Recipe Of The Week

Let's do brunch this week! Just in time for Sunday morning...

German Apple Pancakes

2/3 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced

Sift first 3 ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. Combine next 2 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir in flour mixture gradually, beating until smooth. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a heavy nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté apples 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently until just tender. Toss cinnamon mixture with apples. Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a heavy 6 inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pancake batter to about 1/4 inch depth. Cook 1 minute. Sprinkle 1/4 of the apples over batter. Pour enough batter over the top to just cover apples. Cook pancake another minute or so until bottom is lightly browned. Turn pancake and cook 1-2 minutes, or until brown and thoroughly cooked. Transfer to a platter and keep warm until ready to serve. Repeat process with remaining batter and apples. Serve immediately with butter and maple syrup.

This recipe serves 4 people. Due to the nature of this recipe, it adjusts the number of servings in multiples of 4 only.

Green Your Closets!

Green Your Closets --

While most of us already recycle many of our clothes through ebay, there might be something here that you aren't doing and could easily add to your routine. Again, every little bit helps!

(taken from http://www.aboutmyplanet.com)

Take a bite out of consumer excess by recycling your clothes. The clothing in your wardrobe like the food in your fridge is derived mostly from natural materials, like wool, cotton, leather, and so on, which needs to be generated by plants or animals, harvested, processed in factories, and then transported to outlets across the world.

It may not be obvious, but every step of the way the clothing industry like any other is contributing to the major problems threatening the planet.

Making sure your clothes are being used to their full potential is a good way to reduce needless waste and excessive exploitation of natural resources.

Take a look through your closet. Chances are there are things you don't wear anymore. Get them back into circulation ... give that old sweater to a friend. Or donate those jeans that never fit very well to a charity or a second-hand shop. If you think you could get some money for them, hold a garage sale, or post your higher-quality items jackets, boots, whatever for sale through a community listings portal.

Buy recycled clothes. Second-hand shops and thrift stores have great deals on nearly-new clothing; you'll be amazed what you can find. This way you're supporting small businesses and community charities, and you're increasing the lifespan of an article of clothing.

You can even recycle clothes that are past their prime. Stretched or damaged clothes, socks with holes in them things like this can be sent to textile recycling organizations, where they'll be broken down and rebuilt into new textile-based products. Most cities will have a textile recycling drop-off; you just have to find out where it is.

Better there than in a landfill.

Recipe of the Week - Let the kids decide!

Some weekly newsletters feature recipe choices chosen by the kids...along with healthy choice recipes and more!!

Here was the kids pick recipe from last week, yummo!

Make sure you CLICK HERE for a free trial membership to our weekly meal planning newsletter.

Old Fashioned Chili Mac (Kids Pick)

1 cup elbow macaroni
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed tomato soup
2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1/8 cup brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

2. In a small saucepan, simmer celery and green pepper with water to cover until tender; Drain.

3. Place ground beef in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook until evenly brown. Add onion, and cook until tender and translucent. Drain excess fat. Add celery and green pepper. Stir in kidney beans, condensed tomato soup, diced tomatoes and brown sugar. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in macaroni.

Serve with garlic sticks and fresh fruit

Summer = Time For Ice Cream!

For our blog readers only...

A special sneek peak at one of the tidbits coming out in our June 12th newsletter!

It's summertime -- and time to start making some memories with your kids.

One thing we like to do is make homemade icecream. Recipes are easy to find on-line . . . but here is one that sounds simple:



EASY HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

1 can Eagle Brand milk
2 tbsp. water
2 egg yolks, beaten
4 tsp. vanilla flavoring
1 pt. whipping cream

In large bowl, stir milk, water, egg yolks, and vanilla. Fold in whipping cream. Pour in large container and freeze 6 hours.
Chocolate: Omit water, egg yolks, and vanilla. In large bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and 2/3 cup chocolate flavored syrup. Fold in whipping cream.



My kids also LOVE making smores . . .
In a pinch, we do it over the grill! Though I'm hoping for a firepit this year!

We have the best conversations while "cooking" together -- and it's a great activity to invite neighborhood kids over for -- make your house the "fun" house this summer!

eBay Store Listing Contest

Believe it or not, in about 4 weeks people will begin buying items for fall/winter. As we have talked about before, now is a great time to consider opening a season store for 2-3 months. To help you get started on stocking your stores, we will be having a listing contest during the month of June. Visit our Bijou Cafe message boards for all the details!! You will get a little motivation from listing with friends and there are fun prizes! CLICK HERE TO JOIN

To go along with the listing contest we are going to chat about how to make your eBay listings stand out!

One thing that is always important is good pictures. Here are some tips that were shared by our powersellers on the message boards.



1. Use a clean, simple background. Some ladies use a piece of white vinyl fabric, which can be purchased at the local fabric store for less than $10. Others use a wooden type rug, which also looks amazing.

2. Make sure you have good lighting. Take the pictures right beside a bright window if possible.

3. Use the macro (or flower) setting on your camera for close-ups that are in focus.

4. Take lots of pictures! Chances are you will receive higher bids if you enclose more pictures of the details.

5. Consider a prop. Especially if you are selling childrens clothes. Some auctions where they use a beautiful shelf to display the clothing have done well lately!

6. Make sure clothing is reasonably wrinkle free and display outfits nicely.