Orange Julius

I made this tonight, and just had to share!

Orange Julius

• 1/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sugar (powdered or regular--both work fine--my husband prefers regular sugar)
• 7-8 ice cubes

• FUN VARIATION--add frozen or fresh strawberries--super yummy!
  

Throw everything in the blender and mix until smooth! I like to tweak it a little, but this is the original recipe. I sometimes add more ice to make it thicker, or add a little more of everything to make a bigger batch etc, or add extra orange juice concentrate.

Strawberry Orange Muffins

I told Heather I would share this recipe with her so I thought I could share it with all of you too! The recipe is from my Cooking Light cookbook and I make these a lot when strawberries are in season.
Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups halved strawberries
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
cooking spray
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup strawberry jam or preserves (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400
Combine first 4 ingredients in a blender or food processor, and process just until mixture is blended. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until mixture is moist. Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle batter evenly with 2 teaspoons sugar. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pan immediately. Serve muffins with jam, if desired.

Apple topped french toast

I woke up to the wonderful smell of these yummy french toast this morning. SOOOO good.

4 large eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
8 thick slices of bread
2 TBS butter, divided
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Apple Topping
3 TBS butter
4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

Beat eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon together. Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated. Topping: melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add apples and cook for 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add brown sugar and cinnamon; cook for 2 minutes, or until apples are slightly soft. Heat 1 TBS. butter in large skillet over medium heat. Press each bread slice into chopped nuts to coat. Cook until golden brown on each side. Top with apple topping.

Susan's Cinnamon Rolls

This is my friend's recipe. I've had a lot of success with it. I like to roll the dough out really thin. They turn out more like "Cinnabon's" that way. Enjoy!

Susan's Cinnamon Rolls

(makes about 24)
3 T. yeast
1 c. warm water
1 t. sugar - dissolve, let proof, then add
2/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. melted (not hot) butter
2 c. warm milk
2 eggs
2 t. salt - then, with an electric mixer and a dough hook, add 1 c. flour at a time for the first 5 cups - after that, add the flour 1/2 c. at a time till a soft, slightly sticky dough forms (not wet) - do not overmix
- let rise till doubled (in a warm oven if you're in a hurry); punch down; rise again
- divide dough in half; roll out into rectangle with dough about 1/2" thick
- spread soft butter to edges, then sprinkle generously with brown sugar and cinnamon (optional raisins, walnuts)
- roll up and pinch the seam shut; cut with floss about 2" thick; place on greased sheet; let rise till doubled uncovered on counter
- bake 350 about 15 mins till golden (not browned); cool 10 mins, then glaze with:
1/2 c. melted butter
1/2 t. vanilla
1/4 c. evaporated milk
3 c. powdered sugar - whisk together to desired consistency over a warm burner

Blueberry Muffins

I just bought some yummy blueberries and made some of my favorite muffins. The recipe isn't from me and I LOVE them. They are from dianasdesserts.com. I guess the coarse sugar on top makes them irresistible. I don't always have the orange zest so sometimes that's out and I also make 11 muffins out of this instead of 12 so they're nice and big. So good! I also bake them for slightly less time that 20 minutes. But it's really an easy recipe. I finished them before my oven's pre-heat bell rang.

2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup granulated sugar 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 beaten eggs 3/4 cup milk 1/2 cup (1 stick/4 oz./113g) melted butter (no substitutes) 1 tablespoon finely shredded orange peel 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed Coarse sugar (optional) (from Kathy: really not an option. You MUST have this on top! :))

Instructions: 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C). Grease twelve 2 1/2 inch muffin pan cups. Set aside. 2. Stir together flour, the 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of dry mixture; set aside. 3. Combine eggs, milk, butter, and orange peel; add all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in blueberries. 4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each almost full. If desired, sprinkle tops with coarse sugar. Bake in preheated oven 20 minutes or until golden. Cool in muffin cups on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups. Makes 12 muffins.

Source: Better Homes and Gardens

Submitted By: Erica

Date: May 11, 2005

Boiled Egg Tip from Jocelyn

Here’s a great tip I figured out. When making hard boiled eggs, salt the water heavily and the eggs absorb it somewhat so that they taste much less bland. My sister said that in China they often put other flavor/seasonings in the water while making hard boiled eggs.

St. Patrick's Day Puff Pancakes

Hi Everyone! Julie R. just sent me an email about a green tradition we have in our house. It started with my mom and we have carried it in our lives, too. Although I have no Irish in me we like to celebrate this green holiday with a totally green breakfast, either served for breakfast or if you're more of a night person and just don't want to get up that early, you can have a green breakfast for dinner. That's what I have been doing lately. Anyway, Julie wanted a recipe for what we call Puff Pancakes. Scott grew up with these and I never had them till he came into my life. But we love them now! They are also known as German Pancakes. So here's the recipe we use. Just add a little green food coloring and you're set for St. Patty's day.

Another St. Patty's breakfast tip: In college we had a green breakfast group date. We wanted to make green bacon so we put it in green water for a while. Yeah, not good. The water sucked out all the salt! It was nasty! So for green bacon don't do that but while you are frying it up drop of few drops right on the bacon and there you go!

Okay, okay! Here's the recipe!

Scott’s Puff Pancakes

½ cube butter

½ c. sugar

6 eggs

1 c. flour

1 c. milk

¼ tsp salt

¼ c. orange juice (optional)

Preheat oven to 425. Melt butter in 9x13 pan whiled mixing batter. Pan should be hot when batter is poured into it. Mix and beat together all ingredients (don’t over beat). When butter has melted, pour mixture into dish and bake for 17-20 minutes. You must watch it. It will puff high so don’t put it on top oven rack. Must serve immediately. Makes about 6 servings.

Pineapple Upside-down Muffins

This is my new favorite muffin. I made them for scrapbooking a while back, so some of you may have tried them. Also, this muffin book is pretty cool, lots of good recipes.

Pineapple Upside-Down Muffins from The Ultimate Muffin Book

3 T light brown sugar

8 T butter, melted and cooled

One 8 oz can crushed pineapple, drained

2 cups plus 2 T flour

½ cup sugar

2 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

½ t salt

2 lg eggs

¾ cup buttermilk

¼ t almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 375. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and 2 T of the melted butter until well combined. Divide this mixture evenly among the 12 muffin tines, placing about 1 t in the bottom of each. Top the butter mixture in each tin with 1 t of crushed pineapple. Set aside.
2. Wisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until uniform. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until frothy. Whisk in the buttermilk, the almond extract, the remaining 6 T melted butter, and the remaining crushed pineapple. Gently stir in the prepared flour mixture with a wooden spoon until moistened.
4. Taking care not to disturb the sugar and pineapple in the bottom of the tins, fill them three-quarters full with batter. Use additional greased tins or individual , ovensafe, greased ramekins for any leftover batter, or reserve the batter for a second baking. Bake for 22 minutes, or until the muffins are lightly browned with rounded tops. A toothpick inserted into the center of one muffin should come out with a few moist crumbs attached.
5. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Gently tip each muffin to one side, taking care to keep the pineapple bottom attached. If it comes looks, simply scrape it out and gently press it back onto the muffin top once the muffin has been removed from the tin. Remove all the muffins; serve upside down. Cool completely before sealing them in a airtight container, where they will stay fresh for up to 2 days. These muffins do not freeze well.