Silver Dollar Pancakes

Do you have someone in your life whom you love enough to go to the DMV for?

I'm not talking about, "I have to go to the DMV for myself, so I can just go ahead and do that thing for you while I'm there." I'm talking about, "On my day off I will make a special trip to the DMV to get you new license plates and registration."

If that's not true love, I don't know what is.

In order to gear myself up for a trip to the DMV this morning for my loved one, I made silver dollar pancakes.

I also did some thinking. I do my best thinking when cooking.

Following thoughts are listed in no particular order.

1) I totally know that yesterday was IHOP National Pancake day and this posting would have been super appropriate for that, but I had to work at 6 am yesterday morning. There were no pancakes being made at 6am yesterday morning. There was a granola bar and fruit leather happening in the car on the way to work at 5:45am yesterday morning.

2) I miss my cast iron skillet. We have a glass stove top on the range in our new kitchen. That means no  cast iron skillet. The only thing we have to use instead is an electric skillet. Hurumph.

2) I will be the first to admit that I am not a big fan of Pancakes. I'm more of a waffle person. And I'm not even that much of a waffle person. I'm more of an egg and bacon lady myself.

3) These would make super awesome sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches. Breakfast for Dinner anyone?

5) My dad told me that my grandmother would make these every friday. He said that he never knew if she did this because they were catholic and they weren't supposed to eat meat on fridays or if the grocery funds were stretched a little tight by friday and these were cheap and easy. I like this story. I will hold it in my heart for as long as I can remember it.

4) I should totally start a food truck here in Madison. I want to do a gourmet sausage truck and twice fried Belgian fries with different dipping sauces. You can't tell me you wouldn't walk by a sausage truck on your way to or from a Badger football game and get down on a bacon wrapped bratwurst with a side of cheese smothered french fries.
             a. Yes, I think about food when I'm making food.
             b. If you steal my food truck idea, I will be very upset but I will probably still buy a bacon                             wrapped brat from you.

From the time I walked into the DMV to the time I walked out, all of 12 minutes had passed. It really wasn't bad at all. I'm still glad I made pancakes this morning.

Silver Dollar Pancakes

Adapted from: Norma Prosnick

Serves 25-30 small pancakes

1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 Teaspoons Double Action Baking Powder
2 Eggs, Lightly Beaten
1 Tablespoon Butter, Melted
1 Teaspoon Honey
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 Cups Whole Milk

In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Make well in center of ingredients. Set aside.

In a medium bowl combine eggs, melted butter, honey, vanilla and milk.

Stir liquid ingredients into dry and beat with wooden spoon until just combined. Batter will still have small lumps in it. Don't worry, that's totally okay.

On a hot, buttered griddle, drop batter in tablespoon portions.
I used my OXO medium cookie scoop and they turned out larger than silver dollars, but the size was really perfect.



When bubbles on side one of the pancake have popped and are set, flip them over and cook for a couple more minutes until they are golden brown.



Serve warm with melted butter and honey. Or Nutella. Or maple syrup. Or use them to make a sausage, egg and cheese sandwich.



If you have any leftovers, you can freeze them in an airtight container for up to 3 months and then pull them out, pop them in the toaster to warm them up and you can have pancakes even if you have to work at 6 am.

Banana Raspberry Muffins

I have the best intentions when buying bananas. I really do.

I think, "Bananas are so good for you. I'm going to eat one for breakfast every day. If I don't eat one for breakfast, I will have one for an afternoon snack. If I don't eat one for an afternoon snack, I will have one for "dessert" after dinner. That's so grown-up of me"

And then I end up with 3 super sad brown bananas on my counter.

Do I have an ulterior motive? Perhaps.

Would I much rather eat a baked good with bananas in it? Maybe.

At least they didn't go to waste, right? That's called being a grown-up.

Enter one very grown-up cook book:



This book also has an ulterior motive. It masquerades as a cook book one would have on their bookshelf if you were a refined, gentile lady, with it's shiny perfect pictures and it's gold accents.

But then you dive into it a little deeper and it holds recipes like Coca-Cola Cake and Peanut Butter Squares and Fairy Cakes.

Um, what?

This is the kind of grown-up lady I want to be friends with.



You know what isn't so cool about being a grown-up lady?

The metabolism you had at 21 is not the same metabolism you have at 30.

Not cool.

Enter some healthier substitutions.



The original recipe called for white chocolate, dried cherries and all purpose flour.

Doesn't that sound good?

They are. They are super good.

The adjustments I made are just a good. I promise.

The original recipe is called Banana, Cherry and White Chocolate Cupcakes.

Sadly enough, the changes I made morphed these guys into Muffins. It's still good. I really do promise.



Banana Raspberry Muffins

Adapted from: Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Makes 12-16 muffins

1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3 Ripe Bananas
4 Tablespoons Fat Free Plain Yogurt
2 Large Eggs
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
3 Tablespoon Trader Joe's Freeze Dried Raspberries
1/2 Cup of Toasted Walnuts, Chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line muffin tin with paper baking cups.

In a large sauce pan melt butter over medium heat.

While butter is melting, in medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients, less raspberries and walnuts.

Once butter has melted completely, remove from heat and add the sugar and vanilla to the sauce pan. Add the whole bananas to the sauce pan and mash with fork in the pan. Once bananas have been well mashed, add yogurt and eggs and with a wooden spoon, beat until combined.

Next add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and and stir until just combined. Lastly add the raspberries and walnuts and gently mix until evenly distributed.

Divide batter among the muffin cups. The original recipe calls for 12 portions but I felt like they were overfilled with making all the batter fit in 12 portions so I spread it out into 16.

Bake muffins for 20 mins. Muffin tops should be golden brown and a tester inserted in the middle should come out clean.

Turn out muffins on a wire rack and allow to cool.

Garlic Parsley Croutons

I was at the grocery store yesterday, standing in front of the dairy case, having the same internal struggle I have ever time I stand in front of the dairy case at the grocery store.
Is dairy good or bad?

In my haze of weighing calcium intake versus my body's ability to process enzymes, a little girl of no more than four years old wheeled her little person cart up next to me and proceeded to attempt to extract one little cup of mixed berry yogurt from the shelf.

She could almost get it. Her round little fingertips could just barely reach the edge of the container but if she pulled that container out, the 2 stacked on top of it would have toppled down.
So, she stood there, in front of the multitudes of yogurts, with her little hands folded in front of her, just staring at the mixed berry yogurt with her big brown eyes.
I reached over pulled the container of yogurt off the shelf and handed to her.

What happened next made my entire week.

She drew in one long, hushed breath and with her biggest, loudest, outdoor voice she said, "THANK YOU!" and then she turned around and yelled at her mom, who was now half an isle away, "MOMMA, I GOT SOME YOGURT!" and then she motored away with her single cup of mixed berry yogurt.

I don't know why I thought it was so awesome. It might have been the fact that she was so unexpectedly loud. It was like her little ears were plugged up and she was over compensating. Or maybe because she was so grateful. I just handed her a yogurt. Or maybe it was how excited she was about being able to pick something out and put it in her own little cart.

I wish I was still that excited about grocery shopping.

You know what I really don't get excited about putting in my grocery cart? Croutons.
What a rip off. It's essentially stale bread with some stuff sprinkled on it. And you're paying four to five bucks for that dinky little bag. Absurd! Especially since making them at home is so, so, so easy!

It starts with stale bread.



These don't look like they're stale, but they are. And yes, shame on me for letting these guys go. I had full intentions of making toasted garlic rounds to spread soft cheese on but by the time I got to them, they were too far gone.



Then you cube it up. There's no scientific way to do it. You can make them as big or as small as you want. These are your croutons.




And then you melt some butter. Yep, butter. You don't think that croutons get that tasty on their own, did you?




You mix the garlic powder and dried parsley into the melted butter and drizzle over the cubed bread and toss until thoroughly coated.

Watch out for those rogue cubes.

They like to jump out of the bowl, shoot across the floor and roll under the stove which you will then only find 8 months from now. You will dislodge the dirty, dustbunny studded crouton-to-be, and you will shudder at your disgustingness. But then you will remember that you made your own croutons and that ingenuity cancels out the disgusting. It's totally okay.



Then you're going to spread the coated cubes out evenly on a sheet pan.
Once again, watch those sneaky little guys. The one under the oven is trying to recruit friends.



The last step is toasting them in a 350 degree oven for 30 mins. Like I said, super duper easy.



This is what we had for dinner last night. This was done to try to counteract the nachos for dinner we had the night before. Yes, that happened. That's why salad happened last night.


Garlic Parsley Croutons

Serves: Approx. 8 servings (depending on how fond of croutons you are)

4 Cups of cubed stale bread
4 Tablespoons of salted butter, melted
1 Teaspoon of garlic powder
1 Teaspoon of dried parsley

Please note that you can use pretty much any kind of bread you want. I've used wheat sliced sandwich bread and french baguettes. Both turned out great.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place cubed bread in a medium bowl and set aside.

In the microwave, melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl , just until totally melted. (please don't do this in a plastic bowl.)

Stir the garlic powder and dried parsley into the melted butter.

Drizzle half of the butter mixture over the cubed bread and toss until thoroughly coated. Repeat with remaining butter mixture.

Spread cubes on a rimmed baking sheet into a single layer and bake for 30 mins, stirring the cubes half way through.

Time may vary depending on your oven. Cubes should be golden brown and crunchy all the way through when done. You might need to do some testing for quality control.

Moving back to Madison

We started off our drive back to Madison at Griffith Park Observatory. It was a lovely 74 degrees and sunny.



A little over a week later, this is where I find myself.



It's 18 degrees and snowing. We may have made a very grave mistake.

But, we're going out to do fish fry for dinner with some of my favorite Madisonians, so I really can't complain. (Please note that by simply asking me to join you for dinner, you definitely make my list of favorites)

We took the southern route across the west half of the country because we wanted to avoid having to go through the mountains in Colorado and possibly getting caught by a snowstorm.



We totally still got caught in a snowstorm in Des Moines, but at least we didn't have to worry about going up or down a MOUNTAIN whilst in the midst of said snowstorm.



We spent our first night in Phoenix. I wish I could say that I saw enough of Phoenix to really enjoy it but we had spent the day before cleaning and packing and moving and then got up early the next morning to finish cleaning and jam our cars full of the stuff, that for some reason, we didn't send with the movers. (Disclaimer: When moving, there is always way less room in your car than you originally anticipated) After meeting our landlord and handing off our keys we hit the road for a good 6 hours. By the time we rolled into town, checked into our hotel and found somewhere to eat, it was 9pm and I almost passed out in the salad I ordered.

I didn't keep a journal on the trip, but I wish I would have so that I could have remembered all the weird things along the way. Here are just some of the tidbits I was able to pull from my very fuzzy remembrances.



1) The Bellhop (is that what they're really still called?) at our first hotel was uber attentive. Like creepy attentive. Like started pulling stuff out of the car when we opened the doors to get out. Like tried to light my sister's cigarette while she was waiting outside and then asked to bum one off of her. Maybe it was just a , "you had to be there," moment but dude needed to back it down a bit.



2) There are places in the desert that a whole bunch of people pull up their RV's together and just live. When you stumble upon these places, at first you will think they're RV dealerships. They're not. People live there.



3) Abandoned buildings, especially abandoned entire housing complexes are, hands down, the creepiest things, EVER.



4)Eating nothing but trail mix and Jalapeno Cheddar Chex Mix will give you a tummy ache but that will not prevent you from doing it again the next day.



5) Don't feed a cat turkey lunch meat with Pesto on it if you intend to ride in the car for 7 hours with it. You might get poop on your pants.



6) By the time the light flashes on the camera of a photo enforced section of highway, it's too late to slow down. You're busted.



7) There is no better way to charge your travel battery than blood orange margaritas, a wonderful meal and the company of loved ones. A big THANK YOU goes out to my Aunt Amy and Jen.



8) I'm sure there are parts of Texas and Oklahoma that are nice, but not the ones that we saw. Those parts kind of sucked.



9) You should definitely listen to Tina Fey's Bossy Pants on CD. Get it from the library. Load it on your Ipod and be prepared to laugh. I will now be adding phrases such as "Dummies" or "You big dummy" and "that's the worst" or "you're the worst". I will also be implementing curses such as "Asshat" to my repertoire. And most importantly “If you retain nothing else, always remember the most important rule of beauty, which is: who cares?” 
― Tina Fey, Bossypants

10) Hands down best BBQ is a place in the back of a Gas Station in Kansas City, KS.
My pulled pork sandwich was so tender and juicy it was akin to eating pork cotton candy on a perfectly buttered and toasted bun. It was amazingly glorious. I maybe teared up a bit.


Last but not least, there is no better feeling than getting the keys to your apartment and being able to sleep in your own bed in your own apartment.

But we still don't know how that feels yet because we've been bunked out on an air mattress until our stuff arrives which now has been pushed back for the 2nd time to the 15th of February.

I still find myself very lucky because K and I are together. Also, K had the super smart idea of putting our memory foam topper on top of the air mattress. Sheer Genius! I love that boy.

EBTKS Granola Bars

I'm just going to come out and say it.
I'm a culinary hoarder.

I thought I would feel better saying it out loud but now I just feel kind of ashamed about it.

But, my shame is your gain.

I accumulate different oddball ingredients that I only need for one recipe and then I'm stuck with a whole lot of things like golden syrup or ground cardamom or turmeric or any variety of nuts. And then every time I open the cupboard, it's a glaring reminder of my wasteful consumerism.

Wasteful consumerism be damned, I was bound and determined to use up my really lovely ingredients and I found these granola bars to do it with. They have everything but the kitchen sink. Have no fear, I didn't use turmeric or ground cardamom in these, although that sounds like a bit of an Iron Chef challenge. Maybe I'll save that for a later post.



This recipe is really quite easy and not too time consuming and honest to pete, they are super tasty.
"Better than store bought?", you ask.

Well, if you're looking for a Kudos kind of granola bar, you're better off just buying yourself a candy bar, but if you're looking for Kashi type, slightly chewy/slightly crunchy bar, then yes, I would say these are better.

But that's just my opinion, man.

You start by toasting the majority of the ingredients. I left out the pistachios because they were already roasted, the raisins and the oat bran.


While they are toasting away in the oven you can combine the binding ingredients in a medium sauce pan over low heat. This is the glue that will hold it all together. The tasty, tasty glue.



During the toasting process things will start to smell heavenly.



I, amazingly enough, have never toasted coconut before, but after this, I might have to make it a regular occurrence.

After everything has been toasted, you throw it all in a large bowl.



And pour the binding concoction over the whole mess and quickly, but ever so carefully, mix it all together because that mammajamma is super hot and super sticky.

Spread the whole hot, sticky, and soon to be extremely tasty mess into a parchment lined pan and bake it for 25 mins.



You just have to let them cool, take them out of the pans, and cut into bars.

Now, I know when you take the pans out of the oven and smell that glorious, nutty, sweet smell, you'll  immediately want to take them out of the pan and cut them up to then stand over the kitchen sink while stuffing them into your face.

Wait, you don't have the urge to do that? You have better self control than that?

That's weird.

Well, if you did have that urge, fight it with all you've got because until they're completely cooled, they're still highly malleable and you'll just end up with  crumbly piles of granola instead of nice little neat bars. Which really is okay, if that's what you're going for.  It's not like I know from experience or anything.



Wrap them up in plastic wrap or put them in a plastic container and they'll last a little longer than a week. That is, if you have that much self control. We obviously have some self control issues to address up in here.

Enjoy!

EBTKS Granola Bars

Adapted from Alton Brown's Recipe

Like I said, the ingredients below were chosen simply to use up what I had in my pantry.
You can swap any of the nuts, seeds or dried fruit to adapt the recipe to compliment your tastes.

Makes 10-12 bars

8 Ounces Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
2 Ounces Roasted Pistachios
3 Ounces Slivered Almonds
1 Ounce Flax Seeds
2 Ounces Raw Sunflower Seeds
1 1/2 Ounces Oat Bran
3 Ounces Golden Raisins
3 Ounces Sweeten Shredded Coconut
6 Ounces Honey
1 3/4 Ounces Brown Sugar
1 Ounce Unsalted Butter
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1/2 Teaspoon Fine Sea Salt


Prepare your baking dish by either lining it with parchment paper or buttering. You can use a 9 x 9 dish or, as you can see, I used 2 large loaf pans.
Set oven racks to the 2 center positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread the oats, slivered almonds, flax seeds and sunflower seeds out on a shallow baking pan. Do the same with the coconut.

Place these two pans in the oven and toast for about 15 mins, rotating and stirring occasionally. The coconut will take less than 15 mins so just keep an eye on it and as soon as it starts to turn golden brown, remove from oven and let cool.
After oat mixture is done toasting, remove and let cool and reduce oven to 300 degrees.

While ingredients are toasting in oven, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, vanilla extract and sea salt in a medium sauce pan over low heat.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until brown sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is just starting to bubble.

Immediately add the brown sugar mixture to oat mixture and stir to combine.
Carefully turn mixture out into prepared pan(s) and press down with spatula, making sure mixture is evenly distributed.
Bake for 25 mins, rotating half way through.
Remove from oven and as cautioned before, allow to cool completely, cut into desired shapes and wrap  individually in plastic wrap or place in an airtight container for up to a week.

Satisfying Mediterranean Salad

I'm writing this to make up for the earlier cookie post.

I'm sorry. That wasn't fair.

Everyone is working so hard and diligently on their new years resolutions of eating healthier and losing weight and overall improving themselves. And then I come along and drop that chocolately, melt in your mouth confection right in the middle of your computer screen. Totes not fair.

To make it up to you (and my waistline) I'm delivering this vibrant and healthy salad to you.

Wait, did I just hear a groan? It's only January 12th and you're sick of salads already? This is not good.

Well, you are lucky, my friend. This is not just a sad lettuce and veggie salad. This salad has pasta in it.

Ok, good, there you are. I knew the promise of pasta would bring you back.



And sauteed onions and peppers. Just the smell of that would make anyone happy.



Fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. Those darn veggies.



I've just started appreciating chickpeas. They add that element of meat but they're healthier than meat. Amazing.



And the dressing is zippy and robust and the best thing... no mayo



This will leave you satisfied and satiated without feeling like you need to take a nap. Plus, it saves enough calories so you can have one of these for dessert. Sneaky, right?

Satisfying Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Adapted from Everybody Likes Sandwiches

Serves: 6 very hungry or 8 kind of hungry people

Salad:
1 Cup Prepared Orzo Pasta
1 Cup Canned Chickpeas, drained and rinsed**
1 Medium Yellow Bell Pepper, Diced
1/2 Medium Yellow Onion, Diced
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Medium Cucumber, Diced
1 Cup Grape Tomatoes, Cut in Half

Dressing:
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Juice and Zest of 1 Lemon
1 Clove Garlic, finely minced
1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/2 Teaspoon Honey
1/2 Teaspoon Cumin
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Dill
Salt & Pepper

Prepare Orzo as directed on package and allow to cool.

Heat the 1 Tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat and saute the onions and bell peppers until onions are slightly translucent and bell peppers have softened. Approximately 15-20 mins.

Combine all dressing ingredients except salt and pepper in small, tight fitting lidded jar, and shake vigorously.

Combine all of the salad components in large bowl and drizzle the dressing over the top. Toss, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve over a bed of baby spinach with a side of crusty bread. Enjoy!

**For the chickpeas, the canned variety are incredibly easy but I far prefer the dried, soaked overnight and prepared version. They take a little more forethought but I find them far less gritty than the canned kind.

To prepare the dried kind, soak 1 cup of dried chickpeas overnight in 6-8 cups of water.

After soaking, drain and rinse and combine in medium stock pot with 6-8 cups of fresh water over medium heat. Bring to low boil and let cook, covered, for 1- 1 1/2 hours or until chickpeas are tender.

Remove from heat and let cool. Rinse cooked beans before using. This amount will leave you with more than enough for the salad recipe. That way you can find interesting ways to use the leftovers.

Who doesn't like chocolate?

There are actually quite a few people who don't like chocolate.

I don't think you should trust any of them.

You also shouldn't trust people who don't like camping or Steve Miller Band. These are just tried and true litmus tests for trust worthy people.

If you're one of those people who doesn't like chocolate, now is the time for you to click away because this is what one pound of chocolate looks like:



Yep, that's an entire pound.



That's maybe a whole pound minus a couple of ounces.

It's called quality control. Lay off me.

It's a major weakness of mine.

You know what else is a major weakness?

Cookbooks.



This cookbook was ordered as a christmas gift for someone and K had already ordered a present for said person so it just kind of accidentally got absorbed into my collection. Ooops.

It's a pretty sweet cookbook. It has a wonderful assortment of recipes and tips and illustrations. This was an awesome mistake.

I wish I could say that I also accidentally ate 2 scoops of the uncooked dough of these cookies, but that was no accident. I poured a glass of milk and totally intentionally ate those two full scoops of dough. It was awesome.
I don't condone eating raw cookie dough. It's not safe. It is, however, amazingly delicious. I'm a daredevil like that.


These cookies are just as awesome when they're baked too.



I would suggest you bake up some of them yourself.


Thick and Cakey Triple Chocolate Cookies

From Cooks Illustrated Cook Book

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Pound Semi-Sweet Chocolate, Chopped
4 Large Eggs
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
10 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened
1 1/2 Cups of Packed Light Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Cups of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

Add the chopped chocolate to a heavy bottomed medium sauce pan over low heat and stir occasionally until only small pieces are left in the melted chocolate. Remove from heat and stir until remaining chocolate pieces have melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together butter and sugars at medium speed.
Reduce speed to low, add eggs and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
Add melted chocolate in a steady stream and mix until combined, scraping sides while mixing.
With mixer still running, add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
With a spoon, mix in chocolate chips.
Tightly cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rest at room temperature for 30 mins until consistency is scoopable.

In 2 tablespoon portions roll dough into balls and space 1 1/2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake for 10 mins, rotating cookie sheets half way through.

Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 10 mins and transfer to wire rack.

If you don't want to make all 4 dozen cookies at once, you can place the baking sheets with the rolled dough in the freezer for a few hours or at least until they're frozen solid and then place the uncooked balls in a freezer bag and put them back in the freezer.
That way you can pop them into the oven, still frozen and add an addition 2 minutes to baking time and you will have fresh baked cookie goodness whenever you want.