I’m on my last bottle of homemade maple syrup and I don’t want to use it on another batch of pancakes.  If you’ve ever had real maple syrup, you will understand why putting it on pancakes feels like a waste.  Don’t get me wrong – I love a big stack of pancakes with homemade maple syrup as much as the next person.  However, at some point, that beautiful golden real maple syrup should be honored with a special dish.

That is why I am in the process of searching for an “honorable” recipe for the last bottle of maple syrup in my pantry.

I am fortunate to have friends and family who get busy every spring to create this wonderful nectar from the sugar maple tree.  It’s a long, long, long process that yields this delicious treat.  Throughout the year, as I visit my family and friends, I am showered with gifts of maple syrup.  And, boy am I grateful!  There are usually about five or six nice big bottles in my kitchen.  I am so hooked on the real stuff now that even if we run out I won’t go and buy any maple syrup in the store.  Homemade maple syrup is THAT good and it tastes totally different from any of the factory produced stuff.

I’ll share a tried-and-true recipe that I’ve used often and with great success that highlights the homemade maple syrup.

Frosty Maple Loaf Cake

• 1 angel food cake, loaf pan size

• 6 Fig-Newton bars, crumbled up small
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 1 Tblsp margarine or butter

• 1 quart vanilla ice cream

• 1 cup whipped cream for topping (optional)

Cut the angel food cake loaf lengthwise in three even pieces.  Butter the insides of the loaf pan, or line with parchment paper so you can lift out the frozen cake, either way works.  Add the pieces to the loaf pan – one in bottom, two up each side.  Put the loaf pan in the freezer.

In a saucepan over medium low heat, stir cookie crumbles, syrup, and butter.  Stir until the butter melts and the mixture gets a little thicker.  Then, let it cool.
Put the ice cream into a big bowl and stir until it softens a little.
Add the cooled sauce to the softened ice cream by spooning it in and swirling it throughout the ice cream.
Pull the frozen cake out and spoon the sauce/ice cream mixture into the loaf pan.
Cover the loaf with plastic wrap and put back in the freezer overnight.
To serve, lift out by parchment paper, or dip the pan quickly in hot water and flip out onto a platter or serving plate.  Add whipped cream to top if you wish.

This recipe uses a whole cup of maple syrup.  It’s fun to make and kids love it!

Maple syrup is also the perfect sauce for salmon!  If you can get a hold of salmon where you are, making a simple maple syrup sauce for grilled salmon is a must.  It’s easy enough even without a recipe.  I just mix together maple syrup with a little Dijon mustard and a squeeze of lemon.  That’s about as simple as it gets.

Does anyone else have some good ideas for using a lot of maple syrup?  Do you get real maple syrup often?  And, better yet, do you actually make maple syrup?  I’d love to hear from you!

I know, eggs.  It may seem like a silly question, but not when you come home from vacation with a crate of eighteen eggs that really should be used up today.  We can fry up a couple, scramble up a couple, and hard boil a couple.  But, our egg saturation point is about exhausted after only a couple days.

Once more, I find myself digging through my really old recipes to see if there isn’t something that my Mother or Grandmother used to make.  There in my box of scribbled recipes, I found one very simple recipe that will be a little different.  Here it is if you’d like to try it, too.

Egg Dish (Even the name is simple.)

• 1 package croutons, cheddar cheese flavored preferred, but any flavored crouton is good
• 8 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• salt and pepper
• shredded cheddar cheese

Grease a 9×13 baking pan.  Lay croutons in.  Beat up the eggs, milk, mustard, salt, and pepper, then pour over the croutons in pan.  Top with shredded cheddar cheese.  Bake in moderate oven, 350 degrees, until firm, check in 20 minutes with knife inserted in middle.  It should come out dry.  You might want to add some crisp, crumbled bacon, some onions, some mushrooms, or even fried sausage pieces.

Pretty simple, but pretty good, too.  I like that you can add other stuff to it, even use up some leftovers.  Does anyone have another recipe that uses a lot of eggs?  I’d love to see how you would cook up a big batch of eggs for your family.

My husband has simple tastes.  He loves food, but likes to keep his meals uncomplicated.  Breakfast should include fried eggs with a nice pork sausage pattie alongside.  A few skillet potatoes are a nice addition, but he’s happy with just those two items if that’s all we have.  So, needless to say, I often have an abundance of pork sausage in my refrigerator and would like to use it for something other than patties for breakfast.

We typically have every kind of pork sausage you can buy, from mild prepared pork sausage, to the super-spicy and hot stuff.  The spicy variety, I find, is excellent for quick spaghetti sauce or other meat-based “feel good” casseroles.  The mild pork sausage is good for casseroles where a moderate taste is needed to let the flavor of the other ingredients, like wild rice for instance, come through.

In case you would like to try my quick meat sauce using pork sausage, this is my method (can’t call it a recipe… it’s too easy)!

In a large skillet, put pork sausage in and break it up.  Add a small diced onion and a small diced green pepper to the skillet with just a touch of olive oil.  Cook everything together slowly until the meat is no longer pink and the onions and green pepper are soft. Pour in a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato paste.  Sprinkle in some dried basil and oregano until it tastes like spaghetti sauce.  Simmer everything for at least 15 minutes or until the flavors blend.  Taste and add salt and pepper if you like.  See?  Really easy.

Since I always have pork sausage of some kind on hand, it’s a good go-to food for me, so it would be great to have an abundance of recipes to choose from.  If you have a delicious recipe or two for pork sausage dishes, I’d love to hear from you!

You caught me.  I love those little bowls of frosted goodness.  I can’t blame it on the little one… it’s me.  I would like to come up with something to make with them just so I have an excuse to have more in the house.  Please help me out.

In my family, we actually make a mini cornflake wreath at Christmas time.  You make it like rice krispies, but throw cornflakes in the melted marshmallows which have some green food coloring added.  Then we very quickly form little wreaths out of the gooey flakes and stick on little cinnamon candies.  They’re really cute and wonderfully delicious.  I’m wondering if the frosted flakes would do something funny to the recipe, or if they would just be sweeter?

Seeing as they are sweet, I know it probably wouldn’t work to use them crushed up for a coating for fish or chicken, like you can do with regular cornflakes.  But, I wonder if there is a dessert bar or cookie recipe that could use frosted flakes for the crunchy part. 

I’m just looking for a few ideas to help support my Frosted Flakes habit.  Anything you can share will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

If you’ve got kids in the house, you know about filling high-chair trays with Cheerios.  This is the perfect “keep them busy” snack for toddlers.  Their little fingers just stay so busy trying to pick up those yummy treats!

You have probably even played with one of the Cheerios books; pages filled with Cheerios-inspired interactive pictures.  Cheerios for the wheels on a truck, Cheerios as innertubes floating in the pool, and on and on.  The fun never ends.  So, when you reach the end of the book, what can you make with all those Cheerios?

We usually buy boxes and boxes at a time.  At some point, the children grow up, you don’t go through as many Cheerios as you used to, and now there are boxes piled in the pantry that aren’t getting eaten… or played with.  Is there anything you can make out of Cheerios?

I’m thinking there has to be a sweet snack of some sort.  Perhaps mixed with cashews and other crunchy goodies.  A trail mix?  How about a Cheerios form of Rice Krispy Treats, if that’s even possible. 

This may truly be a silly request, trying to make use out of a surplus of Cheerios, but I don’t think it’s unusual.  Silly I accept.  I welcome your help!

One of my daughter’s favorite cereal is fruit loops, so I usually have at least one box of this colorful cereal sitting in the pantry. After looking at it every day, I’ve been wondering if there are any recipes out there to make things with fruit loops. We’ve used it for crafts (fruit loops make cute necklaces), and as colorful and sweet decorations on iced cupcakes.

I’ve been thinking about crushing some up and making a pie crust (similar to a graham cracker crust) out of them, but haven’t tried it it. With some pudding filling and a few more fruit loops sprinkled on top, that might make a fun kiddie dessert.

I posted awhile back about regular oatmeal, but I’ve had a special request to post about leftover oatmeal. You know — that gooey stuff remaining in the bowls when the kids have decided they’ve had enough.

I just hate to throw out food, but I don’t know what to do with it. So, creative moms, do you have any recipes or ideas to use leftover oatmeal? I’m listening.

My friend was just telling me that she makes her French toast with Rice Krispies. She said it’s just heavenly.

Here’s what she does -

She dips the bread into the regular egg & milk mixture, then dips it into crushed rice krispies.

Then, she fries the bread like normal French toast. I’ve got to try this. Sounds great!

So, what do you make with Rice Krispies Cereal?

I could have sworn a long time ago that I saw a recipe for Raisin Bran cereal muffins. Anyone bake with Raisin Bran cereal?

If so, please tell me your favorite recipes and ideas for using Raisin Bran.

My kids love oatmeal and we always have a few tubs on hand.

I’d love some ideas and recipes for things I can make with oatmeal other than the standard bowl of oatmeal with milk and sugar.

So, what can I make with OATMEAL?