I’m begging one more day of this long weekend. I promised a yummy post but I didn’t get that one finished up quite yet. There have been too many toes to nibble, bug bites to soothe, birds to “Quack” at, tears to comfort, and lions to brush out of teeth (I don’t even know how to explain that last one).

So here’s a little peek of our fun from this long weekend…along with some photos of yesterday’s baking frenzy as a tease. I’ll have that yummy post for you on Thursday!

Kid made snack picnics.

Green and purple smoothies.

A girl who likes her cucumbers whole.

Potty successes.

Lots of silliness.

Gazing out a rainy day…

…a rainy day which inspired all this baking.

Grandma’s biscuits.

Muffins that were deemed unhealthy because they weren’t brown – but were they ever yummy.

Pie pastry.

And a summery pie.

Now we are off to take a stab at some schoolwork…schoolwork which was sadly neglected during last week’s sunny days. At least cold and rainy days are good for some things.

Have you had anything baking in your kitchen lately?

A few of you asked about the treats Liam was scooping out in this post so I thought I would share this most simple and delicious recipe.

I’m sure many of you are familiar with it already but whether the recipe is new to you or not it bears repeating. These are one of my favourite goodies to throw together during the warmer months. They take practically no time at all to prepare and the kids love to help out with them.

These aren’t rocket science rather they are a nothing fancy, no frills kind of dessert which never cease to please me…I’d say the only downside is my total lack of self-control around these little nuggets. I’ve been caught with my hand in the cookie jar before breakfast more times than I can count (one more reason this pregnancy thing is working in my favour).

I’m not sure what their official name is – I’ve heard many different titles applied since I first enjoyed them during my childhood. Call them what you will – haystacks, chocolate macaroons, mudpies or frogs I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Here’s what you need for them. These are staples in my house – I hope, for your sake, that they are in yours also.

In a medium sized pot start the butter melting.

Whisk in the cocoa. These two are meant to be together.

Once the butter is melted pour in the milk and sugar. Whisk together and bring to a boil for two minutes. All of my pictures of this step are too blurry – probably because I just couldn’t wait to get to the sampling part of this recipe.

Remove the pan from the heat, pour in the oats, salt and coconut, and stir.

Mmm.

I like to scoop them out onto a baking sheet covered with wax paper (the baking sheet makes them more easily moved from fingers that just can’t wait until they’ve cooled – like mine). They can be lumped onto the wax paper with an ice cream scoop, spoon or fingers. I use ice cream scoops for bite-sized and late-afternoon-mama-needs-a-pick-me-up-sized macaroons.

Don’t worry about pressing them together too much – as they cool they will harden.

Little hands love this job. It’s messy and fingers will need licking.

Let them cool or sample them warm.

No Rocket Science Macaroons

1/2 cup butter

6 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups quick oats

1 cup shredded coconut (I use sweetened because I’ve already cut the sugar down from the original recipe)

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter and whisk in the cocoa. Whisk in the milk and sugar. Bring to a boil for two minutes. Remove from heat and stir in salt, oats and coconut. Drop by tablespoons onto wax paper. Allow to cool and harden before storing in a sealed container.

Do you remember these from your childhood? Have you tried any variations?

On Sunday morning while Dan and the kids were out working in the garden I debated whether to put my feet up and knit or take the opportunity to bake on my lonesome. The possibility of bread, buns and cake was too tempting so I made a terrific mess and some yummy treats. I was rather surprised how quickly I could throw together pans and trays of baking without my usual helpers penning me in on all sides with their chairs…but of course I love the company, mostly. This time it was nice to move quickly around the kitchen gathering what I needed and lost in my own thoughts.

A few weeks ago Dan had brought home a load of cream cheese to bake up one of his famous cheesecakes but never got around to doing it. I decided it was time to soften the cream cheese and give it a go myself. Turns out there isn’t any mystery to making this cake – just yummy goodness.

We use this recipe for The Perfect Cheesecake and I’d have to agree with the title. I’m a New York Style Cheesecake kind of gal – spare me the adulterations, I want it plain and simple. This cheesecake is delightfully cheesy with the lovely hint of lemon tang and vanilla cream to even it off. Absolutely divine.

I started with a graham cracker crust. Graham cracker crumbs, flour, sugar, salt and melted butter pressed into a springform pan and baked at 350°F for 15 minutes. Remove it from the oven and lower the temp to 300°F.

I have to admit the smell of this crust really had me craving banana cream pie (not usually a favourite of mine) but I persisted with the cheesecake and tried not to get distracted by pie…although banana cream pie may just have been added to my list of must-bake desserts.

Where was I?

Cheesecake, right…

I gathered my ingredients and starting by mixing the softened cream cheese with the paddle on my mixer until it was smooth (the eggs should be at room temperature so have them out of the fridge while you prepare the other steps).

Then I scraped the seeds from this precious vanilla bean.

Using a sharp knife cut through the bean lengthwise from end to end. Be careful to cut only through the top of the bean – do not cut all the way through.

Using the back of your knife scrape along the seed again from tip to tip. The seeds will ooze out of the bean onto your knife.

Add the vanilla seeds to your cream cheese along with the sugar, flour, vanilla extract, lemon zest and salt. Beat it around until it is combined. At this point you need to sample…simply because this kind of delicious needs sampling.

Add in the eggs, one a time, mixing after each addition. The filling is ready!

Take your graham crust and wrap the pan tightly in tinfoil. The cake needs to bake in a water bath so this is a very important step – while we’re here boil a kettle-full of water.

Wrap one way and then the other. As Dan told me, “It’s no time to be thrifty with foil.”

Once it is wrapped place it into a large dish which will hold enough water to cover the bottom inch of the springform pan.

Pour in that super yummy filling. Then pour boiling water around the springform pan to an inch above the bottom of the pan.

Bake it in the oven at 300°F for 90 minutes with the door cracked open. That last step was kind of a pain considering the oven required constant supervision – so this baby was baked after the littles were in bed.

When the top is lightly browned (ours ended up a little more golden than I would have liked) allow it to cool for an hour or so…then…and this is going to require some serious strength on your part – refrigerate overnight. Cruel isn’t it?? I’m forever doomed to neglect reading a recipe all the way through before diving in so my dreams of Mother’s Day cheesecake were crushed.

But I figure if there was ever a perfect time to eat cheesecake it’s breakfast, right? I’ve got all day to work off the fat and, ahem, all day to think about sneaking another slice.

And would you believe we ate the whole cake before I got a picture…oops. Guess I need to make another one soon. I’ll add a picture when I do but in the meantime this recipe needs to be shared.

The Perfect Cheesecake

by Anna Olsen with a couple small modifications by me

This recipe makes a huge cake but I’ve never found the need to make it smaller…wonder why?

Crust

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cup graham crumbs
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• dash of salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling

• 4 – 250 gram packages of cream cheese (we’ve found that you can replace up to two of these with light cream cheese – but the list of ingredients is generally longer and more mysterious on the light variety)
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• zest of one or two lemons (I use two because I have a weakness)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 egg, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine crust ingredients until crumbly and press into a buttered 10-inch springform pan. Bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce the oven to 300°F. Beat cheese until smooth. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean (as shown above) and add to the cheese along with the sugar, flour, vanilla extract, lemon zest and salt. Mix well to combine. Mix in the eggs one at a time until combined.

Boil a kettle of water. Prepare springform pan for water bath by wrapping tightly in tin foil. Place pan in a larger pan or oven-safe dish at least three inches deep. Pour the filling over the crust in the springform pan. Pour the boiling water into the large pan around the springform pan until the water rises one inch up the side of your pan.

Place in the oven and bake for 90 minutes with the door of the oven ajar. Remove pan from the water bath and allow the cheesecake to cool at room temperature for one hour, then chill in the refrigerator overnight.

Before removing from the springform pan run a knife along the edge of the cake. Slice into wedges with a sharp knife to serve.

This cake is delicious on its own but it is beautiful served with slices of mango, berries or candied lemon zest.

Next time I’ll try to snap a picture before it’s completely devoured! Let me know if you try it out – and snap a photo if you do!

I shared a peek of Simon’s birthday breakfast yesterday and today I want to share the recipe for this simple and delicious breakfast treat.

Dan’s been making this pancake for quite a few years – I have no idea where the recipe originated but we’ve made it our own over the years. While Dan is still the master of this breakfast no one complains when I take a crack at it. We call it a german pancake but I’m not sure if that would really be true to what we are making – if any one knows better I’ll happily rename it. We began making it with apples which we love but some mornings call for a quicker breakfast and frozen fruit fits the bill.

Start with a slab of this beautiful stuff…

…and melt it in an oven safe skillet.

Throw in some frozen berries or your fruit of choice.

If you think your fruit may be a little tart add a couple tablespoons of maple syrup or sugar. Cook the fruit over medium high heat until the liquid has reduced – this should take 5-10 minutes.

Crack six eggs into a medium-sized bowl.

Whisk them together.

Now whisk in your milk, yogurt and vanilla.

Add in the baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add in 1-2 cups of flour and a little sugar. Mix together.

The fruit is ready when it is thickened like this…I may have cooked this batch a little long and almost ended up with jam but that works, too.

Pour the batter into the skillet over the fruit. Give it a swirl to marble the batter a little.

Put the skillet in the oven for 30 minutes at 375°F.

Enjoy breakfast number one while breakfast number two cooks. Are we the only family that eats multiple breakfasts?

When it is brown on top take it out of the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing into wedges. It is great served with applesauce or yogurt but we love a dollop of whipped cream and sliced berries.

Hopefully you’ll be this excited while waiting for your slice.

And pump your Thomas-clad arms in the air when you receive yours.

And dig in…even if you’ll only eat the sprinkles, whipped cream and berries like this one…

…Or if you manage to out-eat your siblings like this one.

…Or if you prefer yours without the birthday sprinkles as I do.

German Pancake

1/4 cup butter

3-4 cups of fruit – frozen berries, mangos, peaches or prepared apples are all great it in this

2 tbsp maple syrup (optional)

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

1 1/2 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups of flour

2 -4 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 375° F.

In a large skillet melt the butter. Add the fruit and maple syrup, if using, and cook over med-high heat for 5-10 minutes until the liquid has reduced. In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, yogurt and vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Pour this batter over the fruit in the skillet. Put the skillet  in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with fresh fruit, applesauce, yogurt or whipped cream.

Every couple of weeks a banana escapes being caught by little fingers before it turns brown. I’m never very disappointed and add it to previous weeks’ escapees in the freezer. There they gather until one of us is the mood for banana bread. Lately we’ve been in that mood a lot. Now we’ve run out of frozen bananas and Dan just keeps buying more each grocery visit hoping some will have a chance to brown up for this snacking obsession. It takes practically no time to throw together and makes a sweet snack at any time of day.

The recipe I use came by way of a friend’s mom quite a few years ago and I’ve loved it ever since I first tried it. Over the years I’ve tweaked it a little to make it a bit healthier for us.

For a while I’d baked it in a cake pan to make it easier for little hands but I recently went back to the loaf pan and have found it makes for a much moister and lighter bread with an almost crispy crust. Also, although I generally use frozen bananas for this I do think it tastes a tad better with fresh (but still very ripe) bananas.

Banana Bread

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup plain yogurt

2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce (optional)

2 eggs

3 bananas

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup unbleached flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Cream sugar, yogurt and applesauce (if using) in a medium sized bowl. Mix in eggs and vanilla to combine. Mash bananas into batter using a potato masher or pastry cutter. Add dry ingredients and stir gently to combine. Take care not to over mix the batter. Pour into a buttered loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing and enjoy!

It’s always a big hit in our house. Hope you try it in your yours!