Pancake Mix

The recipe for pancake mix to store in the freezer and use as needed:


Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups cake flour
1 cup non-fat milk powder
3/4 cup malted milk powder
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter , cut into 1/2 -inch pieces

Instructions
Process all ingredients in food processor until no lumps remain and mixture is texture of wet sand, about 2 minutes. Freeze in airtight container for up to 2 months.

To make 8 pancakes: Whisk 2 cups mix, 2 lightly beaten large eggs, and ½ cup buttermilk** (I prefer thinner pancakes and pancake batter, so I use a little more buttermilk) in large bowl until smooth. Pour ¼-cup portions of pancake batter onto lightly oiled large nonstick skillet or griddle and cook over medium-low heat until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining batter as desired. Serve. (If you don’t have buttermilk, make clabbered milk by whisking ½ tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice into ½ cup whole or low-fat milk and letting the mixture thicken for 10 minutes.)

**if you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1/2cup milk and add 2 tsp of vinegar, let rest before whisking in with the mix and eggs.

Who are you?

I looked at the stats of this blog and there's a lot of people checking this....who are you?
is there any recipes that you would love to share? something that you'd like to see posted here?
Leave a comment and let me know....

Perfect Pancakes

One of favorite thing to have for breakfast is pancakes. We make pancakes of all varieties, sourdough, whole grain, buttermilk, Swedish, from a box, etc. Between Dan and I, we've tried just about every recipe that we have in our file and cookbooks for pancakes. Yesterday, I tried a recipe that we've made in the past, but we didn't have our own buttermilk....So, I improvised.

Perfect Pancakes
about 16 4-inch pancakes

2 cups flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
3 cups buttermilk**
4 tbsp butter, melted
additional butter for griddle

Heat griddle on stovetop at medium....I'm a very impatient cook and tend to turn the stove up too high. I set the stove one notch above medium, but NEVER go higher than that.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar together in a medium bowl. In a large measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and egg.
Add the buttermilk mixture and the melted butter to the flour mixture and gently combine. Don't overmix. This has a lot of liquid, so it is a thinner batter, but don't overmix to get rid of the lumps. Lumps are key to great pancakes!
Put 1/2 tsp butter on the griddle and wipe with paper towel to coat the griddle.
Drop the batter by 1/4 cup measuring spoon onto the griddle. Let it cook for abotu 2 minutes, until it has lots of bubbles covering the cake. Gently turn over. The top should be a nice golden brown. Adjust cooking time accordingly. Cook on the second side for another minute. Remove to a platter and keep warm in your own set to warm setting.
You can drop blueberries onto the batter before turning, don't mix into the batter or it will turn blue....We have also tried thin sliced pears on the griddle and then pour the pancake batter on top of that. Delicious!
**we don't always have buttermilk on hand. this recipe works great by combining 3 cups of milk (really should be at least 1%) and add 3 tbsp of cider vinegar, stir and let it rest for a few minutes. Add to the recipe as directed.

These pancakes are so good. I love buttermilk pancakes, but am not a fan of ones that turn out to be 1/2 thick because the batter is so thick. This batter is thin and light. So delicious!

Also, it makes more than we need. So, I put the extra cakes on a cooling rack and freeze them in a single layer. When frozen, put them in a zipper freezer bag for a quick breakfast. They can be microwaved or put into the toaster (our preference).

I saw a new recipe for pancakes that we really want to try, it's for a dry pancake mix to store in the freezer and just use as needed. It sounds GREAT.

Chicken Soup with Spaetzel

Several years ago, I decided that I really disliked canned soup...I couldn't eat it for lunch anymore...Homemade soup is where it is at! And I have a love for chicken soup of all varieties. Chicken Noodle and Chicken Soup with Spaetzel are two of my favorites and ones that I think that I've perfected. Tonight, Louie said that Chicken Soup with Spaetzel was delicious and it was his favorite! I think that is a winning endorsement.

A few notes on this soup: I have a Ziploc bag in my freezer that I keep uncooked chicken pieces and parts in to make soup with. I save the chicken backs that are in the packages of cut up chicken, I save the chicken wings and I know it sounds gross, but if there are big hunks of chicken fat when cutting up a whole chicken. Basically, anything but the chicken livers are used for chicken stock around here.

If you don't have the time or the desire to mess around with making stock from scratch, there are lots of chicken soup base products available.   I typically use the Better than Bouillan Organic Chicken Soup Base (no MSG).  It's perfect for a quick soup with lots of delicious chicken flavor. 

Chicken Soup with Spaetzel6 servings

2 pounds of chicken parts
2 carrots, cut into large chunks
1 onion, cut into large chunks
2 ribs of celery, cut into large chunks
celery tops and greens
1 tsp of kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme

Put all of the above ingredients in a 6 qt dutch oven or stock pot and fill with water to cover. You'll end up adding about 4 qts of water. If you're using frozen chicken parts, like I do, they don't need to be thawed. Bring the pot to a boil, loosely cover so a little steam can escape and reduce head to simmer and let the pot simmer for 4 hours. If you need to add a little more water, go ahead.
During the winter, after 4 hours I turn off the heat and put the pot outside just until the fat at the top semi-hardens so it can skim off easier.
After skimming the fat, strain the soup into a large bowl, to remove all solids. Set aside.

To make the soup:
4 qts of chicken stock
1-2 skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into small chunks
3 carrots, small chop
1 large onion, small chop
2 stalks of celery, small chop
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp sugar

Heat olive oil in the stock pot or dutch oven. Add the chicken pieces and saute just until it is no longer pink. Add the carrots, onion and celery. Saute until soft, about 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and stir about 30 seconds.
Add the chicken stock and stir. Bring to a boil. Stir in 1 tbsp sugar. Salt and pepper to taste. At this point, if the broth doesn't have a rich chicken flavor, I'll add a spoonful of "Better than Bouillon" Chicken Soup Base. This just intensifies the chicken flavor, but be careful of adding too much salt.
Let simmer for 30 minutes.

To make the spaetzel:
1 1/4 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1 egg beaten

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. In a measuring cup, mix the egg, milk and water. Gradually add to the flour mixture, mixing well.
Add the batter by 1/2 tsp to the boiling soup. After all the batter is added to the soup, reduce heat to medium and let it simmer for about 10 minutes, covered.

Serve with a yummy crusty bread.

PW's Simple Sesame Noodles, Pelletier style

A while back The Pioneer Woman had a recipe for Simple Sesame Noodles. I thought the recipe sounded delicious, I love sesame anything! The only problem was that I wanted to make a whole meal out of them....So, I added a chicken breast and fresh broccoli and voila, we had a meal and a huge bonus is that it is now Emily and Louie's favorite meal!


And so, without further adieux:

Ingredients

12 ounces, Thin Noodles, Cooked And Drained  (we use whole wheat pasta)
Whisk together:
¼ cups Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Sugar
4 cloves Garlic, Minced
2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
3 Tablespoons Pure Sesame Oil
½ teaspoons Hot Chili Oil
4 Tablespoons Canola Oil
2 Tablespoons Hot Water

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips and then into bite sized pieces
2-3 tbsp corn starch
2 heads of broccoli, stalks removed and cut into bite sized florets
2-3 tsp canola oil
3 green onions, thinly sliced

In a bowl, toss the chicken pieces with the corn starch. In a large skillet, over medium heat, add 2-3 tsp canola oil. Once the oil shimmers in the bottom of the pan, add the chicken in a single layer. Leave it and let it cook for a minute or two. Stir so that the chicken cooks evenly.
When the chicken appears to be almost done, about 5 minutes, add the broccoli pieces and stirfry. Add 1-2 tbsp of water and cover to steam the broccoli. In a couple minutes, it should be bright green, but slightly crunchy.
Add the noodles to the pan and toss thoroughly with the chicken. Pour the sauce over the noodle and chicken mixture and toss. Sprinkle with the green onions. Serve hot.

Enjoy, we do!

Grandma's Meatloaf

Grandma's Meatloaf

2 pounds ground beef (80/20 works great, meatloaf mix is even better - meatloaf mix is beef, veal and pork)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/8 tsp ground pepper
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp dried chopped onion

Combine the first six ingredients and gently press into a loaf pan. Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the meatloaf in pan.
Bank in 350-degree oven for 90 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes and remove from pan, slice and serve.

Butternut Squash Gratin

A few years ago, Dan and I ate dinner at Forepaugh's. One of the sides that came with out entree's was Butternut Squash Gratin. It was so good, Dan and I practically licked the serving dish out when it was gone (in about 45 seconds).

Since then, I've been searching the web for a recipe for Butternut Squash Gratin and have never found anything that I felt would suffice. So, tonight I took matters into my own hands and decided to take care of business myself. I know how to cook for gosh sake....and now that I've got a cast iron skillet, life is good.

Let's get this party started, shall we?

Butternut Squash Gratin

1 butternut squash; peeled, seeded and cut into cubes (about 4 cups)

5 tbsp butter; divided

1 onion; chopped in large chunks

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp fresh sage, minced

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

fresh ground nutmeg

In a large sauce pan, with the steamer insert, bring about 3 cups of water to a boil (enough water to come to the bottom of the steamer basket). Add the cubed squash, cover and steam for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a 10 inch cast iron skillet, melt 3 tbsp of butter, add the chopped onion. Saute on low to medium heat until soft and carmelized, stirring occasionally. This takes about 20 minutes. Add the squash to the onions in the skillet and stir until combined. Sprinkle with salt, fresh ground pepper, sage and fresh ground nutmeg.

Heat the heavy cream in microwave for 1-2 minutes until warm. Pour over squash.

In a bowl, toss the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese with the remaining 2 tbsp of butter (melted). Sprinkle over the squash mixture in the skillet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, until bubbly.

Season with salt and pepper when serving.