Morning pancake cravings always lead me to making batches and batches of scrumptious fluffy pancakes, drizzled with warm maple syrup.  Especially when that craving is combined with a sweet tooth then chocolate is always thrown in.  Combining cocoa powder, buttermilk, and chocolate chips are the sure answer to any morning breakfast craving…. and these definitely made the cut!

Especially since I love pancakes or pretty much anything sweet for breakfast… You do know breakfast is the most important meal of the day.. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Don’t judge me… Okay!

Enjoy… and let me know what you think!

Double Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Ingredients

2 eggs, large

1 1/4 cups buttermilk, room temperature

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons sugar

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Drop by 1/4 cupfuls onto a griddle or nonstick skillet heated to medium heat. Bake until bubbles start to form. Flip and cook another 1-2 minutes. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips or powdered sugar…. YUM!!!!!

December is here already and I am sure your children are awaiting for the time you tell them “It’s Gingerbread time!”  I know mine are waiting patiently.

If you have always wondered how to make these yummy deliciously adorable gingerbread cookies then here is a little step-by-step tutorial, by one of our most favorite decorator, Martha Stewart.

I hope this helps

It all begins with the “cookie tools.”

• Mini Cookie Cutters
• Garlic Press
• Straws
• Wooden Skewers
• Pastry Wheel
• Butter Knife

Keep reading for step-by-step’s
Step One:  Cut Out’s

Roll out your delicious dough and start cutting out your little ones, should make about 20 cookies.  Once done place each person on the cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, and set aside.  With the remaining dough cut out additional children to make the clothes.

Step Two:  Make Clothes

With a butter knife, cut out skirts, pants, shirts, and shoes.  To spice up the little outfits a pastry wheel can be used for a ruffle affect and/or mini cookie cutter can be used for a patterned outfit.  Use a wooden skewer to make polka dots.  Pretty cute huh!

Step Three:  Dress Cookies

Place the first set of gingerbread kids, on the baking sheet and arrange the clothes that you’ve just made on top of them. Place the clothes lightly since they will automatically stick to the bodies when you bake the dough in the oven.

Step Four:  Add Details

Using the scraps of dough that are left from steps 1 and 2, cut out small shapes with mini cookie cutters.  A perfect example is using a teardrop-shaped cutter to make pleats for the skirt.

Step Five:  Make Hair

With the leftover dough place it in inside a garlic press and push it out for the many strands of hair.  You can even shape a single strand into a smile.

Step Six:  Poke Holes

If these adorable cooies will be used as ornaments for the tree then you can punch a hole in the top with a straw.  For a garland, you can punch holes in the hands and after baking twine string through them.

Step Seven:  Chill and Bake

After you and your little kiddies finish decorating and styling their gingerbread cookies chill them in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Bake them for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.    Allow them to cool before adding candies and icing.

Step Eight:  Decorate

Add colored frosting, sanding sugar, colored coated chocolate for faces, smiles, buttons, and jewelry.

Each week we round up our most yummy posts and recipes from our friends at the Kitchn.

This week, the Kitchn rounds off this weeks appetizers with a scrumptious chick-pea pancake.

Also in the Kitchn, ten most riskiest foods, Japanese citrus fruits, brown butter ice cream, and how to make apple butter.

• Top 10 Riskiest Foods: Are You Concerned?: The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a consumer watchdog group, recently released this controversial report.

• A Roundup Of Some Japanese Citrus Fruit: Come and discover this small islands wide assortment of citrus fruit.

• Autumn Recipe: Brown Butter Ice Cream: This ice cream is the perfect topping for any warm fall dessert.

• Apples Galore! How To Make Apple Butter: If you have never tried this easy made butter which is just applesauce slowly cooked down.

Season is changing, festivals are slowing down to give way to the so many holidays that are vastly approaching.  If you looking for something that may knock your socks off then look no further cause I’m your gal.

What if you choose to follow to Martha’s Vineyard for a little food and wine or what about walk around and check a 1,658-pound pumpkin at the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival.  Now that is one BIG pumpkin!

So let me know what you plan on doing tis week…. would love to know!

• New York, NY: Global Kitchen: The Magic of Pickling — Oct. 13
• Boston, MA: Share Our Strength’s A Tasteful Pursuit Dinner — Oct. 13
• Clearwater Beach, Florida: Cooters 16th Annual Crab Fest — Oct. 15-18
• San Francisco, CA: Whiskeyfest — Oct. 16
• Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Food & Wine Festival — Oct. 16-18
• Niceville, Florida: Boggy Bayou Mullet Fest — Oct. 16-18
• Edgartown, MA: Martha’s Vineyard Food & Wine Festival — Oct. 16-18
• Baltimore, MD: Russian Festival — Oct. 16-18
• Richmond Hill, Georgia: Great Ogeechee Seafood Festival — Oct. 16-18
• Fort Collins, CO: Fall Harvest Brewfest — Oct. 17
• Llano, TX: Llano River Chuck Wagon Cookoff — Oct. 17
• Half Moon Bay, CA: Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival — Oct. 17-18
• Wellfleet, MA: Wellfleet Oysterfest — Oct. 17-18
• Chicago, IL: Friends of James Beard Benefit Chicago — Oct. 18

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Have you heard of the spatula-wielding virtual lady, named Cooking Mama, for the Nintendo DS?

If so, then guess what there is a new version coming soon, Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop, that will feature new and improved grocery shopping element.  The players can ”Combine and Create,” which allows the players to invent their own recipes based on ingredients used in existing in-game recipes.  The new edition will also feature 80 “fresh” recipes including Korean barbecue, mochi with edamame paste, and lemon pie.

Were you a fan of Cooking Mama? if so will you be buying the new one hitting stores, this November?

In honor of celebration of Bastille Day, the French 75 is the perfect drink to honor France’s Independence. French 75 is a cocktail made from gin, champagne, lemon juice, and sugar.

C’est Délicieux!

French 75

- 1 1/2 oz Gin

- 2 oz Lemon Juice

- Champagne

- 2 tsp Superfine Sugar

- Garnish: Cherry

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice except champagne. Strain into a champagne flute. Top with champagne. Garnish with cherry.

• Do you know what a Hot Brown is?  —  Epicurious

• Looking for Baby food recipe for your lil one, try Chicken and Sweet Pea Baby Food.  —  Chow

• Beets, love or hate relationship... take this quiz.  —  YumSugar

• What does Barack Obama’s First 100 Days Mean for foodies?  —  Serious Eats

• Need a new cocktail, go back in time to the 1940′s.   —  Gourmet

• Can growing a vegetable garden save you?  —  Wall Street Journal

Image

Making sure to measure correctly is one of the most important factors in cooking.  Always make sure that you have the proper measuring cups and measuring spoons when you are preparing a recipe.

Graduated measuring cups are made in 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup, 1 cup, and 2 cup sizes. Liquid measuring cups are usually either 2 cup or 4 cup. Measuring spoons usually range from 1/8 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 1 teaspoon, and 1 tablespoon.

Dry Ingredient Equivalents

1 tablespoon (tbsp) =     3 teaspoons (tsp)

1/16 cup   =    1 tablespoon

1/8 cup   =    2 tablespoons

1/6 cup   =    2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons

1/4 cup   =    4 tablespoons

1/3 cup   =    5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon

3/8 cup =    6 tablespoons

1/2 cup =    8 tablespoons

2/3 cup =    10 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons

3/4 cup =    12 tablespoons

1 cup =     48 teaspoons

1 cup =     16 tablespoons

Wet Ingredient Equivalents

8 fluid ounces (fl oz) =     1 cup

1 pint (pt) =    2 cups

1 quart (qt) =    2 pints

4 cups =    1 quart

1 gallon (gal) =    4 quarts

16 ounces (oz) =     1 pound (lb)

1 milliliter (ml) =    1 cubic centimeter (cc)

1 inch (in) =    2.54 centimeters (cm)

Image via Flickr

]]> http://www.thatssoyummy.com/uncategorized/cooking-measurements/feed/ 1 http://www.thatssoyummy.com/uncategorized/date-night-recommendation/ http://www.thatssoyummy.com/uncategorized/date-night-recommendation/#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:48:47 +0000 yummy http://www.thatssoyummy.com/uncategorized/a-recommendation/

If dinner and a movie is your choice of romance try any of these sizzling romantic flicks:

*  An Affair To Remember
*  Sleepless In Seattle
*  Casablanca
*  Sabrina
*  Moonstruck
*  The Princess Bride
*  When Harry Met Sally

So curl up on the couch, dim the lights, and snuggle up!