By-the-way, tomorrow is September!!!

I know there must be others out there just biding their time until the weather turns cold enough to make big pots of their favorite soups and bake crusty bread and cookies and all those wonderful winter recipes!

I love Autumn and the thought of anything and everything pumkin!!

Just dreamy :-)

Some things are better left not-cooked

Well, we all have those days, don't we? We see a recipe that we are convinced will be absolutely delectable and use a pretty hefty amount of ingredients to prepare it only to be sorely disappointed. I found a recipe for Lemon Crumb Muffins in my most recent Taste of Home Annual recipes and thought it would be that delectable, melt-in-your-mouth treat - not so much. It tastes more like corn bread, very sweet corn bread. I guess if you love corn bread that could be a good thing but not if you're looking for a muffin-type version of lemon bars - yummmm!

Oh well, it's one recipe ruled out for me for the future at least.

Happy cooking!

Their favorite

Crepes

1 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tbs butter melted

cream cheese
strawberries or fresh fruit of your choice
powdered sugar and/or fruit jam/jelly

Blend the crepe ingredients together until nice and smooth. Cook until just light brown in a small (about 7" or so) skillet prepared with non-stick spray. Just a light coat of the batter spread around the bottom by tilting the pan - a medium scoop from Pampered Chef or small ladel works well. Turn gently so you don't tear or make your kids laugh with your circus act tossing them to turn (yes, I can do this very well, thank you very much!).

Combine the cream cheese and whatever fruit, jam or sugar you want and place about 2 tablespoons in the center of a crepe. Roll up, sprinkle with more sugar if you want your kids climbing the walls today and enjoy!

By-the-way, notice they are being served on paper plates - cheap paper plates!!

Did I mention...

the real secret ingredient to the quiches I made for our meeting was the duck eggs that Alison gave me that everyone else was hesitant to take? They created a thick, rich, fluffy, delicious (if I may say so myself) quiche!

You should try it if you can get your hands on duck eggs!

Asparagus Quiche

1/2 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces
5 slices bacon, cooked crisp and broken into small pieces
8 inch pie shell
2 eggs beaten
3/4 cup half and half
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Steam asparagus 4-5 minutes until tender but firm; drain and cool.

Sprinkle bacon and asparagus evenly into pie shell. Sprinkle Swiss cheese over bacon and asparagus. Blend eggs, cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper well. Pour mixture into pie shell.

Bake 35-40 until knife inserted in middle comes out clean. Let sit 10-20 minute before serving.

Quiche Lorraine

9 inch pie crust
12 slices bacon - cooked crisp and broken into pieces
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/3 cup minced onion, sauteed lightly
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups light cream (1/2 & 1/2 and heavy cream mixed 2:1 will work)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Sprinkle bacon, cheese and onion into pie shell. Whisk together eggs, cream, salt, sugar and cayenne pepper. Pour mixture into pie shell.

Bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees and then reduce heat to 300 degrees - continue to bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted come out clean. Allow to sit 10-20 minutes before serving.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Hmmm-hmmm!

1 1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup sugar
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup oil
1/4 tsp salt

The best results come from using a large electric griddle in my humble opinion!

Blend all the ingredients well and pour in whatever size spoonfuls you want onto the pre-heated, greased griddle - a Pampered Chef large scoop makes the perfect size for what we like. Flip when they turn light brown on the bottom - the bubble trick doesn't always work well :-)

I have noticed that I almost always add more flour because I think the recipe is a little thin. Try it and adjust to your liking - enjoy!

We had apple pancakes this morning - at daddy's request. The kids prefer chocolate chip pancakes but that's more like dessert than breakfast - sighhhh.