Please, no laughing

Oh yes, I am. I am really posting a recipe that consists of 2 ingredients. One of which is...um...hotdogs. It is official. I have no shame. I can't help it. My lunch ladies used to serve me something like this as a child. I blame them.

Now, this isn't your typical dinner party fare. No, as you can see by the Tigger plate (courtesy of my friend Emily who left it at my house with brownies adorning it) this is more appealing to the little people. Really. My 3 year old ate 3 of these babies for lunch today.

Okay. Here is the recipe. Stop laughing at me.

8 hot dogs (I never buy the cheap hot dogs. I just don't trust what is in them)

1 tube of Crescent Rolls, refrigerated section (I use reduced-fat. No one can tell the difference around here)

Preheat oven to 375*. Split roll sections apart. Roll each section around a hot dog- larger end to smaller end. Place on baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until crescent rolls are golden brown.

My kids like to eat these with ketchup. So do I.

Herbed Sandwich Buns

These sandwich buns were so delicious. The dough was made in the bread machine, so they were also very easy. Make sure you don't skip sauteing the onions in butter. It gave these so much flavor. I used these to make Pork 'n' Slaw Sandwiches last night which was wonderful. I also think they would be fantastic with a burger, or just a plain sandwich. I am hooked:-)

Herbed Sandwich Buns

1/4 c. water (70-80*)

1/4 c. warm milk (70-80*)

1 egg

2/3 c. small-curd cottage cheese

1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. salt

3 c. bread flour

2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp. dried minced garlic

1/4 tsp. dried basil

1/4 c. finely chopped onion

4 1/2 tsp. butter

In bread machine pan, place the first 12 ingredients in order suggested by the manufacturer. In a small skillet, saute onions in butter until tender; add to bread machine pan. Select dough setting (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 Tbsp. water or flour if needed).

When cycle is complete, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 10 pieces; shape each into a ball. Place 2 in. apart on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 375* for10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Yields: 10 buns

Tip: Since I cannot usually find a warm enough place for my dough to rise, I usually preheat my oven to about 170*. Once it reaches that temp., I turn it off and place my dough in the oven to rise. It works great!

Source: I got this recipe out of my 2004 Quick Cooking Annual

My baby

Yesterday Grace had her preschool open house. I cannot believe my baby girl is going to preschool. Ugh. I can already feel the tears coming. I am going to be such a mess on her first day.

One of the things she needed to bring to the open house was a photo of herself. This photo will go on all of her art projects, cubby, etc. throughout the year. As I was looking through the photos I have taken of her over the summer, I realized that my little wild woman was...well...wild looking in all of them. Dirt smeared on her face, no shirt- you get the picture. So I cleaned her up and took a few. I can hardly believe how grown up and beautiful she is already.

The teacher that both the boys had was suddenly moved up to Kindergarten this year. I am so devastated about it. She is such a wonderful preschool teacher. So, Grace will have a new teacher. My first reaction was to withdraw her from preschool entirely (she is only 3, after all) but I am going to just send her. I really think Grace will do wonderfully in preschool and she will love it. She is such a smart & social little girl. Maybe they would let me just stay with her? I am a licensed teacher after all... Just kidding. Kind of.

Grace had a good time at the open house meeting everyone. She had no problem at all being left to play with the other kids and getting to know the teacher while I filled out paperwork and got some info from the director and the principal. Now she just can't wait for school to get started.

Buttermilk Pancakes

First of all, I apologize for my picture. It really is terrible. You see, I was just to darn hungry to eat these babies to mess around too much with it or check the picture quality:)

Anyway, my family LOVES to eat pancakes. I made this recipe one Saturday morning when I realized I ran out of pancake mix and I was VERY happy with the result. So happy, in fact, that I have decided to no longer buy pancake mix at all. Give 'em a try!

Also, these freeze very well. I like to make a HUGE batch of these when I do them (x4 usually). Then I flash freeze them and store them in a ziploc bag for the kid to reheat during the week for breakfast.

Buttermilk Pancakes

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 c. nonfat buttermilk (I almost never have this on hand. I just put 1 Tbsp. vinegar in 1 c. measuring cup, then fill to the top with milk & let set for 5 minutes. This is a great sub for buttermilk.)

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Chocolate Chips (optional)

Cooking Spray

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine egg, buttermilk, and oil, and add to dry ingredients; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in desired amount of chocolate chips, if you wish. I make some with and some without, myself.

Coat a nonstick griddle with cooking spray, and preheat to 350*. For each pancake, pour 1/4 c. batter onto hot griddle. Cook pancakes until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked; turn pancakes and cook other side.

Yield: 9 (4 inch) pancakes (I usually make mine bigger and don't get as many.)

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Brownies over at one of my favorite recipe blogs, Real Mom Kitchen. Well, I have been craving them since. You just can't beat the pairing of two things that are so delicious. The recipe just doesn't get any easier either. You should really look at the photo of the recipe on her site, they look much more delectable there. Upon further revisiting her recipe for the blog entry, I realize that I forgot to press the 2nd half of the Reese's into the top. Oh well, these still tasted fabulous! I will definitely be trying that next time though!

Reese's Brownies

1 brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker, you need the 9 x 13 size)
ingredients needed to make the brownie mix
1 (12 oz bag) Reese's miniature peanut butter cups

Open up half of the peanut butter cups, there's about 40 in a bag. Cut each peanut butter cup into fourths. Mix the brownie mix together according to package directions for cake like brownies. Mix in your cut up peanut butter cups and pour into pan prepared according to package directions. (The Betty Crocker one says to spray the bottom of the pan.) Then if you see some pieces of peanut butter cups clumped together in the batter, use a fork to help make sure all the chunks are evenly dispersed. Cook according to package directions, except remove 5 minutes early from oven. While the brownies cook, open and cut up the other half bag of Reese's the same way. Then when you remove the brownies 5 minutes early, evenly sprinkle the remaining cut up Reese's over the brownies. Return brownies to oven for the remaining 5 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test. Cool and cut into squares.

As you can see, I had a very eager helper while making brownies. All of my kids just LOVE to help cook. I wonder why? Isn't it good he took his shower right before helping?