German Pancakes

Today I made German Pancakes. The story goes, that my mother had made my father an enormous meal, then not too long afterwards he told my mother he was starving. She told him that wasn't even possible, however he sucked in his stomach and managed to look like skin and bones. My mom promptly jumped up and made my dad these German Pancakes. That is apparently when my father knew he was going to marry my mom.
This recipe seems much more intricate than it is. While it looks pretty fancy, there honestly isn't much to it! It won't take you more than half an hour tops to make. As my friend Mary said when she commented on the sneak peek photo of the pancake I posted on Facebook, this would indeed make a great brunch additive. I made two of these today, one for my husband and one for me. However I was unable to finish mine. This might be a good item to share.

You will need:

½ c flour

½ c milk

2 eggs

Nutmeg

Butter

Lemon (or lemon juice)

Powdered Sugar
-Also make sure you have a bowl, whisk, and cast iron frying pan handy

It's a good idea to preheat your oven to 480 degrees Fahrenheit before you make your batter, as it can take quite a while to get that hot.

As you know you should always crack your eggs individually, so if there is a bad egg in the batch you don't spoil all your other ingredients.

Take your 2 eggs...

...and beat them until they're frothy.

Add half a cup of milk.

Beat it again.

Sprinkle in some nutmeg.

Measure out your half cup of flour.

Add it to your egg and milk mixture.

And that's it! Your batter is ready.

Make sure you have 3 table spoons of butter ready.

Heat your cast iron frying pan on the stove on medium temperature and add your butter.

Once your butter has melted...

...add your batter to the frying pan.

Put the whole thing in the oven and bake it for around 12 minutes.

Don't they look beautiful?

Sprinkle liberally with lemon juice, either fresh or bottled. My mother would be aghast at my use of bottled juice in favor of fresh lemons, but sometimes you just have to be practical.

Now throw a bunch of powdered sugar on it.

And boom! You're done! It really is pretty simple! I hope you enjoy it! I would love to hear back from anyone how you liked the recipe, was it easy to follow, and/or do you have a similar recipe?


As always I'm giving you the quickie summary right here:

Ingredients needed:

½ c Flour

½ c Milk

2 Eggs

Nutmeg

Butter

Lemon
Powdered Sugar

Preparation:

Mix flour, milk, nutmeg and eggs together, and whisk until frothy

Preheat oven to 480

Heat cast iron skillet and melt 3 T butter in the pan.

Pour batter into the pan and bake in oven, on the lowest rung/rack for 12 minutes +-.

Remove from oven, transfer to plate, sprinkle with powdered sugar and the juice of half a lemon.

January ipsy bag

I was really pleased with this month's ipsy bag. There wasn't anything in it that I actively disliked, and only one item I wasn't super excited about. I was also impressed with how many full sized items I got. There was only one trial sized item, which luckily was the one I wasn't too excited about. Hehe.
Shall we have a look then?

The items I received were:
A lovely block colored makeup bag
La Fresh Eco-Beauty - Be Good. Good Day. Day Moisturizer
Elizabeth Mott - All Over Shadow Brush
Pacifica - Natural Mineral Coconut Eye Shadow (Ethereal)
BelláPierre - Shimmer Powder (Celebration)

All the items came in this lovely makeup bag.

The other side is white. It's a two for one color wise with a orange pull tie.

La Fresh Eco-Beauty - Be Good. Good Day. Day Moisturizer View here

This moisturizer has some pros and cons. I used it yesterday and today. It feels pretty light on your skin. I was surprised, that it did smell like real cucumbers. However it did also have another smell to it that I didn't like as much. I did like the moisturizer, but I know for sure, that I am not in a position that I would spend $40 on a full sized jar of moisturizer. Honestly, I'm not sure if I ever will be in that position. haha

So to test out the two eye shadows I received I figured I'd put down some basic makeup as a canvas. This is me without any of the ipsy items. (Except for the moisturizer I used earlier today)

Before putting on makeup I always put my hair back so it doesn't interfere.

Elizabeth Mott - All Over Shadow Brush View here

Here you can see the back of the packaging. Sorry it's not the best picture, there is some glare.

What can I say about this brush, other than I adore it! Brushes are important, but not usually something I geek out over. This brush is different, it is so very soft and easy to use. Of course the fact that it's pink doesn't hurt either, as you may know I adore pink. The back of the brush package says that the brush is ridiculously soft. Gotta say, they weren't lying! Considering this brush is only $10 i would definitely repurchase it and recommend it to anyone! I used this brush to apply the two eye shadows I received.

Pacifica - Natural Mineral Coconut Eye Shadow (Ethereal) View here

It's a very light color.

This shadow is only for sale in palettes.

The shadow goes on very lightly. It's almost imperceptible.You can see a faint shimmer. I chose to put it on the entire lid as I was planning on putting another shadow on my lower lid. It did feel nice going on.

If you look closely you can see the shimmer under the eyebrow.

Here you can see the full lid.

It looks slightly silverish. I like it as a base lid color.

BelláPierre - Shimmer Powder (Celebration) View here

I got the color celebration which is a very vivid gold.

It's a loose powder. So the application was quite messy. But so worth it! The color is very intense. My photos barely do it justice. At $15 a pop, it's a bit more than I might normally spend on an eyeshadow, but I would definitely consider doing it for this, as  the result was quite phenomenal.

Here you can see how it looks with my eyes open, before I added any mascara.

As you can see I also applied some under my eyes. I was planing on doing that anyway, but with how loose the shadow is, some of it went there automatically, so I decided to roll with it.

On my lower lid.

The color looks even more intense in real life than in the pictures. I love the bold color!


Probelle - Into The Blue Nail Lacquer View here

I love the cheerful color. It is a lot lighter than it looked like on ipsy's website. It's not a bad nailpolish for $6. It does need multiple layers though. I put on three to get good coverage. The first one or two layers look pretty streaky.

The color really is so cheerful. A nice bright blue.

So all together this is my look. I also used my red lipstick starter kit that I received from Meyggy and wrote about on my blog in December.

I'm pretty happy with the look. You can also kind of see the eyeshadow sparkle, even when not looking close up.

Just as a disclaimer, I do not receive any free items for reviewing ipsy products on my blog. I pay the same 10 bucks per month as everyone else. However if you do sign up through this link I earn points that I can then later redeem for additional items.

Ipsy sneak peek

I only painted one nail to do a color check on the nail polish I got from ipsy. Now every time I catch a glimpse of my hand those other nails look so weirdly naked!

Do you ever have weird feelings like that? I almost always have nail polish on, so when I see my fingernails in their natural condition they look weird to me. Do you have a beauty product that seems such an extension of yourself, that you practically always have/use it and would barely recognize yourself without? I'd love to hear!

Don't worry! I'm planing on doing the full testing and review of all the products, including a full set of nails with this color. I'm pretty excited to try them out! They look so promising.  

Please do excuse the bad lighting. I'm writing you from my bed and just took these snapshots with my phone. Tomorrow's pics will be taken with my nice camera, since my friend Rachel is done using it and has returned it to me. :)

Nachos

Nachos are one of my favorite things to eat. I love them and they're pretty easy to make. I grew up in Switzerland and Germany where Mexican food is kind of hard to get. My mom used to make these specially for us. Then when I moved to Oregon I discovered they have a very different concept of nachos. I like both versions, but obviously I have a soft spot for my version. I'd love to hear how you like this version, but also if you make them differently and if yes how you make yours!
So here goes:

You will need for the sauce:
Ground Beef
Large can of crushed tomatoes
Small can of diced tomatoes with green chilies (This is optional, but I like the heat it adds
Red wine (can be excluded if you are avoiding alcohol)
Tabasco Sauce or something similar for added heat
Oregano
Cayenne Pepper
Cumin
Chili Powder
Salt & Pepper
Thyme if desired
You an also add garlic. I don't because it makes me severely ill.

You'll also need whatever you want in addition to the sauce.

Obviously tortilla chips are vital to nachos. I'd never consider making them without the cheese either. You could add refried beans. I've added them before, but my husband hates all beans aside from green beans, so I leave them out. I always serve my nachos with sour cream. My husband likes salsa with his as well. Avocados are another thing my husband dislikes, so I don't make guacamole that often, but growing up it was a staple we couldn't have nachos without. So you can really customize this dish any way you feel like it!


First thing I do is season my meat with all of the herbs and spices on one side.

I then toss the meat seasoned side down into my preheated dutch oven. (You could use a sauce pan or whatever you want to cook it up in, I just love my dutch ovens and use them for everything.) I then add another layer of seasoning to the meat side facing up.

Now brown your meat.

Once it has been browned for the most part, a bit of pink is totally ok. Add about a cup or more of red wine to deglaze the pot. Let it reduce down so most of the alcohol is evaporated.

I continuously add more seasoning because I like my food to be very flavorful. This creates layers of flavor.

Time to add your cans of tomato.

Time to add more seasoning, as well as some tabasco sauce. Depending on how tomatoy versus meaty you want your sauce to be you can add a small can of tomato paste to thicken your sauce. Yesterday on the other hand I just kept it boiling and reduced the sauce down that way.

If you're opting to use garlic, this would be a good time for it. You can also wait a bit longer until the sauce has reduced somewhat as garlic can get bitter when cooked too long.

I like to get a thick sauce so it won't make my chips soggy.

See how far it's reduced down? Kind of like a thick gravy.

I bake my nachos in a casserole dish, it makes it easier to keep the whole layers together thanks to the raised edges. Get a nice thick layer of chips ready.

Make sure you preheat your oven to the broil setting before adding the sauce. You don't want the sauce to be on the chips too long before you can put it under the broiler or it will make the chips soggy.

Spoon your meat and tomato mixture on top of your chips.

Add a nice thick layer of shredded cheese.

Now you can put it under the broiler for a few minutes. Keep an eye on it so it won't burn. Once all the cheese has melted and is nice and bubbly your dinner is done.

Now you can just scoop it out with a nice spatula and portion it out onto plates. Best served hot and straight from the oven.

This doesn't make great leftovers as the chips don't reheat well. What I do for leftovers is, I keep the extra sauce on the side. When you're making your next batch make sure you heat the sauce first. The couple minutes it's under the broiler aren't enough to fully heat the meat sauce through before the cheese would get burnt. So I preheat the meat either in my pot, or by microwaving it.

Anyway I really hope you like this recipe and enjoy making it. As always I'd love to hear from you what you think of the recipe, if you've made it, etc.
Hoping most of you have tomorrow off too for MLK. I know my great plans are sleeping in and working on a baby quilt for my cousin's baby shower next week. :)


Quickie Summary:

Ingredients needed:

2-3 lbs ground beef

Red wine

Salt & pepper

Chili powder

Oregano

Thyme

Cumin

Smashed garlic clove (optional)

Canned tomatoes & tomato paste

Preparation:

Sautee meat with the spices, and garlic if using

Douse liberally with red wine

Let simmer down

Add tomatoes and paste

Add more of all the spices

Spoon on top of tortilla chips, top with cheese, broil, then eat with guacamole, sour cream, and or salsa as desired