speaking of pancakes....

In my last blog post, I mentioned pancakes.

his made me want to eat pancakes.

So I made these.

You should make them, too.

I was originally just going for pumpkin pancakes.  Major props to three-year-old Charlotte for suggesting we add chocolate chips. Granted, she suggests adding chocolate chips to just about everything - granola, cupcakes, soup, pizza, tacos,  but this time she was right on.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes with Vanilla Maple Syrup

• 1 1/4 cup flour

• 2 TB. brown sugar

• 2 tsp. baking powder

• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

• good pinch of salt

• 1 cup milk

• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

• 1 egg

• 2 TB melted butter, plus extra for the skillet

• A good handful of chocolate chips

Vanilla Maple Syrup

• About 1/2 cup maple syrup

• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, spice, and salt.

Mix together the milk, pumpkin puree, egg and melted butter in another bowl or liquid measuring cup.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk together just until combined. Use a rubber spatula to fold in chocolate chips.  Do not over mix.  A lumpy pancake batter is a yummy pancake batter.

Preheat the oven to 200° F.  Have an oven safe plate or serving dish ready.

Heat skillet or griddle over medium heat.  Melt some small pads of butter right on the skillet. 

Once the skillet it hot and the butter is melted, add a 1/3 cup scoop of batter to the pan.

Cook until bubbles begin to form on the top surface.  Carefully flip with a spatula, and cook the second side until golden brown, a couple minutes more.

Transfer the cooked pancake to the oven safe dish, and place in the oven to keep warm. 

To make the vanilla maple syrup, just add vanilla to warm syrup.

So simple.  So yummy.

creamy corn and veggie soup

In our home, soup is a year-round go-to.  I will unashamedly admit to simmering a pot of soup in the middle of July, and as soon as fall hits, my soup making really kicks into high gear. Three pots a week is not uncommon, and here's why.

Soup is the perfect way to load up on the veggies.  For the life of me,  I cannot get my three year old to like raw red peppers.  Dice 'em up, throw 'em in some soup, and she's on board.  Amen.

Most soups fall into the "chop and drop" category.  This means I can plop my children on the counter, and they're content to sample raw potatoes and gnaw on a onion (strange, but true) while I get chopping.  The measuring is minimal which means I don't have to think much.  Thank goodness.

Soup recipes are so easy to double (and even triple if only I had a pot big enough), and most recipes freeze well too.  This means an easy dinner down the road, and that makes mama happy. Win for everyone.

I pack four lunches a day, and one could argue that soup is almost always better the next day.  This means lunch packing just became super yummy and super simple.  Hallelujah.

Stephen posted this Creamy Corn and Veggie Soup last week on our Instagram account, @bakeitlikebecker (are you a follower?!?!).  There were requests for some recipes, and I'm happy to share this veggie-packed goodness. (Never fear, there's bacon and cream, too.)

Creamy Corn and Veggie Soup

• 2 TB extra virgin olive oil

• 3-4 slices of bacon, chopped

• 1 onion, chopped

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

• 1 red pepper

• 10 ounce bag of frozen corn

• 2 small zucchinis

• About a pound of potatoes (This time I used russet, but I have used red potatoes in the past.)

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 tsp. paprika

• 1 tsp. chili powder

• Salt and pepper

• 2 TB flour

• 4 cups chicken stock

• 1 cup milk

• 1 cup cream (I admit I used half and half this time because it's all I had. Still yummy, but we all know cream would have been better.

Heat the olive oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat. 

Add the bacon and cook until it is close to crispy. 

Toss in the onion, garlic, and pepper and cook until those soften up.

Add the corn, zucchini, potatoes, bay leaf, paprika, chili powder and some S&P. Give it a good stir and let it cook for about five minutes.

Sprinkle the flour into the pot, stir, and cook for about a minute.

Slowly add the broth, milk, and cream. Let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Happy Soup Season!

apple chips

We're all a bit sad when the pool closes for the summer and the flip flops get thrown to the back of the closet, but come mid-September, I think we can all agree, it is a happy day when fall officially takes over.

But you've got to grab it up because that pumpkin, apple, boots-and-scarves glory is always gone too quickly.  I for one am wasting no time jumping into the season.  The kitchen has been calling out for fall food, and I am happily obliging to its request.

Let's start simply.  This is one I can easily manage every weekend, maybe even a weeknight if I'm feeling really crazy. 

Apple chips. 

3 ingredients. 

Minimal hands on time. 

Cinnamon-apple smell filling the house.

Toddler approved. 

Total win. 

Warning: there is one minor downside to these beauties.  (Aw, rats.) You will have the greatest success if you slice the apples with a mandoline.  (Seriously?)  It's true.  This doesn't mean you cannot use a knife, but the thinner the slice, the better the crisp and crunch of the chip.

I have seen mandolines run upward of $200. Yikes.  We bought ours from HSN for $20 (and Amazon has many options for all sorts of kitchen tool budgets), and it has been totally worth it, if for nothing else than these apple chips.  We also use it for onions, potatoes, cucumbers, etc. because there is something oh-so-satisfying about perfectly uniformed slices of fruits and vegetables.  It's something to consider.

Ingredients:

• 2 apples (I've used all kinds and have never been disappointed. I lean toward tart, such as Granny Smith or Braeburn)

• 2 TB brown sugar

• 1 TB cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  And yes, you really do need the parchment paper.  Learn from my mistakes.

Slice the apples as thinly and uniformly as possible.

Mix the cinnamon and brown sugar together, and dip each apple slice into the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Spread the apples on the parchment paper, and cook for 1 hour.

Flip the chips and cook for another hour.

Let them cool for about 15 minutes.  They will crisp up even more as they cool.

You are welcome.

figs for dinner

Stephen has been yapping about figs for weeks. As much as we love where we live, sometimes there are limitations regarding certain foods being readily accessible. Over the last week, he has been calling stores to see if they have fresh figs. Eight stores to be precise. Responses included:

“No, but we have Fig Newtons.”

“No, but we have dates.”

“No, but we have smoothies. “

Smoothies?!?! WHAT?!

He called our local grocery store 2 days later to see if any figs had arrived. The man hung up on him.

Apparently, figs are hard to come by in Ohio.

But as luck should have it, the ninth store was a success, and Stephen only had to leave work 2 hours early to beat traffic and plow over all the other crazy fig lovers who had traveled from far and wide. In true Stephen fashion, he thought it necessary to buy 3 ½ pounds of figs. He’s notorious for overestimating the amount of food we’ll eat, often leaving us with an absurd amount of leftovers; but in his defense, he ate at least one pound of figs on the drive home.

We then proceeded to feed the darlings mac-and-cheese and shuffle them to bed by 7, so we could feast.

The Menu:

Crostini with goat cheese, prosciutto, grilled figs, and topped with a drizzle of honey.

And because we’re just wild like that – champagne.

What? Bubbly on a weeknight? Oh yes.

You won’t be surprised to know that Stephen doesn’t really let me near the figs, particularly if they are going on the grill. But he was kind enough to let me watch, and here is what I learned.

Trim the stems off the figs. The rest is edible, skin and all.

Cut them in half, brush with olive oil and grill flesh side down for about 3 minutes – but watch carefully.

We layered each crostini with goat cheese and a small slice of prosciutto. After the figs cooled, we cut each piece in half again and added the quarter fig on top.

A drizzle of honey and black pepper completed these little beauties.

I am a devout goat cheese lover, so to me, it was the obvious choice. Stephen remains loyal to bleu cheese (although he’s never met a cheese he didn’t like). When he came in from grilling and saw I had smothered goat cheese on every crostini, he was a bit disappointed and decided to make his own – apparently a double.

Both options were delicious.

His persistence paid off.