Mini Double Streusel Pumpkin Bread

25 Nov 2013

This weekend my boys went to Seattle, and left us girls home alone, so we had some fun baking together. We made a pumpkin streusel bread {mostly because the boys both hate pumpkin, and us girls love it, so we seized the opportunity!} But we accidentally put too much mixture in the bread pan, and it over-flowed in my oven, smoking out my entire kitchen, and even though the bread had been in the oven for over an hour and a half, it wasn’t even nearly cooked through! So it was just a complete disaster. In fact, when I cut into it, and all the batter spewed out, it made my daughter gag, and she refused to try it! She is hilarious!
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Mini Pear Pies with Caramel

1 Oct 2013

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The other day on pinterest I saw a recipe for Mini Pies with Pears and Blue Cheese that looked awesome! I both love and hate it when I see a genius recipe idea like this… because I wish I had been the one to think of it first! But I was so happy someone had thought to do this–because it’s so simple to adapt in so many fresh, unique ways! Instead of blue cheese, I decided to fill mine with my husband’s all-time favorite cheese, and a classic-pairing for pears: delicious Bris! Then I simply topped them with some chopped candied pecans, and served them with an autumn side-salad.
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American Stuffed French Toast with Peaches

25 Sep 2012

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I have come to find that English French Toast (also called “Eggy Bread”) and American French Toast are eaten in entirely different ways! In England our French bread is savory, (all that goes into it is egg and bread) so it’s quite normal to eat it with ketchup, or alongside a fry up! I even had a friend that ate her french toast with marmite… although i’m not sure that’s quite the norm! While in America, French bread is really sweet–they put cinnamon in their egg mixture, and serve it with syrup, berries and cream. I wish someone had told me about this sooner, because when I had french toast here in America, I would eat it with ketchup just the way i’ve always done… and it was SO gross!! I got some funny looks from my American family too… they still love to tease me about that! Anyway, I think in this instance, Americans have got it right! French toast was meant to be served with fruit and syrup and all things sweet, and this stuffed french toast recipe, which takes it one step closer to perfection with all that delicious cream cheese, will prove it! P.S. Whenever I think of maple syrup I think of ELF: “You like sugar don’t you?” “Does syrup have sugar in it? Then Yes!” My husband and I probably quote that every time we have it! I hope you guys like this recipe, especially my English friends who have been eating it all wrong! Ok. Not wrong, but just not in the BEST way!

Banana Bread Pancakes

17 Jun 2012

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This father’s day, absolutely nothing went to plan!! My two small kiddos woke up sick, and whined the entire morning! Then to make things worse, they missed their naps because we needed to go to church to take pictures, so for the rest of the day they were even more whiney! I was trying to cook a special father’s day dinner for my hubby, but meanwhile, my son was clinging to my leg like a spider monkey crying to be held, whilst my daughter was throwing up–and my house had somehow gotten really messy, and then I realized, I hadn’t actually defrosted the meat for the dinner! So instead of shiny happy kids celebrating their Dad on father’s day, and a nice dinner of mini beef wellingtons, we had chaos and reuben’s at 9 o’clock at night. It was that crazy.

Hot Cross Buns

6 Apr 2012

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Growing up in England we had hot cross buns at Easter time every year. This wasn’t just our family’s tradition, but a pretty standard tradition for most English people. It stems back from the 1700′s when Catholics marked their buns as a way to remember Christ and his crucifixion on good friday. Then when protestant monarchy came into power, they believed hot cross buns to have a dangerous hold over catholic belief in England, and tried to ban them. Except, it didn’t work completely because they were too popular, so they were permitted to be sold at Easter and Christmas time only. Now they are only sold around Easter time. Probably not because of any strange laws–but because it’s the only time of year when they’re really popular!