Perfect for School Lunches

We have a lot of baby food jars around here-and they are the perfect size to use in school lunches. I have always used washable containers versus plastic bags and these are great (fish crackers, raisins, nuts, dip for fruit or veggies) the list could go on and on.


We recently did jello in the cups and it worked out great. One 3 oz. jello filled about 6 cups. The kids love picking out their flavor for lunch.

Snickerdoodles

When I find a great recipe that tastes great and is fool proof, I just have to share it with you all. These Snickerdoodles definitely fit that criteria. They have that great outer crisp with the soft, moist cake center.

Snickerdoodles

1 Cup butter, softened

1 1/2 Cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

2 3/4 Cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp. cream of tarter (I substituted 2 tsp. white vinegar)

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

2 Tb. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Cream together butter, 1 1/2 cup sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix flour, cream of tarter, soda and salt in separate bowl. Then blend into wet ingredients (this is when I added the vinegar) Don't over mix.

*Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls approximately 1 inch in diameter. Mix the 2 Tb. sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes. (Mine were perfect at 8.30) The cookies should be slightly puffy when you get them out, but set around the edges.

*Just a side note, I never have cream of tarter, probably never will, who knows. That is why I substituted it with the vinegar and it worked fabulously. I also am not a fan of rolling dough into balls so I just scooped with my cookie scoop, plopped them into the sugar/cinnamon and put them on the pan-worked like a charm.

Enjoy!

Ebleskiver Goodness

If you have never seen or heard the word Ebleskiver, you are probably thinking "what?" This is a Danish food that my kids call "pancake balls." That is the most basic explanation I can think of of. This has become our Christmas morning tradition and the other day I made these and thought I would share them with you. These taste so good, and they are so versatile. You have to try them.

Ebleskiver

4 Eggs (separated)

2 Tb. Sugar

1/2 tsp. Salt

2 Tb. Veg. Oil

2 C. Buttermilk

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

2 C. Flour

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks. Set aside. Beat rest of ingredients together until batter is very smooth. Fold in egg whites. Cook in Ebleskiver pan on one side until bubbles pop and indentation stays, then turn and cook on other side.-approx. 48 pancakes

This is what the batter looks like after the egg whites are folded in. In case you never beaten egg whites, a stiff peak is just that-when you lift the beaters from the beaten egg whites a stiff peak will form and it will not fall. Sorry I don't have a picture.

Here they are cooking. The trick to these is getting the right temperature. When you have the right temp. they cook very quickly, and I just flip them over with skewers. When they need to be flipped, they pull a little from the sides and when the bubbles pop, the indentation stays.

Oh the possibilities are endless. These are great because when you pour the batter in the pan, you can fill them with a tsp. of anything: chocolate chips, jams, fruits(apples, blueberries, bananas etc.), pie fillings, sausage etc. I also like to leave them plain and have fun with the toppings like below.

These are some of my favorites

Strawberry jam with whipped topping, Apricot jam is really good too.

Carmel sauce and bananas. Yummy!

Have you made these before? Leave a comment with your favorite way to serve them.