This pancake recipe has ruined me for pancakes.  I first had melt in your mouth buttermilk pancakes at The Original Pancake house in California, since then I had to find my own recipe for killer pancakes.  I went through about six recipes, when I found this one.  I adapted it from Martha Stewart, and I have been making them for about 3 years now at least once a week.
I love that you can freeze these pancakes too!!  If my kids or I sleep in on a school day I can just pull a bag of frozen pancakes out of the freezer, microwave them for 2 mins and they have a great hot breakfast.  I have left them in the freezer in a Ziploc freezer bag for about a month and they still come out great.  In fact today was a frozen pancake day at our house.

These pancakes could not be much easier to make, my girls help me make them. They love unwrapping the butter for me and melting it.  The only hint I have for you is to let the butter cool slightly before adding it into the eggs, you don't want to cook those eggs!  Also, you must use BUTTERMILK!!! You cannot do the milk and vinegar trick, believe me I have tried a few times and it doesn't work with this recipe.  Don't do it, trust me.

First, all of the dry ingredients. 2 Cups of flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsp baking powder, 3 tbsp. sugar. I whisk those till they are nice and fluffy.  next, 1/2 tsp. salt, 3 large eggs, 4 tbsp melted butter, and 2 1/2 cups of buttermilk. Whisk till just combined.  check the consistency depending on your buttermilk thickness you might need to add just a touch more buttermilk if the batter is too thick.  You want to be able to pick up the spoon and let it drip off, I like to use a 1/3 measuring cup to scoop my pancakes they make the perfect size for us.  heat a griddle to 350 degrees f.  (You can add food coloring for fun holiday pancakes, also sprinkles!!)

The key to the perfect brown is to wait till the top of the pancake forms holes that don't fill, then flip them. if you don't have those holes it will be under cooked and hard to flip.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cranberrry Muffins

I wanted to make something a little different this morning so I came up with my funny concoction. I kept reading all of these recipes for orange or lemon cranberry muffins and then I stumbled on one with cream cheese and all I could think was put them together so I came up with these delicious muffins!

First, you will need to get softened butter and cream cheese.  I did these on spur of the  moment so I threw them into the microwave for 20 seconds. While they were doing their thing I turned on my oven to 350 degrees.

Next, put them in your mixer and add the eggs, vanilla, and sugar.  Whip it, Whip it reeeeealll good.
I like to put in the salt, baking powder, and flour in next.  Then zest your lemon in and add your dried cranberries.

I used a smaller lemon so it probably only had half a tsp. of lemon zest.

The batter comes out like this! It smells so good already...

Fill up your muffin cups! 3/4 full. In this picture I'm realizing how well loved my muffin pan looks. But I love ceramic muffin pans, like these.  Place in the muffin in the oven for about 15 minutes.

The BEST Belgian Waffles

These waffles are amazing! They are soft and crispy, and the perfect amount of sweet. I found this recipe on the Food Network it is by Emeril Lagasse. I have used it for three years and it is my go to. I have used it on 3 different waffle irons and it works on all three.  This by far is my favorite waffle iron.

Ok, this is a type of recipe that it works the best if you mix it a certain way.  Pull out 3 large bowls. In the first bowl throw together 2 cups of flours, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon with salt.
whisk it all together till it is fluffy. You want to spend a good minute getting this all together.

In the next two bowls you want to separate the egg yolks and the egg whites.









The bowl with the egg whites you want to whip them till they are stiff and peaked.

In the bowl with the egg yolks add 1tsp. vanilla, 2 cups of milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 4 tablespoons melted butter. Whisk all of those together.
Once all three bowls are ready you need to mix the egg yolk mixer together with the dry ingredients.

Mix it together with a whisk a little bit at a time until combined.

Lastly, add in the egg whites. Grab a large spoon and gently mix the whites.
You want it to look like this.

Now for the waffle iron.  This is my favorite waffle iron.  The best part of it is the ceramic, it is completely non stick.  I DON'T use spray WITH THIS iron. It is so nice, I don't get a oily film or soggy on the outside.

I put 1 cup of batter per waffle with this iron. I have it set at a medium crispy and they come out with these gorgeous waffles.

Perfect Dinner Rolls

If you haven't noticed, I love bread.  I can eat half a tray of rolls by myself. My number 1 rule though don't over cook your rolls.  I hate dry dinner rolls..  They need to be a light golden brown on top. Anything darker you better be dipping that in soup cause no amount of butter is bringing those back.

Now, I love my bread machine... it is my best buddy when it comes to these rolls.  It makes them perfectly.  I only use the dough setting on my machine.  If you don't have a bread machine I know what you need for Christmas. THIS!!! My husband bought me this machine back in 2011 and it is still going strong.  I LOVE it.  I use it all the time.  It is up there with my Kitchenaid and my griddle.

Ok, here is the break down for these rolls..  Warm up 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 of water.  Then add 1 egg and 1/3 cup of melted butter, make sure your butter isn't too hot.

Next add 1/3 cup of white sugar, and 3 1/2 cups of flour, 2 1/4 tsp of yeast, and 1 tsp. of salt make sure yeast and salt are NOT touching!! No touchy, touchy!!!

It will look like this in the machine. I set my machine to quick dough and let it go for about 20 minutes, mine will start beeping and I will check on it.  It should be nice and elastic.  Like this

Form your rolls I like to do a nice circle. I pinch the top down on either side and it gives me a perfect little ball.

Cover them with a bag, not a towel!! You will get a perfect rise about 45 minutes later.

Bake those bad boys!! Carefully!! DON'T OVERCOOK ROLLS!!!  400 degrees for 9 minutes checking them often at the end.  Coat them in melted butter and try not to eat all of them by yourself!!

You can do this without a bread machine. Milk, water, and sugar.. add yeast wait till bubbly. Slowly add butter, egg, flour, and salt.   Then mix in a kitchen aid for 4 minutes, let the dough rest for 5, then mix again until the mixture is beautiful and elastic.  For some reason though mine always turn out better from the machine.

Easy Pomagranet Orange Cranberry Sauce

If there is one thing that you shouldn't be scared of making this season is homemade cranberry sauce! I'm serious my 5 year old helped me make this. It is fun for kids too because they get to watch and listen to the cranberries POP! It is one of those recipes that you throw it all in a pot and stir it up!

Lets get started shall we?

Just dump 12 oz bag of cranberries into a medium sauce pan and turn it on to medium heat. Then I poured in about a cup of POM. Then dump in about 1 cup of sugar. Stir, stir, stir some more.

Next pull out your orange zest a full orange into the cranberries, then I cut mine in half and squeezed all the juice into the mixture.

Cranberries have this beautiful natural pectin, so all you have to do it stir it and all of those amazing little berries will start popping.  I went ahead and turned my stove up to hot and just kept those berries moving so they don't burn. After a few minutes you will start to get a jelly, if it is getting really thick and you still have a bunch of berries add more POM juice, if you haven't drank it all yet.... wink, wink. 

I don't mind having a few berries left in mine but you can pulse it with a submersion blender if you want it completely smooth. let it cool when you are done and put it in the fridge till that beautiful bird is ready!!

Killer Smoked Turkey

Ok guys... I'm going to be honest.  I didn't especially like turkey until I tried a smoked turkey. I mean it was OK, but I wasn't ever drooling thinking about Turkey.  Now I do.  I am going to be honest this is a recipe that isn't hard, it just takes time.  I did it a whole week early so that I had this recipe done in time for you to do it!! 

Another bonus about smoking your turkey, it opens up your oven for all the other delicious food. I didn't have to worry about Turkey being cold while I cook stuffing or sweet potatoes. It is amazing. If you need a smoker.. I like this one.

The first thing I learned I learned this year... BRINING IS A BIG DEAL.  I have tried dried brine before and meh.  It helped with flavor a bit but doing a true salt water brine is the way to go in my personal opinion.

My brine:

2 gallons of water
1 cup of kosher salt
7 cloves of garlic
1 onion
small palm full of whole peppercorns

As you can see I didn't even take the time to peel the onion. I just cut it into fourths and I smashed the garlic.  Throw it all in give it a stir and boil that bad boy!!! I let mine boil for a good 5 minutes with a stir every now and again.  I let mine sit on the stove, it was off,  for a good two hours after that so it was cooled all the way.   Then I doubled up two trash bags and dumped it in with a cleaned, fulled defrosted turkey. Seal that bag super well so nothing can escape.   My fridge was occupied so I put it in a cooler outside with a bag of ice. Make sure it stays cool around 40 degrees the whole time.  It needs to be in there for 24 hours. About half way through I flipped the Turkey over so that it was evenly brined.

After that, I took out the turkey and patted it dry with paper towels. I let it sit out for another 1/2 hour or so, so it was completely dry.  I then took some softened butter and mixed it with Sage, rosemary, garlic powder, and pepper. I did a rough chop on the fresh herbs.  Then I handed it over to my husband to smoosh it all together.

I wasn't being lazy I was just separating the skin from the bird.
To do this gently rub your hand back and forth and break all of the membranes, I did this even down the legs.  Once the butter is ready I took finger fulls of it and put it all around inside the skin and inside the cavity of the bird. then I placed it on top here and there and rubbed it all around.  I also put one more sprig of rosemary and sage inside the bird with a lemon halved.

Alright, We went and started up our Traeger (which is on sale right now!

My husband is always the one to pick out what flavor of pellets we use. He decided apple this time around but I think pecan would be yummy too. If you need pellets you can get them here.

We started it with the lid open on smoke for 5 minutes, then closed the lid and set it for 375.  Put it in when it is to heat.  We cooked it for 3.5 hours internal temp needs to be 165 degrees F.

I had to take out the roasting rack out to the pan to make it fit. when it comes out let it rest for 20 minutes then enjoy that goodness!! I used the pan drippings for yummy gravy too!!!

Don't worry homemade cranberry sauce recipe will be up soon!! 

Pumpkin rolls!!!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and these are the perfect rolls to celebrate.  I found the recipe on handletheheat.com.  I made them for about 3 years as they directed but this year I noticed they were coming out drier than I liked so I revamped that recipe a little bit to make it more to my liking.

These do contain pumpkin puree.  However, they don't have a strong pumpkin taste at all. The pumpkin really just adds color and a hint of pumpkin.  What makes these rolls amazing is the butter that goes with them.  Try them out and let me know what you think!!!

To get started take 1 cup of milk and scald it.

Then I like to put the butter in it to melt while it is still hot. I like to do 4 tbsp of butter here and also put in your 1/4 cup of sugar.

Stir that up.  The cold butter helps cool the milk down. Once it is cooled a little bit, comfortable to dip your finger in but still warm add in your yeast, 2 1/4 tsp or one yeast packet, and let it get bubbly.

Now that the yeast is ready it is time for the good part.  Add in your  3/4 cup of pumpkin puree, I like to use the canned stuff but you can also make your own, 1 egg, and 1 tsp. of salt. After you have those things mixed I like to put in 3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour slowly.  Mix it in a kitchenaid for 2 minutes, then let the dough rest for 5.  Then turn it back on for 4 minutes.  I like my dough to look like this.  It is a little sticky and very smooth.  Notice that it is pulled away from the sides.

For the next step spray a bowl with non-stick spray and cover the dough.  I like to cover mine with a bag.  I find that it gets a better rise and doesn't get a skin on the surface of the dough.  I also like the bag over handy wrap because it gives the dough more space.

I left mine for an hour.  I keep my house a little chilly though, so if you have a warm house check to see if it is doubled in about 45 minutes.

Now that it is all double and poof lets make some pumpkins! I like to take about a palm full and I gently roll it around and around until it is smooth

I do this with all the dough and I made 12 perfect little balls. Right about now go to your fridge and take out 1 stick of butter to make the honey butter later.  We want it to be nice and soft.

Next you need to cut the pumpkin edges I go in about 3/4 of and inch and I usually try to do about 8 cuts per roll. Make sure you don't get too close to the middle or it will look really funky and you won't have a space to put in a stem.  Sorry about all the background noise on the video.... This is real life people!! Make sure you fluff your roll back up so you don't have stringy edges!

I like to cover them after they are all cut with two bags this time! let them rise again for at least 1/2 hr. I think on this batch I did 45 minutes.  Then take another egg and brush the top of your rolls.  This will give them the beautiful browned look and so adorable!!!

Heat up your oven to 350 degrees F. and bake them for 15 minutes.  I really hate over cooked rolls so check them if your oven runs hot.


Grab out your hand mixer and get that soften butter whipped! After it is is whipped creamy add 1/4 cup of honey, 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon.  Now it is all ready for when those lovely rolls come out!!

When the rolls are done let them sit for at least 2 minutes then you can add the stem.

 For my stems I used large pretzels.  I think they work great if you are going to serve them immediately... however, if you let them sit with the pretzel over night, the pretzel sucks all of the moisture out of the roll and makes them dry!!! So... I recommend a nut, pecans, instead if you are going to serve them the next day.  Or simply take the pretzel out of the uneaten ones for storage. Dry rolls are yucky to me!!!

I just cut the pretzels in half and gently pushed them in.  I like to break the surface of the roll so that they don't get smashed.
Then ta-dah!!! you have amazing rolls that everyone