Pancake Squares

This is one of those recipes I saw on Pinterest, and then my SIL made it and gave it good reviews so we tried it this morning.  Andrew loved them and can't wait to try different variations.

Didn't change anything!

Recipe and picture from Big Red Kitchen

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.

Back at it!

After a long lag of really cooking, we are ready toget back to the kitchen.  I have planned a month of meals, started shopping and stockpiling again and am ready to cook.

Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing

This is for Jen! We had "game night" at our house a few weeks ago and thus was dinner, because I needed something easy! There are lots of recipes online for this, but is so simple!

Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing

Ingredients:
4-6 pieces of chicken
Box of stuffing
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can cream of anything soup

Directions:
1. Mix the sour cream and soup
2. Put defrosted chicken on bottom.
3. Pour stuffing on top. (Leave dry)
4. Top with soup mixture.
5. Cook for four hours on low.
6. Fluff and serve!

Corn Casserole or Scalloped Corn

This is a classic recipe from the Newby household.  This was one of the many recipes that I was given the first Christmas in my recipe book from recipes from Brian's upbringing.

Since we were doing potluck Christmas party, I knew this would be a great side dish for the ham that was being provided.

The main difference between the two is that in the orginal recipe, you are not supposed to drain the corn.  I did drain the corn!

Corn Casserole or Scalloped Corn

Ingredients:
1 can regualr corn (drained or undrained)--I drain
1 can creamed corn
1 stick of butter (melted)
1 cup sour cream
1 package Jiffy corn muffin mix (or any 8.5 ounce corn mix)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

**This is great to double and place in a 9x13 for potlucks or for bigger crowds!

Bread Machine Rolls

Cooking has taken a back seat this past month as we have been traveling like crazy for the holidays.  We are now home for a while and we are looking forward to cooking a little bit more.  This doesn't mean we haven't been cooking, but sticking to more simple meals!

Tonight we have a potluck Christmas Party and no one had offered to bring any bread, so instead of going out and buying rolls, I thought I would give it a try and actually make them from scratch.

Right now, I only have them proofing, but they look really good, so we are going to call it a success in our book.  I will update later if they need to be changed!\

A year or two ago, my mother-in-law gave me her bread machine that she wasn't using and becuase I wanted one.  I have to admit, today is the first time I have actually used it.  I think it will start to get a whole lot more use from now on!

Bread Machine Rolls

Orignial recipe from here.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup milk, heated in microwave for one minute
• 6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened and cut into pieces
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 3 cubs bread flour (I used regular AP flour)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Directions:
1. Place all ingredients into bread machine in order by your machine. (normally all wet or all dry first)
2. Set machine to dough cycle and let the machine do the work!
3.  Cut dough into equal portions (you should get 18 rolls)
4. Place into muffin tins or on a pan.
5. Cover and rise for thirty minutes or until doubled in size. 
6. Brush with melted  butter and then place in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Baby Food

A lot of my recent cooking has revolved on making baby food for our little one! He is loving it and I love the fact that I know exactly what is in the food and that it is good enough that I would eat it and it taste like real food!

I am hoping that we can continue making his own food, but I know that it is not the end of the world if we need to use store-bought!

Baby food for stage 1 is so easy to make and it pretty much all follows the same directions!

Baby Food--Stage 1

Steam your fruit or veggies (if needed to tenderize)
Put into a food processor and puree to desired consistency.
Free in ice cube trays for no more than 1 month.

To defrost, put in a bowl, and microwave until just heated through, make sure you don't burn your little ones mouth, so wait for it to cool before using!

Syrup

I have been craving breakfast food lately, but haven't had any syrup in the house. In an effort to cut out some of the processed foods in our house, I looked up some recipes, and it looked simple enough.

I was right, it was. I followed a recipe from one good thing by jillie and it turned out like syrup.

I thought it was a little thin, Brian thought it was too sweet, but it is a good one to have on hand!

Syrup

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of maple extract

Directions:

1. Boil the water and add the sugars until dissolved.
2. Add the maple extract and stir in.
3. Take off heat and cool. Then place in a jar and keep in the fridge!