Berry Crisp

YUM. I love love LOVE dessert. Pies, cakes, cookies, ice cream, and anything with fruit. Especially fruit crisps. Crisps are easy to put together, and delicious to eat. It’s a win/win situation for everyone involved. For this particular crisp, I used what fruits I had on hand – blueberries and blackberries (picked last summer at Ichuaway and put into my freezer) but you could use just about any fruit. Some variations may be apple with cranberries, plums and nectarines, peach, pear and blueberry, really the possibilities are endless. Serve this dish with a little whipped cream, ice cream, or by itself.

What you need:
5 cups fruit
1 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup plus 3 tablespoons flour (separate)
3 tbsp white sugar
optional – ½ cup coconut (adds a lil fiber- everyone needs fiber)
dash nutmeg
dash cinnamon
dash ginger
½ cup butter – cut up into small pieces

What you do:
Combine fruit, 3 tbsp flour and white sugar in a square 9x9 baking dish. In a separate bowl, mix up oats, brown sugar, ½ cup flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and coconut. Mix in butter to the oat mixture with a pastry cutter, 2 forks, or your hands until it looks like a crumbly mess (I have found you can either mix the butter in or you can sprinkle it over the top and it turns out fine). Sprinkle this mixture on top of the fruit. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes, or until the mixture is bubbling and the topping is brown.

Enjoy!
-hayden

Note: The sugar and flour mixed in to the fruit in the beginning was to make a bit of a syrup, but its not necessary. If you skip that step, expect your crisp to be more on the runny side when using fruits other than apples.

Light & Fluffy Banana Pancakes

I said we like breakfast in my house, I wasn't kidding!  And I also mentioned that Ryan is typically our breakfast chef...also, not kidding.   ;)   Ryan made these pancakes this morning and they were great, very light and fluffy!  Taking a page from the cookbook of Julie, he found a recipe on allrecipes.com and added his own touches (including the bananas).  We topped with maple syrup (100% real, none of that maple "flavored" corn syrup crap here) and fresh blueberries.  But, after living in Maine for a summer a couple years ago, Ryan has become a total blueberry snob and they don't seem to be good enough unless they're straight off the bush.  So here's the recipe...

Ingredients:

Pancakes are hard to take good photos of,
the syrup sinks in too quickly!

3/4 cup milk

2 tbsp white vinegar

1 cup flour

2 tbsp white sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

dash of cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

1 egg

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 ripe bananas, mashed

cooking spray

Instructions:

1)  Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour.”

2)  Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl.  Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk.  Stir in bananas just until evenly mixed.  Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are almost gone (you’ll probably still have some banana lumps).

3)  Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

enjoy!

 ~ j

Potato & Spinach Frittata

Breakfast is probably the favorite meal in our house, and it's not just for morning (although I did make this particular recipe in the morning). In fact, we just had breakfast burritos for dinner that I made a few weeks ago and froze. Usually Ryan is the breakfast cook, but once in a while I get myself in cooking mode in the morning. I usually make random frittata or quiche-type dishes, and just throw whatever I can find into them. I kept track of what I was doing last time, and here’s what I came up with. Oh, and it was a hit, or I wouldn't be posting the recipe!

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
3 medium potatoes
½ red pepper, diced
1 cup torn fresh spinach
4 green onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
salt & pepper to taste
6 eggs
1/3 cup milk
½ cup shredded mozzarella
1/3 cup feta cheese
parmesan cheese

Instructions:
1) Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F, lightly grease 9” casserole dish.
2) Heat olive oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Place potatoes in skillet, cover, and cook about 10 minutes (until tender, but firm). Mix in red pepper, spinach, onions, garlic and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook on low heat for 1-2 minutes.

3) In medium bowl, beat together eggs and milk. Mix in cheeses, and then potato mixture from skillet. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top and cook in oven for about 45 minutes, or until eggs are firm. Remove from oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

enjoy!
~ j