Zucchini Pancakes

This is a recipe I made up years ago, using a basic pancake recipe and adding in what I think would be good. I like to add fruits and/or veggies to spike up the flavor and nutrition, and over the years I’ve come up with some winning combinations that my family loves. For the Zucchini Pancakes, you can add an apple, peeled and cut up into small chinks, and it works really well with the zucchini.

So, enough chitchat; let’s get cooking!

Start the griddle on the stove so it’s ready by the time you are with the batter.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. I don’t add any sugar to pancakes; you’re going to be putting syrup on top and that’s sweet enough. Also, you would normally add the spices to the dry ingredients, but I forgot and had to add them in the next step. Just pretend you see cinnamon and ground cloves in this. ;)

Grate the zucchini. I use the larger grating side. If you’re adding an apple, peel, core, and dice it now, also.

Add the eggs, oil, and milk. Those spices on the left are just a figment of your imagination. Remember you visualized them back in the first step? ;)

                                 
                                Mix the batter well with a whisk.

Add in the zucchini and blend well with the whisk.

Spray the griddle with cooking spray. Using a measuring cup or a ladle, scoop out about 1/3 cup for each pancake. I usually do three at a time on my griddle.

When the pancake starts to bubble around the edges and the edges get dry looking, you know they’re ready to be flipped.

So flip them! Don’t you just love how I order you around? ;)

When they are thoroughly cooked, you’ll see that they have puffed up and the middle of the sides of the pancake is totally dry, not still moist.




Serve with butter and syrup. Enjoy! ~TMMF

*Note: These  can be made without the oil and come out just fine. If you take out the cinnamon, ground cloves, and zucchini, you have the basic pancake recipe. This recipe makes about ten 5” pancakes.

Zucchini Pancakes

3 c flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbl baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cloves
2 eggs
3 Tbl oil
2 c milk
1 c grated zucchini
(about 1/2 small zucchini)

Easy Cheese Danish

This recipe is one that I found online, but the woman who published it said that she doesn’t know where the recipe originally came from because her mother and grandmother always made it. So, alas, I don’t know to whom to give credit. When you try this, the heavenly taste will make you say, “Creator of the recipe? Who cares?! This is SO GOOD!!!” ;)

Anyway, as long as you know I didn’t come up with it, let’s just get down to the nitty gritty.

Soften the cream cheese by nuking it in the microwave for a minute or two on low, or stubbornly plow through the mixing process like I did. ;) Place it in a bowl with the sugar, egg, and vanilla, and beat until smooth.

Grease a 9 X 13” baking dish. Carefully open the rolled up canned refrigerated crescent rolls, leaving the 4 sets of double triangles together. You’re going to lay them in the baking dish and press the seams together to form a solid bottom.




Since each set of 2 triangles is rectangular, you’ll be able to fit 3 sets across the length of the dish. For the remaining empty spaces, I cut the last rectangle of crescent rolls into 3 strips lengthwise and just tried the best I could to make it work. It’s not hard, just takes a little ingenuity.

Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly on top of the crescent roll crust.

Top with the second can of crescent rolls in the same manner as the bottom layer.

Beat the egg white with a fork and brush on top of the crust. You need so little for this; I ended up setting the egg yolk back in the little bowl with the white to use for scrambled eggs.

Bake in a 350° oven for 35 to 45 minutes. Definitely check at the 35 minute mark.





Cool at least 20 minutes before spreading the icing on top. My 10 year old, Timmy, was so anxious to eat them, he suggested I put it in the freezer to speed up the cooling, which I did, just to please him. ;)

While waiting for it to cool, make the icing. In a small bowl mix the milk with the confectioner’s sugar until smooth. I just used the spoon I mixed it with to spread the icing on.

Serve and watch the smiles!! Enjoy! ~TMMF

Easy Cheese Danish

2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls

2 8 oz packages cream cheese

1 c sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla 

1 egg

1 egg white  

Blueberry French Toast Casserole

This recipe is one that I found on a blog called Baking in a Tornado. With blueberries coming into season soon, I thought this would be a tasty treat to try out. I love this kind of homey casserole dish for a brunch. It looks good and tastes even better. I hope you’ll like it too.

By the way, I did adjust the original recipe as I saw fit. And it called for frozen French toast, but I made my own instead.

To make your own French toast, beat 2 eggs in a pie pan or similar wide flat container. Add ¾ c. milk, ½ tsp. vanilla, and 1 tsp. cinnamon.

Dip the bread into the mixture and cook on a greased, heated griddle. Flip when browned on the bottom.

Grease a 7X9” baking dish. Spread softened cream cheese on the slices of French toast, about ¼” thick. Place 4 slices in the baking dish, cream cheese side up. Cut in half or quarters as needed to cover the bottom of the pan.

Dry the blueberries as best you can with a paper towel or kitchen towel after you’ve washed them. Sprinkle them evenly over the bottom layer of French toast.

Place the remaining 4 slices of French toast on top in the same manner as the first layer, but with cream cheese side down.

Beat the 6 eggs well and add the 1 c. milk, mixing thoroughly. Pour over the casserole.






You can cover and let sit for several hours to have at supper time, or let it sit overnight and have it in the morning. When you’re ready for it, bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a knife in the middle. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, bake for 10 more minutes and check again.

Serve with maple syrup and powdered sugar if you like. Enjoy! ~TMMF

Blueberry French Toast Casserole

8 slices French toast
     (2 eggs, ¾ c milk)
1 pint blueberries
6 oz. cream cheese
6 eggs
1 c milk

Easter Bread

This recipe is for the bread my mom made at Easter every year when I was growing up. It was such a special treat and much looked forward to. Even the smell of it can take me back to those long ago Easters of my childhood, searching for the eggs we’d colored the day before, eating my mom’s wonderful Easter Bread with breakfast, scurrying to get ready for church. Such sweet memories. I hope you’ll enjoy this as much as I do.

First, set the yeast to soften in the water. I took the water warm from the tap and added the yeast in a bowl. Because you’re using less water and more yeast than typically, it will be thick. Just stir till all is moistened, then cover it with a towel and set aside.

While the yeast is softening, set the milk to scald in a small saucepan. In a small bowl, melt the butter in the microwave oven. Add the sugar, salt, and melted butter to the scalded milk and remove from heat, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. It needs to cool down somewhat now.

In a large mixing bowl, measure out the flour. When the milk mixture is cooled but still warm, add to the flour and stir with a wooden spoon to make a thick dough.

Add the softened yeast, vanilla, and beaten eggs. Beat with a mixer until smooth. It will make a looser, sticky dough, more like a batter. Just some advice here: don’t let the dough climb up the beaters. Keep the speed on medium, and if you have to, stop beating for a few seconds to scrape the batter down off the handles of the beaters before starting again. Now how would I know to warn you about this? ;)



Cover and let rise in a warm place until bubbly. I put my electric oven on 150° for a few minutes, shut it off, and place the covered bowl on a plate inside. It will take about 45 minutes for the rising.

Next, stir down with a wooden spoon. Put into a well greased bundt pan, angel food cake pan, or 10” tube pan. Cover again and let rise till doubled, about 45 minutes.

With the oven heated to 350°, bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes and remove from pan onto cooling rack.




While the bread is cooling, mix up some icing using 1 c. confectioner’s sugar and 3 tsp. milk. You want it to be smooth and just thin enough to run down the sides. After the bread is cooled, spread the icing on top, pushing it to the edges so it drips down the sides.

Now, traditionally, this is made with white icing and then tiny pastel colored non-pareils sprinkled on.  However, this year I decided to try something new. When I was done putting the white icing on, I made a little pink, purple, and yellow icings and drizzled them back and forth over the white. Serve and enjoy! ~TMMF

Easter Bread

¼ c. warm water
2 packages yeast
½ c. milk
1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2/3 c. melted  butter
4 c. flour
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
4 eggs, beaten

Oven French Toast

This is a recipe that one of my sisters first made to bring to a family brunch many years ago. It was an instant hit, and I started making it for my own family. What I love about this recipe is that, besides being to-die-for delicious, it’s easily adaptable for cutting down the fat and calories, and still downright tasty.

For the stale French bread, I always look at the day old rack and get a loaf of that. I’ve used Italian bread for this too, if that’s all I could get. If you can’t get any that’s stale enough, cut it and lay them out to get drier the day before you make them.

So, you want to cut the French bread into 1” slices, and place them in a  greased 13X15”  baking dish.

Mix together the eggs with a wire whisk, then add the milk, half-and-half , and vanilla. Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, and mace, mixing well. If you don’t have mace on hand, just add a little more nutmeg and cinnamon. I’ve made it with mace and without, and it’s good no matter what.

Pour the mixture over the bread slices in the pan. Cover and set aside overnight.

Before baking, you need to make the topping. Chop the nuts. You want them to be smallish. I’ve made this dish using walnuts and using pecans, but since I like the taste of pecans more, I tend to use them more.

Mix together the softened butter, brown sugar, Karo syrup, and nuts.

Spread the topping on top of the soaked slices of French bread. You might need to use a rubber spatula.

Bake at 350° for about 50 minutes. You can tell it’s done by how brown and bubbly it will be, and also by inserting a knife in the middle. If it comes out without any egg mixture, it’s done. Keep in mind that the knife will have some of the topping on it, but that will be brown. If you don’t have any yellowish egg mixture, it’s done.

You can serve this with a little maple syrup on it if you‘d like, but believe me, it’s plenty sweet without it. My family doesn’t bother with the maple syrup. Enjoy! ~TMMF

                                          Oven French Toast                  Topping

              1 loaf  stale French bread                  ¾ c. butter, softened

                  8 large eggs                            1 1/3 c. brown    sugar

                                          2 c. milk                                 3 Tbl. Karo
                                          2 c. half and half                      1 1/3 c. walnuts or pecans
                                          2 tsp. vanilla
                                         ½ tsp. nutmeg
                                          1 tsp. cinnamon
                                         ½ tsp. mace