Dutch Babies (German Pancakes)

4 Eggs
½ c. Milk
¼ c. Flour
4 T. Butter (use less)

Pre-heat oven to 425. Place butter in skillet and melt in oven. While melting butter, mix eggs, milk, flour, and salt with beaters until foamy. Pour into skillet and bake.
Serve with lemon juice and powdered sugar.

When I was on my mission, my companion, Elder Brown, made German Pancakes for us once. I’ve been making them a lot lately.

The recipe above is copied directly from Grammy Marian’s recipe card. I didn’t know until this year that this was something she loved.

The picture on the right shows a Dutch Baby with pureed frozen strawberry. It’s best to add some sugar to the strawberries, as they’re a bit tart otherwise.

Lemon is a great topping for these. One time, I also made an orange sauce that was really good too. I just juiced an orange, put in a little bit of orange zest, sugar, and cornstarch, and left it on the stove on low for a some time, while I went and did other things.

I usually just bake my Dutch Babies in a Pyrex dish or something. Sometimes I do it in the toaster oven, but then I have to be careful that it doesn’t puff up so high that it makes a mess inside there.

Chard Potato Soup

Tamara came up with this recipe all on her own. Today was cold and rainy, so it was time for soup. Our superfluity of potatoes was the genesis of this idea. We also had Swiss Chard in the garden, ready for harvesting, that we had never yet used.

2 very large potatoes

onion and garlic, sautéed

@1/2 lb cheese

chicken bouillon to taste

Several large leave of Swiss Chard

Sauté onions and garlic until onions are thoroughly soft so they don’t give Jack a headache. Boil potatoes in water with onion, garlic, and bouillon. While potatoes are boiling, send your husband out to harvest Swiss Chard and make sure he washes the chard before letting him cut it into bits with scissors. When the potatoes are soft enough to eat, add the chard. Let boil just a couple minutes then remove from the heat. Ask your husband to go back out and harvest another chard leaf to be cut into garnish. Make sure he gets one with a pretty red stem. While he’s doing that, add the cheese to the soup. This will help it cool down to eating temperature (especially if the cheese had been inhabiting the freezer up until this point.)

Serve soup in fancy Christmas dishes and garnish with ground sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and cut chard. Sour cream adds to the luxurious texture and gives it a certain je ne sais quoi. Don’t be surprised if this fabulous dish pops up at your favorite fancy restaurant as the soup of the day. It’s really good.

Sweet Potato Souffle

This is one of my favorite sweet potato recipes. This recipes is from my good friend, Vicki Gunnerson. I think of her when I make this recipe and remember good times.
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp. vanilla
Beat with mixer until light and fluffy. Fold in 1/2 cup raisins (optional at our house).

Topping:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 Tbsp. melted margarine
Mix together and crumble over the top of the souffle.
Bake 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Purists like to boil and mash fresh sweet potatoes. Because I have a 20 year supply of canned sweet potatoes (as not many in this household like them), I drain a can really well and then mash.

Turkey Dressing, Harmon Traditional

1 large loaf bread
1 + large onion, chopped finely
3/4 lb margarine
1 + tsp sage
5 eggs
Celery, chopped finely
1 tsp. salt
pepper

My mother and grandmother made homemade bread for dressing. Amounts of celery and pepper per your preference. This recipe fills one turkey. Remember to not tightly pack the dressing in the turkey to be sure dressing is thoroughly cooked (raw eggs), or you could change the recipe and use pasteurized eggs.