Our Saturday - a Dutch Baby and some yard work!

This morning I tried out a recipe I got from my blogging pal, JoAnn Creamer (thanks JoAnn!), for a Dutch Baby, basically a big baked hot cake. I was so easy and delicious, I have to share.

Dutch Baby

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Fifteen minutes before baking, preheat a cast iron skillet in oven at 425 degrees F. Place butter in skillet and place in oven until butter is melted. Swirl around to coat sides.

Whisk together the milk, flour, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. slowly pour batter into buttered hot pan. Bake for 15 minutes - reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake another 8-10 minutes until pancake is well browned. Cut into squares (or smaller pieces for the young ones), and serve with your favorite syrup (we had ours with pure maple syrup and maple bacon). Tip: I made two for the five of us as my largest cast iron pan was 8 in. square.

Danny thought it was excellent, and it gave George enough energy to mow the back yard. This pancake has some magic in it I tell you!

Apple Julep

One of our favorite places in Tennessee is the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge. Their signature drink is the Apple Julep. The recipe goes something like this:

1 quart apple juice

1 cup orange juice

1 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup lemon juice

mint sprigs (optional)

Mix all of the juices in a 2-quart pitcher and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Serve over ice and garnish with a mint sprig if desired. This is a nice way to mix it up for the juice drinkers.

Sweet Grass Diary, Thomasville, GA

The pic above is one of the Green Hill cheese from the website of Sweet Grass Dairy (see our links on the right side of the blog). Sweet Grass Dairy is an all natural goat dairy farm whose sister farm (owned by the parents of Sweet Grass' owners) is an all natural cow dairy farm. All of the cheeses produced from these farms are sold in Sweet Grass' shop on Hwy 19 in Thomasville, Georgia. This particular one is my favorite. Most like a Camembert, it is a soft, buttery cheese that is mild and delicious. If you ever get a chance to go to Thomasville, you must stop here.

And in broad daylight, too!

Evidently, we have a family of armadillos in our neighbor's yard. We see them every once in a while at night, but today they were out when I got home from work. The nerve! Off to the store for some mothballs...

Aren't you glad this isn't your seasonal allergy treatment?

Harley's allergies flared up this weekend, and her trip to the vet was more than she bargained for. Poor thing...