Mother's Day Chowdown

So yesterday was Mother's Day and I asked Sara to pick the menu for the day. Breakfast was easy, punkin' pancakes. I love my new griddle and flipper that Sara bought for me from Penney's. Not only does it make kickbutt pancakes, but it makes one mean stovetop frittata. But I digress. Punkin' pancakes, sausage and bacon.

Punkin' Pancakes
2 cups Krusteaz pancake mix ( or whatever you use, or scratch made pancakes)
1 cup water ( or a bit less than the mix calls for)
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pie mix, just plain ole punkin)
3 tbl brown sugar
Pumpkin Pie spice to taste
Mix until everything is mositened, cook on a hot griddle until brown. if you use krusteaz, you'll need a pretty hot griddle, they're really thick pancakes and you want to avoid that yucky uncooked batter in the middle

Now 1 cup pumpkin from a normal sized can leaves about 1 cup left. I was going to use it to make a smoothie, but I remembered what a dismal failure that was, so Sara suggested pumpkin bread. I came across this recipe for punkin bread which I used to make orange-punkin muffins.

Orange-Punkin Muffins
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 tbl baking powder
3/4 cup splenda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp ginger
1 tbl saigon cinnamon ( definately use the saigaon cinnamon, soo much better than regular cinnamon)
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp orange extract
2 eggs beaten

mix the dry ingredients, then stir in the wet stuff. Preheat the oven t0 350. this reciepe will fit into 12 normal sized muffin cups or a normal loaf pan (if you wnat to make it bread) Bake the muffins for 30 minutes or the bread for 50-60, use the comes out clean method to see if they are done. Serve warm with lightly salted butter, yummy!

For lunch I just made some feta, grape tomato and english cucumber salad along with bumble bee smoked salmon on melba toasts. Easy and healthy! ( not my usual forte', I must admit )

For dinner, Sara picked a recipe from Brittany. Poulet avec cidre (chicken with cider). The recipe called for dry cider and apple brandy (Calvados), things i always kept on hand in Germany, but had to leave behind when we moved to Texas. I hit the commisary, class VI and the local package stores, I found cider (Woodchuck and Hornsby's), but no apple brandy. Apfelkorn, but that's apple infused corn moonshine from Germany, so that was right out. Undetered, I pressed on.

Poulet avec Cidre and Sour cream mashed taters
1 chicken, cut up
3 small shallots, sliced thin
2 apples, peeled and chunked
1 cup cider
4 tbls heavy cream ( Sara and Rowen have milk issues, so I used fat free evaporated milk)
1 generous shot apple brandy ( I used oak aged Glennlivet instead, still turned out yummy)
Butter, bacon grease, oil or lots of nonstick spray( the recipe book says to use either butter with sea salt or bacon grease)


Brown the chicken with the shallots and apples in your fat of choice, keep cooking and turning for about 20 minutes or so. ( Is that still browning?) If your pan is big enough, add the cider, cream and brandy, simmer covered for 30 minutes more. If your pans are size challenged, (like mine) transfer your chicken, shallots and apples to a big pot and simmer for 30 minutes.

For the taters, peel, slice and boil the potatoes (3 minutes in the pressure cooker). Drain, add sour cream and mash. Salt and spice to taste.

Sara really liked this meal, made us miss Europe. For desert, i sliced up some stramberries and a store bought cheese cake.