WHAT’S ON THE MENU WEDNESDAY and German Pancakes

 

I hope you are following the journey of my friend and fellow teacher, Becky, as she participates in this season's The Biggest Loser.  We're having a remarkable journey with her.

At the lake this weekend, I was remembering a breakfast that was always a fun one to make.  I decided that the Perfect Ones might enjoy it as much as Perfect Daughter always did.

Perfect Girl helped me cracked the eggs and whip up the batter for this German pancake (AKA Dutch Baby).  Perfect Boy was content to let us do the work, but he did agree to turn on the oven light so we could watch it rise in the oven.  Yep, all male:)

GERMAN PANCAKE

Makes 2 to 4 servings:
3 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1/2 cup sifted bread flour or all-purpose flour*
1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
7 teaspoons butter
Freshly-squeezed lemon juice
Powdered (confectioners') sugar

*Bread flour is a high-protein flour. The high protein helps the pancake rise. All-purpose flour may be substituted but the results won't be as spectacular.

Makes 4 to 6 servings:
6 eggs, room temperature
1 cup milk, room temperature
1 cup sifted bread flour or all-purpose flour*
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons butter
Freshly-squeezed lemon juice
Powdered  sugar

Have eggs and milk at room temperature.  Melt the butter in your baking dish (I use a cast iron skillet or an 11 x 13-inch baking dish if making the larger amount.) while the oven is preheating to 425 degrees.

Beat the eggs until frothy.  Slowly beat in the vanilla, cinnamon and lemon juice.  Add the melted butter a small amount at a time while beating otherwise the eggs make cook!  Add the flour while whisking steadily.

Pour the egg mixture into the hot baking container and cook for approximately 20-25 minutes.

Serve immediately with a dusting of powdered sugar.  The pancake will deflate immediately upon removal from the oven.  Maple syrup is an additional option.

Be sure to turn on the oven light and watch.  Your children will love it.

I’m glad that you chose to spend some time with me today.  I look forward to what you have to say.

Linked to:

Tuesdays At the Table

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

Full Plate Thursday

WHAT’S ON THE MENU WEDNESDAY with Shrimp Scampi and The Biggest Loser

  Before sharing this week’s delicious dish, I just have to let you in on some exciting news.

  Since last May, my next-door teacher has been in California and various other locations as a participant in this year’s The Biggest Loser television program.  Becky applied as a team participant along with her son.  While he was not selected to participate, she was!  It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.

We anticipated her return last week.  Wow!  does she look fantastic.  She has lost a total of 66 pounds thus far.  Tonight is the first session of this year’s program. 

I hope you will follow along as the season progresses and join me in wishing her every success.  We’ll know the final results in December.

We’re all wearing our “Team Becky” Biggest Loser t-shirts and wishing  her all good things.

SHRIMP SCAMPI

2 pounds unpeeled large shimp
3 Tablespoons stick margarine or butter
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
8 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
6 (2-ounce) slices French bread

Peel shrimp, leaving tails intact.  Butterfly each shrimp, cutting to, but not through, the back of the shrimp.  Arrange 8 shrimp, cut sides up, in each of six gratin dishes on a baking sheet and set aside.
Preheat the broiler.
Melt margarine in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Add bell pepper and garlic; saute 2 minutes.  Remove from heat; stir in wine, parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Spoon wine mixture evenly over shrimp; sprinkle paprika over shrimp.  Broil six minutes or until shrimp are done.  Serve with crusty French bread.

Yield 6 servings.

If you don’t have gratin dishes, place shrimp in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.  Pour wine mixture over shrimp and broil as directed.

A side salad will complete the meal.

Thanks for joining me for this week’s What’s On the Menu Wednesday.  I also hope you will join me in supporting Becky in this season’s The Biggest Loser.  She’s terrific!

Linked to:  Full Plate Thursday

WHAT’S ON THE MENU WEDNESDAY and War Eagle Mill Bean Palace Pecan Cobbler

 

I recently wrote about The Bean Palace Restaurant at War Eagle Mill in Rogers, Arkansas over at Deb Eats, my new restaurant review blog.  I hope you will check it out.  The mill is such a fun place, especially in the fall when the trees are at their absolutely gorgeousness.

One of the dishes that the Bean Palace Restaurant at War Eagle Mill is so famous for is their Pecan Cobbler.  Oh my!  I’ll just warn you up front, this is not a dish for the faint of heart or calories.  It’s loaded.  Do yourself a favor though make it for a  good friend or neighbor who will be willing to share a small bowl bowl but who will absolutely forbid you to take a bite beyond that!

It’s just that good.

War Eagle Mill Pecan Cobbler

 

War Eagle Mill Bean Palace Pecan Cobbler
1/2 cups light corn syrup

 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 5 eggs, slightly beaten 3 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
Cobbler Crust

 

 1 cup oat flour ( 1 cup regular oatmeal processed to a fine powder)
1 cup unbleached flour ( all-purpose flour will work)
1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 cup cold water

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350º.
Spray a 13 X 9 inch pan with cooking spray.

In large bowl, mix together the syrup, sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs until very well combined.

Pour 1/3 of this filling mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Add pecans to the remaining filling mixture and set aside while preparing crust.

In medium sized bowl combine the two flours and salt. Cut cold butter into small pieces and add to flours. Combine butter into the flour using a fork or pastry cutter.  Add cold water, a little at a time, stirring until the dough forms into a ball that sticks together (I only used 1/4 cup water but the original recipe called for 1/2 cup).

 

Place dough on lightly floured surface and knead gently about 4 or 5 times until it is no longer sticky.

 

Roll out dough into a 13 X 9 inch rectangle. Carefully pick up the rolled dough and place in the pan on top of the filling mixture.

 

Pour the remaining filling mixture with the pecans onto the top of the dough.

 

Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until the center begins to set. Remove from oven and let cool for about 20 minutes.

 

Serve warm or at room temperature.  Oh…add a spoonful of your favorite vanilla ice cream to cut the sweetness (She laughed.)

Thanks for dropping by and linking up.

Tusk and Trotter Giveaway at NWAfoodie.

nwaFoodie: 2nd Anniversary giveaway week: Tusk & Trotter in B...: (It’s Day 6 ) Tusk & Trotter . Off the square in downtown Bentonville.  Have you dined there yet? My husband and I went recentl...

WHAT’S ON THE MENU WEDNESDAY and Go Hogs Crawfish Soup

WOO PIG SOOIE!

I just had to get that out of the way.  Our first Razorback game of the season is this Saturday.  Everybody is so excited about the potential for this year’s team.

Now…

   I’m a cookbook collector.  I read cookbooks like many people read novels.  Crazy, huh? 

   I have been trying to trim my collection down over the past year, but it’s hard.  It’s sorta’ like going through your child’s school and art work.  What’s not to love about each piece?But there comes a time…

One cookbook that I will definitely hold onto is The Arkansas Classic Country Cookbook by Ruth Moore Malone and Bess Malone Lankford.  No, it’s not a James Beard award winner, but it reminds me so much of the growing-up times with my grandmothers.  They were both excellent cooks, but I don’t think either one ever used or even owned a cookbook.  They knew how to make do and did so with fresh and flavorful bounty available to them from the fields, the woods and the streams.  They also knew how to use the lard, the bacon fat and the salt!

One of the recipes from this book is for Crawfish Soup.  Yep, we eat crawfish (AKA crawdads, mudpuppies, ditch dwellers) at our house.  Granted, these are farm raised, harvested and cooked…there’s only so much I’m willing to harken back to the “good old days.” 

This soup is hearty and not so light, but it is good.  I have indicated a few of the changes I have made to Malone and Lankford’s original recipe in italics.  I hope you’ll give this a try.

In case you were wondering what a crawfish was….

Go Hogs Cream of Crawfish Soup

2 1/2 cups cooked crawfish
4 cups milk
I used 2 cups Half and Half and 2 cups 2% milk. 4 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons flour
1 pint heavy cream
Salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons sherry (optional) 1 to 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
dash Worchestershire
dash Tabasco
2-3 green onions, finely chopped

Shred crawfish (chop in food processor) and combine with milk in a double boiler. Add red pepper flakes, Worchestershire, Tabasco, and green onions.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

Melt butter in a large saucepan (bring out the microwave), stir in flour, then cream.  Cook while stirring until thickened.  Remove crawfish and milk from heat and stir into cream mixture a little at a time so that it does not curdle.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add sherry just before serving.  I seldom add the sherry just because I don’t usually have it on hand.  While it adds a notch of flavor, it isn’t essential.

Serves 8 to 10.

Thanks for joining me today for this week’s edition of What’s On the Menu Wednesday. I sure am glad that you choose to spend part of your day with me.

Linked to:
Mouthwatering Mondays
Menu Plan Monday
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Tuesdays At the Table
Full Plate Thursday
Time Out Tuesday



There was a fluke in this past Wednesday's posting.  For those of you who came looking, I apologize and hope that you will link up this week.