breakfast bacon and cheddar mini-popovers

These are a very quick popover to make for breakfast or for kid’s lunchpails. I was the only one up early on Sunday morning, so I had these ready by the time the rest of the house had stumbled downstairs. It’s a standard Yorkshire pudding/popover recipe with added chopped bacon and cheddar cheese. You can also add in a few tablespoons of fresh chopped chives or green onion, but it was raining yesterday morning, so I stuck to the basics – I wasn’t venturing out in the rain in my pyjamas for green stuff. This is very quick to make, especially if you keep cooked and crumbled bacon in the freezer.

According to the original recipe that I’ve always used, the crumbled bacon and cheese is supposed to be sprinkled over the top – but I just fold it into the batter. I make mine in a mini-muffin tin, but you can make larger popovers in normal size muffin tins, just adjust the baking time.

Bacon Cheddar Mini-Popovers

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-2 tbsp of green onion or chives (optional) or 1/2 – 1 tsp of garlic powder (optional)
• 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar (sharp cheddar is nice)
• 3-4 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease your muffin tins (I use a Misto oil sprayer filled with vegetable oil). This recipe made 24 mini-popovers, or should make 12 normal muffin size popovers.

Beat together the eggs, milk and oil. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, cheese, bacon and any herbs or seasonings that you like (I used about 1/2 tsp garlic powder this time because I couldn’t get outside for green onion or chives). Mix dry ingredients into wet, but only until wet. Do not overmix.

Fill your greased and floured muffin tins 2/3 full of batter.Cook for ~15 minutes, or until browned for mini-popovers, and between 25-30 minutes for larger popovers.

** If you want sky-high popovers with lots of air pockets, sprinkle the toppings on top instead of into the batter. I like them incorporated. They are still light and have lots of air pockets, but will not have as much height as normal popovers.

Linked to A Pinch of Joy, Frugally Sustainable, A Delightlful Home, Simple Lives Thursday, Growing Home

hope and cookies

I’ve been tagged in a blog relay about hope by a fellow blogger, Somer at Good Clean Food to write on the subject of hope. I’ve been reading a Barbara Kingsolver novel, so I found a quote by her:

The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

While I’m not certain I have figured out the whole of what I hope for, I know that I seem to have a running list of hopes throughout my day. There are, of course, overall hopes of continued good health for myself and my family and friends, but I am (as usual) an instant gratification kind of person and focused on the short-term. Today’s list (well, it will be yesterday’s list by the time I post it) –

• I hope the small kid didn’t wear her good shoes in the barn again
• I really hope that the tall kid’s hormonal freak-out this morning doesn’t happen again tomorrow
• I hope I miraculously grow another half inch so that I can be taller than my 11-year-old
• I hope it rains soon
• I hope the cat hasn’t re-damaged his hip – he’s been walking with an even bigger hitch in his giddy-up this weekend
• I hope there is something dessert-ish at home to eat

There wasn’t. The dessert-ish thing, that is. While I often entertain hope that the dad will feel like baking, he didn’t. So I decided to make some cookies.

Since we are on the subject of hope, let’s make them endorphin stimulating spiced chocolate cookies. Both chocolate and spicy foods stimulate endorphin production, which in turn just makes you happy. Who wouldn’t have hope when happily eating spicy chocolate cookies. These have a little heat to them - they remind me a little of my new favourite Lindt chocolate chili bar. The heat isn’t too intense, so if you like it hotter, up the cayenne pepper a bit.

Hope Cookies (Spiced Chocolate Cookies)

adapted from Savour Fare

• 1  1/2 cups plus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

In a medium bowl combine the flour, spices, and cocoa powder.

In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until the  mixture is fluffy. Add honey and vanilla; beat until combined.

In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Beat  half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking soda mixture, then  remaining half of flour mixture. Add chocolate chips and refrigerate for about  30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I use a silpat).  Roll  dough into 2-inch balls, roll dough balls in granulated sugar and place on  baking sheets.  Transfer to oven and bake until surfaces crack  slightly, about 18-20 minutes. They should be slightly crunchy outside (like me!), but soft in the middle.

And here I pass the baton on to a few bloggers to give their thoughts on hope in any form that they would like: Luanne at At The Homefront - because she has a wonderful way of grouping words together, Seasoned With Sarcasm - because I like her sense of humour and am interested to see what she would write about, and Sarah at Sarah’s Place, whose food and knitting always look so much better than mine.

Linked to Frugally Sustainable, Simple Lives Thursday, A Pinch of Joy

german pancake

I’m on holidays this week again. It’s just me and the girls though, and I thought I should make them a little treat before I broke the news to them that the barn stall clean-out they did yesterday wasn’t up to standards and they needed to go back and shovel them out some more.

This is something that I had clipped out of a magazine years ago and made for guests. I wish I knew which magazine, but I did find an exact copy of the recipe here on AllRecipes. I halved it to make a smaller version for the girls and I – this size fits perfectly in a cast iron skillet. To make a larger version, just double the recipe exactly and bake it in a 9×13″ pan.

We like it served with maple syrup and powdered sugar and strawberry jam, but I’ve also served it in the past with sautéed apples and raisins. I’ve read the Germans just stick to fresh squeezed lemon juice and powdered sugar. Any way you like it, it’s a bit of a sweet treat. It’s somewhere between a pancake and a soufflé and nice and airy. I think four hungry adults could possibly eat 2 large pans of this – so you may want to double the doubled recipe if you are feeding guests.

German Pancake (serves 2 adults)

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 400F. Place the eggs, milk, flour and salt in a blender; cover and process until smooth (I just used an immersion blender – less clean-up. You can also just whisk it all together until smooth). Add butter to the skillet and heat in oven for a few minutes until melted, then swirl around to coat the skillet. Add the batter and bake for 20 minutes.

Linked to A Pinch of Joy, Frugally Sustainable, Homestead Simple