Wow, I think I have finally recovered from my semi-comatose state caused by last weekend’s festival activities! While I don’t know any official numbers, rumors have it that nearly 120,000 people were in town on Saturday alone, and I know the ambulance company deposited over $20,000 for the two-day event. I’d say that’s success, huh?!
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| Preparing the stand for sales. |
As I have for the past three years, I spent most of Saturday night baking more dumplings for the Sunday crowd. I volunteer to do this so that others may rest and get some sleep… and so that I don’t have to be up early to be at the stand. Yup, I’m selfish like that.
Baking went smoothly. I snapped a few pics, to get your mouth watering. Why would I want your mouth to be watering? Because… ta-da! I have the recipes for the apple dumplings! Unfortunately, I did not obtain permission to post said recipes. No dumplings for you! Sorry… I tried, they didn’t want to give it up.
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| Ok, it may look good to you, but I am sick of these... |
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| Syrup making was non-stop all weekend! |
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| Exhaustion was common. |
And the best part of baking overnight… I get to use their restaurant-quality kitchen to cook for myself! It takes about two hours for a batch of dumplings to bake completely, which was perfect for me, since I had a few recipes I wanted to try out.
I won’t repeat the recipe here, since I followed it to a T. Didn’t want to mess with something that seems perfect to begin with. And oh my, was it ever! Soon as it was done, I made up two pieces of toast and smothered them with this beauty. Perfect snack for 0200! And now, five days later, it’s nearly gone.
My second recipe was for breakfast. I tried Chelsey’s Overnight Oats recipe, from Clean Eating Chelsey, although I made some changes as I went… and while I had to wait until morning to try it, I must say – it was a perfect start to the day after spending all night slaving over the ovens!
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| Ok, so we only had HUGE pots at the station... still worked. |
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| The comments I got from leaving this in the station fridge were priceless! |
Overnight Oats
1/3 Cup Oats (overflowing)
1/2 Cup water
2/3 Cup Almond Milk
2 Tbsp. Vanilla
1 Tbsp. Chia Seeds
1 Banana
2 Tablespoons Cinnamon (since it was laying around)
Served with:
1 heaping scoop of creamy peanut butter
2-3 second swirl of local honey
1. Pour oats, water and almond milk into sauce pan. Heat on high.
2. While pan is heating, add vanilla and chia seeds. Stir. (Note to self: don’t tip pan, or chia seeds will stick to sides of pot)
3. Unpeel banana and slice real thin into pot. Add cinnamon.
4. Wait for pot to boil. Let boil for about 30 seconds.
5. Whip banana into oats using fork for about 1 minute or until consistency desired.
6. Pour into airtight container. Cover, and place in fridge overnight.
7. In morning, add 1-2 Tbsp. water and whip with a fork to loosen oats.
8. Place in bowl, add honey, extra cinnamon, blueberries, peanut butter, etc. as desired.
9. Can be heated or eaten cold.
Another tip – if you make both of these recipes, the pumpkin butter is simple heaven mixed in with a helping of the overnight oats! That’s been my breakfast twice this week.
So tell me, how do you like your oats? And until then, get those knives up!
