Puffy Pancake

As a kid, I was always fascinated by the Dutch Baby. Whenever I saw this gigantic puffed-up breakfast pastry on a menu, it usually came with apples baked into the dough and was enough to feed an entire family.

I thought it would be fun to serve one up for breakfast for my boys — who love homemade pancakes.

This recipe is healthier than traditional pancakes and is much easier and faster to make.

I'll be baking this again soon, so that I can try adding apples into the mix.  And now that I think about it, a banana blended into the batter would be delicious, too.

The Puffy Pancake would also make a great breakfast-for-dinner entree, especially if served with some bacon or sausage on the side.

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Puffy Pancake

3 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
Fresh fruit or berries for serving
Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine eggs, flour, milk, lemon zest, sugar, vanilla and salt in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Set aside to rest.

Place butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet. Put pan in oven to melt the butter, about 1 to 2 minutes. Do not let the butter brown.

Swirl the butter in the skillet to coat bottom of pan evenly. Pour batter into skillet.

Return pan to oven and bake about 18 minutes or until pancake is puffy and golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool for about 5 minutes.

Top with fruit or berries and dust with powdered sugar. Cut into wedges and serve with maple syrup.

Crustless Quiche with Ham and Smokey Cheddar

Lately I've been trying to limit my trips to the grocery store to once a week. While I love my precious angels, I don't love schlepping them both to the store. So I shop when the husband can watch the kids on Sunday afternoon. I try to use fresh meat and produce at the beginning of the week, and by Friday I'm looking to clean out the fridge, freezer and pantry.

I always have eggs on hand and I had popped some leftover ham in the freezer a few weeks back. Crustless quiche seemed like the perfect end-of-the-week plan. I whisked everything together and popped it into the oven to bake. It was ridiculously easy, so I was dubious that it would be good. But it was. Tasty + easy? You guys know that's how I roll.

Let's get cooking!
Erin

Crustless Quiche with Ham and Smokey Cheddar
Serves: 4-6

8 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Salt and pepper
1 cup diced ham
1 cup shredded smoked cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9" pie plate and set aside.

Whisk together eggs, milk, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in ham and cheese. Pour mixture into prepared pie plate, making sure ham and cheese are evenly distributed. Bake for about 30 minutes, until filling is set and doesn't jiggle. Rest 5-10 minutes before serving.

Spring on Toast (featuring eggs and asparagus)

Last Friday, on the first day of Spring, Erin dropped by Chez George for a little culinary date. Erin brought her son Danny (he's adorbs!) and my daughters Lucy and Penny enjoyed their first "babysitting" stint. She also brought a yummy lemon buttermilk cake.

Erin and I decided to team up today to tell you about our main course, which we shall call Spring on Toast. I'd seen a friend's yummy-looking Facebook photo of toast topped with asparagus, sunnyside up eggs and goat cheese--all finished off under the broiler. (Shout out to you, Kate Y.!)

This dish was the perfect choice for the first day of Spring, a meatless Friday before Lent and for a dinner without the husbands, who are both opposed to "breakfast" for dinner. The hubbies are wrong, just wrong, btw.

Here was our conversation while eating.

Erin (while shoveling yolk-y bites of asparagus into her mouth at warp speed): OMG. Amy. This is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. It's, like, for realz Spring on Toast.

Amy (admiring the crisp-tender spears of asparagus blanketing the toast): It does taste like Spring. This asparagus is absolutely perfect. Seasonal vegetables rock my world.

Erin (now attempting to lick up the puddles of yolk pooling on her plate): I think I'm going to make this for lunch every day now.

Amy (moving her foot just in time to avoid Danny driving over it with a Barbie jeep): So good. So, so good. SO GOOD.

XOXO and let's get cooking!
Amy & Erin

Spring on Toast (featuring eggs and asparagus)
Asparagus
Olive oil
Salt
Cracked pepper
Multigrain bread, sliced
Butter
Eggs
Goat cheese

Trim asparagus and place on cookie sheet. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 425 for 5 minutes or until slightly tender, but not overdone.

Butter each side of bread and "toast" each side in a skillet. Place toasted bread on a cookie sheet. Top with asparagus.

Cook eggs sunnyside up until the whites are set, just a couple minutes on medium or medium high. Slide eggs on top of the asparagus. Two per piece of toast. Note: This is a two person job and it helps if you and your culinary partner utter things like "careful, careful, careful" and "eek, eek, eek," as you try to coax the eggs on top of the toast, keeping them intact. Top eggs with goat cheese.

Broil on high until the goat cheese is softened and warmed through, about 5 minutes. (Watch carefully when you are broiling! Some broilers are hotter than the surface of the sun and will set your toast on fire in less than a minute. Erin may or may not know this from experience.) Remove and top with cracked pepper. Eat immediately.

P.S. Amy was kind enough to send the leftover Spring on Toast home with Erin, and it reheated beautifully. 425 degrees for 10 minutes and the egg was still runny and perfect.