"Snowflake" Pancakes

Breakfast around these parts usually consists of cereal...it's what my husband prefers and it's easy for me. So whenever I make pancakes, I usually make them for lunch or supper...but since I was already thinking of pancakes even before I got out of bed, and my dh had left super early and wasn't going to be having breakfast with us, I made them for breakfast.

I usually make a batch of blueberry pancakes and a batch of plain pancakes. My boy can wolf down pancakes like there's no tomorrow.

My "Kitchen Tip Tuesday" is about making pancakes a bit more interesting for the kids.

"Snowflake" pancakes would be a nice way to celebrate the first snowfall of the year...hopefully not coming my way too soon - but up north it could happen any day I suppose.

I just used a boxed pancake mix and added more water than the instructions called for to make a thinner batter...I then filled up a condiment bottle with the batter.

Once your frying pan is ready - you just squeeze out a bit of batter into the center to form a filled in circle. Let it cook a few seconds before moving on to the inner design...squeeze batter into the shapes you want...connecting the heart shapes or ovals to the center circle. Make sure you let each "petal" or shape dry a bit before making another connecting shape next to it - or it will all run together into a glob.


The last thing you should do is the line around the outer or inner edges connecting everything together...let cook a bit and then flip over.

I know I have not explained this very well - but you just have to kind of play around with it and experiment a bit. It is super easy.

The kids enjoyed taking a turn at making things...we also made some flowers and butterflies.


I prefer syrup on my pancakes...the girl likes powdered sugar and the boy likes both. I think it looks pretty and more snow-ful to sprinkle on some powdered sugar.

For more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays - visit Tammy at Tammy's Recipes.

Cutting Homemade Pasta Without a Pasta Machine

Steaming Bowl of Hot Pasta

Kitchen Tip Tuesday:

I like making homemade pasta but I do not have a pasta machine. I don't like having around a kitchen gadget that is large and good for only one thing, as my storage space is very limited.

In the past I would cut my homemade pasta with a knife or with a pizza cutter - but I wasn't able to get uniformly sized noodles.

For some time I had been looking for a little kitchen gadget that I saw at the grocery store one time. I didn't know what it was called or what it was used for - but it looked similar to a pizza cutter except it had more wheels or blades on it.

I finally found one at Garden Ridge for $7.00...and it's actually an herb mincer.

Fresh Herb Mincer

I used my normal recipe for pasta, rolled it out, let it dry for about 1/2 hour and then ran the herb mincer down it. Worked great...at least the first batch did. When I made it today using the same recipe except included some whole-wheat flour it tended to gum up the mincer...I think it had more to do with the consistency of the dough...I sprayed some cooking spray on the mincer and continued and it worked fine.

Uncooked Pasta

You do have to press down hard on the mincer and run it down the dough really quickly to get the cuts all the way through the dough.

Here is a link to another post I wrote on homemade pasta and it includes the recipe I use and my preferred method for drying the pasta.

Visit Tammy's Recipes for more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.

Incidentally I tried the herb mincer on some fresh herbs and it didn't work worth beans!

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays - Grapefruit Spoon Uses

We have a set of grapefruit spoons but the problem is we don't eat cut grapefruit very often.

But, I have found these spoons with the serrated front tip to be useful for other things such as: eating kiwis, sapote fruit and hardboiled eggs (when the egg is an egg cup).

Great for scrape-cleaning the seeds out of squash and melons too.

For more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays - head on over to Tammy's Recipes.

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays - Simplifying Recipes for Kids

During the past year my daughter has become more interested in cooking and baking. Ideally she would like to do it "all by myself."

One problem that has surfaced is that a number of the recipes I use, I revise as I go along. The recipe says 3 c flour - I revise it to 1.5 c whole wheat flour and 1.5 c white flour. The recipe says 1/4 c oil - I replace it with unsweetened applesauce.

My daughter of course doesn't know all these little changes I make so what I am in the process of doing is to take some of the regular recipes I make, and to rewrite them in a simpler format for my daughter.

A lot of my recipes I can find online so I just find the recipe, paste it into a word document and make the appropriate changes. Any unnecessary information in the recipe I delete. I increase the font size and put a space between each line of instruction so it is easier to follow. Simplifying the recipe means less supervision needed by mom.

I have thought of putting each recipe in a page protector so my daughter can use an erasable marker to cross off or check off each item as she adds it to the mixing bowl, or completes a step in the instructions. Once the recipe is completed - you just need to wipe off the marker and it's good to go for the next time.

So far I've revamped about 4 recipes for her - not many, but my goal is to keep having her work on one recipe maybe once a week until she "masters" it, rather than working on a lot of different recipes each week.

The pages will be hole punched and placed in a binder and this will be my daughter's own cookbook.

Head on over to Tammy's Recipes for some more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.

I've Always Loved Fire! - Kitchen Tip Tuesday

I've always loved fire! The smell of fire, the brightness and warmth of fire, lighting matches, lighting candles. The smell of wood stoves, fireplaces, bonfires, campfires...even the smell of a match after you blow it out. Perhaps I've a bit of pyromania coursing through my blood...

I got to play with matches today because I broke out the old BBQ for the first grill of the season. Yesterday I made all the preparations for grilling tonight...took the meat out of the freezer...bought some hamburger buns...made sure there was some charcoal and newspaper (for starting the charcoal in the chimney) - then I found out my dh wouldn't be home for dinner tonight.

Since he wouldn't be here for supper - I decided why wait...and started up the grill in the morning so the kids and I could feast at lunch time.

I have this thing about meat being well-cooked, so I'm always a bit apprehensive about grilling...worried that the meat won't be cooked enough and then end up eating meat that is over-cooked. Oh well...

My grilling is pretty simple...usually hamburgers or boneless/skinless chicken breasts...sometimes salmon and sometimes kabobs. I read once that you can make pita bread on the grill and I tried that.


Today it was hamburgers and chicken breasts. Surprisingly dd remarked that the hamburgers were delicious...she's never been fond of hamburgers so I asked her about it "It's just cheeseburgers that I don't like." Strange b/c she does love cheese. The boy wanted some onions "diced" (like McDonalds) and he proceeded to add them to the outside of the hamburger bun! I think he's rec'd McD burgers with a bit of onion accidentally on the outside of the bun - so that's the way he likes.

So if you've read this far - here is my Kitchen Tip Tuesday. Many moons ago I read that to ensure the middle of your burger cooks all the way through - after you have formed the patty, stick your finger through the center of the patty, making a small hole (so it looks like a donut). Now there is no dense middle portion that might still be a bit "red" after grilling.

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays - Quick Healthier Biscuits

We love biscuits! There is nothing quite as tasty as warm biscuits accompanying chili or soup on a cold night.

I do like making bread from scratch - but biscuits I usually make from a box. It's faster and easier for me. I buy the "Heart Smart Bisquick" baking mix and use fat-free skim milk for the liquid portion.

I feel a bit guilty using the baking mix since I've been trying to incorporate more whole-wheat foods into our diet. So the other day when I took out the Bisquick I made a little change. I never measure the ingredients as it says on the box anyway - so I just added some Bisquick to the mixing bowl, added enough milk to make it quite sticky and then threw in 1/2 c or so of coarsely ground whole-wheat flour.

They turned out wonderful! They were not overly dense - but still very much like you'd expect if you were using only the baking mix.

The next time I make the biscuits I want to try adding some ground flax and or some wheat germ and see how they turn out.

Oh yes, and I need to give my daughter credit for this post. When I made the biscuits and we were talking about what I added to them - she said, "you ought to blog about it." :)

Head on over to Tammy's Blog for some more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hints.