Snow Day ~ Sausage and Apple Puff Pancake

The weather man has been playing recklessly with my little snow loving heart.

For several days we were supposed to have record breaking snow. On Sunday it started to snow and we had to take off from church early to avoid being stranded {our church is 50 minutes away.} When we got to our house.... nothing. The little bit that had fallen in the night had all melted, the sun was shining and I had no need for a coat. So disappointed.

Then Monday it threatened to snow the predicted blizzard, but no. Only a 2-3 inch cap that melted at night. Pretty, but nothing like predicted. Really disappointed.

Then it happened. Tuesday morning I work up early to see a winter wonderland quickly forming. Large cornflake style snow was whipping around and dutifully covering every inch.

Ahhhh, perfect!!!

Like a friend of mine said, "If it isn't a foot, it's not snow!"

A day like today is perfect for Sausage-Apple Puff Pancake. This is a recipe that our friend "G" the most awesome-never-makes-a-same-recipe-twice-cook shared with us last time he came to stay out our Bed and Breakfast {that is, guest room.}

The recipe is from Taste of Home, and it is one that you will want to add to the permanent recipe file. Trust me. One pan, sweet and savory, breakfast lunch or dinner, a meal all in one. Add some fresh fruit if you want something on the side. Perfect.

Here is the recipe off of Taste of Homes site:

Ingredients

• 1 pound bulk pork sausage
• 2 medium apples, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 6 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups 2% milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (4 ounces) extra sharp shredded cheddar cheese
• Sour cream and maple syrup, optional

Directions

• In a 10-in. ovenproof skillet, cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain and set aside.
• In the same skillet, cook apples and brown sugar in butter over medium heat until apples are tender.
• In a blender, combine the eggs, milk, flour, sugar and salt; cover and process for 10 seconds or until smooth. Pour over apple mixture. Sprinkle with sausage and cheese.
• Bake, uncovered, at 425° for 18-23 minutes or until pancake is puffy and golden brown. Cut into wedges. Serve with sour cream and syrup if desired. Yield: 6 servings.

While the sausage cooks, slice the apples.

Add apples to butter and brown sugar.

Keep you apples tender but not mushy.

The perfect bite has the crunch of the apple,

sausage crumble and a bit of melted cheese on top.

Oh. My. Goodness. Heavenly!

Pour your batter slowly and evenly

without pushing all the apples over to one side.

Sprinkle sausage crumbles.

Top off with cheese... we always add a little extra.

Just a note: I cook it for 20 minutes at 390°.

That is what works best in my oven.

~ Delicious ~

When our friend served it we had homemade cranberry nut bread...

...fresh fruit and steaming coffee.

What is your favorite snow day recipe?

All photos take by yours truly. 

Valentine Treat - Death By Chocolate

While hubby gets the new computer {yippie!} all set up and I figure out where all my photos are stored, I thought that I would repost this delicious recipe that I shared last year.
Chocolate lovers - enjoy!

A good friend asked me this last weekend if I crave sweet or salty when I want a snack. And the truth is that I usually prefer something salty, like salt and vinegar chips. {to die for} But if I have something sweet, I want it to be super sweet and very rich. I love dark chocolate and creamy toffee. So you can imagine my absolute delight when I got to a scrapbooking weekend and was informed that my good friend had made Death by Chocolate for our dessert that night.

Have you ever had this rediculousely simple yet delicious dessert? It is amazing! And it looks just stunning in a triffle dish set in the center of a table.

The master mind behind the creation in this photo is our good friend "G" - the fantastic cook. Really he should be called the mostest-amazingest-talented-never-makes-the-same-recipe-twice-and-they-all taste-great-cook. Try putting that on a business card :)

He graciousely shared the simple recipe for this delectable wonder and I in turn am sharing it with you. And to show you just how easy it is to make, I am making one just to take photos.

Oh, the sacrifices I make for this blog.

You will need four main ingredients:
~ 1 chocolate cake, 13x9 pan (I just used a mix for convenience. Feel free to use your favorite cake recipe.) 
~ 6 Skor bars
~ 1 box of chocolate pudding (hubby chose Chocolate Fudge. His theory: if you're gonna go all out on dessert, go out with a bang!)
~ 1 tub Cool Whip, or fresh whipped cream

While the cake bakes, mix up the pudding and crumble up the Skor bars. Once cool, crumble up the cake. If you don't have a triffle dish {like me), use a clear, deep bowl. Or tall cups for individual servings.

Now the fun part - layering. First comes a layer of cake crumbles. Then pudding, coolwhip and Skor crumbles. See that blob of pudding? Avoid splatters like that so that the layers will be visible and not all mushed together. If it happens, just wipe it off with a paper towel.

Snack on all ingredients while assembling.

That part is essential to the success of the dessert. 

Repeat for at least two total layers. Top with cake crumbles. And Skor crumbles. If there are any left after snacking.

Easy Peasy.

This is such a simple dessert to make that it just may be my new "to go" dish for last minute meetings, potlucks, parties and to satisfy hubby's late night sweet tooth. Thanks so much "G" for sharing!

What is your "to go" dish for dessert? How about a dinner dish? Share in the comments below! Have you posted a great recipe lately? Let me know in the comments so I can check it out.

All photos taken by yours truly.
This delicious post is linked to We are That Family WFMW. Link up and join the party!

Come on in ... we've got pie!

My oh my the lemon pie from last night was delicious!

I have been longing for lemon bars, lemon meringue pie, lemon cookies lemon-something for the longest time now! But the urge always hits at the most inconvenient time... like ten minutes before dinner was to be served or the middle of the night. {and no, I am not pregnant... I just really love lemon anything.}

The little dots are lemon zest... not lumps of flour... just saying :)

So I got my act together yesterday and decided to make my mom's yummy lemon meringue pie. Only problem - it required a microwave and we currently do not have one. {I know, crazy huh?} So I googled lemon pie and decided that what I really wanted was something that tasted like creamy lemon curd, like the kind you eat with scones.

 And that's when I found this recipe at Allrecipes: Sour Cream Lemon Pie.

 I followed the instructions {even though I have a tendency to expirement, I didn't this time}, used my grandmother's no-fail pie crust recipe {unless you really mess it up... then it fails. Read on...}, and it was wonderful. Go on over to Allrecipes and print it out.... you know you want to.... I'll wait.

{Humming Jeopardy Song}

Ok, moving onto the disasters that I hinted at yesterday here.

Because as wonderful as the evening was, there were a few mishaps along the way. It was a great lesson in not-freaking-out-twenty-minutes-before-hubby-gets-home.

 First off, I tripled the salt in my grandmother's simple yet heavenly pie dough recipe. You heard right... TRIPLED! Instead of 1/2 teaspoon, I put in 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. In other recipes,that would not make a huge difference. But in a pie dough.... wowie! It was salty. And I realized it as I rolled it out. So there were two options:


~ freak out, make another dough and not get the rest of dinner in the oven, and end up eating hours late. Or...
~ hope that some of the salt would be masked by the sweet lemon curd; and if not, I would just announce my mistake and scoop the curd out.

I chose the second option. I actually forgot about the salt incident... and it was not that bad... till the fourth bite. Then it got real salty, and we ended up eating the lemon alone. It was still delicious!

The second misstep of the evening came after baking the crust. It looked lovely with the fancy twisty border I gave it {thank you 1950's Betty Crocker cookbook!} But I had completely underestimated the time it would take for a crust to cool. It took forever! And by the time the lemon curd was almost ready to pour in, the crust was still steaming. What to do?!?!

Balance it on a pie rack, on two mugs over a tray of ice cubes! Easy Peasy! And it sure did the trick :)

And finally my last mishap of the evening, by far the worst.... I lost half an eyebrow. No exaggeration. And not the end half... the MIDDLE half! It looks like two tiny eyebrows on one side - oh the horror! Although I would love to blame this Brow Blunder on a candle flame, it was all my fault.


You see I can't pluck or wax my brows to shape them like most gals. My skin is way too sensitive. It swells, bleeds and makes me look all goobery for days. So I have to shape them with a tiny electric razor made for brows. Do you see where I'm going with this? As I'm holding the razor, all finished, something caught my eye, spooked me, I lost my grip on the razor and on the way down it took half a brow with it! And no, I will not post photos... after all, Google is forever!


But after a slight panic, some eyeliner and smudger, all was back to {somewhat} normal and I was back in the kitchen busily putting the finishing touches on our dinner.

Either hubby has still not noticed...or he feels bad and doesn't want to say anything... I think he hasn't noticed... cause if he had, he would be rolling on the floor laughing!

What mishaps have you survived

moments before serving a fancy dinner?

All photos taken by yours truly.