Dutch Pancakes and Christmas Rainbow Cake

It's November 17 and funny how all conversations turn to the topic of Christmas.  What to get kids, when to have family get togethers, Christmas pageants, baking, parties, etc.  So, rather than fight it, I decided to embrace it and make a Christmas dessert, a kind of test drive for the big day.  But what to have for dinner? Thought I'd stick to a family favourite around here, Dutch pancakes.  Technically not an Oma recipe, but Dutch in spirit, so off we go:

Dutch Pancakes (this makes 6 large plate-sized pancakes)
2 cups flour
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 eggs
milk
butter for frying pan
gouda cheese, sliced thin
ham, sliced thin
dijon

Mix dry ingredients.  Combine egg and melted butter and milk to make 2 cups.  Add to dry ingredients and mix.   Mixture should be quite thin (not as thin as crepe batter, but much thinner than traditional pancake batter).   Add more milk if necessary.   Heat large fry pan.  Add some butter and melt.  Pour a ladle full of batter on pan and swirl so it spreads out to the diameter of your dinner plate:

Flip pancake over (should be light brown on bottom before you flip).  As soon as it's flipped, add ham slices and cheese and let sit on pan as bottom cooks and cheese melts.   As I'm usually making many of these for the family, I slide pancake on plate and keep warm in oven at 200 degrees.  This will also help cheese melt more:

Serve with dijon, if desired.  Yum!!

Reviews always good for this one as it's a family favourite.

Christmas Rainbow Cake
1 package white cake mix
1 package raspberry jello
raspberry jam
1 package lime jello
2 cups boiling water
1 8 oz container cool whip

Grease and flour 2 round cake pans.  Prepare cake according to package directions.  Cool for 15 minutes.  Leave cake in pans and poke holes all over cake with a fork.
Dissolve each jello package in separate bowl with 1 cup boiling water.  Pour green jello all over one pan and red jello all over the other:

Let chill for 4 hours.  Soak bottom of 1 pan in warm water for a minute to unmold onto serving plate.  Top with raspberry jam.  Soak the other pan and invert on top.  Decorate the layered cake with the cool whip and christmas candy, if deisired.  Serve.

Funny Sidebar  - My sister in law gave me what I thought was a chip and dip platter many years ago:

One day, she saw me serving shrimp and cocktail sauce in it and said, "you're such a nitwit, it's a cake platter!!":

Review:  It was a very pretty cake.  The kids loved it.  Mike thought that the jello layers were too tart.  I would make it again, if only for the pretty factor: