Eatyet’s Weblog

I’m not quite sure why, but I’ve craved pancakes like no other recently. Normally, I make pancakes from scratch for the whole family, but I live alone now and so I’ve got to find quicker alternatives to get my breakfast in before work. Well, I went shopping at Williams Sonoma because I had a gift card there and saw this pancake mix. There were a variety of choices, but I’m a buttermilk kind of girl, so Flappin’ Jack is what I picked.

Now, the recipe calls for 1 cup of mix and then 1 cup of water or milk, but I thought it was a little too liquidy and not quite thick enough for me. So, I’ve been using 1 cup of pancake mix and about 3/4 cup of milk. The pancakes are still super fluffy and oh so tasty. The recipe says it yields about 6 pancakes per cup of mix, but I usually end up with about 3 decent sized pancakes.

I really couldn’t have picked a better pancake mix. It was delicious and I savor every bite. Sure, you can add your favorite fruits, but if you just want a quick buttermilk pancake fix, this will definitely do it for you. I miss the baking and cooking. Till next time!

P.S. The pancake man on the container creeps me out…just a little bit. ^_~

–Chelle

The hubby loves cereal (mainly Nature’s Path Optimum Power) and soymilk in the morning, afternoon, late at night, and whenever he feels like eating something. He doesn’t really miss it when we go weeks without buying any but when it’s there he’ll go thru a box in two days (maybe three). I tried buying in bulk, but it still doesn’t feel like much of a deal. The cheapest organic cereals are plain puffed grains of some sort. I prefer granola, but most of the granola I see at the stores aren’t organic and they are still expensive. A one pound bag of organic rolled oats is moderate in price. To make a bowl of oatmeal you would use less than you would normally consume in a bowl of granola.

So here’s my attempt in trying to solve my cereal dilemma, involving some cheap organic puffed brown rice and organic rolled oats. However, with the added costs of nuts, fruits and other extras, I don’t think I can conclusively calculate it as a real savings. But it’s tasty and makes use of my new glass container.

Granola cereal with almonds, coconut, and raisins

• 2 1/2 – 3 cups rolled oats (I eyeballed it)
• 2 cups puffed rice or kamut
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 2/3 cup flaked coconut
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup golden syrup or maple syrup/rice bran syrup (more or less according to your taste)
• 1 tsp molasses (optional)
• 1 tbsp of oil or more if needed

Makes about 2 1/2 quarts (roughly)

Preheat oven to 350º. Coat large mixing bowl with the oil. Mix everything except the raisins together in the bowl with the liquids. Pour and spread evenly onto a parchment lined sheet pan. Bake for 20mins (or till golden brown), stirring it half way thru. When cooled mix in raisins, and store in an airtight container if you intend to keep for long. The non-airtight container is ok for a day or two (which is exactly how long it’s gonna last here).

Will be making more soon, but I ran out of raisins, and walnuts might be cheaper.

-L

This was the dough after 7 hours in the fridge. This is a 4qt bowl and I also had another 1.5qt bowl of dough.

I finally bought a copy of ‘Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’ by Jeff Hertzberg, Zoe Francois. For the past year and a half I’ve been working with the ‘No-Knead Bread’ recipe but with more yeast and less than half the incubating time. And the pot baking method really insures great crust every time. With the ‘five minute’ method, the dough is drier than I’m used to, but it’s still considered a wet dough. The refrigeration makes it easier to handle, and the idea of always having readied dough on hand is great. Of course it’s not literally five minutes but it’s less labor intensive than making a batch of cookies or a cake. Hardest part might have been trying to make room in the fridge for the dough.

After resting. The chunk may have been a bit larger than the recommended grapefruit sized 1lb ball.

The book suggests a baking stone and a broiler tray for hot water to create steam (to form a crisp crust). So I went out and bought a cheap round pizza stone. The top of the bread looked perfect but the bottom was not crusty at all. Maybe it’s the stone or my placement of the steam tray (right under it), but the bottom of the loaf was very light and did not form a proper crust. I tried a second smaller loaf and baked it longer, but the bottom still wasn’t browning.

The first loaf.

On the second day, I tried baking a loaf in my enameled cast iron pot. I couldn’t slide the dough in perfectly but it proofed up beautifully. It was sort of football shaped while the other loafs came out more disk shaped. The pot once again made the perfect crust all around and a lighter crumb inside (much larger holes). Also, the dough has gained a little more flavor on the second day. There’s enough dough left for one large loaf or two small ones. Maybe I can mix new dough into the old and build on the flavor?

-L

Micro greens.

Every year, my herb aspirations grow. I don’t have the greenest thumbs but I keep trying. This year I am growing cilantro again which I haven’t tried in years. I always screw up and they go straight to seed. Last year I had pretty good luck with basil, rosemary, oregano and micro greens (which were zero effort). The rosemary and oregano had survived the winter and started to grow on their own since March, and some thyme that didn’t really do so well are also making a comeback. I sowed the seeds for basil, cilantro, dill and micro greens a few weeks ago and everything is sprouting. I’ll give the micro greens another week or so before I start trimming.

These are wet pots, they are terra cotta inside glass which you fill with water and it’ll stay moist for 2 weeks. Basil for indoors.

This is the big outdoor pot of basil.

This is mint and chives I left in a box over winter. They never really got very tall.

I have 3 pots for cilantro, fingers crossed.

Oregano, the other half of the box held a rosemary plant which has been transplanted to a larger pot. I added some more oregano seeds to the empty side, hopefully the oregano will also start to expand on it’s own.

The rosemary was very reddish, it’s slowly getting greener. I hope it will grow into a small bush.

Don’t know how the thyme will fare this year. I had to transfer boxes so it’s kind of a mess.

And http://www.terracycle.net/main_plant_food.htm for organic fertilizers made from worm poo.

 -L

These are my first batch of full sized madeleines. Even though it’s easier to grease and fill (the full sized pans), I think I prefer the minis; they are cuter, easier to eat, and you get more surface area per batch.

This recipe uses the ‘red bean and green tea madeleines’ base with different flavoring. I had only used 1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger, and the ginger flavor wasn’t strong enough to stand up to the lemon zest. So I think 1 tablespoon of grated ginger would bring it up to the level of the lemon zest. Maybe I should also employ some dry ginger. But then again I still want the lemon at the forefront and ginger as a secondary note.

Lemon Ginger Madeleines

• 1/3 cup organic shortening or butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup almond flour/meal
• 3/4 flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (or 1 tsp dry ginger)
• zest of 1 large lemon
• pinch of salt

Cream together sugar and shortening, then incorporate one egg at a time. Mix till completely blended. Add in almond flour, lemon zest, ginger and mix thoroughly. Then add flour and baking powder, mix briefly till smooth. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease pans with shortening or butter. Try to under fill the molds, and u can get make 2 batches of the full sized pans or about 3 batches of minis. Bake for 18-20min (for full sized pans, 13-15 for minis) when the edges just turn golden brown. Cool for 5min before popping them out.

 -Lina

Popcorn is always an easy satisfying tabula rasa waiting for you to fill in the blanks, and I have a large spice rack. Not to mention a whole world of sweet popcorn treats to explore.

Here I seasoned half with curry powder and the other half with smoked paprika. It’s separately seasoned (so there are yellow and red kernels) then tossed together with sea salt. You can also heat some butter/ghee (or Earth Balance, olive oil etc.), toast up some cumin seeds, dried chilies, and curry and pour over popcorn for a more intense curry flavor. Next time I want to try garam masala, salt, and sugar.

 -L

This might be a bad week for brittles with high humidity all weekend, but I wasn’t confident in making caramels (I need good candy thermometer).  I’ve sealed them up in a zip baggie and placed it inside an airtight container. But I have to open it up to get to them eventually. I first bought golden syrup to make cinder toffee. It’s basically the same process but the proportions are different with added coconut and sesame. Golden syrup is a great alternative to corn syrup (made from sugar), but you can use corn syrup or honey (and maybe maple syrup) as a substitute in this recipe. 

Coconut Sesame Brittle

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/4 cup coconut
• 1/4 cup sesame
• 3/4 tsp baking soda

Heat sugar and syrup in saucepan over medium high heat, stir with a large spoon or heat safe rubber spatula till you feel all the grains of sugar have melted. You’ll start to smell the caramelized soon, then mix in the coconut and sesame. Add baking soda and stir quickly and pour out onto parchment paper. Let cool completely then break apart.

-L

Ryan’s 40 minute simple as anything curry

• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/2 tsp finely minced ginger
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp red pepper (adjust accordingly)
• 1 can (14oz) coconut milk
• 1-2 medium potatoes, cubed 3/4 in
• Either 2 chicken thighs, strip-cut or 3/4 lb tofu, lightly fried
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt to taste
• Raisins, chutney, etc.

with chicken and spring onion instead of shallot

By Ryan an IT analyst living in Houston who enjoys a good meal, both preparation and consumption. $43,000 away from being a professional chef, he dabbles and learns from reverse engineering popular dishes and drinks. Owns a ridiculously stocked bar. Is currently planning a wedding with fiancée (when you pay for it, you better know where the money is going), enjoys ghost hunting, travel, and spending way too long on the Internets.

With eggs in hand I can finally make the madeleines that I wanted. When I bought the red bean flour I wanted to make red bean pound cake but I preferred to mix red bean paste into the batter for a marbled effect. Later on I was contemplating cookies but still didn’t think the powder form was the way to go. Then I got the madeleine pan and it was perfect. Red bean goes best with green tea, so I divided up the batter half red bean flavor and half green tea. The red bean didn’t get the color I had hoped for, it’s probably best to use smooth red bean paste in the future, or use more red bean flour, or maybe cook it first. Color aside (they were still a pretty pink) they were so good, perfectly fluffy and crispy and light. It makes about three batches of 24 minis (if I had filled it better, they expand a lot). I’m buying more madeleine pans now.

Green Tea / Red Bean Madeleines

• 1/3 cup organic shortening or butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup almond flour/meal
• 3/4 flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp red bean flour
• 1 1/2 tsp green tea powder or matcha

batter was fluffy like frosting

Cream together sugar and shortening, then incorporate one egg at a time. Mix till completely blended. Add in almond flour and mix thoroughly. Then add flour and baking powder, mix briefly till smooth. Preheat oven to 350º. Separate half of the batter into a new bowl; add green tea powder to one bowl and red bean flour to the other. With spatula or spoon, fold green tea/red bean into batter. Grease pan, and pray for minimal sticking. Try to under fill the molds (kind of hard with the thick batter), they will expand. Bake for 13-15min (for mini pans) when the edges just turn light brown. Cool for 5min before popping them out.

-L