. So Dave and I made some snacks to take to his work for everyone to enjoy.

Caramel Apples:

5 Apples
a large splash (2-3 Tbsp?) milk

a 700 gram package of pre wrapped caramels
Popsicle sticks or trimmed skewers

Unwrap all your caramels and put them in a large, microwave safe bowl. (This takes forever.) Add the milk and  microwave for about 3 minutes, stopping it every minute to stir vigorously (and I mean vigorously- I made Dave stir.) when a smooth caramel forms, take your chilled (clean! Scrub them good to get the wax off so the caramel will stick) apples by the sticks (popped into where the stem was) and using a spoon, dip and twirl them in the caramel until thickly coated. Do this as quickly as possible, and them pop them in the refrigerator. These are super yummy, Dave had 2 right off the bat. I kind of felt like I was cheating, not making my own caramel, but I wanted to try it this way.

We also made our own little tortilla chips! Using your favourite tortilla recipe, instead of rolling the dough into rounds, roll our flat and cut out fun shapes using cookie cutters! We used a ghost and a pumpkin. After you cook them (like you would a regular tortilla) bake them in a 400 degree oven, about 6 minutes on each side, topped with a thin coat of oil and spices of choice (I chose salt and cayenne pepper.) Then enjoy! We served ours with some salsa that we added some chopped jalapeno and garlic to. Easy, cheap, and yummy. That's pretty much what we're going for. Hope you enjoyed your holiday safely!

World Series Sustenance

There is nothing quite like winning the World Series. It turns men into boys, and boys into men. It connects generations with nothing else common. It makes friends into enemies, and enemies into friends. Think I'm exaggerating? I'm really not. Yes, in case you hadn't heard, the St. Louis Cardinals are the 2011 World Series Champions for the 11th time!!

from Dalil America

Nothing quite like Baseball in the world, and there's nothing quite like this series that I've ever seen before. It went a full 7 games, and the Cardinals were down to their last strike twice. But they came from behind, winning in spectacular fashion. This is the second World Series victory for the Cards that I remember, and the third that we've been to (Curse the Sox!) Our MVP was David Freese, and boy did he earn it. The best part is that he grew up a Cardinals fan, and got to deliver for his actual home team.

From Time

But my favorite part was that in the 7th inning of the final game, I got to Skype with my parents who were visiting my brother. That means that my Parents, my brother Curt, and David and I all got to be 'together' (more or less) when the Cardinals won it. That doesn't necessarily mean much to most people, but Cardinal baseball is one thing that connects us more than just about anything else. My Dad and I don't always have a lot to talk about, but there is always Cardinal baseball. My Grandpa, who passed away almost exactly 2 years ago was a huge Cardinals fan. I miss him more than I can say, but Cardinal baseball is still there, to remind me of him. In fact, some of my favourite memories are going to his house, while he grilled Pork Steaks, Burger, Hot Dogs, whatever while we watched the game.

Ah, yes. Baseball food. Despite the fact that it is below freezing here today, Baseball is actually a summer sport. Which means lots of grilled foods. Dave and I grilled burgers for Game 7 (here's our recipe: http://ktcarleton-cookingwithnothing.blogspot.com/2011/08/bacon-and-cheddar-stuffed-sliders-and.html This time we made them bigger though.) And for Game 5 We grilled Brats, after boiling them in Root Beer first. And for Game 1, we put a pork roast in the crock pot, covered it in root beer, and set it to low for 8 hours. When it was done, we pulled it and added some barbecue sauce, and bang, pulled pork. Yum. We put them on our home made buns, which are below. There are no real recipes for these, so it's kind of a waste of a blog, but I had to brag about the series. Besides, everyone knows the classics.

from Indiana Insider

But We did make buns using a modified version of Dave's mom's recipe for bread. I don't feel right sharing it, since it's not mine to share, but I did get to style them which is fun. And I'll share that with you. Just start with your favorite bread recipe (though you may want to halve, or even quarter it.) When you get to the part where you would be putting them into loaf pans, pinch of a tennis ball size worth of dough and roll out to look like a snake.

Then go to tie a knot with the dough, like you would the first step of tying your shoes. But because it's dough, it doesn't really look like that, but one length of the dough will be folded in, like so.

Take the remaining length, and fold under the center of the dough to form a knot.

 We added some oil to the tops with poppy seeds and voila, home made hamburger buns that look pretty nice! They were delicious, too.  So, I know not everyone is a baseball fan, or even a sports fan, but I do hope everyone has something like that the brings the whole family together, gets rid of the petty squabbles and the worries, and helps them relax and enjoy the company of their family. I did forget to mention that we made chocolate chip cookies one night, too. Here's my favourite that Dave made for me. :) Enjoy!

Community Crepes! (Halloween Edition!)

So, as everyone knows, Monday is Halloween. We're not big fans of Halloween at my house. David didn't grow up with it, and frankly, it scares the tar out of me. I'm easily frightened, and get Nachtmares easily. So last year we holed up, ate grilled cheese shaped like ghosts, and watched Young Frankenstein. Not sure what we'll do this year, but it's definitely off to a good start with last night's Community!

The basic plot is that Britta, a new Psych major, decided to give everyone a personality test. The tests came back, and the results stated that 1 member of their group had homicidal tendencies. Since the tests were anonymous, Britta decides to make the whole group tell ghosts stories to try and figure out who is the insane one. Ee! So much fun! Recipe!

Orange-Chocolate Pancakes:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. orange extract
3 Tbsp. Orange Marmalade
2 tsp. oil
3/4 cup milk



Mix together your dry ingredients, and then stir in your oil and marmalade til crumbly. Add your milk and extract, until desired consistency. Spoon out onto a hot, greased, griddle and cook about 2-3 minutes on both sides. Om nom! By the way, I like 1/4 cup measure for scooping out batter if you don't want to eyeball it.

Well, that's about it! I did try to pour the batter into a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter, but it was just too detailed, so it didn't end up looking any different. But if you had a bat or a ghost, it might work out well for you, for that extra something. I like that I got to use the black (chocolate) and the orange (orange) for the official Halloween thing. Hope everyone enjoys!

Pineapple Bread

Happy Monday everybody! It's been a long week already over here. Can't say it's anything exciting, per se, but it feels like there's always something to be done. I can tell that winter is just a stone's throw away...the sky is looking grey, and I've already added one of my Nana's quilts to the bed. I am excited, though, because Dave has a conference in Toronto this weekend, and I found a good hotel for 50 bones...at least 1/2 of what it would normally be. So hopefully we'll get some nice time just the two of us. Also, Dave said I can have American Thanksgiving here, and we're inviting a few friends. So I'll be going into party planning mode these next few weeks! Which is SO much fun. But tomorrow is another one of Dave's morning meetings, which means a breakfast for the boys. This week I made a loaf of Pineapple Bread! This is MY recipe, so I'm kind of proud of it. (PS, sorry about the bad pictures...was using the CPU camera.)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (melted)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp rum ex (opt)
2 eggs
8 oz can pineapple (not drained)
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
3/4 cup coconut (optional)
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Stir together your butter, eggs, and extract. Make sure you let your butter cool down so it doesn't cook the eggs. Stir in your Pineapple and its juice, then add the sugar. Add to it your dry ingredients, mixed well, until a nice batter forms. Add coconut or nuts if desired (I didn't because I didn't have any...but I bet it'd be good! Especially toasted...) reserving some to sprinkle on top. Pour into a greased loaf pan, and bake in a 350 oven for 45-55 minutes. Should be golden brown on top, with a toothpick inserted in the middle coming out clean. Let cool, slice, and enjoy! Or, wrap in foil and keep for a few days.

This made the house smell soooo good. It was super buttery, so you could maybe cut down on the butter, or cut it with oil, but this is how I made it and it was delicious. I hope everyone enjoys it. Best of all- Super cheap. I think everyone has a can of pineapple sitting in the recesses of their pantry, and if not they're cheap. We had everything we needed to make this in our kitchen. How great is that? Plus, it's fairly low in sugar (in fact, you could probably cut it even more) and hey, it's fruit, right? Enjoy!

Homemade Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

I'm super proud of these. I don't work with yeast very often- it scares the tar out of me. I mean, it's alive, people. ALIVE. If that's not scary, I don't know what is. But, as some of you know, every Tuesday Dave has a morning meeting at work and I make breakfast for them. So far it's been mainly muffins, with biscotti and scones tossed in. But when we were up at Dave's mom's, she gave us a big thing of yeast. So, after an intense stare down with the yeast, I decided to tackle the most popular breakfast food out there- The cinnamon roll.

In the effort of full disclosure, I adapted the recipe from here ( http://www.pinkofperfection.com/2009/03/overnight-cinnamon-rolls/ ). These were super delicious, and I'm pretty -shall we say- iffy when it comes to pastry, and these were pretty simple for me. Recipe!

Dough:  1/3 cup butter
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup white sugar
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup milk

Filling: 1 1/3 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 cup butter

Icing: 1 cup (ish) powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. Flour
1 Tbsp. Vanilla
2 tsp. salt

To make your dough, heat the milk (btw, I used soy- it made the dough kind of sweet, which was yummy) in a saucepan over medium heat until it lightly bubbles. Remove from heat and add butter. (Full disclosure- you could probably do this just as easily in the microwave.) Let cool til lukewarm (I do this by sticking my finger in it- it shouldn't feel more than slightly warm to you-Remember, heat kills yeast.) Meanwhile, mix 2 1/2 cups of the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. When milk has cooled, add it to the flour mixture, along with the eggs. Once combined, add an additional 1/2 cup of flour until it is all incorporated (When I was making this it seemed like waaaay too much flour to me- but it worked out, so stir!) Turn out on floured cutting board and knead (I did this in the bowl. Just as easy.) Cover with damp cloth, and let rest 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, Mix together all your ingredients (except the butter) for your filling in a bowl. Then Roll out dough to a big fat rectangle. The original recipe said 9x12. I don't know if that's what mine was or not. Scatter your filling, then dot with butter. Roll up your dough lengthwise, and seal your seam. Cut your dough into equal portions. (I find the easiest way to do that is to cut it in half first-takes some of the guess work away. I ended up with 13 cinnamon rolls.)  Place in greased 9x13 pan (or if you're me and haven't cleaned it yet, 2 9 inch pie pans.) Cover and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, pull out the rolls, and let them get to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Then pop them in the oven at 375 for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. While they bake, whisk together your glaze (and, if you live in my house, make coffee for your husband.) Pour your glaze over the rolls, and serve warm!

The best part of these is that the filling (butter and cinnamon) melt a little in the oven, and drip to the bottom of the pan, so you have this slightly crunchy, sugary almost crust on the bottom of your rolls. These are great for Sunday mornings, you can just pop them in the oven while you get ready for church, but you still have a nice family breakfast waiting on you. Or for any night owl, to be frank. I really enjoyed these, and they're going in my personal recipe book. Wanted to say hello to Lauren, my brand new soon-to-be sister-in-law! I'm really excited to have her be part of my family soon. These are easier than they look, and I know Bryan would like them! :) Enjoy, all!

Community Crepes! (Totally Cheating Edition!)

Okay, so confession. Our Pancakes blew this week. They weren't really THAT bad, but I'm a bit embarrassed to post about them... So I'm not. Problem Being, this week was one of the best episodes of Community. The gang is hanging out in Troy and Abed's (Trobed) new apartment, and the buzzer rings. Someone has to go let the pizza guy in. Jeff rolls a dye to determine who fetches the pizza, thus creating 7 different time lines. So here's a clip, and we'll talk more in a minute.

After this, each time a different member of the study group goes and gets the pizza with some very interesting results. It's a really fun episode. Waaaaatch it.

Now, since this is a food blog, and I am too ashamed to share my pancakes with you, I will tell you where my favourite pancakes are. It's kind of a no-brainer. When my brothers and I were kids, on weekends we would sometimes go to Perkins with Nana and Papa. They had cute little kids meals, like a pancake in the shape of a bear. Also, they have delicious pancakes (also omelets.) It's the source of a lot of fun memories from when I was a kid. When we moved to Searcy, there was no Perkins. So every time we went to visit Nana and Papa, our butts were in a Perkins booth. These days Dave and I are lucky enough to live in town with a Perkins. Did I mention it's (comparatively) cheap?? The pancakes are the size of your head, and you get them with bacon, eggs, toast, muffins, whatever for next to nothing. Plus, if you sign up on the website, they'll periodically send you 20% off coupons, which Dave and I use all the time.( http://prkmc.fbmta.com/members/UpdateProfile.aspx?Action=Subscribe&InputSource=web )  We'll both get our meals, and be out for less than $20 easy, plus, we rarely eat everything, so it's usually two meals. Can you beat that? No. So go watch Community, and then eat at Perkins!

Crackers, Pictures, and News

If you read my last post, you know David and I just returned from a trip up to New Liskeard to see his parents and get our car fixed. We were there from Friday until late Tuesday night, as Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving. We got to visit with his mom and dad, but Dave's sister Kristy was staying at the house too with her family (husband Mike, kids Ruby and Vilho.) It was really nice to get to see them, since Kristy was David's best friend a lot- they roomed together when they both left the nest. I love seeing them, because since David is the youngest and I'm seven years younger than him, I'm closest in age (and therefore have more in common) with Kristy. Plus, her husband Mike and I can argue talk sports all day. But I'll admit, I enjoy playing with Ruby just about the most.

Ruby is 2, and has more energy than I knew a person could have. I have 9 nieces and nephews, and while they all call me Aunt Caiti, these two are the only ones who will grow up knowing me as that, and that puts them at a special place in my heart. Ruby was born just before Dave and I started dating, and when he showed me the picture he took of newborn Ruby before we got together, I think I fell in love with him a little bit more. And I visited Vilho in the hospital the morning after he was born. I chased around Ruby and we played all day long. Her favourite game was telling me to 'go to sleep' (at which point I closed my eyes and snored) and she sneaked up on me and went 'RAAAWR' while I shrieked in feigned fright as she giggled. Baby Vilho was such a treat- he's not 3 months yet, but he is such a good baby. Dave and I slept across the hall, and we never woke up. We did have a start when one day Dave and I were sitting in our room at the the top of the stairs when we heard a crash followed by two children shrieking. We rushed out, and it turns out Kristy had been taking them to the bed room when Ruby slipped and wanged her knee.Her yell scared Vilho and he started to cry too. I ended up with the baby somehow, and got to calm him down. Mostly by standing under the ceiling fan as he stared at it.

Throughout this, David was working e'er so diligently on getting his truck up and running. He aligned the front wheels himself, reattached the front bumper, and had to rig up some license plate lights (I hate when he does electrical work!) Then we took it to the shop early Tuesday morning (because everyone was closed all weekend) where they worked until noon, and charged us almost 300 dollars... which was okay, that was what we budgeted. We were rushing, because it's a 3 hour trip, and David started work at 5. We got to New Liskeard a little before 1, and David was upset because something was amiss. So we stopped and he checked, and sure enough his front brake line was broken. So we had to find somebody to take him last minute, and luckily enough, we did. Unluckily, it cost an additional 250. We don't have that, but luckily David knew the guy, and he took an IOU. David and I were both cranky, because Dave had to miss work, and our poor cat had been alone since Friday. Plus, we had both said prayers thanking God for letting our car get fixed on the cheap right before the brake line broke. But he made up for it. Check out the walk we took while the car was getting fixed (the second time) and our drive home!

Though, we got home safe so we can't really complain. Plus, Dave's mom sent us home with some booty! She got a huge thing of flour that she found on sale, plus sent us home with home made strawberry, rhubarb, peach, and rose hip jam. Plus home made pickles. Beat that! So in the spirit of which this blog was intended, here's our cracker recipe which we topped with the peach jam.





 1 1/4 flour (whole wheat works great!)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. oil
1/3 cup(ish) of water
coarse salt.

Mix your flour and salt, then stir in your oil until crumbly. Mix in your water until a drier dough comes together, then role out on a silpat (or greased foil- it should take up nearly the whole sheet, 9x13.) Top with coarse salt, and bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes until slightly browned and firm to the touch. You have to keep your eye on it, because if you take it out too soon they won't be crispy, too late and they burn. Once they cool, break them up into bite size pieces, or if you want a neater presentation, score the dough with a pizza cutter before you bake. The real beauty of this recipe is that it is infinitely flexible. You can add any spice, and even some oats or seed to add depth. Our favourite variations: Rosemary Black Pepper, Spicy (we add smoked paprika and cayenne,) and cinnamon sugar (we add a couple Tbsp. of brown sugar to the dough, along with freshly grated cinnamon, and replace the salt on top with sugar.) But really the sky is the limit. We made ours plain so we could top them with this amazing jam.

I hope you had a good holiday weekend, whether it was Thanksgiving or Columbus day. We're supposed to be hearing more soon on David's immigration stuff, so keep praying! Enjoy some crackers!