Smith Family Weblog

On Saturdays and Sundays, the girls clamor for waffles or pancakes—something out of the ordinary that signifies the importance of a weekend day. While neither option is particularly difficult to make from scratch, I always look longingly at the incredibly simple oven pancake recipe on the cookbook’s facing page. This weekend, I charged ahead, mixing up just a half cup of flour, three eggs, a bit of sugar and a dash of vanilla, then pouring the ingredients into a skillet primed with melted butter.

After a few moments in the oven, a gorgeously puffed pancake emerged. As it deflated, we topped it with a berry compote and a swirl of whipped cream. I don’t think it will replace silver dollar chocolate chip pancakes as a new favorite, but it was definitely a simple alternative.

I love savory egg casseroles, but this recipe for french toast casserole is my absolute favorite breakfast dish. We served it to our family early on Christmas morning, alongside berries, juice and plenty of coffee.

Two dozen double-chocolate mocha cupcakes found their way to friends last week, most alongside a small bottle of Irish cream. I used Martha Stewart’s one-bowl chocolate cupcake recipe (substituting coffee for hot water), and frosting and pouring sauce recipes from Baker’s Royale. My cupcake holders ended up being a bit too short for this stack of frosting, and so the end result was a bit compressed. Hopefully the whiskey offset any disappointment there…

Holiday preparations began in earnest last week. My friend Erin hosted a baking party last Saturday (I used the opportunity to roll rum balls), and Dawn and I made 10 double batches of cookie dough one afternoon recently. Then, very early Tuesday morning, I mixed up a couple gallons of Irish cream, some of which may or may not be stirred into my coffee right now…

Cheers!

When I suggested cereal this morning, the girls balked. “It’s a weekend day! We need weekend day food!”

Year-round, I have a silver dollar Christmas pancake pan stashed away in the drawer under my oven. Olivia, who simply cannot wait for the holidays, suggested that we make these tiny, seasonal pancakes.

“Order up! Short stack for the short stack.”

We’ve had grilled pizza about once a week this summer, primarily focusing on fresh tomatoes and mozzarella. Bryan had an idea for a more seasonal pie, based on a incredible pasta dish at our favorite restaurant: ricotta, Italian sausage, roasted butternut squash, parmesan and fresh rosemary. It might be the best pizza we’ve had so far!

I made these lemon meringue cupcakes a couple of weeks ago, though I can’t claim to have followed the linked recipe exactly. I am completely unable to make any sort of white cake, so I doctored up a white cake mix with lemon juice and zest.

But I love the rest of this recipe because of the lemon curd (perhaps one of the most delicious things ever made from butter and lemons), the swirl of meringue (egg whites + air = magic), and the fact the process involves open flame.

What more could you ask for?

At some point last fall, I apparently agreed to bring cupcakes to our 25-member strategic planning steering committee. I completely forgot about this (I also forgot my email password and my home phone number, so I’m not surprised). I finally made good on my promise last week, and brought two batches of cupcakes into work.

The first cupcake was a toffee caramel cupcake. I used the foolproof Martha Stewart one-bowl chocolate cake recipe, then dipped the edged of the cooled cupcakes into melted bittersweet chocolate and chopped toffee. I topped the cakes with a salted caramel buttercream. Thanks to extremely high doses of sugar, we made significant progress on that strategic plan.