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| Another good use for buckets: BABY TRAP |
My hens have picked up the pace with egg laying now that the days seem longer. Yesterday, we got 21 eggs from 27 hens. It's time to sell again! And eat large quantities of eggs! The kids' favorite is Dutch Babies. I've also seen these called Puffy Oven Pancakes and Mountains, but I like Dutch Babies better. They are so easy to make and so versatile!
All you do is melt butter in a pan, pie plate, or oven-proof skillet in a 425 degree oven. Then you put equal amounts of egg, milk, and flour in the blender, blend, pour into the melted butter, and bake until puffy and as brown as you like it. For my growing kids, I make three 9 X 13 pans worth. That is about 12-15 eggs (one large egg is supposed to equal 1/4 cup), 3 cups of milk, and three cups of flour. The BEST part is the topping.
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| Not quite done yet |
We used to pour maple syrup on everything. But then the whole high fructose corn syrup thing happened and
someone (who shall remain nameless-
Grandad) insisted that we buy 100% pure maple syrup and that he would pay for it. I
cannot stand paying so much for something that is used only because it is sweet. Plus, I know exposure is how tastes are formed. So it makes sense to me to make my own toppings and warp my children's minds just a little bit more. I've gone this far, why not go all the way?
Tonight I made blueberry syrup. I know, boring. You can buy that in a bottle. Yeah? Well, that stuff is gross! My syrup is yummy! And for the record, I don't follow any recipes and I've never had any formal training (unless you count Good Eats DVDs). So results can vary from meal to meal. Tonight I got lucky. I added several cups of frozen blueberries to a pan, added a trickle of water and about 1/3 cup of sugar. I simmered the blueberries until they were all liquidy and gave 'em a taste. It was okay, but obviously needed something. So I though of blueberry sweets...blueberry pie...what is in a blueberry pie? Lemon juice! The acid balances out the sweet of the sugar. But I'm out of lemon juice. I needed an acid...so I used cream of tartar. Just a tiny bit. And then I added some cinnamon, stirred well, and brought the whole mess to a boil. To thicken, I swirled some cornstarch (arrowroot powder also works for this) in some cold water and then poured it into the boiling syrup. I stirred, brought it back up to a boil, boiled for one minute to get rid of any starchy taste, and then it was done! My kitchen smelled like Christmas!
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| She likes it! But then again, she isn't that hard to please! |
I've used this basic method to make raspberry syrup, Very Berry syrup, mango syrup, and apple/cinnamon syrup. My kids have not missed their maple syrup at all. And I've found it doesn't take any extra time at all because I'm standing in the kitchen anyway. And I can mix it with yogurt for D. AND pour it in the porridge tomorrow morning. If there is any left.
