Brunch Puffs

Happy Wednesday!! Hope you're having a wonderful week! Today we bid adieu to July. Wow, so hard to believe!

ANYWAY. :D Waaaaay back in May, I had a dear friend - who's in Africa right now, on a missions trip - over for brunch. I wanted it to be peaceful and renewing for her; she's a very busy woman, and I wanted our time together to be a time for her to BREATHE. So, Mom helped me set the table...

And I made lots of new recipes for breakfast. Actually it was three, but two of them will be in a review together. :D I can't believe I haven't already reviewed them!

Today's recipe is for Brunch Puffs from Taste of Home.












I made the puffs the day before; they turned out really delicately. There's less flour in the recipe than I'm used to, but I followed the directions exactly. :) (I had extra puffs, because I didn't want to make ALL of them for just the two of us! I used them with fruit in them, and a bit of sugar-free cheesecake pudding. YUM.)

They were a bit messy to eat; the puffs collapsed easily when cut into. But they were very good. I would call this a delicate dish, overall - it sounds like it would be quite filling, but it really wasn't overly so. Quite yummy! :) I'm going to say YES, PLEASE! to these. :)

OK, I'm outta here! Have a WONDERFUL day! Be BLESSED!!

Southern Peach Cobbler

Good morning! It's MONDAY! And it's the last Monday of July. Where on EARTH did this year go?!?!? Soon, it'll be time to see pumpkins and changing leaves, then get ready for the open house, then Christmas! Augh! :D

My mom hates it when I do that to her. :D How are YOU feeling? LOL!

Anyway.

 

Today's recipe is for Southern Peach Cobbler, from allrecipes.com.

 This recipe is going to go into my "Good recipe to have" file. It truly is a classic Southern cobbler - but it's MUCH better straight out of the oven. Seriously. Eat it warm. Make a half-recipe - still enough for four people!!!! - and eat it all. That's Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream on top. Nice compliment. But I thought this was really, REALLY sweet. I would perhaps cut the sugar down that goes on the peaches. LOVED the cinnamon-sugar sprinkled on top - is there ever too much cinnamon??? :D

I also used white peaches, because they were better than the normal ones I had to choose from. But it's also, I think, part of the sweetness issue I had. White peaches are good, but I think they're sweeter to begin with.

OK, I'm outta here! :D Have a WONDERFUL day! Be BLESSED!!!

Moist Chocolate Cake

Happy Friday! :D I decided we'd celebrate me doing a whole week again with CHOCOLATE CAKE! :D

Yes, this is Moist Chocolate Cake from Foodess.com.

And yes, it IS moist. It's also super easy, easy to divide in half so you don't have a bunch of this cake hanging around (your HIPS, cuz you'll want to eat it all by yourself!!!!!).

I guess I gave it away that this is a YES, PLEASE! recipe. :D I LOVE easy AND yummy, and this fits the bill. I'm also going to give you an extra review on what the recipe calls "Easy Chocolate Buttercream", but I'm not sure calling it that is correct. I mean, it's JUST chocolate chips and butter. Period. no confectioner's sugar! But again, SUPER easy, and RICH and YUMMY. :D

Have I convinced you to make this yet?!?! It's worth turning on your oven for! Seriously! :D Let me know if you try either of these. Oh, the sprinkles are some Valentine's ones that I have hanging around that I thought complimented the chocolate color. :D

Have a wonderful day! BE BLESSED!

Review: Private Selection Items

Hi! Surprise, I'm here a bit early! :D But I wanted to write a review of some things that I received coupons for - some for free, some for money off. And those are Private Selection products, available only at Kroger's.

I've done a smaller Buzz Campaign for Private Selection before, so I knew to expect good quality products. But I was very disappointed; my Kroger's doesn't have a lot of the things available that I received coupons for. The things it DID have, however, did not dissapoint!

First, the beef. Goodness, is it GOOD beef. Tender, juicy, and nicely portioned - we can't afford a lot of high-priced meat, so eating a half an excellent steak is plenty! All I do is use sea salt, freshly-ground pepper, and a hint of garlic powder. Yum!

The other things I was able to get were the Strawberry Preserves, the panko breadcrumbs, and the maple syrup. Kenn LOVES strawberry preserves, and these are very good. Not too sweet, nice strawberry flavor - a real treat.

I haven't used the panko yet, because we don't use breadcrumbs too often - but their texture is really promising. And because of my diabetes, I don't use maple syrup, so I gave this to Dad. (Kenn likes Mrs. Buttersworth. LOL!!) It's a beautiful syrup, amber and thick. Dad loves it. :)

I did pick up a couple of other things from the Private Selection line today that weren't covered in the coupons - they were on sale, and I really do enjoy trying new things. I do know I already like their flatbread pizza, so I got their Margherita pizza to try. Also, I got their butternut squash ravioli to try later. I'm thinking a simple browned butter sauce will be beautiful with them! :D

Overall, I definitely give Private Selection a YES, PLEASE! They are a bit more expensive than things I normally purchase, but they are more unusual and tasty than a lot of those others, too. :) I'd love to know if you try them!

Honey Oat Quick Bread

Happy Wednesday! :) Two days in a row - HURRAY! :D

Today's recipe is Honey Oat Quick Bread from Cooking.com.

OK. I did NOTHING to this bread recipe except follow it. :D Just so you know!

It's OK. It's nothing to drool over; it's a basic bread, and would be good with a stew or soup in the fall, if you need another basic bread recipe. It's pretty, too. :) But as someone who loves bread and shouldn't eat it, I won't have a difficult time passing this one up. :D (And my mom liked it, but they're on a gluten-free diet, and ANY bread is - well, like manna to her. :D )

It's got a great texture to it, don't get me wrong. But it needs some jazzing up - and there are so many bread recipes out there to try, I'm not gonna spend any time on this one. :D But if you try it, let me know what YOU think!

Outta here! Busy, busy - and rehearsals start Sunday for ROGERS & HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA! But I WILL be here Friday - I'm going to go set it up now. :D

Have a wonderful day! Try something new, and BE BLESSED!!!

Todd's Famous Blueberry Pancakes

HAPPY MONDAY!

Did you think I might never blog again?!? :D It really feels like I haven't gotten into my groove since we've been back. Phew! But here I am, and I do have things to share with you, so let's get started!

These are Todd's Famous Blueberry Pancakes from Allrecipes.com.

I put off making these for a long time, because the recipe says to let sit for an hour. I mean, when I decide I want to make breakfast, I don't want to have to let something sit there! :D But I did. We had these Saturday for breakfast. I actually got up with plenty of time to let it sit!

Let's see. I think the only tweak to the recipe I did was that the original calls for "frozen blueberries." Well, if you look at their photo, and you know ANYTHING about frozen blueberries, you know they didn't use them in that pancake pictured. Letting the batter sit for an hour after you add frozen blueberries will give you a purple batter!!! Since I wanted mine to be pretty, I used fresh blueberries. It IS fresh berry season, after all. :D

They were good. I don't think I'd call them fluffy, because they did have some weight to them, but they were good pancakes. The serving size on the recipe says "six"; I got exactly nine pancakes out of the recipe, using a 1/4-cup measure, so I'm not sure what a "serving" would constitute - a pancake and a half?!??! So that's a little misleading. But I do now have blueberry pancakes in the freezer for a day I'm craving a pancake and don't want to cook! (Which is most days, these days.... <sigh> :D )

So it's a THUMBS UP, but give yourself lots of time. If you have a blueberry pancake recipe, I'd love to try it!

OK, I'm outta here! Busy week! Have a wonderful day - do come back Wednesday for another review! - and BE BLESSED!!!!