Joy in the Kitchen!

Hi there!  Thanks for dropping by. I am currently working on eating healthier and moving more to help with some of those health issues that sneak up as you age.  Fatigue, weight, stiff joints.  I know some of you totally understand about that!  I complain to my Dad once in a while (he will be 94 in a few months) and he always says "Well Joy, you ain't seen nothin' yet!"  Bwahaha!  Nothing like things getting put in perspective! So, I am creating a new little section on my blog for my Adventures in Healthy Eating.  This is my first attempt at creating a recipe in that genre - this year.  There are other healthy recipes on my blog but many of them are my childhood comfort foods or ones that were used as we raised a large family on a little budget.  Those are special occasion foods! I kept seeing these lovely Baked Avocado Egg recipes.  They look delicious.  But I am a tad lazy  and impatient and heating the w...

ECLIPSE EGGS! It is August 21, 2017 and here in South Eastern Idaho we are ready for the eclipse!  My home is not dead center for totality, but we'll have 99% totality and that's good enough for me.   Our kids started school last week, but we are out today to enjoy the eclipse and avoid the anticipated traffic (that is non-existent!).   We have picked out the best viewing spot in our back yard and are looking forward to enjoying a few hours of family time! Here a great suggestion for breakfast if you haven't enjoyed that yet, or any other meal to celebrate Eclipse Day! The recipe for Eclipse Eggs can be found disguised as Peek-a-boo Eggs on THIS page of my blog! Happy viewing!!

Several years ago I inherited my Mom's old yogurt maker from the 70's.  Well, to be truthful, I borrowed it for so long she forgot where it was until I confessed.  She let me keep it!  (Wish I could "borrow" her 100 year old upright grand piano! LOL)  I've made many batches of yogurt in this machine.  It has been well worth the money Mom paid for it.  :) You do NOT, however, have to have a neat little machine to make fine yogurt!  The only thing that machine does, is keep the yogurt at a constant temperature while it incubates (I know that makes it sound like it's going to hatch, but it's the only word I can think of to describe it at the moment!) .... around 100 degrees.  There are several other options for keeping it warm but I'll just share the two I've used. There are a few items that are useful for making yogurt:  a cooking thermometer the one I use looks like THIS .... a larger, heavy bottomed pot.... glass jars, quart, p...

It is said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Yet, that's often one of the most difficult times to take a few minutes to nourish yourself!  This breakfast scramble can be cooked in under 10 minutes and is quick to eat.  Ingredients can be prepped ahead to save time. I often fix this just for myself, though if my husband is home he enjoys it as well.  It works well to just double the ingredients and cook for two.  It doesn't work as well to cook for six people as the eggs take longer to cook and the spinach goes too soft and the color leaches out into the eggs.   Dave and I have been participating in a health program through his work that gives us support on making healthy changes to our activity and food.  One of the challenges is to eat a high protein breakfast each day.  This recipe supplies around 15 grams of protein and 260 calories.  Add a piece of whole wheat toast and you're above 20 grams of protein....

If you have a sweet tooth at breakfast, this Pull Apart Breakfast will work to satisfy it!  We often do a similar dish in our dutch ovens when we're camping but this is easy to throw together at home as well. It helps to have a bundt pan but you could easily cut the recipe in half and use a bread pan or casserole dish.  You may just have to extend the cooking time a little so the center gets done.   I haven't tried it yet, but one of these times I'm going to add a sprinkle of cinnamon in these layers.  Pull Apart Breakfast Biscuits  2 rolls Grande refrigerator biscuits (in the dairy section) 1 can whipped topping (real cream preferably) 1/2 C. chopped walnuts 1 1/2 C. brown sugar 1 cube of butter sliced into 12-16 pieces Grease a large bundt pan.  In the bottom set half of the pieces of butter, sprinkle with 1/2 C. of the brown sugar and 1/4 C. of the walnuts.  Spray a small layer of whipped topping across the sugar layer.   ...

It's been a lazy Saturday morning and my girls requested Puffy German Pancakes.  They are quick to mix up and take about 25 minutes to bake which gives me time to make home made maple flavored syrup to go with them.  (You can find that delicious home made syrup HERE . Just scroll down past the buttermilk pancake recipe.) With a large family, I've doubled this recipe and baked it in a 11x15 pan.  Today we fed 5 of us with a nice sized piece left for the girls to take to Grandpa when they went to work in his yard this afternoon. It is fun to see what shape each pancake takes as sometimes it will puff more in the middle and less on the edges and sometimes it will puff right over the edges of the pan making an odd shape.  It's always fun to open the oven when the timer goes off to see how creatively it shaped its self! Puffy German Pancakes 1 C. milk 6 eggs 1 C. sifted flour 1/4 tsp. salt 6 T. butter or margarine With hand beater or whisk...

I love breakfast !   I love cooking  breakfast!   I do NOT, however, love cooking breakfast at 6:30 a.m.!      My children need to catch the bus by 7:30 a.m.  I let them sleep until 6:40 and then it's a mad rush getting lunches packed, kids dressed, and bags found.  Most mornings the past year they've had cold cereal (which they love actually) or eggs and toast, or oatmeal, or sometimes toast with homemade bread and some hot chocolate to drink. But 90% of the time on school mornings it's cold cereal.  Sometimes there are pancakes or waffles left from a Saturday and then frozen and they love those.   I have 3 children at home right now... I adore them.  They are 6, 12, and 14 years old.  I have 5 children who are grown and have moved away. (I adore them too!)   I used to cook for 8-10 people on a regular basis.  I used to cook breakfast quite often.  I used to be more organized.  It's time to get b...

We love muffins!  Once in a while, for special occasions, we make these delightful French Puffs.  They are moist, tender, and just melt in your mouth.  Mmmmm!  This morning we are watching the LDS General Conference on T.V.  My kids tell me these muffins are tradition for conference mornings!  (Often, "tradition" means that we did something once and they liked it so we should do it again. )  The main recipe is in my old Betty Crocker Cookbook I got when I was married.  The cover is gone and pages wrinkled, stained, and torn, but the tried and true recipes in it are still legible.  Give these wonderful treats a try!  They are so easy and elegant! French Puffs 1 egg 3/4 C. milk 1/2 C. oil 2 C. flour 1/3 C. sugar 3 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt Heat oven to 400°.  Grease a tin for 12 muffins.  Beat egg,  milk, and oil.   Stir in remaining ingredients all at once just until flour is moistened (batter w...

Granola bars are an easy eat-on-the-go snack!  I realize that most granola bars are just glorified cookies, but there are additions to them that make them more nutritious than many empty calorie treats.  In this recipe, the oats add fiber, protein, and iron.  The crispy rice cereal adds a nice crunch, but is also fortified with vitamins.  The nuts (assuming you use walnuts) add iron, fiber, calcium. Raisins are going to add even more iron, fiber & calcium.  Who knew these tasty bars could actually be fairly good for you!  (Watch the fat and sugar though, they're not calorie free!) My 14 year old son needed a nutritious snack to take snow shoeing tonight, these were his choice.  He loves them!  I think I got this recipe from Frugal Families .  I have no name attached to it though and I've been making it several years now...  I really need to document better!  Any suggestions on who's recipe this is, my Frugal Family friends... ...

Biscuits are not my specialty.  You know those big, round, fluffy, moist, biscuits?  I don't make those.  For one thing, I'm too lazy to want to roll them out... and often they've just turned out dry and crumbly.  These Kentucky Biscuits though, always turn out moist and tender.  Unlike drop biscuits, these can still be split for slathering butter and honey.  They dip into soups and stews well.  I haven't tried freezing them, but with the extra moisture, I'll bet they'd freeze nicely. I don't remember where I got this recipe, but I've had it for most of my married life.  It's definitely a keeper. Tonight I served these with Beef Stew. Kentucky Biscuits 2 C. flour 1 T. sugar 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda a dash of salt 1/2 C. margarine or butter 3/4 C. buttermilk Preheat oven to 400.  Mix together all the dry ingredients. Cut butter into dry ingredients until it makes coarse crumbs.  Mix in buttermilk.  Knead a f...

I had 3 freckly banana's on the counter and figured I'd make them into banana bread soon.  My daughter was reading through a cookbook and mentioned blueberry banana bread and that sounded like a fun new twist to the usual recipe! I decided to just alter the recipe I usually use...I'm still trying to add more whole grains into our diet, so I used part whole wheat flour in this.  I also reduced the margarine by 3 T. and added some applesauce. (both to help replace the margarine and because I was about 1/2 C. short on banana's)  We really like the results!  The blueberries make it more moist and the flavors blend really well. YUMMY!  The only thing I had a problem with was that the blueberries settled to the bottom half of the loaf for the most part... but they WERE, giant sized berries.  Maybe smaller berries would stay put better.  I did a 2 loaf batch and post that amount - easy to cut in half if you only need one loaf. Blueberry Banana Bread 1...

Twenty years ago when we bought a cool mixer/blender combo, we attended cooking classes for a few weeks to learn how to use it properly.  We learned how to make these pancakes in that class.  They are different than pancakes made with white flour.  They are thinner, have some crunch when you chew them, and they're FUN to watch when they're made!  They taste good as well.  This morning my children ate every bit as many of these as they do the regular Buttermilk Pancakes I usually make. You DO need RUMFORD brand baking powder for this recipe.  Trust me, the other brands don't work.  I don't know exactly why, other than Rumford doesn't have aluminum in it, but ONLY Rumford works like it should.  When the batter is all finished mixing, it will rise in the blender jar... be sure your griddle is hot and ready to pour onto!  Other baking powders, at least all the others I've tried, won't make this rise in the jar and get plenty of air bubbles i...

Pumpkins are one of my favorite fall decorations!  We grew several large jack-o-lantern pumpkins and more than a dozen small pie pumpkins this year.  Right now our large ones are adorning the front door while they wait to be carved next week. Pumpkin is also one of my favorite ingredients!  Pumpkin pie is my favorite pie, hands down.  These Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins are a delicious way to celebrate fall.  I got the recipe from someone at Frugal Families about 5 years ago.  I can't even count how many batches I've made.  My family loves them!   I usually make a double or triple batch of these for 2 reasons.... 1.   We love them!  and 2. There are 3 cups of pumpkin in a 29 oz can and each batch uses 1 cup.  Each batch makes about a dozen.  They freeze really well and ship well too if you're looking for a treat to send.   If you have a hard time finding pumpkin in the store, don't be afraid to cook a s...

We used to call these Toad in a Hole, but after a little research on the internet, I found that Toad in a Hole is a traditional English dish with sausages in a batter. :)  Respectfully, we've renamed one of our favorite breakfasts... to Peek-a-boo Eggs.  (In asking around online at Frugal Families, and in real life, I find we are not the only family that used the name toad in a hole incorrectly. lol ) Peek-a-boo Eggs are a great dish for kids to fix for themselves.  I did help turn the eggs over, but the girls each buttered the bread, cut the hole, and cracked the egg.  If you use a larger skillet, you can do more than one at a time and fry the "hole" at the same time. Peek-a-boo Eggs Slices of bread eggs butter or margarine, softened Heat a medium sized skillet over medium heat.  Butter one side of the bread, use a biscuit cutter (or any round cutter) to cut a hole out of the middle of the bread.  Place bread butter side down in skillet.  Br...

My young chefs were up early and eager to get in the kitchen this morning!   We tried something new today.  Breakfast Pizza!  I've seen something similar in McKay's Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook.  They used bread dough and pressed onto a full sized pizza pan.  WE did our own thing and made individual pizza's using Pillsbury Grands biscuits.   We decided, after trying these, we'd DEFINITELY do them again! (the girls were SO sad Daddy wasn't here to share our fun and yummy food.)  We also decided that one individual pizza is a lot for a little girl, so next time they'd split one. :) (I have to confess here... I spent a lot of time thinking it would sure be easier to just have bacon, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, and bicuits separately.... BUT, as the girls were assembling these, it was so much fun to hear their exclamations of "Man!  These are gonna be GOOD!" and "I can't wait to eat these!" and "I wish Daddy was here,...

My Sister-in-law Lanette makes THE BEST Cinnamon Rolls! She gave me her recipe a long time ago, and now, after a little practice, I make pretty darn good cinnamon rolls too! I make these large, about lunch plate sized. You should get about 24 large cinnamon rolls. The recipe works best with a heavy duty mixer that can handle 10 cups or more of flour or cut the ingredients in half for a smaller (4-quart) Kitchen Aid type machine or to do by hand. Lanette's Cinnamon Rolls 3 ½ C. warm water 1 C. oil 6 T. yeast (I use instant yeast) ¾ C. sugar Mix together and let set 15 minutes. Add: 3 beaten eggs 2 tsp. salt 10 C. flour (no more than 11) (The dough will be a tad sticky, but will be easy to handle once it's ready to roll out.) Knead 10 minutes in mixer. Oil or flour counter (I prefer to lightly oil it and sometimes I put a little flour on top of that) Roll out to ¾ in thick. You'll get a rectangle about 26 inches by 18 inches. Spread with 1 cube melted ma...

Celebrate fall by enjoying these moist apple muffins!  Muffins are a quick and easy breakfast!  These Cinnamon Streusel Apple Muffins use fresh apples which are abundant this time of year.  I double this recipe and freeze half.  (back in the old days, when we had 7 kids at home, we ate a double recipe of this... ahhh the memories)  The apple in these muffins keeps them really moist. Cinnamon Streusel Apple Muffins 2 C. flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 C. sugar 3/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. salt 1 C. milk 1 egg, beaten 1/4 C. butter or margarine, melted 1 C. apple, peeled, cored, and chopped Heat oven to 400.  Grease 12 muffin cups.  Stir together all dry ingredients in one bowl, mix together the milk, egg & butter in another bowl.  Stir the two together.  Fold in chopped apples.  Spoon batter into muffin cups and top with the following streusel topping: Streusel Topping 1 T. softened butter 3 T. sugar 1 T. brown sugar...

Buttermilk Syrup is.... well, WONDERFUL!  As promised in my previous blog, here's our family's favorite pancake syrup.  We mostly make it on special occasions.  My brothers family started making this syrup a few years ago at our family reunion and now it's considered tradition.  :)   The syrup isn't as sweet as regular maple flavored syrup.  Give it a try... you may be as surprised as I was at how good it is! Buttermilk Syrup 1 lb. butter 1 pint buttermilk 2 C. sugar 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp baking soda Mix all ingredients EXCEPT baking soda in LARGE pan.  Bring to a boil stirring occasionally.  Turn off heat.  Add baking soda and stir. (It will really bubble up in the pan when you add the soda)  Serve immediately with pancakes.

My children love pancakes!  I'd never really loved them until I found this recipe.  It is so light and tender!  I pour out about 1/2 C. of batter and spread for nearly plate sized pancakes.  I included my syrup recipe as well.  I love how home made syrup soaks right into your pancake.  Mmmm!  My brother also introduced us to Buttermilk Syrup which is sinful!  It deserves its own post so watch for that coming up! Once you try these a mix just won't compare! Buttermilk Pancakes 2 C. flour 1 tsp. salt 1 1/4 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp. baking powder 2 T. sugar 2 lg. eggs, unbeaten 2 C. buttermilk 1/4 C. margarine or butter, melted Mix all ingredients (will be lumpy and very thick) and fry on a hot skillet (about 375 if you have an electric griddle - or on my electric stove, just around medium).  Serve with butter and syrup! Joy's Note:  I usually like to add 2-4 T. of regular milk to thin it enough to spread easily. Home...