Mood:  hungry

I've tried a few different recipes over the years but have found this one to be one of my families favorites. I first discovered a smaller version of this recipe at AllRecipes.com under the label Clark Gable Pancakes. I don't know why they were called that but after a bit of trial and error, I've tweaked the recipe to be more my own. The pancakes turn out nice and fluffy and there aren't usually any left over! That says a lot in my book :-)

As a side note, my mom always made huge skillet/plate size pancakes. I thought that was the way pancakes were supposed to be made the whole time I was growing up. When I left home to join the Air Force as a young girl of 18, and was around other folks, my husbands family for instance, I found they made small 3 inch-ish pancakes. I was completely lost on what was the right way to do pancakes...lol! I've discovered with 3 growing BIG teenage boys, I'm very happy to make large pancakes these days. I'll save the small ones for when I have grand-baby toddlers in the house... one of these days.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

3 tablespoons baking powder

3 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

3 cups milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions: 

Heat skillet over medium heat.

While the skillet is heating up, sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, and oil together. Pour over flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Let stand for a few minutes. Cook pancakes on first side until bubbly, and then flip and cook for another minute or two on the second side.  

I make these pancakes in my iron skillet. There is oil in the recipe but I also use my basting brush to lightly oil the skillet between each pancake just to make sure they don't stick. You can use as much batter per pancake as you wish depending on what size you want. I use a soup ladle for large pancakes or a half-cup measuring cup for smaller pancakes.

I usually like to use the first half of the batter for regular pancakes and then add blueberries straight from the freezer for the last half of the batter. My family love to eat them either way!!

Sallie

Ironically, for several days before my mom passed away we were talking blueberries (which is why I posted the Blueberry Pie recipe on the 6th). The morning of the 6th, the children and I got up extra early and several of us went to Nelson Farm for one last dash of the season. The fruit of our labor for that morning, along with our previous trip at the beginning of the season, yielded our family nearly 30 pounds of blueberries. They all went into the freezer to be used later for making jam as well as other goodies.

Our family typically makes jam, pies, muffins, pancakes, and waffles with our blueberries but there are so many other things you can do with them. I already shared our pie recipe the other day. I've created unique muffins using this process before. The Blueberry Council has many other great recipes listed here that I can't wait to try. Next on my list, though, for experimenting in the kitchen is blueberry cake donuts. Maybe I'll use this recipe by Emeril. Yum!!

We love to visit pick-your-own local farms. In North Carolina, you can find a listing of these farms at NC Farm Fresh. Pick Your Own is another website that is great for finding local farms with fresh produce not only across the United States, but the world over.

Do you have a favorite summer fruit that your family feels as if they can't live without? Do you have your own garden or, like me, go pick fresh fruits and veggies at local farms? Do you have any recipes for blueberries you want to share with me?! I could probably use a few new ones so feel free to share them in the comments

Sallie

My mom and I were talking about blueberry recipes the other day because she still has a few bags left in the freezer that I took her from last years crop. She asked if I could share a good recipe for blueberry pie so I thought I'd share the one we use around our house. It is from one of my favorite baking cookbooks that I love: Heartland Baking ~ All-American Cakes, Cookies, Pies and Pastries, Breads and Bars, printed 1995 by SMITHMARK Publishers Inc..

For the filling: 

• 1 pound blueberries
• 1/4 sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons butter, diced

For the crust:

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut in pieces
• 3 tablespoons cold shortening, cut in pieces
• 5-6 tablespoons ice water
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for glazing

For the crust, sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Add the butter and shortening and cut in with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. With a fork, stir in just enough water to bind the dough. Gather into 2 equal balls, wrap in wax paper, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface roll out 1 dough ball about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer to a 9 inch pie pan and trim to leave a 1/2 inch overhang. Brush the bottom with egg glaze.

Mix all the filling ingredients together, except the butter (reserve a few blueberries for decoration, if you'd like). Spoon into the shell and dot with butter. Brush the egg glaze on the edge of the lower crust.

At this point, place a cooking sheet in the center of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F. (do not put the pie in the oven yet though)

Roll out the remaining dough on a baking tray lined with wax paper. With a serrated pastry wheel (or you can do like us and just use a plain pizza cutter), cut out 24 thin strips of dough. Roll out the scraps and cut leaf shapes for the top of the pie. Mark veins in the leaves with the point of a knife. Weave the strips in a close lattice, then transfer to the pie using the wax paper. Press the edges to seal and trim them. Decorate the pie by arranging the dough leaves around the rim. Brush with egg glaze.

Place in the top half of the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and bake until the pastry is golden brown, about 40 more minutes.

Decorate with reserved berries.

Blueberries are so healthy, and we eat a lot them around here... in pancakes, muffins, pound cake, pies, as a topper for ice cream, and more. I hope you enjoy this favorite recipe of ours! Let me know if you give it a try :-)

Sallie

Mood:  hungry

Our daughter Victoria's beau, Justin, is French-American and one of his many good qualities is that he knows how to make crepes :-) He was kind enough to teach Victoria how to make them on one of his weekend visits, and she in turn taught me. Honestly, it wasn't as "frightening" as I expected. I've heard several horror stories about the technique needed for flipping/turning them but I only needed a short amount of practice to get it down pat, and even those first two or three crepes were still very much edible, if only a bit odd shaped!

Justin explained to us that pretty much everyone in France has their own unique crepe recipe. With that in mind, I have tried experimenting lately to try and come up with my own ideal crepe. I'm still working on texture and flavor (for instance, I've decided I like adding lemon juice) but the following video is a great tutorial for making crepes... better than I could give you for sure :-)

A few clarifications:

1.  You do NOT have to have that wooden spreader "thingy"... you can easily spread your crepe mix by dipping and rolling (swirling) your pan from side to side to spread the crepe out.
   
2. Your pan doesn't have to be completely flat. I personally want a Le Creuset crepe pan, which has a very small lip, but you can just as easily get a pan with a larger lip such as this one from Cuisinart.

A favorite French way of eating crepes is by spreading Nutella or Cassonade (which is sort of a French version of brown sugar) on it and folding or rolling it up. This IS a very tasty way of eating them! However, I was flipping through an old edition of Victoria Bliss Magazine (Jan/Feb 2008) and found a yummy recipe for chocolate hazelnut sauce and I have fallen in love with eating my crepes this way. It isn't a convenient "on the go" way to eat crepes but sometimes you just need to sit and relax and eat yours crepes a bit more elegantly -- aka with a fork ;-)

You will need:

• 3 tablespoons hazelnut chocolate spread (aka Nutella)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts (optional)

Combine the spread and heavy cream in a small saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring until smooth. Continue to cook over low heat until the mixture thickens up, maybe a minute or two more. Drizzle the sauce over the crepes and sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts, or maybe with fresh fruit like we prefer. The only thing left to do after that is enjoy!!

Have you learned to cook anything new lately? Feel free to share in the comments...

P.S. If you don't want to hassle with measurement conversions on the above french video, you can watch this easy youtube crepe video instead ;-)

Sallie

Our family spent an hour or so this past Saturday morning picking nearly 20 pounds of strawberries. We usually make strawberry jam, and I do plan on making some of that, but I also wanted to try a new recipe. One of our favorite drinks in the summer time is lemonade. I can't tell ya how excited I was then when I found this recipe for Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate at FreshPreserving.com!! This will be an awesome drink to serve on hot summer days when all you want is some yummy goodness and you are trying your best to stay away from kool-aid and sodas!!

Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate
Makes about 7 (16 oz) pints

You will need:

6 cups hulled strawberries
4 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 cups granulated sugar

Directions: 

PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready to use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.

PURÉE strawberries in a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade, working in batches, until smooth. Transfer to a large stainless steel saucepan as completed.

ADD lemon juice and sugar to strawberry puree, stirring to combine. Heat to 190° F over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Do not boil. Remove from heat and skim off foam.

LADLE hot concentrate into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.

PROCESS jars in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

QUICK TIP:
To reconstitute, mix one part concentrate with one part water, tonic water or ginger ale. Adjust concentrate to suit your taste.

Do you have a favorite recipe for strawberries, or a favorite summertime drink? Feel free to share in the comments :-)

Sallie