Posts Tagged With: Valentines day

A Dutch Baby or the Puffy Pancake for Breakfast

Posted on February 14, 2020 by jolynnpowers

A Dutch Baby (Puffy Pancake or the Hootanany) is my son’s favorite kind of pancake for breakfast. He even makes them on his own at 11 now. This custard-based oven pancake is simple to make and looks fantastic coming out of the oven. We often top the pancake with fresh fruit like bananas, strawberries or chocolate syrup with nuts. You can add any topping you like because the pancake has a light flavor and is firm but not crispy even when browned on the edges.

A Fresh Dutch Baby out of the oven ready to top.

This simple yet yummy pastry serves 4 and takes 20 mins in the oven at 450 deg.

3 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup flour

3 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp melted butter

1 heavy spray of cooking spray

Toppings: Berries, chocolate syrup, nuts, powdered sugar, shredded cheese, cooked apples, peanut butter or anything.

In a mixing bowl combine eggs, flour, milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt. blend until smooth. While mixing batter preheat oven to 450 and prepare a deep-dish pie pan or cast-iron skillet. Spray pie pan with cooking spray and put one teaspoon of butter in the pan. Heat in microwave for 35 seconds until butter is melted. Swirl the butter around the bottom of the pan and then pour in pancake batter. Place the pie pan in a hot oven and bake 20 minutes. Do not open the oven during cooking. Dutch Baby will grow up the sides of the pan and turn a rich golden brown. Let cool slightly before adding toppings or cutting to serve. The texture of the cooked pancake is like a flan or custard, soft, flexible and the edges are foldable even when dark brown. They will fall slightly while cooling due to the air in the eggs. If you want to serve the pancake as a dessert at the table, top with filling and then cut after showing off the beauty of the rolled edges. For a county style breakfast cut and serve then top with fruit and syrup.

I actually learned how to make this pancake in Junior High school home-economics class when school was still teaching life skills and have loved it for over 35 years, just changing what I top it with.

Categories: breakfast food, cakes and family deserts, Chocolate, country cooking, eggs, pancakes, strawberries, Valintines | Tags: breakfast, country cooking, Dutch Baby, eggs, family deserts, Pancake, puffy pancake, Valentines day | 2 Comments

This is What Our Valentines Day Usually Looks Like!

Posted on February 12, 2015 by jolynnpowers

Why do I always do this to myself. I think,”How wonderful, my husband and I will have a day together, sleep in and eat a nice meal and shop” for our Valentines anniversary. Yet, February is a terrible month do anything other than snuggle under a warm blanket together and hope that some one has had the energy to put a pot of hot soup on the stove.

Three days ago I was outside with Paige and Christopher playing in the yard and enjoying one of the sunny days we got this month. Well today lets just say that they dismissed school early due to blizzard conditions and the temps at 5 pm will head south into the teens. Then later tonight -10 is forecast and I am thinking of bringing the bunnies in to the laundry room again for a couple of days.

Christopher digging in flower bed

Paige digging flower-pot on porch

Flowers budding in flower box

So, as I head out to pick up Christopher early from school ,I am thinking that my Valentines date may in include a snow shovel and an extra blanket on the bed.

flowerbed covered in snow

Snowy Pine tree in the back yard

I seem to forget that every February is this way. We have these negative temps at night and these crazy, warm, sunny days. The winter has not really left us as I brush another layer of snow off my car. I fight the wind as it blows so hard that it whistles between the houses and tress. Then during a still moment I hear the song birds chirping so loudly that it distracts me from my chore. I look up into that snow-covered maple and think that some of them have already returned from the north and are celebrating. Singing and playing at our feeder the Chickadees and Finches swoop and dive. I think they are laughing at me as I grumble and groan. They know that the sun will shine and melt the snow and that in a few short weeks I will be wishing that it was just dry for St Patrick’s Day.

Hope all of you have a wonderful Holiday and share it with people who you love and make you smile.

Categories: container garden, snow, Snow day, soup, Valintines, weather | Tags: flower beds, Gardening, snow, snow day, soup, Valentines day | 6 Comments

Happy Anniversary to me twice

Posted on February 14, 2014 by jolynnpowers

Funny how a life time slowly unfolds. I would have never guessed the my WordPress blog anniversary and my wedding anniversary would fall on the same day. I never planned it to happen like this but it is a great way to remember the things in my life that I enjoy the most.

This year Tom and are officially married 22 years but I do tend to think of it as 23 years mainly because I was pregnant with our first child most of that year. We were unable to get married because Tom was off fighting in the Gulf War and only returned a few days before my oldest sons birth in April of 1991. We finally made it official and chose to get married on Valentines Day of 1992. I could have picked any day and Tom would not have complained as long as we were all together. I chose this day because like this year it was a holiday that fell on a Friday and we could get married and have a long weekend and the court-house was open and Tom was able to get the day off work. Real romantic? Well, we were young and broke and had a baby to take care of so it was great fun for us even if it was not fancy, huge and expensive. It was a perfect start to a wonderful life together and some how it foreshadows our lives and how we would live them the next twenty years.

Tom and JoLynn Powers first wedding kiss 2-14 -1992

Over the years we have spent most of our time and money on outdoor adventures. We have traveled many miles to hunt, fish, camp, trail ride, and farm over 23 years. It has never been about who has the biggest house or nicest car it was always about learning and trying some thing new. I am so glad that I have found someone who, like me, loves to focus on what the next mountain has to offer and what we can learn from it. Life is a Journey not a Destination.

The other thing that I am so happy about is being a part of is the WordPress world. I actually started blogging a full year before I moved to Word Press. I found that the other web sites hard to manage and they did not have the space for large photos . I moved and never looked back . I have met so many wonderful writers and bloggers, that now just like my marriage, I can’t imagine my life with out all of you as part of it. I continue to work on writing better blog posts and learn more about writing. I have a dream that one day I will fill a canning cook book with stories and memories and recipes the you all help me to compose. I would have never known that their were people out their who love and live the same quite, deliberate way that we do with out my blog.

Word press anniversary-1

So thank you WordPress, it has been a great 1st year and I hope to keep working towards my dreams and sharing them here. Who knows, in about 20 more years Valentines day will fall on a Friday again and I will be a published author, a great Grandmother, a wife and a woman who is still trying some thing new!