McIntyre Munching: Dutch Apple Pancake

I absolutely LOVE those delicious pancakes you can get when you're out at restaurants, you know...those ones that take about 35 minutes to bake so you never end up getting them because who want to wait that long to get your meal?! And who wants to be the person at the table with you waiting for their simple meal all the while yours is cooking...

Anyhoo, I'm getting somewhere with this, really.

I found this great recipe that uses Bisquick and is so simple and easy to make yourself. I find myself having random cravings for this at times. I've been known to make it for dinner...



You'll need the following...
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 apples peeled, thinly sliced
1/3 c. water
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. original Bisquick mix
2 eggs

	Preheat the oven to 400°F. Generously grease a 9-inch glass pie plate with shortening or cooking spray. In medium bowl, mix brown sugar and cinnamon. Add apples; toss and set aside. I like apples, don't get me wrong, but I only use one apple and slice it very thinly, since I do this I also cut the brown sugar and cinnamon in half. Whatever suites you!
	In a 2-quart saucepan, heat the water and butter to a boiling and reduce heat to low. Add the Bisquick and stir vigorously until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Continue beating until smooth. This gets annoying, but believe me, it's worth it!
	Spread the batter in bottom of pie plate. Arrange the apples on top to within 1 inch of edge of pie plate.
	Bake about 23 minutes or until puffed and edges are golden brown. Serve immediately.

This is what you come out with. It is SO good I can't even tell you! I like to dust it with powdered sugar and just eat it as is. And you can wait for it (leisurely) from the comfort of your own home. I like to clean. ha!

*I just want to mention that I normally make this recipe with butter and it turns out looking like the picture above with golden, fluffy, airy crust. However, this past time I made it with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and believe me when I say I love that stuff so very much, but I just don't think a substitute will do for this recipe. It wasn't as puffy and it was just like a thicker pancake I guess, minus those beautiful edges up there. :-) So...just heed my warning - it's much better with real butter!

Mason got a haircut!

Mason finally got into the groomer yesterday!

He needed it SO badly! I'm not even joking with you all.

If he was playing on the ground rolling around, it was hard to tell what exactly he was with all that shaggy hair.




Whenever he gets his hair cut, he always looks so differently than he did before. I know that's obvious, but he just looks like a different dog to us. It is so funny and so darn cute!


He lost about 5 pounds from getting his hair cut! ha...just kidding (although I wouldn't doubt it!).

He's just so tiny and it makes me want to love all over him and squeeze him! He doesn't quite like this... :-)

We got Wii!

Yes...that's right! We went out and got it! It being Wii.

My mother in law has it and we were playing it over there and decided why not?! It's kind of like exercise, right...

It's kind of pathetic, but my left leg and my right arm were sore after a couple rounds of bowling.



We've definitely been getting plenty of use out of it. If I could only bowl as well at the actual bowling alley - I would be set!


I think the bowling game is my fav so far - but me and my hubby (ha! love that) have played each other in tennis and it's pretty fun too...if you really get into it you can start sweating!


Thanks to my husband for being the good sport that he is when it comes to action photos for the blog :-)

McIntyre Munching: Chocolate Birds Nests

I'm not sure if you all know this but I LOVE ME SOME SWEETS!

I do...I have a horrible sweet tooth that I am trying to get under control.

Every once in awhile I have to make something sweet though - you have to indulge occasionally, right?!

During Easter weekend I had a hankering for something and I came across a picture of those Chow Mein Noodle Chocolate Nests. So I decided to make them! And happily give a bunch away! They were pretty darn good though, I must say.



You'll need the following
One bag of chow mein noodles (the crunchy ones...found in the oriental section in your local grocery store)
One bag of chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips but you can use semisweet or whichever kind of chocolate you'd like - they were on sale and wouldn't want to eat something doused in Ghirardelli chocolate?!)
About a half cup of peanut butter
Some sort of 'egg' looking edible thing :-) (I used Reese's Pieces Easter Eggs)



You melt the chocolate at 30 second intervals until it's melted, mixing during the melting process. Then add the peanut butter and mix well. Add in the bag of chow mein noodles and mix up real good.


I used a muffin pan to form the nests. It worked SO well and was really easy. Just grease the muffin pan and spoon the mixture into each little section. I used a spoon to sort of flatten and create a little hollow in the nests.


Then I picked out ALL of the blue eggs in the candy bag just because I thought it would look cuter and like Robin's nests - I have to say, I was right! ha! I seriously think it made them look cuter though!

You'll drop those into the 'nest' and pop it in the fridge for about an hour to set. You can pry them out with a butter knife. I stored them in a plastic bag in the fridge. A nice little treat when you want something sweet! :-)

Exciting Update (not so much...)

Does he look familiar to you?!

That's my husband! One of our friends (Mike - my friend Jenny's soon-to-be husband) drew it for Ryan - I think it is SO good! How neat, huh?!

I can't exactly say that I have been out of the blog-o-sphere because I've been busy... I guess we have just been busy with life.

We have plenty of weddings coming up in the next two months to keep us occupied. Two of which I am honored to be in!

As you can tell, I've been spending WAY too much time on the computer 'redecorating' the blog. I think I like it, but then I stare at it too long and it all becomes a jumble to me. What do you all think? I wanted a more Spring/Summery look so that I wouldn't have to change it for quite some time. Who am I kidding though...I'm sure it'll happen before the end of Summer...

I'm going to try to be posting a bit more - however I just run out of things to say...so bear with me! I do have some posts to set up so I'll spread those out. Stay tuned... :-)