Improving on an Old Classic

We are experiencing our first Virginia spring here. Apparently, that means that while last week it was 78, tonight the low is 29, and the high tomorrow is 44. This second winter is pretty lame-o!
But, it does have its upsides, in the form of roasted vegetables and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with cinnamon.


Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Cinnamon
3 cups regular or quick (not instant) oats
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon
1 large egg
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Oven 350. Ungreased cookie sheets.
1) In medium-size bowl, beat butter until soft. Beat in sugars, egg, water, and vanilla until creamy.
2) Combine flour, salt, baking soda, oats until well-combined.
3) Add oat mixture gradually to butter-sugar-eggs with beater at medium-low speed, gradually beating until just blended. Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips by hand.
4) Drop onto cookie sheet and bake 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned.

Breakfast at Luigi's

Ingredients........see pix

Cooking..............see pix

Eating.................see pix

Enjoy!

How Daddy Learned to Make Pancakes According to Mom

Once upon a time I was the family pancake maker. I actually used a recipe from 'Fannie Farmer,' the cookbook that I toted home from Colombia from my Peace Corps book locker. The remnants of that cookbook are in a sealed baggie somewhere around here but I do have another "new" Fanny farmer, which is only in two pieces and here is the recipe:

1/2-3/4 cup milk (but I always used the buttermilk version and it was always too thick so I added extra buttermilk)

2 tablespoons melted butter ( I am quite sure I used less.)

1 egg,

1 cup white flour (I think I must have doubled this recipe.)

2 teaspoons baking powder (but 1/2 if you use buttermilk)

2 tablespoons sugar( I probably used a bit less.)

1/2 teaspoon salt.

The honeymoon was hardly over when your father began crowding me out of the space in front of the stove and took over the cooking. I thought of writing "elbowed me over" but it was more like he "hipped me over." Soon he got tired of waiting for me to get up and prepare the batter and started doing it himself, using his general theory about food that it doesn't really matter what one puts in. At this point liberal amounts of necessary feedback were provided and you all know the rest of the story. Even I, think his pancakes are perfect now.

Pancakes!

Since Daddy's recipe for pancakes is rather vague (I believe the recipe I tried to write down once involved "one drip of oil" and "add milk till it's like thick paint"), I asked where he learned to make pancakes and Mom directed me to the Better Homes and Garden's cookbook. I tend to make as big of a batch as I can make with the amount of buttermilk that comes in one container and then freeze what doesn't get eaten with layers of wax paper to prevent sticking. Both kids like pancakes and they reheat really well in a toaster and not badly in a microwave.

Buttermilk Pancakes:
1 c flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
1 c buttermilk
2 tbsp cooking oil

I do use Daddy's method for mixing: Mix the wet together, put the flour on top, mix the rest of the dry ingredients into the flour and then mix it into the wet. It's only one bowl that way and pancakes aren't that picky about stuff.


I have learned not to skimp too much on the oil because it has a surprisingly large impact on how well pancakes cook. They burn much faster without the oil in them and it's much easier to get them a bit crisp on the outside if you put in what they say. I also learned pretty much everything I know about flipping pancakes and knowing when to flip them from Daddy. You wait till bubbles form and then you start popping them. It's ready to flip when the bubbles don't fill in right away.


Best served when still warm.


Of course when serving, presentation is everything.



(No children were harmed in the making of this post.)

Post Mortem of a BIG Birthday

The Phoenix grands have such inconvenient birthdays that one is often reminded how glad we are to have them whenever they arrived. So the parents just set an arbitrary day to celebrate. We were able to arrange our lives to be there for this years bash, which the perfect kids' party.

For starters the food was perfect. Papa John's delivered just the right amount of Pizza (7 pizzas: 3 pepperoni, 2 sausage one cheese and one mushroom) for adults and children. Another cheese and one less sausage would have been even more perfect. The Mom insisted that one green salad mix would do the trick even if the neurotic Grandma was thinking more and low and behold the mom knows more than the Grandma.

Grandpa and Grandma cut up a huge bowl of fruit-2 1/2 gallons Grandpa thinks. We used Grandma's old trick of alternately cutting a cup or so of each type straight into the bowl so that one never stirs and the fruit holds up much better. There was one cup of fruit left at the end. the perfect amount!

There was water for the kids and pop for the adults--permits are needed for alcohol and the parents decided that it really isn't necessary for a noon-time kids party.

Grandpa and Grandma

Experiment and failure

So, lately I have been making cornmeal pancakes every so often. They're quick, easy, and as long as I have cornmeal, I almost always have all the ingredients on hand. A little while back, I decided to try making chocolate cornmeal pancakes, just for funsies.

The batter never looks terribly appetizing (It usually looks like yellow barf.), but it looked even worse when brown.

Even from the batter stage, things looked ominous.

Frying did not improve things.

It made them look like flattened dog-poo.

The final result was pretty disappointing from both a flavor and aesthetic standpoint. The pancakes didn't taste terribly chocolate-y, and they looked very, VERY unappetizing. If there is a next time (which I don't think there will be) I will try adding a lot more cocoa powder, but this experiment has dampened my enthusiasm for further un-researched forays into the culinary unknown.

Tortillas and Blackbean Tacos

Salsa is too spicy!

It's spring break in Richmond, so we're cooking up a storm. We decided to make more beans and a great big double batch of tortillas for the freezer. You all know how to make beans from scratch right? I cooked some up while H napped. When H got up from her nap, we became a tortilla factory.

Flour Tortillas
3 cups flour (1/2 wholewheat)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil, or 4 T lard
1 1/4 warm water

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl.
Add oil or lard. Use a fork or pastry cutter to cut in the oil, or your hands. Then add warm water a little at a time until the dough is soft and not sticky. Knead the dough for a few minutes.

Now you will pull of pieces of dough to form about 18 small dough balls.






Here are our dough balls.





Now you can roll out each ball with your tortilla rolling pin, which you may or may not need to flour lightly. You get it. Roll out to desired tortilla thickness.

Lay your tortilla on a hot cast iron skillet. It takes just a few second to cook. Flip to the other side. When they are done it should have lots of nice brown speckles.





Place them in a big old stack. The tortillas are ready to eat now!












We ate some of our tortillas with black bean tacos.
(serves 2)
1 cup frozen spinach
1 cup corn kernels
1 /2 onion, sliced and sauteed until brown
Cook up all the veggies together.
Toss black beans with salt and 1 T chili powder for 2 cups of beans.
Shred some cheese
Salsa



Dining in style in her upgraded
High Chair. We've retired the Bean's
high chair, and modified her
IKEA wooden chair to remove the front bar and submarine stopper to make a toddler chair.
The Bean has been busily climbing into her chair, and we decided it was safer if she could get it without flipping over the sides of the chair. The tortillas and shredded cheese are yummy-
nummy, she thinks!