Dutch Baby and Golden Puff Pancake

This delicious Dutch Baby Recipe was provided by Kroger Grocery Stores to start the season off right!

This is the first week of 2017. I received some mail and spotted my Kroger coupons and recipe book that I receive throughout the year. My friend invited the family over for a delicious enchilada dinner and while she cooked, I took it to peruse. One of the articles that they featured was titled 1 Skillet, 3 Breakfasts.  Without sounding goofy, it was love at first sight. Whoever took the pictures were fantastic as making me want to get in my kitchen, dig out my cast iron skillet (which I shamefully admit rarely gets the love and attention that it deserves as a cooking tool in my kitchen), and get to cooking.

I couldn't wait to try this one.

We were scheduled for snow in the South this weekend, so I made sure that I had all of the ingredients before trying to create something like this. I don't have the flexibility of running out to the store if I am not skilled at driving on ice. 

I changed a few things to make it more mine, but the credit all goes to Kroger for their awesome recipe. These pictures are mine. 

After taking it out of the oven, I sprinkled powdered sugar and added strawberries.

Dutch Baby - The Golden Puff Pancake

(modified from Kroger's my Magazine, my substitutes are noted with *)

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 cup of unsweetened, Almond Coconut Milk (40 calories per serving) *

2 Tbsp. sugar

1/2  tsp. vanilla butter nut extract *

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. butter

Powdered sugar

Fresh or defrosted strawberries to top (Kroger's magazine showed blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries)

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt 2 Tbsp. of unsalted butter in the pan by placing the pan in the oven. Mix eggs, flour, almond coconut milk, sugar, vanilla butter nut extract, and salt. Take the pan out of the oven, careful to coat the pan with the melted butter. Add batter. Some of the butter will rise to the top. (This probably adds to the deliciousness.)

Bake in the oven for 30 min. You may wish to shorten the time if the pancake is raised and golden. 

It was exciting to see the almost finished pancake!

Allow to cool. Sprinkle powdered sugar on it and place strawberries on top. It should be absolutely mouthwatering to look at when you are finished. 

I moved the Dutch Baby to a large plate and used a pizza cutter to slice quickly through the pancake. I placed them on smaller plates to drizzle sweet syrup over each serving.

Breakfast is ready! Add the syrup.

The recipe recommended refrigerating any left overs. 

For us, there were none! 

This will be a recipe that we add to our family recipe book. 

Thankful Salad

Originally, I didn't have a name for this salad. I made it on the fly right before our Thanksgiving Meal this past year and it was a hit with my brother-in-law. He actually finished the rest when he and his wife came back in the evening to drop off my daughter! (That's what good food is supposed to do! Keep you coming back for more.)

Last night, my daughter specifically requested the salad by saying, "I want the salad you made for Thanksgiving."

When I thought about it, I realized that she meant that simple corn salad that was fresh and simple. It is really good for any season and good enough to have thirds.

When preparing the Thankful Salad, I selected the Vegetable Chopper because of the ease and neat little pieces that are cut and can easily be mixed in a bowl. Chopping this yourself can be time consuming, but certainly still have the same flavors.

While I did use canned super sweet yellow corn for this recipe picture, I highly recommend canned white shoe peg corn, keeping in mind that fresh corn is really the best. The challenge is that fresh corn is not always readily available in my refrigerator (or yours) and cutting it off of the cob can be more time consuming, not to mention more dangerous than you really want to take on in the 3 minutes before you have to have dinner on the table. (Those who know me know that 3 minutes is more like 10.)

Thankful Salad

Thankful Salad, mixed and ready to serve!

Ingredients:
1 large cucumber, peeled and sliced.
1 large tomato, sliced into chunks for the Vegetable chopper
1/4 - 1/2 of an onion (depends on your like level of onion and the pungency you enjoy...), sliced into small enough chunks for the Vegetable chopper
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar (you can back off or add more if you prefer) *
salt and pepper to taste if desired

Tools:
knife
non-reactive medium sized mixing bowl
measuring cup
cutting board
Mixing spoon
Serving Spoon
Serving dish (if you are going to be serving this for a special meal)

Method:

You may dice or use a Vegetable Chopper (similar to the Vidalia Onion Chopper) to chop the cucumber, tomatoes, and onions. If you use the vegetable Open can and drain the corn. Place all ingredients into a food safe bowl and mix. (Take care that you use a non-reactive bowl because you are working with acidic foods and they can absorb other undesirable flavors.) Pour in the apple cider vinegar. Mix. Add salt and pepper according to taste if you so desire. You can chill or serve from this.

Variations*

Keeping Healthy: You could easily substitute fresh lime juice from 1 - 2 limes and mix.

Make it creamy with some extra calories: You could easily substitute 1 Tbsp. mayonaise (Duke's is my favorite), 2 Tbsp. of sour cream, and 2 Tbsp. of vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste.