Portabellopixie

Sunday Morning Buttermilk Pancakes

 

Everyone needs breakfast. It is truly an important meal-it jump starts your metabolism for the day and gets you going. My breakfasts usually consist of a protein shake (they can be really good!) but on Sundays, our family pulls out all the stops and makes a big huge traditional breakfast. It has become a tradition that we all look forward and it just sets the pace for our Sundays.

We go all out-juice, milk, fruit, eggs, bacon and some form of main breakfast item. Crepes, french toast, waffles etc.. Since we started having these Sunday breakfasts, I have tried numerous pancake recipes. They have all been good, but not great.

Last Sunday I decided to just wing it and throw together my favorite pancake elements into a new recipe.

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

You MUST try these pancakes.

I repeat:

YOU MUST TRY THESE PANCAKES!!

They are without a doubt the best I have ever had. They beat any restaurant pancake I've had, any version at all.

The batter is light and fluffy, thanks to the whipped egg whites and smells like an amusement park when cooking, thanks to the vanilla.  It's just.. it's just..  heavenly.

All morning long, I felt like Supermom.  My family went on and on and on about how amazing the pancakes were.

 

The recipe is over in the sidebar, enjoy!  And have a great weekend!

 

 
PS-I know I mentioned I was going to show you Dustin's Valentines present (it turned out so awesome) but I want to check with him first to make sure he won't be too embarrassed if I share it.  I'm sure he'll say it's ok (he doesn't embarrass too easily) but I just haven't gotten around to mentioning it to him.  Maybe I'll ask him Sunday morning over amazing pancakes?  ;)

PPS-Kathy is back to blogging!  She's had a heavy couple of months, so hop on over and welcome her back to the blogosphere and enter the giveaway that going on!

Kitschy Vintage Wedding

A few months ago, someone sent me a link to 100 Layer Cake to see this post.

It is from a beautiful wedding.  If I were to ever have need for a wedding again (I don't plan on it!) I think my decor would be very much like this.  Rustic, with a bit of cute, meets vintage charm.  LOVE it!

 
 
I was going along, enjoying the photographs when I came to this one:

 
Wow!  To know that my fabrics made their way into someone's wedding was very very cool to me.  And I love how they used them.

I so enjoy seeing how my fabrics are being used out there.  Thank you to everyone who sends them in pictures and links to me.  We're working on a new website and we're putting together a section to feature things just like this. 

Also, apparently there is a mention of me in the March Real Simple magazine but I haven't seen it yet.  I really appreciate you guys letting me know when you see those things also, because that's usually the only way I find out.  So thank you!

Have a lovey dovey weekend everyone!  I'm not all that in to Valentines Day (not against it, just - I don't know..) but I do have something really funny planned for Dustin which I'll share on Monday.  Don't worry, it's not mushy gushy so you don't need to stray away if you're not into mushy gushy sharings.

BTW-The awesome wedding photographer is JL Photografia

Daddy Daughter*

 
This is one of those things that I started thinking about when I found out I was expecting a girl.

A few weeks ago, I was in the kitchen, and Dustin was in the living room going through the 10 pounds of papers that had accompanied Eliza's backpack home that day. All of a sudden, he let out a squeal to rival any teenage girl. A paper had come home informing us of the upcoming Daddy Daughter dance. Awww...

We all anxiously waited for the day to come and finally it arrived! I meant to actually make Eliza a new dress, but alas, this will just be one more thing that I chock up to "I didn't have to do that" list.  (Everyone should start one of those lists, and add to it frequently.) 

They had a great night, she got to wear makeup, he got her a corsage and ice cream.  Well done, Daddy.

Here's a little home video, you can just see how excited she is!

Such Pearls & Pie

I'm back, I just had one of those thought provoking weeks. The ones where I let my brain wander a bit and just take it easy. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best. I get to spend them entirely with Ethan as the other members of our family are off at their respective schools getting brainier. Ethan has M,W,F preschool and I cram in the work on those days, hardly stopping until my family comes home. (We are in the middle of revamping an entire floor of our home for my own special work space. It even has a second kitchen!) Anyhow, on Tuesday and Thursday I just take it slow. We read stories, bake cakes, have snowball fights.. you know. Blissful stuff.

I read Camille's blog post the other day and just sat there smiling. She gets it. I remember the first time we met-it was a weird passing of sorts. She was walking by with her mom and I was setting up one of my booths at market. (Can't remember which one, maybe a fall in Houston?) She sort of stopped, I sort of stopped what I was doing and we just introduced ourselves. When we figured out who each other was, we smiled and I remember her saying something about how someone had asked her if we were friends because we would like each other. (or something like that-it's a bit of a blur) And that was it, we met and the next time we saw each other, we just fell into step and conversation. And each time I see her, it's just fun and we pick up where we left off. If you're not reading her blog, you should start!

Ahh let's see, back to the apple pie:

 

You guys had a lot of interesting advice on how to share recipes.  What really brought it home for me was when a few people emailed with a question for me:  "When can I claim your pattern as my own?  How many changes need to be made?"

That made the answer quite easy for me-if you use a part of a sewing pattern, it shouldn't be claimed as your own design.  If you are using a technique you have learned in sewing from a pattern to make your own design, then to me, it's ok to claim it as your own.  That's how we learn!

So in my quest to share some recipes this year, if I start with a recipe, you'll get the source.  If I started from scratch, then I'm claiming it as my own!

So back to that apple pie I raved about.

 

Actually, let back way up..  (this will take a while, which is why this post was a long time coming)

When Dustin and I got married, I had zero cooking skills.  Boiling water was truly a head scratcher for me.  Dustin would get this fond look in his eye as he talked about his mom's applesauce cookies and beef stroganoff.  So I called her up and asked her to send me a few of his favorite recipes.  A few months later, she presented me with not one or two recipes, but an ENTIRE cookbook devoted to the family recipes that her son grew up on.

Over the next few years, I pulled a Julie & Julia and cooked exclusively from that cookbook.  It's how I learned to cook.  The pages are stained with food splotches, and I love it.  So much so that I wanted to start my own book to hand down to my children when they are out on their own. 

So that is what started the thought of sharing recipes here, which led to our discussion in the last post.

NOW-  the book that the apple pie recipe came from is a story in and of itself.  One night I was surfing around on Amazon and found a couple of pretty cookbooks (one on pie, one on jam) and I bought them.  They arrived, and I flipped through them and when I got to the back, I did a double take, because I happened to know the authors.  Everyone in my world knows the authors.  David & Amy Butler.  Well, look at that.

So anyhow, you know the rest, I made the apple pie and fell in love with it.  When I posted the "how to share recipes" question, I shot Amy an email asking what she thought and she said she to go right ahead and share it. (she is sooo much better at answering emails than I am, but I am trying.)

So here you are, a printable recipe page for the pie I made.  Anytime I share a recipe here, I'll give you guys the file that is going into our family recipe book. I've created a new sidebar section for recipes that you can download the file from.  I load my free patterns and the recipes at full print size so they are larger files and may take a moment to open.  Let me know if you have any problems.  I hope you enjoy!

 
Can you tell I had fun putting together the recipe format?  Hey, cherished family recipes deserve the time.

And I would suggest snagging those books.  They were both $5 when I got them and I think they are discontinued (maybe not?) but the jam book has soared in price!