Fluffy Pancakes

I wanted to make heart shaped pancakes for our Valentine's day dinner, and I didn't want to use Bisquick. I just thought I should put a little more effort into it than that. So...I pulled up the Taste of Home website again and found this yummy recipe. Definitely worth the extra effort!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup shortening, melted

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the egg, milk and shortening; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle (I didn't need to grease mine). Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes and edges are dry. Cook until the second side is golden brown.

Yield: 8 pancakes

*When making pancakes, the most important thing to remember is not to overmix the batter! I know - it's tempting to get all those lumps out of there, but those lumps are what make it fluffy (just be careful not to leave gigantic lumps). The baking powder bubbles pop while cooking and there you have it - fluffiness! At least, that's what I learned from a cooking segment on a morning talk show :) The other thing that was suggested was to only turn your pancakes once. I've followed this advice ever since and it's worked every time.

Making heart pancakes was super easy - thanks to MarthaStewart.com. All you need to do is fill a pastry bag with the batter (use a plain, round tip) and pipe it onto the griddle in the shape of a heart. Do the outside first and then fill in the middle - easy peasy!

Beef Stew

When my husband and I were first married I was on a quest to find a great recipe for Beef Stew.  After trying several recipes, I finally came up with one on my own that we still love!

Ingredients

1 lb stew meat

Pan searing flour

5 cups water

1 packet McCormick Beef Stew seasoning

1-2 beef bouillon cubes

1 cup sliced carrots

1 cup frozen peas

3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

Directions:

Trim fat from stew meat and coat with pan searing flour.  Brown meat in a frying pan with about 1 tbsp oil.  In a large pot, combine the water, beef stew mix and bouillon cubes. Bring water and seasonings to a boil, then add meat.  Cover and simmer.  While the meat simmers, prepare vegetables, then add to the pot.  Simmer until vegetables are tender, about 15-20 minutes.  Enjoy!

*You can also make this in the crockpot.  I put everything in around lunchtime and it's perfect by the time my husband gets home from work.  I've also used leftover roast rather then stew meat, and both are equally tender.  

Berry Good Dip

I get all kinds of email newsletters from parenting sites - most of which I only glance at before deleting. Don't ask me why I keep subscribing! However, this time I saw a link for recipes and decided to take a look. I wish I could remember which site I found it on, but I'm sorry to say I can't. The good news is: I found a great new recipe!

I should also let you know that I misread the recipe to begin with and didn't realize it until I looked it up a second time. I thought that it called for 12 oz of Cool Whip rather than 12 oz of whipped cream cheese. Not exactly sure how my brain messed that up - guess I was skimming the recipe rather quickly. Oops! It was a good mistake though - I brought the dip to a dinner with friends and they loved it.

Here's what you need:

12 oz whipped cream cheese or 12 oz Cool Whip. Really - either one is yummy!
Berry jam (any kind you like)

Mix the two together and enjoy with your favorite fruit!

If you're using cream cheese you'll need 3 Tbsp jam. If you take the Cool Whip route, just keep mixing in jam until you like the flavor.