Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

 Ingredients

Batter

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp brown sugar (optional)*
• 1 tsp salt (optional)*
• 1 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend or you can put together
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree or butternut squash puree.
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• butter for cooking

Toppings

• a slice of apple
• 1/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt  (whole fat) mix with 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice blend
• honey
• almonds

* personally, I didn't add sugar nor salt and they still turned out great. The pumpkin puree and honey topping provides the sweetness that you need.

Directions

1. Dry ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, brown sugar, salt, pumpkin spice blend
2. Wet ingredients: Using a blender, blend together milk, pumpkin puree and eggs. 
3. Pour the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk using the manual hand-held mixer. 
4. Melt butter on lowest heat setting in a large skillet (if you use a non-stick pan, you don't even need butter nor oil), then pour about 1/4 c of the batter onto the pan. 
5. Cook until the topside of the pancake is not too wet anymore, then flip the pancake and cook for about 1 to 2 more minutes.
6. Repeat with remaining batter. This yields about 8 pancakes. 

Make your own Butternut Squash Puree

 Ingredient

1 large butternut squash 

Instructions

• Pre-heat the oven to 350℉
• Slice the butternut squash in half, lengthwise

• Scoop out and toss the seeds
• Place the halves flesh-side-up on a foil-lined baking sheet
• Roast for 45-60 minutes or until the butternut squash can easily be pierced with a knife
• Remove squash from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

• Scoop out the flesh and place into your food processor or blender.

Recipe: Japanese Souffle Pancakes

 Ingredients (Makes 4 pancakes)

• 4 egg whites and 2 egg yolks
• 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 6 tablespoons cake flour
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional). I don't normally add salt for health/medical reasons. Honestly, I don't taste any difference with/without salt.
• Unsalted butter, for greasing and serving
• Optional (for serving)
• maple syrup
• confectioner's sugar
• whipped cream
• fruits

Materials

• Non-stick skillet with lid
• Mixer
• Large and medium mixing bowls
• English Muffin Rings

Directions

Step 1 : Egg yolk mixture

Place egg yolks in a large bowl. Make sure it's large because we are going to add the meringue in this bowl later on.

Add 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, the vanilla and baking powder to the egg yolks and whisk until blended. 

Add flour and milk. Whisk until fully combined.

Set aside.

Step 2: Make the meringue

Place egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer or any medium bowl. 

Add lemon juice and (optionally) salt to egg whites. 

Using a stand mixer (fitted with the whisk attachment) or a hand mixer, whip mixture on a medium speed until foamy, about 1 minute. 

Continue to whip while gradually pouring (1 tablespoon at a time) the remaining 5 tablespoons of granulated sugar. 

Turn speed to high and whip until stiff, glossy peaks form and mixture doubles in size, about 1 minute. 

Step 3: Preheat

Heat the non-stick skillet over the lowest heat setting

Step 4: Mix the egg yolk mixture and meringue 

Using a rubber spatula, scoop about 1/3 of meringue into egg yolk mixture and gently fold, almost combined. 

Repeat with half the remaining meringue until almost combined, then fold in the remaining meringue just until no streaks remain.

Step 5: Cook the pancakes

Brush/grease the warm skillet and the inside of the English muffin rings using butter. 

Place the greased English muffin rings in the warm pan and pour 3/4 cup of batter into each ring. 

Place lid on top of skillet and cook pancakes between low and medium heat until they start to rise and a few small bubbles start to form on top, 2  to 3 minutes. 

Step 6: Flip the pancakes

Remove lid.

Carefully slide a flat spatula underneath each pancake and position another spatula on top, then gently flip pancakes in their rings. 

Place the lid back, bring the fire down to low heat and cook until pancakes are cooked through and spring back to the touch, 1 to 2 minutes. 

Transfer cooked pancakes to a platter, grease the skillet and pastry rings and repeat to make the rest of the pancakes.

Step 7: Serve

Recipe: Nanay's Blueberry Cobbler

Ingredients

• 3 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup  butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)
2. In an 8-inch square baking dish, mix blueberries and orange juice. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, thoroughly mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, cream  butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Gradually add flour mixture, stirring just until ingredients are combined. Drop batter by rounded tablespoons over blueberry mixture. Try to cover as much of filling as possible.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbling.
6. Best served with vanilla ice cream. Breyer's Vanilla Ice Cream is our family's favorite. I recently found out that Breyer's has a No Sugar Added version.

Recipe: Nanay's Apple Crisp

Ingredients

• 10 cups apples, peeled, cored and sliced. We used gala apples but I think any apples will work
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup quick cooking oats or Quaker Old Fashioned Oats. 
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
2. Place the sliced apples in a 9x13 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. Pour water evenly over all.
3. Combine oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. 
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 40 to 45 minutes.
5. Best served with vanilla ice cream. 

Recipe: Not-So-Sinful Brownies

On March 19, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom of California released an Executive Order ordering all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of the federal critical infrastructure sectors, as outlined at https://www.cisa.gov/identifying-critical-infrastructure-during-covid-19. 

Since then, our family has never gone out to eat at restaurants, not even ordering to go. I am comfortable with cooking meals from scratch but baking has never been my expertise. I make a few muffins. It's the easiest thing to make, I think. 

My youngest daughter's birthday was coming up and in our paranoia, we didn't want to order cake. So, I didn't have a choice but to try to bake the cake myself. I thought maybe I should experiment on making brownies first before I level-up to baking cakes. The cake didn't turn out the way I like it but the brownies did. 

I searched online for brownie recipes. With my first try, I followed everything to the letter. It was way too sweet for me. I've been trying to lose weight too but at the same time, I love desserts. It's hard but I have to indulge from time to time. With my second try, I experimented on the ingredients to make the brownies a little less 'evil' 😏  It was a success! You know how I knew? My sweet expert husband approved of it and my 3 kids loved it! Kids are always the best critics when it comes to dessert. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar (the original recipe asked for 1 cup)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder. I used Hershey's.
• 1/2 cup oatmeal flour (the original recipe used all purpose flour)
• to make oatmeal flour: Place the oats into the bowl of your food processor. Pulse the oats until they are ground into a powder-like consistency. I used Quaker's® Old Fashioned Oats.
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

✪ Step 1

Pre-heat oven to 370⁰F (175⁰C). Grease and flour an 8-inch square pan.

✪ Step 2
In a large saucepan, metl 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa,1/2 cup oat flour and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared 8-inch square pan.
Optional: sprinkle dark chocolate morsels on top.

✪ Step 3

Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.

In line with making this not so sinful, I chose not to make the frosting.

Book Review: The Super Life of Ben Braver

Title: The Super Life of Ben Braver
Author: Marcus Emerson
ATOS BL: 4.1
Interest Level: Middle Grade, Grades 4 to 8

This is my son's new favorite.

I like how it's written. If you put yourself in the shoes of an 11-year-old (as is the lead character), the settings, the habits, the choice of words and sentence structure is relatable.

It can be a bit dark...

Quote 1:
"Dear Diary,
Today I died.
Sincerely,
Ben "

...but it's also very funny...

Quote 2: "BTW, peanut butter cups are my fave. I love them, but... would I marry one? Probably not, but only because my second love, the PB&J sammie, would get jelly. Get it? Jelly?"

Call me shallow but I laughed out loud on that one 🤣

...with lessons to be learned...

Quote 3: "Being a superhero is more than having powers -- it's about the struggles and the choices heroes have to make. It's about deciding to do the right thing even when the right thing is the hardest thing to do."