The Dutch Baby

My mom introduced me to the Dutch Baby when I was a teen. It's a German pancake. It is usually served sweet like American pancakes. It can be season with vanilla and cinnamon. It can be sprinkled with powdered sugar or a fruit topping. We would just drizzled with maple syrup.  One impressive characteristic of the Dutch Baby is how it looks when it's baked.  One bakes it in a metal pan in the oven.  When it comes out of the oven the batter has grown up the sides of the pan to probably 5 times the size it originated.  Like a Soufflé though it quickly shrinks down to less than half it's former state.  That is why mom always made sure we were seated around the table before the Dutch Baby came out of the oven.

The sweet Dutch Baby was never our favorite when we discovered the savory type. I found a recipe call a Meaty Dutch Baby back in the 1980's. I don't know where I got it and a search on the Internet provided no Meaty Dutch Baby recipes to my surprise.  It came from a magazine and I'm guessing it might have been Sunset.  As it was my favorite magazine at the time.

Like the original Dutch Baby it does puff up in the oven, but not nearly as high.  I have baked it in a glass pan and a metal pan and it does puff higher in a metal pan.  The puffing does really nothing to the flavor it's just very appealing to the eye.  I have made this more and transported it than eaten it at home.  It's a favorite wherever I take it.

Another characteristic of making a Dutch Baby is you can't... let me put this delicately... fart around once you get to the mixing of the batter.  Have your eggs, milk and flour already measured and ready to blend.  You mix up the batter in order stated, pull hot pan from oven, pour into hot pan, throw on cheese... don't take a lot of time here to sprinkle too neatly.... and return pan to oven.  The pan and filling being hot is what makes the pancake rise.  Too much dilly dallying or not mixing batter in proper order results in a flat pancake.  Now don't get all nervous and burn yourself trying to be fast.  Just remember to not take the time to pour batter in neat concentric circles or scrape every drop of batter from blender or try and sprinkle the cheese on evenly and consistently.  It doesn't matter.   Keeping it hot does.

Meaty Dutch Baby
Prepare filling (recipe below)

4T butter
1 cup cheddar cheese or 1/3 cup Parmesan
4 eggs
1 cup each milk and flour

In same frying pan, make sure there is at least 5T of fat, add butter to make up difference.  Place pan with filling in 425°F oven until butter melts and bubbles.  Quickly, in blender break eggs, whirl for a minute, with motor running add milk then add flour whirl 30 seconds.  Quickly pour into hot pan and sprinkle with cheese.
Bake about 20 minutes.

Sausage Filling - Crumble 1/2 pound jimmy Dean regular sausage into frying pan.  Stir over medium heat for about 2 to 3 minutes.  Add chopped green chiles (1 small can California green chiles), 1 small onion (chopped), 1 minced garlic clove, and 1/2 tsp each dry basil and thyme leave.  Brown slightly.

Return above for instructions.

My daughter likes it with Tapatio hot sauce.  Lots of Tapatio hot sauce.  Youch!

Return of the Giant Cookie

Thursday was yet another rainy day.  Probably the 14th one in a row and I'm not exaggerating.  I'm not going to complain as we need the snow in the mountains even if it means the valley gets water logged.  After school on Thursday as we fought the wind and the rain to get home my daughter says I really want some chocolate.  We were already home by then and I wasn't about to go back out in the storm.  I checked around in my pantry and I had all the makings for chocolate chip cookies.  My daughter asked if I could make a giant cookie.  I said yes.  Then I checked my pantry again and I had a bag of Special Dark Hershey Kisses.  I love making my giant cookies with chocolate chips that look to scale of a cookie that big.  Plus the chocolate would impress 3 teenagers with cabin fever.

I used 1 1/2 times my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, one bag of Special Dark Kisses unwrapped (instead of chocolate chips), one round piece of baking parchment (trimmed to round shape) and my round Pampered Chef baking stone.  Use baking parchment I think it's what keeps cookie dough from running off of stone as per my Pampered Chef consultant.  Smooth cookie dough out to within 1 inch of edge NO CLOSER.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 stick Crisco® Baking Sticks Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional)

PREPARATION DIRECTIONS:

1. HEAT oven to 375ºF.

2. COMBINE shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into shortening mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

3. DROP by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.

4. BAKE 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies, or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet on a cooling rack. Remove cookies to rack to cool completely.

TIP* If nuts are omitted, add an additional 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Have You Ever Thought You'd Been Accosted!

Mary Anne Oger from one of my favorite machine knitting blogs was accosted in a grocery or so she thought.  A strange person grabbed her to get her attention, because she liked her scarf.  The story reminded me of the time my mom and I were accosted in a fabric store.

Oh it's one of those funny stories that gets told every so often, but at the time we thought we were in mortal danger.

My crafting gene was in full swing by the time I was 14.  My mother and I were on one of our many trips to the fabric store to feed my sewing habit.  I made a lot of my own clothes.  My secret loop hole to the clothing budget.  My parents bought me all the fabric I wanted, because I was of course learning a valuable skill.  Anyhow we were at the sewing store.  Perusing the fabrics.  Chatting about my pattern and what color of fabric I was looking for.  Enjoying a shopping trip... enjoying some mother/daughter time when all of a sudden a creepy old man lunges at us.  His hands are held in front of him fingers curled in a menacing claw like manner.  He was yelling, "Raaaaarrrrrrrrrr!!!!"  My mother and I screamed bloody murder and grab each other in a tight hug.  I had my eyes closed convinced the man was going to strike us or something worse.

Suddenly, it was quiet.  I opened my eyes to see what was coming next and the man was standing in front of us with a smile on his face.  Now my mom and I are puzzled.  He asks, "Well?"  My mom and I look at one another and back at the man trying to understand what the heck was going on.  He asked me directly, "Well, do you still have the hiccups?"  We both suddenly relax and realize he was trying to scare the hiccups out of me.  Yes, he did scare the hiccups out of me and nearly a few other things.

My mom and I gave him a forced smile and went on our way.  We weren't nearly as thankful as I think he thought we should be.  Instead we walked around the corner away from his sight and grabbed our chests and breathed several great sighs of relief.  It was only then we could chuckle at the ridiculousness of the whole situation.  Poor guy thought he was doing a good deed and we just thought he was creepy.

Red Velvet for Valentine's Day

I decided to make Red Velvet cupcakes, so my kids and I could treat our friends for Valentine's Day.  I don't have a recipe for this and did a search coming up with Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cupcakes.

It looked fairly simple.  I had all the ingredients, but buttermilk.  The recipe surprised me that it only had 1 tsp of cocoa powder.  The batter mixed up easily.

My handy dandy cookie scoop always makes filling cupcake tins so easy.

Into the convection oven they went for 20 minutes.

They baked up perfectly.  No mushroom top to fight with when frosting.

I was told to not beat the batter too much and do not fill the cupcake tins too much for that nice flat top to frost.

I used a large star shaped icing tip to swirl on the frosting.

I figured out that I liked starting from the center and working out in a circular pattern.  Better than starting on the outside and working my way in.  Personal preference.  I thought they looked kind of rose like when I started from the center.

To top things off I used a Wilton heart shaped plastic candy tray to form the chocolate hearts.  So, simple.  Melt Wilton red chocolate in microwave in a plastic bag.  Cut tip off corner of bag.  Pipe melted chocolate into plastic heart shape molds.  Stick tray in freezer for about 15 minutes.  The hearts pop right out.

Everyone has cupcakes to treat their friends tomorrow.

Winston the Bionic Dog is Doing Great

He has just one problem... he doesn't look when you call him.  He also doesn't come when you call him either.  I've never met a dog I couldn't get to look at the camera with a number of different word tricks.  He didn't fall for a single one.  Never does.  After he's healed my SIL plans in putting him in obedience lessons to find out how to get his attention from a professional.

Anyhow his pacemaker is working great.  His appetite is better than before the surgery.  His energy is better also.  Although we would have never known his energy was down.  He was always a perky pup.  This type of surgery is done once a week at UCD and is very successful.  My SIL said the scariest part of the whole ordeal was the 3 days they had to wait before the surgery could be done.  They just prayed he didn't die before they surgery.

Here is Winston and his full body Mohawk.  The stitches on his side are where the pacemaker is.  You can feel the wire just under the skin going from it up to the front of the neck where it attaches to his heart.

Huh?!

People keep telling me Raley's is more expensive than other grocery stores and I didn't believe them.

The Bionic Man Series Came To Mind

When talking about Winston yesterday my son said it reminded him of the intro to the "Bionic Man" TV show and he said, "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic dog. Winston will be that dog. Better than he was before. Better...stronger...faster."

Winston is home.  My brother says the pacemaker is about the size of a ipod nano.  Though it sounds small on his 8 pound dog it is huge.  Winston is eating and wants to be a dog.  Although from the descriptions of his after surgery condition he sounded like he might resemble Frankenweenie.  Very cute movie by the way.

He says the pacemaker is so computerized it is really quite amazing.  One can get a printed report whenever they want to check on the viability of the pacemaker and the recipient.  His dog is starting to sound like a new toy rather than a pet.

Can't wait to see Winston and give him a chuck under the chin.