Bernadette's Popovers

*This recipe is out of the Key Lime Pie Murder novel by Joanne Fluke.

I made these for a brunch I hosted and they were quite delicious. I've never made or had popovers before, and these were very easy to make. They turned out, light, fluffy and a pretty golden brown.

Ingredients:

4 eggs--should measure about 1 cup

2 cups milk

2 cups flour--not sifted

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with rack in middle position. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. (Do not use muffin liners. I had anticipated these cooking like muffins, but they do not. They are more like muffin tops, so using a paper liner only means you get a hollow bottom and paper stuck to your popover.)

Whisk eggs by hand until they're a light, uniform color, but not yet fluffy, about 1 min. Add milk and whisk until incorporated.

Place flour in bowl and add salt on top. Using a wooden spoon, stir until all the flour has been moistened and incorporated. You will still have lumps (like brownie batter), but that's fine.

Transfer the batter to a container with a spout--like a measuring cup--and pour into muffin cups, filling almost to the top.

Bake for exactly 30 minutes. Don't peak while cooking or they will fall.

After 30 min, remove to cool rack and pierce the top with a knife to release steam. Serve with butter, jams, or cream cheese.

These are good both warm and at room temp.

Nutella Croissants

I LOVE Nutella, which is a cocoa hazelnut spread. It is simply scrumptious. Most of the time I just eat it plain or on fruit, but occasionally, I like to cook with it also. This is a simple recipe that would make for a good brunch item or after dinner dessert. It may be a little too dessert-like for breakfast, but would probably be fine if served with something else.

You need:

1 jar Nutella

1 pkg refrigerated croissant rolls

Unroll the croissants from the package and spread Nutella on them.Roll up according to package directions.
Bake according to package directions. Enjoy.

Snowball Cookies

Snowballs are one of my favorite holiday cookies, unfortunately, I lost my recipe, so I've been looking at other recipes to try and recreate it. This is one I found off of Cooks.com. The only difference is I substituted chocolate chips for nuts. The cookies were good, but they didn't quite have that melt-in-your-mouth quality, that I was hoping for, so I think I'll keep looking and tweaking.

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients: 1 c. butter, 1/2 c. confectioners sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 2 c. sifted flour, 1c. chocolate chips. Additional confectioners sugar to sprinkle on top or roll cookies in.

Directions: Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add remaining ingredients and mix. Roll dough into golf ball sized balls. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Cool slightly and then sprinkle or roll in confectioners sugar.

Freezer Breakfast Burritos

I love egg burritos in the morning, but I don't always have time to fix them. So this weekend I cooked up a batch to put in the freezer, this way all I have to do is pull one out and warm it in the microwave.

You need:

1 pkg tortillas (I use the taco size, so there the right size for my girls)

1lb bacon (or breakfast meat of your choice, cooked)

1 dozen eggs, scrambled

cheese

salsa, optional

Cook your meat. Scramble your eggs as you normally would. (I like to add the cheese and salsa in while I scramble mine, so that the salsa doesn't make the tortilla soggy. Also, to cut out steps when I'm rolling them.) Mix your meat and scrambled eggs together. Place a small about, approx. 1/4 c. into center of tortilla and roll.

Place rolled burritos seam side down on baking sheet and place in freezer for 30 min to an hour. This will allow them to freeze closed and then you can transfer to a Ziploc.

When your ready to eat one, just take it out and place it in the microwave for 45-50 seconds.

These can also serve as a last minute dinner.

Murder She Baked

I really enjoy cooking. Especially trying new recipes. I also love reading. Imagine my thrill when I found a series that combines the two. I was at the library looking for a book to read since I'm caught up on all the series that I read, when I found a book by Joanne Fluke from the Hannah Swenson series. She's no Janet Evanovich, but the story was good and kinda reminded me of the Stephanie Plum series. It was definately a light read; however, the most exciting part was all the recipes. I can't wait to try out several that were in the book. I picked up a book in the middle of the series, but will go back and start reading them from the beginning, if for nothing more than the recipes included. I'll post the recipe and my review of the ones I make. There's a popover recipe that I think will work just great at an event I'm hosting this month and I'm excited to try it.

Shredded Pork Meals

Awhile back pork roasts went on sale B1G1, so I bought two and put them in the freezer for a later date. They were quite big, so one roast made several meals for us. Because I didn't want to have the oven on, I used my crock pot to cook it. Simply place the roast in the crock pot in the morning. I don't braise mine, first, but you can if you want. I flavored mine with some Worcestershire and lime juice. I didn't measure it, sorry. You don't need a lot, because the pork itself has plenty of flavor. Probably about 3T Worcestershire and 1T lime juice. Cook on low 6-10 hours. Once cooked, set on cutting board to cool and using either a fork or your fingers shred and place in a casserole dish. Pour in some of the juices from the crock pot (not a lot, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan) and drizzle with more Worcestershire and lime juice. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. This gives the pork a crispiness to it and is very delicious.

When it is done, remove it from the oven and use it in your recipes. We made taco's and BBQ sandwiches out of ours, but you could also use it for burritos or just eat it like it is.

For tacos: place in taco shell, cover with cheese and put in oven until cheese melts. Top with cabbage drizzled with rice vinegar and salsa.

For BBQ pork sandwiches (no picture): Place dollop of BBQ on bun, top with pork and cabbage drizzled with rice vinegar. You could also stir the BBQ sauce into the pork if you want.