Peanut butter sandwiches...

My kids love peanut butter sandwiches. As a matter of fact I love them too, especially with slices of banana. You see, I grew up with NO peanut butter but now I feel like I cannot live without it.
Lately my kids have been into the Smuckers uncrustable peanut butter sandwiches. After buying boxes and boxes of it, I decided that I can make them myself. The good thing about this idea was that I could use better bread and ingredients.

After I made the sandwiches, I cut them with a big cookie cutter. I think a circle one would be better and would make the sandwiches bigger.
But nothing still gets wasted since I love to eat the leftover crust. I pretty much eat whatever is left over from the two sandwiches I make for them for breakfast... I am so thrifty...

Brunch menu - Baked french toast

One of the other hits of the brunch was the baked french toast. I have searched bunch of recipes in the Internet and decided to come up with my own version which turned out to be delicious.
You need to soak the bread overnight so you need to plan for it in advance.
Ingredients:
1.5 loafs of Italian bread (the recipes usually call for french bread but this is what I found at Costco and it worked like a charm. They sell two breads in a packet. I did not use the corners but only the middle)
7 eggs
2 cups of half and half (I used fat free version)
1 cup of milk
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

You start by cutting the bread into slices. I made them a little thinner than 1/2 an inch. Then I lined them up in a pan like in the picture. I ended up having some space between the slices. Then you need to mix up all the liquid ingredients. You should whisk the eggs first, and then add the others liquid ingredients. Don't whisk too much. Make use it does not get all bubbly on you.

Then you need to pour the liquid on to of the breads. After the first pouring, I poured out what was not soaked and did it again. You can do this step few times if you don't feel every bread slice is soaked. At the end, there still will be some liquid at the bottom of the pan. This will be soaked over night.
Then you need to cover the pan with foil and put it in the refrigerator over night.

In the morning you need to make the topping...
Ingredients
2/3 cups of sugar
1 stick of butter (room temperature)
1 cup of sliced almonds
2 tablespoon pure maple syrup
You mix all the ingredients and spread it over the breads. The you put it into oven at 365 for 45 minutes.

Then you serve it with maple syrup on top. It was just wonderful. I gave the left overs to our neighbors since we had breakfast plans the next morning and they said it was even better the next day heated up...
Enjoy and let me know if you try it...

Best pancakes ever...

I have found this pancake recipe in the Internet and it has been the best thing ever. I make it almost every weekend with chocolate chips and kids just love it. Last weekend we had two sleep overs and the recipe has been approved by other kids too.

The recipe is from;
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/good-old-fashioned-pancakes/detail.aspx

There are few changes/tricks that I have;
1) I use 2 tablespoon of butter instead of 3
2) I use a packet of baking powder instead of the 3.5 teaspoons. It is still fluffy and wonderful...
3) I put tiny piece of butter to the pan before pouring the batter for each pancake. This makes the sides of the pancake crispy.
4) If you make them with chocolate chips, there is little need for maple syrup. Some kids like it even plain.

I like my pancake with wheat germ sprinkled on top. It gives it a nutty taste and it is good for you. I had it that way in a breakfast place in California and since then, I like it...