Having a family Valentine’s Breakfast makes kids feel special, too

It doesn’t take much effort to serve up a really special Valentine’s Day breakfast to the family, and the kids will really enjoy any of the ideas below.
Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut hearts out of your morning toast, and spread thickly with strawberry jam.
Make a heart-shaped fried egg, placing a metal cookie cutter into your greased frying pan and breaking the egg into it.
Cut a heart shape from the centre of a slice of bread using a cookie cutter. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan, then place the bread into the pan. Break an egg carefully into the hole and fry them both together, turning carefully when the egg is nearly set.
Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut shapes out of your breakfast pancakes. Serve with a knob of butter, a drizzle of maple syrup, and some red berries.
Serving up hot chocolate or a frothy coffee? Fill almost to the brim of the cup, then carefully lay a paper stencil with a heart-shape cut from the centre over. Sprinkle gently with cocoa powder or icing sugar. Serve immediately.
You can put almost anything on your kids’ plates in a heart shape – even baked beans!
Serve up a pink breakfast smoothie.
Cook up a delicious bowl of oatmeal and swirl a red heart in the centre with strawberry jam to serve. Try our special occasion oatmeal or our vanilla oatmeal with a cherry twist.
Spoon some natural yoghurt into a bowl and drizzle a honey heart over it. Now fill the centre of the heart with granola and outline the yoghurt with berries. Pretty and delicious!
Get the kiddos involved, and let them be a part of the cooking or preparation process. It’s always a special time, and you may be surprised at what they are capable of doing on a regular basis!
Most of all the ingredients, use a lot of hugs and kisses and let the laughter flow most of all!

Christmas Stollen Recipe

Stollens make Christmas special. Commonly known throughout the world as a Christmas Stollen, this tasty dessert bread is laced with candied fruits and nuts.
It was first baked in Germany and Austria in the 1400s, but at the time people used up their meat and meat by-products, such as butter and milk, before the fasting period of Advent. Because of this, the Stollens of the era were fairly tasteless.
In 1650, bakers in Dresden appealed to Prince Ernst von Sachsen, who successfully petitioned Pope Urban VIII to allow the use of butter before Christmas, creating a rich taste and a lasting baking tradition in seasonal Stollens.
Christmas Stollen Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter
1/2 teaspoonsalt
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
5 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ounce active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup candied citrus peel
1/2 cup almond slivers
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar.
Directions: Scald milk. Add granulated sugar, butter and salt. Cool to lukewarm. Add 2 whole eggs, and 2 yolks. Mix. Add to 3 cups flour and yeast in food processor. Process and let rise until double. Add spices, raisins, citron, almonds, and rest of flour. Process and put on floured board and knead. Let the dough rise in greased bowl. When risen, cut into 3-4 pieces. Roll each into an oval, butter, and fold in half lengthwise. Put on greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise until double.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove to rack. When cool, dust with confectioner’s (powdered) sugar.
As an option, the dough may be cut in half and a mixture of marzipan or other filling inserted before baking.
Did you enjoy this recipe? Have suggestions for other recipes that you would like to see? Send them to us at the Valley Bugler, and if we use your recipe, we will give you a special gift! Send your recipes to:
edior@valleybugler.com or the address on the front of this paper.

Crockpot Apple Butter Recipe

There’s nothing like the smell of baking apples or fresh made applesauce!
Here is a recipe sent to me from Lissa Gere in a recipe exchange, that takes a new spin off of that idea.
Not only will you have yummy Apple Butter, usable in almost any way applesauce is, your house will smell like a delicious eatery!
We hope that you try this recipe, and if you have recipes of  your own to suggest for our readers, submit them online at valleybugler.com – click on Features or search for the word “Crock-pot” and this article will appear.
Post your recipes, and we may choose to feature your special recipe in the next issue of the Bugler!
12 cups peeled, cored, and cut  apples
3/4 c apple cider
1c sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
Cook apples in microwave till soft…run thru food mill…Put in a crock-pot with cider, sugar, cinnamon and cloves…cook on low for 3 or 4 hrs till thick…stir occasionally.
ENJOY!

Bakonyi Sertesborda!

By Laurrie Piland
I want to share a super easy, super tasty recipe that we received from Valley Bugler reader, Donna Barnes.
She got this recipe from her Hungarian exchange student, Daniel, who gifted her a cookbook and she adapted the recipe to resemble recipes that she was used to and to reflect ingredients that are available to her up in British Columbia, Canada.
Thanks so much for sending it in, Donna and watch for my blog on November 2nd showing a step-by-step of how I made this delicious recipe with my tweaks!
www.lifeinanarv.blogspot.com

Bakonyi Sertesborda
4 1/2-inch cut pork loin chops
Salt & Pepper, to taste
Flour (to dredge)
2 cups sliced mushrooms
4 slices bacon, chopped (the original recipe came over to me saying “rashers”…I don’t know exactly what a “rasher” is, so I assumed it meant thick cut slices)
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon (Yes!) paprika
2 cups chicken stock
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 roma tomatoes, seeded and cut in wedges
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped (I’m lucky…I’m growing it in a tub out front)
3/4 cup sour cream (full-fat, baby!)

*Pound out chops until they are 1/4-1/3-inch thick (I skipped this step and just adjusted the cooking time).
*Season with salt & pepper, dredge in flour and shake off the excess.
*Fry in a skillet in 2 tablespoons olive oil until golden on both sides (about 3 minutes per side if you pound them out…longer than that if you don’t!).
*Remove from skillet and set aside. In a clean pan (I used the same skillet), add the bacon and render for about 4 minutes.
*Add onions & cook until translucent.
*Add bell peppers, mushrooms (I used chanterelles, I love having a foraging neighbor!!), and paprika, stir to combine.
*Arrange pork in skillet, add chicken stock to barely cover chops…here is where I switched stuff up: I used a can of sliced stewed tomatoes instead of romas, with the juice (I’m on tomato buying strike, tomatoes only look like tomatoes at the store, they taste like nothing!) and cut the stock back to one cup.
*Top with tomato wedges and parsley.
*Cover pan and reduce heat to low.
*Simmer for about 30 minutes or until chops are tender.
*Remove chops to a platter.
*Turn heat back up to medium and add 1/2 of the sour cream (I only used about 1/2 cup total and I just added it all in), reduce until sauce coats the back of a spoon.
*Adjust seasonings and pour sauce over the chops.
*Top with remaining sour cream (I skipped this step, too!).

I have to say that this will be a regular go-to recipe for this ol’ RV from now on.
In the last month, I have made a complete menu from Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, Norway and tonight will be the night for Bermuda…what’s been up in your kitchen? Stay tuned until next month and get those international recipes in…cuz I ain’t skeered of anything except snakes.
So, until we meet up in December, peace!
**Note: All of your “International Recipes” qualify for an experiment in my RV kitchen, don’t you think? Submit to the Valley Bugler, and include your “tips and tricks” so I can cook my way into the international cuisine you send my way!
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