Hatching Some New Recipes!

Hello again friends! Like usual, I'm behind on blogging. But if I blogged about Valentine's Day in April, then I guess blogging about Easter in June isn't even that bad!!

We made some fun new breakfasts this Spring. One that I really enjoyed making was French Toast Roll-Ups. Alec was a big fan of these and so was my dad. Henry was skeptical, but liked them more than he thought he would!

First you cut the crusts off of sandwich bread and roll it thin. This is maybe the only situation where just plain white bread is best!

Then you spread a strawberry cream cheese mixture on your bread pieces and roll them up.

You brown them in a pan or on a griddle.

And roll them in cinnamon sugar. Can you tell that these aren't our dishes and we're not in our kitchen?!

This is what they look like when they're finished.

A fun savory breakfast that we made was a Breakfast Tortilla Wrap. You don't even need a recipe for this and you can modify it however you want! You need to have four main ingredients though. We used scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, salsa and mashed avocado. But you could really use whatever you like. I also think that black beans or bacon would be good. You could even do a sweet version and use a crepe instead of a tortilla, although that would be more work to make the crepes. I bet that this would be really good with homemade tortillas. We haven't tried making those yet, but I think we should try!

To make these you cut a slit in your tortilla from the middle out. Then you divide the tortilla into four quadrants in your head and put each filling onto a single quadrant. My Uncle Tata and Aunt Shayshay live in Portland, OR and that city is divided into quadrants too. When we went to visit them when I was little, I obsessed about which quadrant we were in every time we drove someplace. So you could also call these Portland Breakfast Wraps!

Anyway, once you load on your fillings, you flip the quadrant to the right of your slit up.

Then you flip that piece over. And then finally you flip it down, so that you have a single quarter.

Then you cook it on the griddle or in a pan, so that it gets crispy and your cheese melts. You can serve these with extra toppings, like sour cream or cilantro or whatever you like.

Another savory breakfast that we had recently was Apple Cheddar Muffins. These muffins have no sweet ingredients at all, which takes a bit of getting used to. My brother and big-little sister didn't love them. But my mom and dad and little-little sister and I liked them a lot!

These have apples and sweet potato in them, but the main flavor comes from the cheddar cheese.

A sweeter breakfast that we made was Lemon Poppy Seed Scones. This is a healthier scone recipe. It uses less butter than most recipes and whole wheat flour. Even though it's a healthier version, this was my third favorite scone recipe that we've ever made.

The glaze makes them look prettier and adds some sweetness. But you could definitely leave it off if you don't like that.

We had a strawberry scone throw down recently. They kind of both won! But I really like comparing different recipes for the same thing and seeing which I like more and trying to figure out why. Our first Strawberry Scones were supposed to have a lemon icing, but we skipped that part. They were awesome plain though! And my big-little sister liked these scones the best.

These were flaky and delicious. We added sugar sprinkles on top which added nice crunch.

Our second version was called a Strawberry Scone Loaf. Really they were normal scones, but you bake them without pulling them apart. You make these with dried strawberries that you rehydrate. And these were my favorite scones that we've ever made!

The dried strawberries add extra chewy sweetness.

We also had my very favorite kind of throw down - RHUBARB!!! Obviously! We had two rhubarb breakfasts. The first was Rhubarb Coffee Cake. This one had less rhubarb in it and it was my dad's favorite.

It looks like a typical coffee cake but just has some rhubarb bits peeking through.

The top bakes into a nice crunchy crust.

The second rhubarb cake that we tried was Rhubarb Snacking Cake. This cake is much more intensely rhubarb and it was everyone else's favorite! My mom really loved this cake - no surprise!!

I love the way that all the raw rhubarb looked piled on top.

And then it gets covered with a crumble.

Because there is more rhubarb in the recipe, the slices definitely look pinker and more rhubarb-y.

A brand new kind of cake that we tried was an Olive Oil Cake. We had never baked an olive oil cake before, but now we're definitely planning on trying more. They had always sounded kind of weird to me. But actually it's just a not very sweet, moist cake that I loved.

This version had blackberries in it.

The recipe calls for orange zest, but we used lemon because that's what we had, and we like lemon flavoring better anyway.

An interesting twist on breakfast that we made was Four-Flavor Sheet Pan Pancakes. This recipe has you pour pancake batter onto a sheet pan (obviously!) and then flavor four separate quadrants. The texture of this pancake isn't exactly like a typical pancake texture. It's more puffy and chewy because it's baked.

The recipe had a banana section in it, but we just used blueberries because we don't like banana. You can see me swirling the cinnamon sugar section. And of course, it wouldn't be my blog without my big-little sister sitting on the counter!

This is how it looked baked.

The nice thing about this recipe is that there can be something for everyone. My dad just wanted strawberry and blueberry. But cinnamon swirl was my favorite and my big-little sister liked chocolate chip.

We've made lots of corn muffin recipes before, but this corn muffin recipe is without question the BEST!!!! The problem with a lot of corn muffins is that they're dry. But this recipe fixes that in a really unusual way. It has you cook some of the corn meal with milk to make a porridge and then you add that in to the muffin mixture.

These corn muffins are moist and delicious and I love their bright yellow color.

The corn muffins are great plain or with regular butter, but they're extra great with maple butter. We made this maple butter to have with a different bread, but it kept in the fridge very well and was great on everything that we tried it with.

Maple butter is easy to make and jars of this would actually make a great gift for the holidays! Maybe my family should do that this year!!

A simpler corn muffin recipe that we tried was Honey Cornbread Muffins. These are quick and easy to make in one bowl and turned out great!

They look very similar to our other corn muffins, but I liked the ones with the cooked cornmeal mixed in best.

We've actually done a lot with cornmeal lately. A different kind of recipe that we tried was Hoecakes. Hoecakes are a traditional Southern recipe that were originally baked on the blade of a hoe. These are supposed to be similar to cornbread, but in a different form.

An interesting thing about this recipe is that you mix popcorn into the batter! The recipe says that it adds crunch, but ours just sort of melted in.

You cook them like pancakes.

These looked cute but nobody in my family really liked them unfortunately. They had a weird aftertaste. My mom thought it might have been from the cayenne pepper, even though we only used a teeny bit. I like the idea of hoecakes, but maybe next time I'd try a different recipe.

One of my favorite recipes that we've had lately was Cornmeal Waffles with Smoked Salmon. We made these on Father's Day. My big-little sister and I loved them. We served them with creme fraiche, trout roe and dill. My big-little sister loved all of the toppings and thought that they came together really well and I agreed! But we had leftover waffles and just had them with maple syrup the next morning. My dad and brother liked them more with syrup. I liked them more with salmon. And my big-little sister and mom couldn't pick!

Don't these waffles look beautiful?!

Another great brunch dish that we had was Spinach Artichoke Frittata. We've tried similar frittatas before, but this recipe is definitely my favorite frittata that we've ever made. And what's great about frittatas is that if spinach and artichokes doesn't appeal to you, then you can still use the base recipe and add whatever you want!

This recipe calls for parmesan, but we used cheddar because that's what we had. This recipe is very cheesy!

The vegetables get cooked on the bottom and then the eggs and cheese are layered on top, so you sort of end up with a spinach and artichoke crust.

The recipe that we originally made the maple butter to serve with was a Seeded Whole Grain Soda Bread. Soda bread is bread that is leavened with baking soda instead of yeast. You need to use a bunch of grains that you might not already have to make this recipe, but it's absolutely worth getting them. This recipe was a huge hit! We used molasses instead of brown rice syrup because it's healthier, and we didn't even have the light molasses that the recipe recommends, but it turned out great with dark molasses too.

This bread is very dense. It was delicious fresh and it was also great toasted the next day.

This is what it looked like toasted with maple butter.

We also made Brown Soda Bread Scones. This recipe is fantastic. We all loved it. And I'm about to make a very dramatic statement. Are you ready? You need to brace yourself. Here we go...

Of every recipe we have EVER made, this one has the least work for the best results!

It's a super simple, very healthy recipe and only has six ingredients. After we made it the first time, we quadrupled the recipe and made it a bunch more times. These scones freeze great and I highly recommend them for when you want something that is quick and healthy but also delicious.

The only thing that is tricky about this recipe is that you need to plan ahead before you make them the first time because you need to buy a special Irish flour. We just ordered it off of Amazon though, so it was easy to get. But I don't think that these scones would be the same without it.

The recipe has you make four huge scones. We have done it that way, but we have also made them a lot smaller and cooked them slightly shorter, which we prefer, because we don't need the scones that big.

The first time we made them, we had them with butter and Grammy Marcia and Papa Bill's strawberry rhubarb jam (yay rhubarb!). They were delicious that way, but they're also awesome with the maple butter, if Grammy Marcia and Papa Bill don't send you jam!

My Aunt Meggie came to visit and one of the breakfasts that we made was Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake. The cooking site thekitchn.com often compares different popular recipes and my mom showed me an article comparing coffee cake recipes. They said that this coffee cake was the best recipe, and so of course we had to try it! This recipe is more work than your average coffee cake because most recipes have you make a single crumb mixture and use half for the filling and half for the topping, but this recipe has you make two completely different mixtures, in addition to a third mixture for the cake of course! I definitely thought that the extra work was worth it though because having a different filling and topping adds complexity of flavor and elevates the cake as a whole.

This cake is very soft and tender, which I liked. It would be great to serve at a brunch and was a perfect Saturday morning breakfast!

Another breakfast that we made when Aunt Meggie visited was a Giant Frosted Strawberry Pop Tart. If you try this, I highly recommend that you make your own pie dough, because this recipe is all about the crust. But we made ours the night before, to make it go quicker in the morning.

First you roll your bottom crust into a rectangle and cover it with strawberry preserves.

Then you cover it with a top crust, bake it and frost it. You don't have to add sprinkles, but of course I think you should!

This is what it looked like sliced. Everybody loved it! It would be a fun breakfast to serve for kids at a sleepover!

An amazing lunch that we had was Avocado Toast with Shiitake "Bacon." My dad LOVED this recipe!! When I asked him if there was anything that he wanted to say about it for my blog he said, "When can we have it again?!" That is NOT what I meant Daddy!! But I'm glad that he liked it so much. The mushrooms are just roasted with paprika, salt and pepper, but they are amazing. They'd also be great on a salad or in a grain dish.

I think that this toast looks bright and sunny and happy!

For another really fun lunch that we tried, first we made Garlic Butter Naan. We actually didn't even make the garlic butter, but we'll definitely make this recipe again and try the garlic butter and report back!

The recipe is actually very easy. You make a simple dough, let it rest, and then roll out eight ovals.

It's cool the way that they bubble up on the griddle.

I thought that these came out looking great.

We skipped the garlic butter part because we made it to use as part of Curried Egg Salad on Naan. This recipe has you use store bought naan, but of course we thought it would be better if we made our own!

This egg salad is FANTASTIC! It was great on the naan but really it would be great on a salad or regular sandwich or just on its own!

A terrific dinner that we had was Pan-Seared Cod in White Wine Tomato Basil Sauce. We actually used red snapper, because my dad doesn't love cod. But this was an easy dish to make with a ton of flavor.

It was great served with asparagus and roasted potatoes.

Another dinner that I really liked was Sticky BBQ Chicken Meatballs with Broccoli Slaw. The meatballs were a little bit spicy and so they were nice with the cooling slaw. My brother didn't like the slaw, but my dad and I liked it a lot.

This is kind of like a different version of barbecue, with meatballs standing in for ribs or brisket!

Of course, we've made lots of bars and cookies. Remember how we made salted caramel and then used it in lots of recipes? Well we made some more and used it for Salted Caramel Crumb Bars. I thought that these were delicious, but they're very simple. They're definitely convenient to make though, because you use the same dough for the crust and the topping.

These bars are nice to gift because they cut very nicely.

A new kind of chocolate chip cookie that we tried was Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies. These were very good. The dough needs to be made at least 24 hours in advance though, so unfortunately it's not a recipe that you can just whip up last minute.

These have sea salt sprinkled on top which people really seemed to like!

I've noticed that peanut butter cookies are some of the fastest/easiest cookies to make. These Special Edition Peanut Butter Cookies are a little bit different because they have oats and coconut and chocolate chips. These were fine, but nothing special.

I like the tradition of making lines in peanut butter cookies with a fork!

A cookie that we modified and I think made even better was Chewy Coconut Cookies. This recipe is just for the plain cookie, but we then dipped them in chocolate and sprinkled them with toasted coconut. It definitely fancied them up!

These cookies are very good! Grazzy said that they tasted like Mounds candy bars!

Now if you're looking for a peanut butter cookie that actually is really special, I have your answer. Half-Way to Heaven Peanut Butter Cookies are incredible!! You use honey roasted peanut butter for the cookie and then make sandwich cookies with a peanut butter filling.

They are very rich but totally worth it!

But the very best peanut butter cookies we've probably ever made came from this cookbook that our friend Molly bought for us! They are Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut Butter Filling, and they're a bit of work but WOW are they good!

We usually get recipes off of the internet, but this cookbook is fantastic.

The first step for these cookies is making candied peanuts. They get folded into the batter but they're also delicious on their own!

This is the final product. We gave them to our ENT surgeon Dr. Cunningham when my little-little sister got ear tubes and he said that they were they were like a full cookie meal, but that they were amazing!

A different peanut butter recipe that we tried was Peanut Butter Fudge. This recipe is very quick and easy and very good.

The only problem with this fudge is that it doesn't cut very cleanly. But we brought some to Rachel's bridal shower because it still tasted good!

A big hit was Oatmeal Cake with Caramel Icing. This recipe is a little bit different than most of our frosted cake recipes, because you make the icing in a saucepan on the stove. We made it in the Spring, but this recipe definitely has warm fall flavors. But it's worth making any time of year!

You soak quick oats in boiling water to soften them before adding them to the cake batter, so the cake still has a soft texture.

One of our favorites this Spring was Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Bars. These were amazing and one of my mom's favorites. Chelsea said that they're tied for her #1 favorite dessert ever!! And lots of people asked us for the recipe, so I think it's a definite hit! You make a carrot cake batter and a cheesecake swirl and then you just combine the two mixtures in your baking pan.

This recipe would be great to bring to a summer picnic or potluck.

Another huge hit was Soft Oreo Cheesecake Cookies.` These were unbelievably good. You make soft cookies and cream cookies and then top them with a vanilla icing and chopped Oreos. There isn't a link for this recipe, but if anyone wants me to send it to you, let me know! My math teacher loved these and so did one of my dance teachers!!

These are a little bit tricky to gift to people because of the icing, so we just gave them individually in small boxes.

Another great Oreo recipe that we tried was Oreo-Stuffed Brownie Cups. This recipe was so popular that we made it and gave them all away two days in a row!

You make a brownie batter and then put a layer of it into muffin cups and top it with an Oreo before covering it with more batter.

These just look like little brownie muffins.

But then there's a surprise when you take a bite!

The only problem with this recipe is that it was very hard to get the brownies out of the muffin tin. So we used disposable tins the second time that we could peel off and that worked MUCH better. A silicon muffin pan would probably work well too and that would be better for the environment!

Lemon Curd is a recipe similar to salted caramel because you can make a batch and keep it in the fridge and then use it for lots of other recipes.

A slightly unusual cookie that we made was Lemon Curd Stuffed Cookies. You make your dough ahead of time and then freeze spoonfuls of lemon curd individually. You flatten pieces of dough and then sandwich frozen lemon curd between them. Then you roll the cookies in poppy seeds before you bake them. Our friend Sophie said that these are the best cookies that we have ever made, and she has tried lots of our cookies!

The process to make these is fun for kids to help with.

These cookies are very fancy. They'd be nice for grownups at a bridal shower or baby shower or event like that.

We also used the lemon curd to make Lemon Meringue Whoopie Pies. We used the lemon curd we already had though and this recipe for the lemon buttercream. These turned out really great.

We piped the buttercream and spread the lemon curd with a knife.

These looked very pretty and tasted delicious. They are very delicate and not too sweet.

I taught a cupcake decorating workshop at school for my classmates, and we had some of our usual vanilla cupcakes left over. So I was inspired by our whoopie pies, and made my own cupcake version. We used the party piñata cupcake method to fill them.

So first we hollowed out a piece of the cupcake and filled it with curd.

Then we topped them with lemon buttercream. And we added some lemon zest, just to look pretty. Yellow sprinkles would look nice too!

And this is what they looked like when you bit into them. Surprise!

We did a bunch of special baking for Easter. I think it is fun to bake using special holiday candy! Our first recipe was Mini Egg Brownies. This recipe was kind of a disappointment though. They're perfectly good brownies, but the chopped mini eggs just kind of blend in and don't taste like much.

You can barely see the mini eggs! If I ever tried this again, I'd use more whole mini eggs on the top.

Our next Easter project was Easter Egg Buttercream Candies. To make these, you make a buttercream base flavored with almond extract. Then you chill it, form egg shapes, chill them again and dip them into chocolate.

This is me dipping an egg. It was a little tricky to keep the buttercream looking like eggs and not just blobs!

These candies looked beautiful but they're VERY VERY sweet. And we didn't love the almond flavoring. But they're a fun project to do with kids.

I think that Reese's Peanut Butter eggs are one of the best Easter candies and so I was excited to try White Chocolate Brownies Stuffed with Reese's. My mom likes doing projects where there are candies to unwrap and line up because that's a good job for my big-little sister to help with!

You sandwich the eggs between two layers of batter.

These were good after sitting in the fridge overnight, but they were way too soft at first. So you definitely need to make these a day ahead.

Our last Easter project was Easter Cheesecake cookies. These were soft and really delicious. We gave these to Sophie too and they were another hit!

I love how beautiful the pastel m&ms look! They taste just like regular m&ms but they definitely look prettier!!

One of our very very favorite treats to go get is Taro Bubble Tea and so for a special project we made our own!!! Taro is a Southeast Asian root vegetable, which probably sounds like a weird flavoring for bubble tea, but it's really the best!

The first thing that we did was make a simple syrup.

Then you soak the tapioca pearls in it.

We had to specially order taro powder to make this recipe.

And we also had to order Ube flavoring. Ube is the Filipino word for purple yam!

When we bought the tapioca pearls, they came with special big straws to suck them up! This project requires some planning ahead to get all of the ingredients, but it's really fun and the bubble tea is DELICIOUS!

I got this blog post done just in time because tomorrow I'm going on a trip where I think I'm going to get some great ideas for new recipes! I'll give you a hint: Ciao for now!!!!!!