Easy Homemade Pancakes

I wasn't planning on posting a recipe this week with Thanksgiving a week away, but Husband and I found ourselves wanting pancakes today, and we didn't have any pancake mix. So I went to my trusty internets and found this recipe. How hard could it be, right? Spoiler alert: not hard at all. It's your basic dry ingredients, add the wet, and mix. The recipe said to make a well in the dry before adding the wet, but I didn't see the point of that as after I added the milk everything spread out.

These pancakes cooked like any others, nothing special there. I still struggle with flipping pancakes, but I did get them to turn a gorgeous golden brown-I don't like my pancakes super dark.

Overall I'd say these were good and solved the problem of wanting pancakes but not having any mix. They were lighter and fluffier than what you get from pancake mix, but I wouldn't say they were anything special or extraordinary. But now I know what to do when this situation arises again. I'll be on the lookout for a killer pancake recipe until then. 3 stars.

Crockpot Mashed Potatoes

I know I missed a week, my apologies. As evidenced by my lackluster skillet mac and cheese post, I was in a rough patch. But I'm back!

Somehow Husband and I convinced my family to come to our place for Thanksgiving this year. So, I'm hosting my first Thanksgiving dinner and as such, needed to find recipes for your standard turkey day spread. This is the only recipe I'm giving an actual test run before the big day. Why? Because I've always been skeptical of crockpot mashed potato recipes, but it would be awesome if it worked because that's one less thing to worry about. And I'm feeling fairly confident about the other ones-they're all pretty simple. I'll probably post my results after the big day.

But for now, potatoes!

Again, I halved the recipe since there's only two of us. I also peeled my potatoes because I had the time and prefer peeled potatoes. But, you certainly don't have to.

(I wasn't lying when I said our cat likes to watch me cook.)

After they're chopped (and peeled if you so desire), just dump the potatoes into the crockpot. No water, milk, or any kind of liquid.

Then you go play Fallout 4 while the potatoes cook. (I blame Husband for that one.) Or whatever else you'd like to do to pass the time. The recipe says to cook 2-3 hours on high or 5-6 hours on low. I did mine on high, and since I halved the recipe, they were definitely done when I checked on them at about 1 1/2 hours. In fact, I think they may have been just a tad over cooked. Once they're cooked, add the rest of the ingredients and mash.

The original blogger uses a hand mixer for her potatoes. I just used a regular old potato masher because 1) I don't have a hand mixer (I really don't see the need since I have a stand mixer) and 2) using a hand mixer increases your risk of over mashing, resulting in gummy or gluey potatoes. Ick. But, do what you'd like.

So, in answer to the question of if you can really make mashed potatoes in the crockpot, my answer is yes! Hallelujah! Like I mentioned earlier, I think my potatoes ended up being a tad overcooked, but I'm not worried about that as I'll make the full recipe for Thanksgiving. And they were a bit too heavy on the salt and pepper for our liking. I'd probably cut those amounts in half next time. But these were still really tasty and easy. I'll be making them again! 4 stars from both of us.

Skillet Mac and Cheese

I actually made this for dinner last night, but was feeling rather crappy so I'm posting it today. I also didn't take pictures of the process because of feeling crappy. Honestly I wasn't sure that I'd even post the recipe, so all I have is a quick snapshot I took with my phone after we'd eaten. Sorry. But trust me when I say this is easy and fast! I didn't add the bacon simply because I didn't feel like cooking bacon. (Really truly, I was having a bad day.) But the sauce came together pretty fast and easily, and cooking pasta is as easy as boiling water. I used cavatappi instead of elbow noodles simply because I like the shape and wanted to. Any short pasta will work.

The result? It's actually quite good! I was pleasantly surprised. However, the first thing Husband said was it needs bacon. Go figure. But it's fast and easy and really you probably already have almost all the ingredients in your pantry already. So I'll call it a keeper, 3 stars.

Halloween Party Recipes

Last night I had some friends over for a murder mystery party. These are the foods I served along with the recipes or inspiration, incase anyone is looking for some last minute party food ideas. They're all pretty fast and easy.

Brownie Butterfinger trifles-I didn't crush up the candy as fine as she did, but they were very well received.

This was just a simple veggie tray from the grocery store.

This was a mixture of sour cream and cream cheese underneath some store bought salsa. The recipe inspiration itself came from something my aunt does at family get-togethers. I tried to shape the cream mixture into a severed bone, I don't know how well that's coming through in the picture. Inspiration for the presentation was found here.

Bloody cupcakes-inspiration found here. I didn't make pineapple cupcakes though, as one of my party guests doesn't like pineapple.

Raspberry punch recipe was found here. It's really hard to tell in the picture, but I used a heart shaped jello mold for the ice. I put a glass punch bowl in one of those plastic cauldrons you can find all over the stores this time of year.

Overall I'd say the party and food were both a success! I'll be back to testing recipes like normal next week. Happy Halloween!

Copycat Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits

I'm trying to like seafood. So far I can say I like shellfish and that's about it. And by shellfish I really mean crab, shrimp, and lobster. In an attempt to familiarize me with seafood, Husband and I went to Red Lobster back in spring. That was when I tried their famous cheddar bay biscuits. Now that I think about it, I don't remember them being amazing, but they were pretty tasty. Anywho, that leads us to tonight when I decided to try this copycat recipe on somewhat of a whim.

I cut the recipe in half because there's only two of us, and I forgot to buy more cheese when I went grocery shopping earlier today. The recipe really is quite simple-mix your dry ingredients, add the wet, and then gently fold in the cheese.

Then you plop them onto a baking sheet and bake. I don't have parchment paper or a silpat, so I just sprayed my sheet with Pam and they came off just fine. I probably should have shaped them a little more just to look prettier, but oh well.

After they bake, you brush them with a "topping" that really is just garlic herb butter. I didn't have fresh parsley, so I used dried. I know I've mentioned my dislike of garlic before, but really I'm okay with it in small amounts. And I'll never buy a bulb of fresh garlic because I know I'll never use it before it goes bad, so garlic powder is what I use. End tangent. Anyway, they looked like this after baking for 10 minutes and being brushed with the butter:

To me they taste simply okay. It's almost like they're missing something, but I'm not sure what. Husband said they seemed fine to him, but I'm not going for fine! I'm trying to fill my recipe binder with only the best! So honestly I don't know if I'll keep this recipe. They were really easy and fast, and might actually be quite close to the original Red Lobster biscuits. But it's been so long since we were there that I can't accurately remember what they tasted like. So I'm giving this one 2 stars.

DIY Frozen Pizzas

I like to try to keep a frozen pizza in our freezer for those nights when we're both feeling lazy. But after seeing this post on how to freeze your homemade pizzas, I knew I wanted to give it a try. I tried a different pizza dough recipe, hoping to avoid the super sticky dough situation I had last time I made pizza. It was a success, ladies and gents! Here's the keys: water temperature and kneading the dough just for a few moments after it rises. That little bit of kneading I did after the dough rose really made a difference. I was able to shape it into a somewhat normal shape and not have it stick like crazy to everything.

The trick (according to the original poster) is to par bake your pizza crust. It says to bake your crust for 3-5 minutes, so I baked them for 4.

The crusts need to cool completely before you top them. My second crust didn't come out as pretty. It cracked a bit as I was trying to get it off the pizza stone. Go figure. After the crusts have cooled, you can top them however you'd like.

I decided to make a taco pizza

(salsa, shredded chicken, and cheese)

and the good old standby of pepperoni.

(marinara because it's better than jarred pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. And my cherry Coke because it's important to stay caffeinated hydrated.)

One they're topped, the pizzas need to go into the freezer on a baking sheet for about 3 hours until they're frozen. After they're frozen you can wrap them up, label them, and put them in the freezer to bake whenever you'd like! This was quite easy, and very likely something I'll do again. I'd say this is a 4 star idea, and I don't see why these won't bake up beautifully when we decide to have one for dinner.

Banana Pancakes

*cue the Jack Johnson song, which I totally listened to while making these*

Breakfast for dinner, or brinner, is a glorious thing. And I'm sad to say it's something I haven't done for quite a while. I kind of forgot about it. So, these were the perfect excuse to bring it back!

I've never made pancakes from scratch, but it was really easy. Mix up your dry ingredients...

and your wet ingredients.

Then, you guessed it! Everybody goes in the pool together.

Now here comes the tricky part-actually cooking said pancakes. First, we don't have a griddle so I used a pan. Which is why they're called pancakes!! Ha! Anywho...second, I forgot I'm kind of terrible at flipping pancakes. I don't know why, it's just something I struggle with. So after making a few really ugly pancakes, I finally got the rhythm down a bit better. Part of my problem was my pan was too hot, so they started to cook too quickly. For some reason though, they kept folding as I would lift them for flipping. I have no idea why that was happening, but because of this they didn't turn out as pretty as I had hoped.

I'm starting to think food bloggers all secretly take food photography classes because my recipes almost never come out looking like theirs. Which is all fine and dandy, but who doesn't like pretty food that also happens to taste good?? As far as taste though, these were pretty good. They weren't overly sweet, which I was a bit worried about. They're not amazing, but they're a good quick shake up from regular pancakes. 3 stars from me and Husband.