Pinterest Success - Pancake Squares

I don't enjoy cooking....or baking. I do it to feed our family. And I do it to eat something yummy, but the amount of mess and time it takes, is not something I enjoy. I do get bored of eating the same things over and over though, so I have a pinterest recipe board full of tasty things to try. I'm always reluctant to try something different, because I don't like wasting time and energy and money on a flop! So, I thought I'd share a recipe that worked and that everyone (even my husband) enjoyed.

Pancake Squares by Big Red Kitchen. They were delicious, and I liked that I didn't have to sit at the stove flipping pancakes. I was worried they would be too sweet and taste like cake, but they were just perfect.

I doubled the recipe to fit in a 9x13 pan, and our family probably could have eaten 2 pans....so plan accordingly!

Pancake Squares
3/4 cup milk
2 T. melted butter
1 large egg
1 T. sugar
1 cup flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease an 8×8 baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, beat together milk, butter and egg. Add sugar, then gradually beat the flour in. Carefully stir in the baking powder and salt. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serves 4-6.

 

We ate them just as is with a little butter and syrup, but they would be yummy with berries and whipped cream too (of course.)

apple fritters fail

On Sunday we had dinner at home - normally we go to either my parent's or John's paren't's for supper. I wanted to make a little treat after supper, so I went to my pinterest recipe board and picked this one. It looked simple and yummy and deep fried....... They look yummy right? Apple Fritters in 15 min? Yes please.

Well I made them. I doubled the recipe and it was really thick so I added a little more milk. I don't know what went wrong. The first batch didn't look too bad, but then I decided to make some a little bigger and they weren't cooked. I mixed up some milk with icing sugar and the icing sugar didn't dissolve, so the nice sugar glaze looked like curdled milk. Super disgusting. Luckily John came to help and saved them before I just threw everything away.

Yup. Pretty nasty. They didn't taste so bad - and all the kids at least tried some....except Elijah. He said he hated them. I hated them too! I had a messy kitchen and only a bunch of super nasty-looking balls of deep-fried dough to show for it! Lame.

mock raspberry green tomato jam

I found this recipe a while ago and was very curious about it. We have a slew of green tomatoes, so there wasn't much to lose. Here is the recipe I found from this blog:

2 1/2 cups green tomatoes, grated or chopped well in a blender
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 (3 oz.) package of raspberry or strawberry Jello

 

 Cook tomatoes and sugar on medium heat for 20 minutes uncovered. Turn down heat. Add Jello and cook until Jello is dissolved. Pour in sterilized jars or freezer containers. Stores in the fridge a couple of weeks and in the freezer about 6 months. Makes 2-3 pints.

Here's my documentation of my jam production.....

cast of characters (I'm feeling very Pioneer Woman-ish today).....very complex, I know...

 

blend/chop some green tomatoes - I did around 2.5 cups

then it looks like this:

mmmmm.....

heat on medium heat for 20 min

I heated it for 20 min, but then it started boiling, so I cooked it for about 2 more min....just in case it was supposed to boil....but I don't know if that's necessary....

It smelled kind of weird, and looked very gross...

pour in the jello packet and stir until dissolved.

 

now it's looking (and smelling) a little better...

pour into sterilized jars

and enjoy

I tried really hard to like this jam. I just couldn't do it. I think that if I didn't make it, I could eat it though. I could taste the smell of what it smelled like when it was green mushy stuff boiling on the stove. Nasty. It was a minor aftertaste, but there was enough of it that it almost made me gag.

John and all of the kids thought it was yummy though, and Hadley now asks for "the jam that you made" on her toast.

I won't ever make it again just cause we don't eat a ton of jam and I don't like it....but if you are not a picky jam eater and have a bunch of green tomatoes, it's worth a shot!

corn

This is what we did on our Friday afternoon last week.

 

 

We husked 113 cobs and froze 35 bags.

Thanks to Nancy for the corn! 

thursday

Here's the picture from the fall fair that I talked about here

I love it. Too bad I didn't roll Hadley's jeans up though....and I had to crop it so that you couldn't see John's shoes. Pretty fun though.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last year John fried up some zucchini with squash from his Mom's garden for me. It was delicious. I never thought I liked zucchini until I tasted it. So, naturally this has become a favorite thing for us to make with our zucchini from the garden.

This was my lunch yesterday. I would say that it was healthy, but with the amount of oil and margarine I fried it in, I may have to forgo that comment. I guess the healthy vegetable stuff is still there, right?

To make it, just sautee cut up zucchini in oil/margarine/butter on med-high to high heat until it is a little translucent and browned. Add salt and pepper. So yummy.