French Breakfast Puffs

These are amazing! You will love them! We can't get enough of them.



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French Breakfast Puffs

INGREDIENTS:

- 3 cups Flour
- 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoons Ground Nutmeg
- 1 cup Sugar
- 2/3 cups Shortening (Crisco)
- 2 whole Eggs
- 1 cup Milk
Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
- 1 1/4 cup Sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Cinnamon
- 1 1/2 sticks Butter


METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 18 muffin cups.

In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening. Then add eggs and mix again. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.

Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

In a bowl, melt 1 1/2 sticks butter. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture.



SOURCE: The Pioneer Woman Cooks, page 66
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/french_breakfast_puffs/

Mexican-Style Grilled Corn

This corn is really good! We made it a couple of times in the last month. The kids didn't like the sauce, but we are working with them on it.

Mexican-Style Grilled Corn

INGREDIENTS:

AFTER COOKING MIXTURE
- vegetable oil, for the cooking grate
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons sour cream
- 3 tablespoons cilantro, minced (we didn't put this in because we didn't have any at the time)
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper to taste, (optional)
- 4 teaspoons lime juice
- 1 ounce queso fresco, (or Romano cheese)

BEFORE COOKING MIXTURE
- 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, (or 1/4 teaspoon table salt)
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 4 to 6 corn ears, husks and silk removed


METHOD:

1. Turn on the grill to high and heat grill with lid down until very hot, about 15 minutes. Scrape the grate clean with grill brush. Dip wad of paper towels in vegetable oil; holding wad with tongs, wiping cooking grate.

2. While grill is heating, combine Before Cooking Mixture (oil, salt and chili powder). Add corn and coat until coated evenly. We found it easiest to put the ingredients into a zip lock back and mix that way.

3. Combine the After Cooking Mixture in the zip lock back, omitting the remaining chili powder.

4. Leave the burners on high and cook corn with lid down, turning corn occasionally, until lightly charred on all sides, 7 to 12 minutes total. Remove from grill and place in bag with After Cooking Mixture, toss to coat evenly. Serve immediately.

Adapted from Cooks Illustrated.

Cheese Sauce

We tried this cheese sauce last week. It tasted great and was super easy to make. The best part about this sauce is you can make it as hot or mild as you want. You can use it with anything you want to have some cheese sauce. We had it with pasta and with chips.

Cheese Sauce by Kenji

INGREDIENTS:

- 8 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese (or a mix of cheddar and pepper Jack—see note), grated on large holes of a box grater
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
- 2 teaspoons Franks Red Hot or other hot sauce


METHOD:

Add cheese and cornstarch to sauce pan. Toss to combine with 2 forks. Add 1 cup evaporated milk and hot sauce. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with whisk until melted, bubbly, and thickened (about 5 minutes). Mixture will look thin and grainy at first but will thicken and come together after heating. Thin to desired consistency with additional evaporated milk. Serve immediately with fries, tortilla chips, pasta, burgers, or hot dogs.

To reheat the sauce, microwave it on high heat, stopping and stirring every 30 seconds until it's fully melted.

NOTES:

This cheese sauce is gooey and tangy. For a spicier version, substitute half the cheddar cheese with Pepper Jack and add 2-3 minced pickled jalapeños, or to taste.

Adapted from Kenji at Serious Eats.