Last night was quite possibly the yummiest meal of my life.
That includes meals that I have eaten in very fancy restaurants, on my cruise, and in France.
But this meal was fairly inexpensive, took me about 45 minutes from fridge to table and was extremely healthy. I think this is breaking some kind of unwritten law. :)
So what did I make?
Baked Alaskan Salmon and Fresh Green Beans. The salmon recipe was developed by my friend Robert, and I will ask his permission to post it here. I can tell you that it involved the perfect balance of olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, salt & pepper and one other secret ingredient. The excess oil that dripped off the fish was so good that Michael and I ate several pieces of toasted whole wheat bread each just to sop it up. We couldn't stop!
The green bean recipe I found on Pioneer Woman's website. Quite a discovery--both the beans and the website. I will be visiting there again. We had a little hiccup getting the liquid to evaporate, but even so, it was caramel-y sweet.
Also, I have a new goal of bringing my camera into the kitchen--just in case! :)
Happy Friday my friends.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
A very very half-birthday, to you!
Nathanael celebrated his 18-month half-birthday recently at the home of a wonderful couple in our ward. We had a chocolate cupcake with "full fat, full sugar" and gooey frosting to boot.
We lit the candle and encouraged him to blow on it (hot!) to no avail. He just wanted to feel it! :) Ah, well, Mom blew it out for him. :)
However, we did sing Happy Birthday to him throughout the day and evening, which he loved. For a present, we found a great little green Ikea chair at DI just a few days later. He carries it everywhere and rarely sits on it, but uses it to be taller! Pictures of that to follow (as soon as I get some!)
Here are the birthday shots.
Enjoying the attention and treats!
Serious Groucho Marx.
Smiling Groucho Marx.
We lit the candle and encouraged him to blow on it (hot!) to no avail. He just wanted to feel it! :) Ah, well, Mom blew it out for him. :)
However, we did sing Happy Birthday to him throughout the day and evening, which he loved. For a present, we found a great little green Ikea chair at DI just a few days later. He carries it everywhere and rarely sits on it, but uses it to be taller! Pictures of that to follow (as soon as I get some!)
Here are the birthday shots.
Enjoying the attention and treats!
Serious Groucho Marx.
Smiling Groucho Marx.
Labor Day, Play Day
Today Michael got a new bike. Nathanael sucked the juice out of an orange. And I got to go to the grocery store by myself!
It may seem that I'm being sarcastic, but actually, this was a great day for me.
The grocery store did happen to be the Whole Foods Market on Denny in downtown Seattle. It is huge for either a city grocery store or a health food store, and I had a hay day. This also came after the realization (in the car on the way there) that for me food isn't just for survival or familial duty--I love it.
I love to eat it, I love to prepare it, I love to think about ways to make it fun. I especially love to serve it to others. (And I really love it when they like it!)
Realizing that food is fun for me, somehow made it even more so. It allowed me to celebrate the new basil putting down roots on my windowsill, and the freshly ground flour in my freezer. (Thanks, Michael!) And now I feel empowered to roast the eggplant and summer squash from the farmer's market, and to plant lettuce for the end-of-the-summer season. I am ready to take on the Chicken Cacciatore my husband got excited about tonight* and prepare lunches and snack foods for a new week dawning.
Plus, now I have a dishwasher, so I get to have all the fun, and let an appliance clean up!
*I just learned this tidbit from Wikipedia. "Cacciatore means "hunter" in Italian. In cuisine, "alla cacciatora" refers to a meal prepared "hunter-style" with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, herbs, often bell pepper, and sometimes wine."
Whole Wheat Pancakes a la Deardeuff
I keep getting requests for this recipe, so as I typed it up for a friend, it occurred to me to post it here. Next time I make it I will take pictures and post them, as I always enjoy illustrated food blogs (a fun one is http://pinchmysalt.com/).
I originally got this recipe from a book entitled Essential Mormon Celebrations. The recipe was called Papa's Whole-Wheat Pancakes. My recipe really doesn't look very much like the original, but just so we're all clear, I didn't start from nothing.
That being said, these are my favorite pancakes. I make them quite often, and even Michael asks for them! (That's when I know I'm on the right track!) They have been quite versatile, and in a pinch, I will use leftovers as bread in a lunch meat sandwich (unfortunately, there are usually not any leftover). Also, I like to double the recipe, but not if I am trying something new (see variations).
Here it is:
1/2 cup milk (I use rice milk)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (this is the measurement for fresh ground flour. For store bought, I would start with 1 cup and add more at the end to balance the consistency as needed.)
1/4 tsp sea salt (1/8 tsp if honey is omitted)
2 Tbsp raw honey (may be omitted for yeast cleansing or other sugarless diets)
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
Combine flour, salt, milk and water well with whisk or fork. Add remaining ingredients, reserving the baking soda and baking powder until the end so they will be active while the pancakes are cooking. It is also a good idea to mix those last two ingredients with one of the liquids or a small amount of reserved water first and then add to batter to avoid lumps in the pancakes.
Using a 1/4-cup measure, pour batter onto a moderately hot griddle (nonstick or greased). I set mine to 250 to 300 degrees. Any hotter, and they get too dark before the centers cook. Flip when partially done (you get to check, these usually don't bubble like white flour pancakes do). Serve with real maple syrup, blue agave nectar, or apple butter (I made some homemade apple-saucy stuff that was really yummy on top of these).
Variations:
Flour: Use buckwheat flour for some or all of the whole wheat flour. We have also experimented with some brown rice flour and potato flour with good results. The potato flour made them fluffier (although these are already very light for a whole wheat recipe), and we were careful to only add a small amount of rice flour, otherwise the rice taste was noticeable. A general guideline for flour substitutions: start by substituting small amounts (in a 1:1 ratio) and watch the batter for consistency. Then, add more liquid or flour as needed. (Different flours absorb different amounts of liquid. I find this is true even for different batches of whole wheat flour.)
Add-ins: I usually toss 1/4 to 1/3 cup of vegan carob chips into the batter just before cooking. They get all melty and remind me of my pre-no-chocolate days. :) Michael likes texture, so one time he added our usual carob chips as well as some chopped walnuts and raisins. Those were exciting pancakes! :) We also did small cut up pieces of apple once which was nice. Frozen blueberries (or other fruit) work well, the fruit thaws as the pancakes cook, so there's no need to plan ahead (that's my favorite thing in recipes).
Fruit/Vegetable Puree: I have only experimented with butternut squash, but I imagine applesauce or other purees of similar consistency (pumpkin, zucchini, carrot, etc.) would work just fine. Make some amount of the puree (or use leftovers). I would start with 1/2 to 1 cup for this recipe (un-doubled). Simply add it to the pancake batter after it is mixed entirely. There is no need to adjust liquid or flour, the purees usually are about the same consistency as the final batter, so it just increases the volume of the recipe. The nice thing about the squash was that Nathanael just thought they were regular pancakes, but he was getting vegetables too! They were barely noticeable as tiny pieces, and not at all in the flavor of the pancake itself.
Wow! I didn't realize we had relied so much on this recipe! I've made it a lot in the last six months!
If you make these please post a comment and let me know how they turn out. I'd love to hear about any experimentation! :)
P.S. Michael asked me to be sure to include the word 'delicious' in this post. I assure you, these are wonderful!
I originally got this recipe from a book entitled Essential Mormon Celebrations. The recipe was called Papa's Whole-Wheat Pancakes. My recipe really doesn't look very much like the original, but just so we're all clear, I didn't start from nothing.
That being said, these are my favorite pancakes. I make them quite often, and even Michael asks for them! (That's when I know I'm on the right track!) They have been quite versatile, and in a pinch, I will use leftovers as bread in a lunch meat sandwich (unfortunately, there are usually not any leftover). Also, I like to double the recipe, but not if I am trying something new (see variations).
Here it is:
1/2 cup milk (I use rice milk)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (this is the measurement for fresh ground flour. For store bought, I would start with 1 cup and add more at the end to balance the consistency as needed.)
1/4 tsp sea salt (1/8 tsp if honey is omitted)
2 Tbsp raw honey (may be omitted for yeast cleansing or other sugarless diets)
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
Combine flour, salt, milk and water well with whisk or fork. Add remaining ingredients, reserving the baking soda and baking powder until the end so they will be active while the pancakes are cooking. It is also a good idea to mix those last two ingredients with one of the liquids or a small amount of reserved water first and then add to batter to avoid lumps in the pancakes.
Using a 1/4-cup measure, pour batter onto a moderately hot griddle (nonstick or greased). I set mine to 250 to 300 degrees. Any hotter, and they get too dark before the centers cook. Flip when partially done (you get to check, these usually don't bubble like white flour pancakes do). Serve with real maple syrup, blue agave nectar, or apple butter (I made some homemade apple-saucy stuff that was really yummy on top of these).
Variations:
Flour: Use buckwheat flour for some or all of the whole wheat flour. We have also experimented with some brown rice flour and potato flour with good results. The potato flour made them fluffier (although these are already very light for a whole wheat recipe), and we were careful to only add a small amount of rice flour, otherwise the rice taste was noticeable. A general guideline for flour substitutions: start by substituting small amounts (in a 1:1 ratio) and watch the batter for consistency. Then, add more liquid or flour as needed. (Different flours absorb different amounts of liquid. I find this is true even for different batches of whole wheat flour.)
Add-ins: I usually toss 1/4 to 1/3 cup of vegan carob chips into the batter just before cooking. They get all melty and remind me of my pre-no-chocolate days. :) Michael likes texture, so one time he added our usual carob chips as well as some chopped walnuts and raisins. Those were exciting pancakes! :) We also did small cut up pieces of apple once which was nice. Frozen blueberries (or other fruit) work well, the fruit thaws as the pancakes cook, so there's no need to plan ahead (that's my favorite thing in recipes).
Fruit/Vegetable Puree: I have only experimented with butternut squash, but I imagine applesauce or other purees of similar consistency (pumpkin, zucchini, carrot, etc.) would work just fine. Make some amount of the puree (or use leftovers). I would start with 1/2 to 1 cup for this recipe (un-doubled). Simply add it to the pancake batter after it is mixed entirely. There is no need to adjust liquid or flour, the purees usually are about the same consistency as the final batter, so it just increases the volume of the recipe. The nice thing about the squash was that Nathanael just thought they were regular pancakes, but he was getting vegetables too! They were barely noticeable as tiny pieces, and not at all in the flavor of the pancake itself.
Wow! I didn't realize we had relied so much on this recipe! I've made it a lot in the last six months!
If you make these please post a comment and let me know how they turn out. I'd love to hear about any experimentation! :)
P.S. Michael asked me to be sure to include the word 'delicious' in this post. I assure you, these are wonderful!
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