Tag: 2 eggs

My Homemade Pecan Butter Cookies

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Food, RecipesLeave a comment

pecan butter cookies

I have been slaving in the kitchen cracking pecans from our pecan tree so that I could make 2 things, pecan butter and pecan butter cookies.  I had collected almost 16oz of pecans.  It didn’t work out as I had planned, but I made it work, sort of.

I added the pecans to the food processor and just obliterated them until they were like sand, and it literally looked like sand on the beach.  I added the peanut oil and brown sugar and blended it some more, but it wouldn’t get soft like peanut butter.  I left it in there for quite a bit too.  I haven’t used our food processor in ages and it’s as old as our relationship is, if not older (which is going on 19 years if you don’t know).  It was starting to give an electrical smell so I was afraid of overdoing it.

The pecan butter didn’t want to become smooth at all.  I tried adding more peanut oil, but it didn’t seem to make a difference, so instead I just went on with the cookie ingredients.  Since it was enough to make 2 batches of cookies, I added 2 cups of sugar and 2 eggs and blended it until it was like dough and took it out.  I cut half of the dough and put half in the fridge wrapped in Saran Wrap and the other half I cut up into squares that I could roll like into balls to form the cookies.  I didn’t get 36 cookies, some were too big and some were too small.  I wish there were a mold that would cut the dough into 36 squares so I could get even cookie sizes lol.

The cookies came out really sweet, I mean too sweet.  They are good, just really sweet.  I didn’t expect that to happen.  I mean, the peanut butter cookies are sweet, but not that sweet.  Also, the dough was really dark, but the cookies came out a lot lighter.  Oh well.

Pecan cookies are certain not something I would ever try to do again, same with the pecan butter, so this was an experience that I will remember for as long as I live.  The lesson, leave the pecans for pie…

Homemade Dog Biscuits – Cleo’s Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

On By Michel McDonaldIn Pets, Recipes3 Comments

I just saw this on Facebook and had to share it.  This was posted on the Facebook page called The Barking Army.

My dog hates these biscuits from the store, she is a very picky dog, so I’m not even sure she will like these, but I will try it out and she what happens.  Of course I will have to find a smaller cookie cutter because she is a toy Chihuahua.  Also, she knows this shape to be the shape of the ones she hates, so it would have to be something else.

Stop giving your dogs crap from China that is killing our dogs!! Here is a Pumpkin Recipe that is healthy for them 🙂

Cleo’s Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  • 2 tablespoons dry milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 1/2 cups brown rice flour *
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

In large bowl, whisk together eggs and pumpkin to smooth. Stir in dry milk, sea salt, and dried parsley (if using, optional). Add brown rice flour gradually, combining with spatula or hands to form a stiff, dry dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface (can use the brown rice flour) and if dough is still rough, briefly knead and press to combine.

Roll dough between 1/4 – 1/2″ – depending on your dog’s chew preferences, – and use biscuit or other shape cutter to punch shapes, gathering and re-rolling scraps as you go. Place shapes on cookie sheet, no greasing or paper necessary. If desired, press fork pattern on biscuits before baking, a quick up-and-down movement with fork, lightly pressing down halfway through dough. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully turn biscuits over, then bake additional 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely on rack before feeding to dog.

* Brown rice flour gives the biscuits crunch and promotes better dog digestion. Many dogs have touchy stomachs or allergies, and do not, like many people I know, tolerate wheat.

Makes up to 75 small (1″) biscuits or 50 medium biscuits.

A Good Breakfast for Energy

On By Michel McDonaldIn Food1 Comment

When I make breakfast for myself in the morning, it’s usually a bowl of cereal.  If we don’t have any milk for whatever reason I usually moan and stomp my feet like a child before nuking myself some oatmeal.  Or I might begrudgingly put my clothes on and go to the grocery store. This morning was different because I wanted to actually make a real breakfast.

Last night I decided that I wanted to make some hash browns for myself this morning so I bought a bag of potatoes from the grocery store with our dinner ingredients and got the food processor out to shred them.  Of course I peeled them first before shredding them and they were small enough that I could just stick them in the food processor.  Normally I have to cut things up but those bags of potatoes are always tiny so that was perfect.

After I shredded about 6 I put them into these containers that I also bought at the store to store them in all night.  A friend told me to put water in them to remove the starch to keep them from turning brown and sure enough when I went to do that they were all brown.  Before bedtime I went in there and drained them all and rinsed them all off and put them back in their containers with more water and I’m glad I did because they were still brown so changing the water was a good thing I think.

This morning I got up, grabbed my Big City Slider Station and filled each compartment with sausage so I could have some sausage patties, put 3 slices of bacon in the skillet to cook and when those were all finished I put 2 slices of bacon on the plate, 2 sausage sliders and then I put all the rest in a container for another time.

I took the hash browns out of the fridge and put them in the salad spinner to get the moisture out then put them in the bacon grease.  Ok I know now that I should have used margarine or oil.  Coulda shoulda woulda.  When that was finished I scrambled 2 eggs and put cheese on top of the eggs.

I was going to take a picture but it was very sloppy and too embarrassing but I will tell you that it was very good.  It was a very rare occasion that I would ever make that kind of breakfast and I can’t say I will ever do it again but you never know.

What am I going to do with the remainder of the hash browns though?  I’m thinking that maybe I can put some butter in the big city slider station then roll up some of the hash browns and stuff them in there and see how that works out.  Then I can put them in the container with the sausages and have some hash brown sliders whenever I want.  I could also freeze them for later.

The reason I did all of this is because I really needed the energy for today because I have 61 posts to restore today from March 2009 and I’m getting so burnt out on the whole thing.  Coffee just isn’t cutting it anymore, I figured I needed a real breakfast to get me through this day.

That kind of breakfast is good but so bad but it was so worth it.

Clay’s Restaurant

On By Michel McDonaldIn RestaurantLeave a comment

California Avenue IHOP becomes independent eatery

November 28th 2008, IHOP in Bakersfield became Clay’s Restaurant.  We’ve been going to that IHOP since 2000 but we don’t always have the money to be regulars.  We only go once in awhile.  But we actually haven’t been there at all since they changed their name to Clay’s.

Well this morning Darrin wanted to go out for breakfast and the place that he chose was closed for some strange reason.  So he said well let’s go to Denny’s.  I said that’s too far.  He said where do you want to go and I said “well we haven’t been to Clay’s yet” so that’s where we went.

We get there and are seated right away.  There was a person we knew who was leaving so Darrin wanted to talk to him before we sat down.  Our host had our menu’s sitting open on the table waiting for us which I thought was very nice.

So we order and our food comes, I ordered the #6 2 eggs, 3 bacon, 3 sausage, hash browns and pancakes.  Darrin ordered chicken fried steak with gravy, eggs, hash browns and toast.

I can’t speak for him but he didn’t complain about his food.  My food was pretty good.  The sausage was different though, it wasn’t over cooked and wrinkly, it was a nice light shade of brown and it was smooth.  The bacon was also very flat and smooth and it tasted good.  The pancakes were smaller but I guess they can’t sell pancakes that look exactly like IHOP’s so they just made them smaller.  The hash browns weren’t crispy which is IHOP’s signature hash browns but that was fine.  It was still good.  Normally scrambled eggs are 1 solid color but mine weren’t mixed completely so you could see the yellow and white.  That’s not a bad thing, the eggs were good but it was just different.

Our waitress was Donna and she was a very nice woman.  We asked her if the business has suffered since they changed their name to Clay’s and she said that there aren’t as many customers as when they were IHOP but the customers are coming back.  I can say that I would definitely come back because the food was very good.

Clay’s Restaurant is located at 1530 California Ave. in Bakersfield, CA.  There are also other Clay’s, I just know about this one and the one over by Valley Plaza on Ming.  I would recommend Clay’s and I give them 5 stars.