Along with homemade egg noodles, chocolate pie and fresh-off-the-vine concord grape juice, rice pancakes were my Grandma Beulah’s specialty.

My parents were in town to help us take care of new baby Elise and treated us to a massive amount of Chinese takeout. Seeing the small mountain of leftover rice after dinner was over, I remembered Grandma’s rice pancakes and asked my dad for the recipe.

These things are seriously hearty so eat just a couple and you’re good to go.

Ingredients:

1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
1 cup leftover cooked rice (one day old is best)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup flour
Oil or spray for griddle
Real maple syrup
Bananas (optional)
Cinnamon for dusting (optional)

Other supplies:

• Mixing bowl
• Turner
• Griddle

Fire up your griddle so it starts to get hot. Mix all ingredients; it’s OK if some of the rice is clumpy but break up any really big pieces. Once mixed let rest for 5 minutes.

Lightly oil your griddle and pour batter onto the hot griddle.

Flip when they bubble. Notice how thick they are!

This recipe makes 6-8 pancakes that can be frozen and thawed later in the toaster. You could easily double or triple the recipe depending on how much leftover takeout rice you have. And next time you order Chinese takeout, you might purposely add an extra side or two!

It’s been 10 years now since I lived in Sydney, Australia. Recently we received a gift box (yay!) filled with heaps of Australian beer and food – including my favorite biscuits, Arnott’s shortbreads – as well as a box of Weet-Bix, self-proclaimed “Australia’s favourite cereal.”

Never a huge milk and Weet-Bix breakfast fan, I thought I’d try to make a recipe using Weet-Bix as a primary ingredient instead. This muffin recipe adaptation is based on an Artarmon Public School original and subsequent comments at Taste.com.au.

It’s a rainy day in Chicago, the perfect type to spend inside messing around with recipes. One thing I liked about living in Sydney was that its climate was so nice most of the time that forecasters would simply say the weather was going to be ‘fine.’ Not ‘sunny’ but ‘fine’ …not ‘partly cloudy’ but ‘mostly fine.’ Always got a kick out of that.

So here’s an other-side-of-the-globe toast to ‘mostly fine.’ Now if I can just figure out what to do with our unopened jar of Vegemite?

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe medium-sized bananas, smashed
• 4 Weet-Bix (aka Weetabix when sold outside Australia)
• 1 cup almond milk (I used soy milk because I was out of almond milk; you can also use regular milk)
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds (optional)
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chocolate pieces (I broke up dark chocolate espresso Ghirardelli individually-wrapped chocolate that I had in the cupboard)

Other Supplies:

• Glass bowl
• Muffin tin (or Nut cups)
• Potato masher or wooden spoon

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mash bananas in a bowl and crumble in Weet-Bix. No need for an electric or stand mixer …I used a potato masher the whole time.

Stir in the soy milk. Set aside for 10 minutes so it soaks up the milk.

Meanwhile, break up your chocolate bar into chunks and set aside.

Beat together the eggs and oil in a small bowl, then pour into the Weet-Bix banana combination and stir. Sprinkle baking soda, brown sugar and salt and gently mix in. Add flax seeds and flour and stir until just combined.

If your batter seems too thick, you can add a bit more milk; mine was OK but it could fluctuate based on the banana sizes. Gently fold in chocolate pieces.

Spoon into nut cups or a lightly greased muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. I prefer nut cups to muffin tins but only had a few left. When using muffin tins, be sure to take cooked muffins out of the pan as soon as you can to cool on a rack or dishtowel avoiding overbaking. Good on ya!

Canning has been a theme the past few weeks so I’m excited to share these free canning labels with you inspired by A Sonoma Garden.

It all started with a canning night from iheartcrafting, a Chicago ladies’ crafting group. Hostess Lisa bought large boxes of lovely blueberries, fresh green tomatoes and flavorful apricots from a local farmer’s market.

We all pitched in jars, lids, pots and labels and canned enough blueberry jam, apricot jam, and pickled dill green tomatoes for each of us to take home five jars.

Next up: Northern Michigan. I brought these labels as a hostess gift for my friend Jennie. She’s been learning all about canning, including raspberry freezer jam that needs no boiling …so much easier and no boiled fruit.

So now that you’re properly in the canning mood, let’s get to the labels! I made these labels based on cute label designs by Kendra at A Sonoma Garden.

My revised design involved scanning in a swatch of Anna Maria Small Gathering fabric in citrus…

…then I cropped in close, changed the colors in Photoshop, and typed in the labels. NOTE: Some of the photos say “Dykens Family” but the free downloadable template says “Yummy Homemade.”

You’re more than welcome to use this canning label template for free with the request that anyone using this template or design post a comment below or email me to track its usage. And if you’d like to use Kendra’s original canning labels, be sure to check out A Sonoma Garden. Craft and pass it on!

Supplies:

• Kathy’s free canning template (PDF, blueberry jam, strawberry jam, salsa, relish, and blank for you to handwrite your own) – simply print the pages that you need (or download the source Adobe Illustrator free canning template file to customize yourself – it’s 98MB which is big, alternatively, download this smaller source version which is 23MB; you’ll just want to copy/paste the colors that you would like. Also, I used the Apex family of fonts so if you do not own this font, you’ll want to change it to one that you do own.)
• Full-sheet blank sticker labels
• 2-inch circle punch or good paper scissors
• Computer and Adobe Illustrator (if you’d like to customize the labels with your own text)
• Color laser printer (or FedEx Office, my new best friend)

Download one of my free canning label templates (pre-typed or blank) and feel free to use Adobe Illustrator (get the 30-day trial version here) to customize with your own creations.

Print onto full-sheet sticker paper using a laser color printer. No laser color printer? FedEx Office can print them for you very cheaply.

Using your 2-inch hole punch or scissors, cut out the labels.

Peel off the label backing and stick on top of the lid of your canned goodness.

COPYRIGHT NOTE: You’re more than welcome to use this project and template for your own personal use. Please post a comment below if you use this project so I can smile when I see that it’s being used. Craft and pass it on!

I’m not sure what it is about spring but I go into quiche mode. I noticed the other day at Lovely Bakery that quiche was on the menu, so I decided to make one myself at home …while watching guilty pleasure The Real Housewives of New York City (oof).

I adapted Elise’s recipe based on what I had in the refrigerator, subbing out Gruyère for Parmesan, spinach for asparagus, green onions for shallots, rice milk for milk and ditching the cream. The flavors worked really well together and it tasted great!

Ingredients:

• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
• 4 slices of deli ham, diced
• 1 1/2 cups shaved Parmesan cheese
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup rice milk (or you can use regular milk)
• 1 frozen pie crust (or you can make your own)
• Freshly ground pepper
• Pinch of salt

Supplies:

• Emile Henry White Pie Dish
• Baking pan

You can make you own crust or save time using store-bought like I did. Poke the bottom of the pie pan with the tongs of a fork to keep the crust from bubbling up. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until very lightly golden. Remove from oven and let cool a bit. Turn oven up to 375 degrees.

Shave the Parmesan cheese, dice the ham, chop the fresh spinach and slice the green onions.

Put 1/2 the Parmesan cheese into the bottom of the crust.

Add spinach and green onions.

Add the diced ham.

Crack three eggs, wisk with the rice milk, season with salt and pepper and pour into the quiche.

Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. Set your pie pan on top of a baking pan to catch any spills. Bake at 375 degrees for another 25 minutes or until the middle of the quiche is set. Let cool for about 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with salad or fruit. Enjoy!

Updated: I found out that I got 4th place beating not only Stephanie Izard, Top Chef winner, but also Roger Herring, chef and owner of Socca in Chicago. Hip hip!

Peanut butter & jelly mac and cheese. Yeah, that’s right.

My totally original recipe for this peanut-butter-infused creamy cheddar cheese sauce topped with crunchy grape jelly breadcrumb crust placed 4th out of 19 cheftestants in the sMACkdown charity mac and cheese competition benefiting the Organic School Project. Yay!

“There was macaroni and cheese with apples; with oxtail; with mustard and pumpernickel; with truffle oil; and, most inventively, with peanut butter and jelly….” Gapers Block, 2009.

Peanut butter and cheddar is a flavor combination you’ll either love or hate. As someone who grew up snacking on cheddar cheese spread with peanut butter, I’m squarely in the “love” camp.

Another highlight was chatting and drinking beer with my favorite Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard who also shares her entry here …what a totally down-to-earth and inspiring lady (and I admit, I was pretty stoked to have bested her in the taste-off). Eight professional chefs and eleven amateur cooks like me competed at Goose Island Brewery for the title including Chef Guiseppe Tentori (Boka), Chris Pandel (The Bristol), Roger Herring (Socca) and James Gottwald (Rockit).

Who won? Chef James Gottwald of Rockit Bar & Grill triumphed with his tasty oxtail mac & cheese …it was my second favorite next to the tried but true 1990s staple, Truffle Mac and Cheese (yum).

So rewind back to elementary school, get over analyzing it, and give my peanut butter & jelly mac and cheese recipe a try!

Peanut Butter Mac and Cheese Ingredients:
1 pound elbow macaroni
2 tablespoons butter (for macaroni)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (for cheese sauce)
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups whole milk
1 cup half-and-half
4 tablespoons smooth natural peanut butter
2 1/2 cups of sharp yellow cheddar cheese, shredded
2 1/2 cups of mild white cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt to taste
Enough butter to butter your baking pan

Make the peanut butter mac and cheese
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the macaroni and cook 7 minutes or until al dente. Drain and cool immediately with cold water. Return to a pot.

Melt the butter in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for about 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly to keep lumps from forming. Gradually whisk in the milk and simmer, whisking often, until the mixture is smooth, about 10 minutes. Stir in 5 cups of cheese until melted. Stir in the peanut butter; feel free to use a bit less or a bit more according to how subtle or strong you’d like it to be (NOTE: I used a blend of mild and sharp cheddar cheeses so if you’re using more mild cheeses use a bit less and if you’re using more sharp cheeses use a bit more). Season with salt to taste.

Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the macaroni to coat. Add the cheese sauce to the macaroni, stir well.

Pour macaroni into a greased 3-quart baking dish and top with jelly breadcrumb topping (see recipe below). Bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven or until hot and bubbly.

Grape jelly crunchy breadcrumb topping
4-5 cups fresh homemade bread crumbs (see directions below)
4-8 tbsp butter (depending on your taste)
1/4 cup grape jelly

Place bread piece/slices on an ungreased baking sheet in a single layer to dry out. Bake in a 300F oven for 10-15 minutes; turn them over about halfway so they dry evenly. Remove from oven and let cool. Tear dried bread into smaller pieces and place in your food processor; chop into course breadcrumbs.

Melt butter in a medium, deep skillet. Add breadcrumbs and toast just until lightly brown. Add in grape jelly, allow to melt, and stir to coat. Continue to toast until starts to get crunchy. Remove from heat and set aside. Put on top of mac and cheese before baking. See you at recess!

PB&J Mac and Cheese logo by Heather Crosby.

COPYRIGHT NOTE: You’re more than welcome to use this original Merriment recipe for your own personal use. Please post a comment below or email me so I can smile when I see it’s being used. Craft and pass it on!

Lucky for me that magazines in my doctor’s office are hopelessly out-of-date. I hit a goldmine during a recent appointment by seeing this bacon pancake idea in an old issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Well, everyone knows that I love bacon …and nothing can beat salty and sweet. So on this lovely Saturday in Chicago, I decided to recreate it for me and Shane.

Ingredients:

• Bacon
• Pancake mix
• Real maple syrup
• Pam for Grilling
• Orange slices (optional)

Supplies:

• Deep skillet
• Splatter screen
• Double Burner Reversible Grill/Griddle
• Pyrex Measuring Cup
• Spatula

First, cook your bacon. My friend Renee has taught me the merits of cooking bacon on the stove, medium heat, using a splatter screen to keep your stovetop nice and clean. Try to cook the bacon as flat as you can …later it will keep the pancake batter from oozing under the bacon and hiding it. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

Heat your griddle so it’s warming up. Mix your pancake batter as directed, but make it on the thinner side by adding more liquid …I had a few flops using thicker batter. Transfer your batter into a Pyrex pouring cup so it’s easier to work.

Drip water on your griddle to see if it’s hot. If they bubble, you’re ready. Spray your hot griddle with Pam for Grilling. Break your cooked bacon into 1/2 inch pieces or so and place tightly together in a circle. Pour your pancake batter in a circle, starting outside in, and covering all the bacon pieces.

Cook until lightly browned and bubbling on the edges, a couple of minutes or so, and flip. Garnish with orange and enjoy with real maple syrup. Salty and sweet. Yum.

While I’ve never been much of a Valentine’s Day girl, I’ve always been a big fan of coconut and chocolate. I made these special treats by modifying a recipe from an Australian cookbook.

Ingredients (for four treats):

• 1 cup coconut
• 1 egg white (buy pasteurized eggs if you can)
• 5/8 cup cream (just over 1/2 cup)
• 5 oz dark chocolate
• 4 large white paper nut cups (you could also try the mini nut cups if you’d like to make more, or package for smaller treats)
• Cacoa nibs for garnish (optional)

Other supplies:

• Heavy saucepan
• Good sharp knife
• KitchenAid stand mixer or hand mixer
• Copper bowl or stainless steel mixing bowl (if using hand mixer for whipping egg whites)

Lay out your ingredients. The photo shows enough for eight treats (I doubled the recipe above to make more treats). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Chop your chocolate into chunks (I love my knife!).

Place the egg whites in a bowl and whip until they’re frothy and start to form peaks. I used a hand mixer but you could also use a stand mixer. Add the coconut and fold in using a spoon.

NOTE: After I made this recipe, I read that egg whites should be whipped at room temperature for the greatest volume, and also ideally whipped in a copper or stainless steel bowl. The article recommends separating egg whites from yolks them while they are still cold because it’s easier, then bring egg whites to room temperature by putting them in a bowl and then setting that bowl in another bowl of warm water.

With wetted hands or a spoon, press the coconut mixture into the white paper nut cups, covering the base and sides to make a shell. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the coconut mixture gets nice and toasty brown.

While the coconut is toasting, make the filling. Place the cream in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until almost boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until the chocolate has melted and the filling is smooth.

Ladle the chocolate filling into the coconut cups and sprinkle cacao nibs on the top. Place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or until the filling is set. I like them best at room temperature so once set consider letting it sit out a bit before enjoying. Serve to your sweetie.

I’m a shameless sucker for all things seafood. So when I stumbled upon this recipe in an old cookbook of mine when looking for easy appetizers for guests, I had to give this tasty recipe a try. It’s my favorite type of culinary undertaking: looks difficult and elegant but is actually really easy and quick.

Ingredients:

• 12 small (about 1/2 pound) fresh sea scallops
• 1/4 cup good quality Parmesan cheese from the deli, finely grated
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (you could use olive oil but the butter adds flavor)
• Bit of fresh red bell pepper
• Lemon juice
• White truffle oil (optional)
• Kosher salt
• Pepper

Supplies:

• Natural baking shells for serving (optional but recommended, these are super cheap)
• Baking sheet
• Skillet
• Measuring spoons
• Good knife
• Cutting board
• Wire rack (optional)

I slightly modified the recipe and instructions for more color and flavor brightness. Use chives and nix the lemon juice and red bell pepper to stay true to the original recipe by sisters Mary Corpening Barber and Sara Corpening Whiteford.

First, make your crisps. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Take a spoonful of Parmesan cheese and drop onto a foil-lined cookie sheet. Lightly scoop up the Parmesan with your fingers into a mound about the size of a quarter. Try to make as much of a perfect mound as you can so your crisps turn out as circular as possible. Bake until crispy and brown, about 8-10 minutes. It’s fun to watch them melt and bake. Take the foil off of the hot pan and let them cool a bit before peeling off and cooling completely on a wire rack if you have one.

The cookbook puts the fear of God in you about making these crisps, specifying that you must use high quality Parmesan and make them on “a day with very little humidity.” In reality, they’re pretty much a cinch. Just buy deli-quality grated cheese and put them into Tupperware or in a plastic bag if it’s super damp out or you’re making them an hour or so in advance.

Try to get your scallops wild and fresh, never frozen …that’s one of the many things I’ve gleaned from Top Chef ;) Dry the scallops completely using a paper towel. Season them with salt and pepper. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add half of the scallops and cook until barely cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Avoid moving them around too much so that you get a nice brown sear on the top and bottom. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Wipe out the skillet and repeat for the other half of the scallops.

While the scallops are cooking, slice your red bell pepper into julienne pieces. Put them to the slide until ready to assemble.

My mom used to serve scallops in natural baking shells when entertaining so using them makes me feel like I’m making something fancy. Assemble by placing a crisp onto your serving shell, top with a scallop. Drizzle with a bit of lemon juice and truffle oil. Top with julienne bell pepper; serve and eat immediately to keep the crisps crisp.

Lately I’ve developed a bit of a hot chocolate habit during the mid-afternoon workday at the day job. After spotting a box of “homemade” marshmallows at Williams-Sonoma over the holidays my sisters and I decided to try to make a batch ourselves.

After finding bunches of online tutorials we settled on Alton Brown’s recipe and made a few festive variations. Man! They taste so much better than the ones from the store and my mom’s KitchenAid stand mixer made it a piece of cake.

Ingredients (from Alton Brown, directions slightly adapted)

• 3 packages unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup ice cold water, divided
• 1 1/2 cups granulated suga
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• Nonstick spray
• Candy canes, crushed (optional)
• Chocolate (optional for drizzling on finished marshmallows)

Other supplies:

• Candy thermometer
• Parchment paper
• 9 x 13 pan, or two 9 x 9 square pans for thinner marshmallows
• KitchenAid stand mixer (recommended)
• Flour sifter (optional)

Assemble your ingredients. Crush the candy canes and put aside.

Place the gelatin into the bowl of a KitchenAid stand mixer with the whisk attachment along with 1/2 cup of the water. In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat. Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high.

It’s really cool how the mixture starts to turn snow white. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping. You can either add the optional crushed candy cane pieces in the final minute of whipping, or you can use later as a garnish, or both. I made 1/2 the batch as plain vanilla and then mixed peppermint pieces into the rest.

Place a square of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan and spray lightly with nonstick spray. When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan. Spray a second square of parchment paper and place it on top of the marshmallows, oil side down, and lightly smooth the mixture. Allow the marshmallows to sit for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Combine the confectioners’ sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using kitchen scissors or a pizza wheel or dusted with the confectioners’ sugar mixture. Roll the cut marshmallows in the confectioners’ sugar mixture to lightly cover, or use a Flour sifter like I did. Optionally drizzle melted chocolate over the top. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks or place in sealed plastic gift bags.

While making these tasty lovelies in my parents’ kitchen, I snapped a photo of my mom’s latest grocery list on the black refrigerator door. My handwriting looks like dog food compared to this. Long live keyboards!

Shane and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary with an autumn weekend in Wisconsin. Along with the pumpkins, colorful leaves, fresh apple cider and antiques, I picked up this tasty recipe for pumpkin banana bread in our hotel’s copy of Midwest Living magazine.

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cooking oil
4 eggs
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cup water
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (1 large)
3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans, set aside. In a very large mixing bowl, beat sugar and oil with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger. Alternatively add flour mixture and the water to sugar mixture, beating after each addition just until combined.

Beat in pumpkin and banana. Stir in pecans.

Spoon batter into prepared pans. I used a loaf pan and a muffin top pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven, 20-30 minutes for the muffin tops and 50 to 60 minutes for the loaf, or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks. Wrap and store overnight before slicing, if you like. Makes 2 loaves (32 slices) or one loaf and muffin tops.

Wisconsin this time of year is classic fall. On the way home we stopped at a pumpkin patch where we picked pumpkins, bought kettle corn, and drank hot apple cider. And of course, stopped by Mars Cheese Castle to stock up on our favorite aged cheddar.