Apple Juice Pancakes with Sauteed Apples

Let me start by saying that it began with only 1 cp. of milk.



I woke up this morning with my husband and kids asking for pancakes. I pulled out all my normal ingredients for my pancake batter. When I started making the pancakes I realized I only had 1 cp. of milk! I needed 1 3/4! What was I going to do!? I decided to substitute with Apple juice. My husband hates fruit IN his pancake, so I made a Apple topping. I usually do not commend myself but I WAS SO PROUD! It turned out so so good. Put it this way, both kids finished there entire plate! That never happens! That is the greatest compliment ever! HAPPY KIDS, HAPPY HUSBAND, AND HAPPY ME! The morning is off to a good start!





APPLE JUICE PANCAKES

1 cp. milk
3/4 cp. apple juice
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 TB butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cp. sugar
2 cps. flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
pinch salt



1. I added the cinnamon, flour, salt, and baking powder and sifted it. Set it aside.

2. In the mixer I added the milk, apple juice, eggs, sugar, vanilla and butter. Mixed until combined. Slowly added the sifted mixture.

3. Cook on a oiled skillet. Add a 1/4 cp. batter per pancake. When it bubbles then flip it.



The Easy Topping: (Let me just say, I ran out of butter too! Haha. It is my shopping day today. But if you want to add some butter be my guest. But this turned out wonderful this way.



In a Skilled add two apples diced with 1/2 cp of apple juice, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, and 1/4 cp. Maple syrup. Cook only a few minutes. You do not want the apples to get to soft!

Bacon and Egg Salad

My husband and I love salads. I was raised where we had a salad as a side for every meal. I make a huge salad almost every night. Today, the husband came home for work and wanted something healthy but filling for lunch. I made this salad and it was perfect. He finished it quickly and then fell asleep for an hour before heading back to work.
I bought organic local grown Arugula, Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Peppers that I could not wait to use. It was mighty tasty.


1 Head of Arugula
4 Cps of Mixed Greens
1/2 cucumber, sliced thing
1 Banana Pepper
1 Red Pepper
1/2 Red Onion, Slice thin
1 to 2 cups of Cherry Tomatoes
1 Carrot, sliced thin
2 Hard Boiled Eggs
4 Slices Bacon
Parm Cheese

Dressing of Choose.

I bought all of these ingredients at the farmers market and I could not wait to make a huge salad! Throw everything together and top with the bacon and eggs and some fresh Parm Cheese.

Sirloin Steak Sandwich and Stir Fry

I have been nicknamed "Sandwich Queen". I make my husband sandwiches on a regular basis. He loves them and I love being creative with what I have in the kitchen. This week I made two loafs of sourdough bread! I made it from the Panera Bread recipe. It turned out perfect! I figured that steak would make an incredible combo with it.

I grilled the bread with butter and I could of just ate a the loaf of bread that way. So yummy. But I topped with with mozzarella cheese, then fries, and more mozzarella cheese and put it in the broiler. When the cheese was brown and crispy I added the steak. Then topped it off with carmalized onions! What a sandwich!
I marinated the sirloin with a bottle of A1, 1 cp. of soy sauce, salt and pepper.

We had a ton of steak leftover, so I made a stir fry out of it last night. It turned out really well.

Sirloin Steak Stir Fry

3 TB butter
1/4 cp. diced green onions
My leftover beef and carmalized onions
1 bag of frozen brocoli or fresh if you have it.
3 tsp. of garlic
3 tsp. hot chilli sauce
2 tsp. sugar
1 cp. of stir fry sauce
salt and pepper
Rice

1. Melt the butter and add the garlic and green onions until soft. Add the steak and carmalized onions until warm and brown. Add the brocolli until tender. Add the sauce and seasoning!
2 Serve on rice.

Spider Cupcakes for My Girls

My girls love Halloween. My oldest has been asks, "Is Halloween tomorrow?" Almost everyday. I figured I would create something special for them. I bought a book called Ghoulish Goodies. Wow, what a great book.

I created these cupcakes from that book! Not to mention, they are super simple and look terrific!


THE RED VELVET CUPCAKE:

1 3/4 cp. flour
2 heaping TB of unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Sift together and set aside.

3/4 cp. veg. oil
1 sugar
1 cp. buttermilk
2 eggs
2 TB red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla
1 cp. chocolate chips

In a mixer add the sugar, veg. oil and buttermilk. Mix well. Add one egg at a time. Add the red food color and mix until red everywhere. Add the vanilla and chocolate chips.

Slowly add the sifted dry ingredients

Put in Cupcake tins. Bake on 350 for 18 minutes. Cool for Ten Minutes.



The Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz. cream cheese, soft
1 stick of butter, soft
6 cps confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extracts
1/2 cp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Beat the eggs and butter until smooth. Add one cup of sugar at a time. When all the sugar is used add the vanilla and cocoa. When cupcakes are cool top them with the icing


Use red licorice strings for the legs
I used Halloween M&M's for the eyes.
Chocolate Sprinkles

After icing the cupcake add as much chocolate sprinkles to make it look hairy. Press the legs and eyes in.
I let the girls decorate. If you look at the picture there is some cupcake with multiple eyes, my husband made those.....IT WAS A FAMILY AFFAIR!! SO MUCH FUN!!!

Autumn Cheesecake

I must admit, this is the best cheesecake ever! This is absolutely perfect for the fall. This is my husbands all time favorite cheesecake. I also brought this to my family friends Thanksgiving party and it was a favorite.




I found this on Allrecipes.com one of my favorite sites. I changed a few things. I honestly think this cake should be illegal. It is so good. I could eat the entire pie.

AUTUMN CHEESECAKE

Crust:
1 cp. graham crackers
1/2 cp. pecans
3 TB. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cp. melted butter

1. In a food processor mix the sugar, cinnamon, graham crackers, and pecans. After freshly ground add the melted butter. Push into a 9 in. spring pan. Bake on 350 for 10 min.



3 soft cream cheeses
3 eggs
3/4 cp. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
5 cps. peeled and sliced apples
1/2 cp. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cp. ground pecans

1. cream the cheese and sugar together. Add one egg at a time. Add the vanilla. Pour into the cool crust.
2. Toss the apples, sugar and cinnamon. Top the cream cheese with the apples. Add the pecans to the top.
3. Bake on 350 for 70 minutes.

Smoked Pork Shoulder

The smoked shoulder that I smoked for over 12 hours! It turned out better then I have ever expecting!
Check out the pictures and the amazing outcome....I LOVE MY NEW SMOKER BOX!

I rubbed the pork shoulder with a layer of mustard (1/2 to 1 cp of mustard, depends on how big the pork shoulder is).
The rub I used (1/4 cp. paprika, 2 TB. seasoned salt, 2 TB garlic powder and 2 TB pepper). I rubbed the meat on top of the mustard and let it sit over night. The next morning my husband put it on the grill at 6 am and we took it off the grill around 4 pm. When the meat was beginning to fall from the bone.

My Purple Slaw

1/2 onion, sliced very thin

2 carrots, grated,

1/2 or 8 cps. shredded red lettuce

1/4 cp red win vinegar

4 TB olive oil

2 TB sugar

1 tsp. garlic powder and paprika

salt and pepper

1. I mixed the vinegar, oil, sugar, garlic,paprika, salt and pepper. Whisk until well combined. Toss the shredded veggies in the dressing.

This a picture of the pork when I pulled it for sandwiches. It was fantastic.

The sandwich!!

What do you do with all the pork leftover. I guess, you could continue to make sandwiches, but I wanted to try something different. I decided to make pulled pork egg rolls. I know that sounds weird, but it was awesome! It was worth the extra work.

PULLED PORK EGG ROLLS!

Leftover pulled pork

Leftover slaw

Egg roll wrappers

Egg

water

Whisk the egg and water together and make a egg wash.



Add a heaping helping of pork in the center of the egg roll wrapper.


Top it with the slaw.

Roll the one corner up and egg wash all ends.

Fold in both sides and the roll like a jelly roll. It should be sealed by the egg wash.

Believe it or not, I baked these babies!! Or should I say I broiled them until brown and crunchy and then turned them to the other side.When both sides where brown and crunchy they were done. I served with your favorite BBQ sauce.

Trust me, you will enjoy these babies.

Chicken Scampi Risotto

Sorry, I have been celebrating my Birthday and I have been doing some crazy shopping with the gift cards I have received.(Believe it or not, I hate to clothes shop. I love to shop for food. LOL) How fun!! I bought a new massive wok and a smoker box, which I am using right now. We put a 10 lb pork shoulder on the grill with the smoker box at 6 am. I will let you know tomorrow how it turns out!


Anyway, this dish turned out fantastic. I was going to make Chicken Scampi pasta, until there was no pasta in the cupboard and two bags of risotto. I made this instead and it turned out even better then any pasta dish. My husband said he would prefer this dish.

Chicken Scampi Risotto

6 Chicken Breast, (Pounded until thin)
1 cp. flour
salt and pepper
2 TB Olive oil
2 TB butter

Add the salt and pepper to the flour and dredge the chicken into the flour. If you need to add more flour for the chicken go ahead.
Add the butter and oil to a hot pan. Put the chicken in the pan and brown both sides. Remove and put on a plate.

6 TBS butter
1/2 cp. chopped red onion
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 green pepper, julienned
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 cp. white wine
1/2 cp. chicken broth

Melt the butter over medium in a pan. Add the onions and peppers and cook until soft. Add the garlic. Do not let it brown. Saute. Add the wine and let it reduce by half and add the chicken broth. Add the chicken to the pan. Let simmer.

The Risotto

2 cps. Risotto rice
1/2 cp. white wine
6 cps hot chicken broth
4 TB butter
2 TB olive oil
3/4 cp. parm cheese

1. Add 2 TB butter and olive oil to a pan. Add the rice and saute. 2 min. Add the wine until dissolved. Add a ladle of chicken broth at a time. Each time that it is absorbed add another ladle until finished. Taste it. When ready add the parm and 2 TB butter. It should take about 21 minutes.

ENJOY!!!!!