I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Sometimes, you just have to have breakfast for dinner.
One night earlier this week, we made ourselves some pancakes. We could have gone with blueberry pancakes, or even the pumpkin pancakes. But we’re at the beginning of strawberry season now, and we figured we might as well utilize them, especially since we love them so much.
I went on a search for a strawberry pancake recipe and came across this one by Rachael Ray. They were definitely good pancakes, and I’d make them again, but I would love to find something that maybe works the strawberries in the batter a bit more? Maybe there’s a strawberry pancake recipe out there that incorporates strawberry puree? Not sure, but I might look around. For now, this is a good pancake recipe, and there are a lot of strawberries in them. They definitely hit the spot.
Strawberry Pancakes
(Source: Every Day with Rachael Ray)
Ingredients:
– 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
– 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
– 2 tsp. baking powder
– 1/2 tsp. salt
– 1 large egg
– 1 cup milk
– 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– 1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted, plus more for serving
– 2 cups sliced strawberries
– Pure maple syrup, for serving
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and vanilla.
3. Preheat a nonstick griddle over medium heat. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir in the melted butter. The batter should be thick and smooth. Fold in the strawberries.
4. Spoon the batter onto the griddle 1/4 cup at a time. Cook the pancakes until set and thoroughly bubbly, about 3 minutes. Flip them with a spatula and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes more. Serve with butter and maple syrup.
We are finally starting to really put some thought and planning into our “itinerary” (I use the term very loosely since we’re not planning to totally schedule our vacation) for our upcoming anniversary trip to Seattle and San Francisco.
So, if you’ve ever been to either city, I want your help. What are your suggestions for must-sees in each city? Must-dos?
We’ve received some advice from several people (thank you, if any of you are reading), but we’d like more opinions.
We are going to be in Seattle for 4 full days (one of which we plan to spend up in British Columbia). Since we don’t have a ton of time there, we want to at least go into it with a narrowed-down list. So tell us: what should make the list? What should be skipped? I’ve been to Seattle several times, and actually lived there when I was younger. Therefore, I’ve done a lot of the touristy things. But Michael hasn’t. Help refresh my memory on the good and the bad!
Same thing for San Francisco. We’ll be there 4.5 days. We definitely want to do Napa, but have no idea where to go/what to do in Napa. Or how much time we should plan to spend there (full day? half day?). Recommendations?
Any other general tips? We are planning to rent a car (if Shatner would cut me a break and accept my bid on Priceline!) in Seattle since we’re going to be staying with a family friend outside of the city. We’re planning on using public transport in San Francisco, except for the day we go to Napa–we’ll rent a car for that.
Restaurants? We are not the type of people to be into really fancy or expensive meals, so your casual, at least semi-budget-friendly suggestions would be appreciated.
Alright, my San Francisco and Seattle-dwelling readers (or those who have visited): On your marks… get set… go! (In the comments, please!)
Round 8 is onnnn!
Your mission (please accept it!): Brighten the day of a soldier serving overseas. Our soldier for Round 8, Christian, is serving our country with the U.S. Army in Iraq. And you have the ability to bring Christian some “cheer,” and to many of his fellow soldiers as well.
How? Well, it’s simple. Packages from home. From YOU.
If you’re a regular reader, you probably know all about this “Operation Baking Gals” business by now. So many of have participated so far, and I’m hoping you’ll all be willing to do it again. And if you’ve never participated before, please consider joining us!
Christian is a dear friend of one of my faithful readers and fellow blogger, Amy. Once again, I hope you’ll knock my socks off with your willingness to help our “Heather Drive” soldier.
All you have to do is go to http://www.bakinggals.com/, sign in (or create an account if you don’t have one–so easy, it’s free, and you won’t get spammed by a ton of e-mails, either), and then register with Team Heather Drive – Castillo. You’ll do this by clicking on “Join a Round 8 Team Here” (you must be signed in to do this). Also, please visit “Round Eight Info – Meet the Teams.” There is an article in there for our team that contains details about our soldier and his story. This weekend, I’ll send out an e-mail to all registered team members that includes Christian’s shipping address.
DON’T BAKE? No TIME to bake? Well, that’s NO EXCUSE. :) There are plenty of store-bought things that the soldiers can use and enjoy. Please visit the Baking Gals FAQ section for a list of acceptable items to send. I’ve been told that Christian especially likes Ramen Noodles, so you could most certainly send some of those, right? How cheap and easy could it possibly be??
Ship dates for Round 8 are May 4 through May 13, so you can basically bake (or buy!) and send starting this weekend. So preheat those ovens and start whipping together those baked goods!
Be sure to include a bit of “yourself” in your packages as well. Cards, letters, pictures… anything that will give Christian a little bit of an idea of who you are, and let him know how thankful you are for the sacrifice he is making for all of us. You may even want to include a link to your blog, or an e-mail address. It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes, participants receive e-mails from the soldier they baked for!
If you are baking, there is important information for you in the FAQ section, too, including tips on how to ensure that your baked goods get there in good condition. Additional info about the organization and my experience with it so far can be found in my original post from December.
Remember, the best thing to use is a large Flat Rate box from USPS. You should be able to pick one up at your local post office (the box is free). Take it home, pack it full of as many goodies as possible, and then take it back to mail it. You’ll get a discounted rate for sending it to an APO/FPO address. Unfortunately, the Flat Rate has gone up $1 (thanks a lot, USPS). Now, it normally costs $13.95 to send a large Flat Rate box, but it only costs $11.95 to send to soldiers (used to be $10.95).
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. E-mail me at roadtotheaisle@gmail.com, or leave a message in the comments. If you do that, though, just make sure to check back, because I will answer you in the comments as well.
As always, if you participate, feel free to tell me about it! If you have a blog, post about your experience–Pictures of your baking, you with your package, etc., maybe post the recipe for the goodies you made. Then send me a link to your Baking Gals blog post, or leave a link in my comments section.
That’s all for now. Let’s make this another successful round, shall we?
Edited to add: Last round, I know there were some problems with my e-mails (sent through the Baking Gals website) to team members getting caught in spam filters. Please be on the lookout for the e-mail with Christian’s address (so check those filters!). If, for some reason, you still don’t get it, please e-mail me and I’ll make sure to get the address to you.
Our trip to Seattle and San Francisco is fast approaching!
When we are in Seattle, we want to take a day trip up to Victoria, British Columbia. Starting June 1, you have to have a U.S. Passport or Passport Card to get into Canada. Since we also live fairly close to Canada, it’s a good idea for us to have passports for the occasional trip over the border.
I first got my passport when I was 16, right before I went to Europe (Spain, France, and Monaco), but it expired just this past November. Not only that, but since I’m now married, I have to get my name changed on it. Michael has never had his passport, so we both have to go through this process.
Fortunately, I’m able to renew by mail, but Michael has to go in person. Anyway, I called today to make an appointment to go into our local post office to figure all of this stuff out. For my mail-in renewal, we’ll have to pay $75. Michael has to pay an extra $25 for a first-time processing fee, so his passport will cost $100. The guy on the phone told me that to get our photos taken on site, it would cost an additional $15 each. CHA-CHING! The passport fees are unavoidable, but $30 for the two of us to get photos taken?? No, thank you!
I immediately started looking into taking our own.
Following the guidelines on the U.S. Department of State’s website, we took our photos after work today. Basically, you have to be on a white or off-white background, and you have to have a “natural” expression (no smiling!). There are also size/composition requirements, but rather than do a bunch of measuring and cropping yourself, I found the coolest little tool online!
ePassportPhoto.com allows you to upload the photo you take, then takes you through a few easy steps to help ensure that your photo is compliant with all of the rules. There are some really specific requirements, like your head has to be at least 1″, but not more than 1 3/8″, etc. Thankfully, ePassportPhoto.com makes it simple.
Once you line up the guides, it resizes and crops your photo for you. Then it creates a printable passport photo sheet, like you see above. It’s automatically formatted to print on a 4″ x 6″ piece of photo paper. You can either send it off to Snapfish to get it printed, or you can download it and print at home. Pretty cool, huh? And did I mention it’s FREE?
We’ll both be sending off our paperwork tomorrow. We’re hoping for a fairly speedy turnaround. *fingers crossed*
When I was coming up with concepts/options for the baby carriage cake, I remembered that I had seen this delicious-looking strawberry cake on Good Things Catered. I offered it up as a choice for Nicole, and she chose it! We decided to put a thin layer of vanilla buttercream in the middle, along with fresh sliced strawberries.
Let me tell you… this cake is perfect! Now that the weather is warming up, it’s also really appropriate for the season. The strawberry puree gives the cake a subtle, fruity flavor. The strawberries in the middle added a lot to the flavor, too. This is a great cake for any occasion, so give it a try!
When I baked the cakes for the carriage cake, I also baked an extra 6″ two-layer cake to take to a family dinner at my mom’s to celebrate my grandma’s birthday. I used leftover frosting from the baby carriage cake, too–the pink and blue mixed together made a lovely shade of lilac purple! (Aren’t I resourceful? Ha!)
Strawberry Layer Cake
(Source: Good Things Catered)
Ingredients:
– 2 1/4 cups cake flour
– 3/4 cup strawberry puree, room temperature (homemade or you can find store bought in form of a good quality strawberry daiquiri mix as well)
– 1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
– 6 large egg whites, room temperature
– 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
– 1 3/4 cups sugar
– 4 tsp. baking powder
– 1 tsp. salt
– 12 tbsp. unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened (not melted)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 8 in pans: line outside with heavy duty foil (I used bake-even strips instead) and spray inside with baking spray with flour. (Or spray with baking spray, then dust well with flour.)
2. In small bowl, combine puree, milk, egg, vanilla and mix with fork until well blended.
3. In bowl of stand mixer, add sifted flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix to combine.
4. Continue beating at slow speed and add butter. Mix until combined and resembling moist crumbs.
5. Add liquids and beat at medium speed for about 1 minute or until full and evenly combined. Stop mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl and hand beat for 30 more seconds.
6. Divide the batter evenly among the pans and smooth tops.
7. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (time will vary).
8. Let cakes rest in pan for about 10 minutes and turn out onto wire racks. Let cakes cool completely before frosting (about 2 hours).
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
