Pancakes

We are carnivores again, though we have cut way back on our meat consumption to maybe one or two days per week. I am fine with that. I am conserving.

Yesterday, I removed from the freezer about 16 ounces of meat that I used previously for meatballs. My intention was to make a nice meatball and bean soup with cannellini beans, tomatoes and spinach, but Janet looked at me funny and said it was summertime and therefore too hot for soup. What? It's only about 90 degrees here lately. Anyway, I may still make a vegetarian version of the soup because that sounds good to me, summer or not.

So with my soup plans out of contention for the moment, I thought I'd cook sausage, egg, and cheese burritos for breakfast. I was frying the meat for burritos when Janet asked if we were having blueberry pancakes. I supposed we were now, so I mixed up a batch of pancake batter from a pretty good recipe I have that is composed of flour, an egg, milk, baking powder, butter, a little sugar, and some cinnamon. I used Bisquick in the past, but I think that product is only flour and baking powder with some other unpleasant ingredients anyway, so I don't buy it anymore.

Over time, I have found a few tricks for making pancakes, and they are: Pancakes like a very hot skillet. The first batch of cakes may not brown the way you want them to until your pan is good and hot.

Do not stir the batter too much. A few lumps are okay. And keep your pancakes small. A couple tablespoons of batter is really all you need, as large cakes are more difficult to manage. I already cooked the meat in my skillet, so it was heated properly. Now I was ready to cook my pancakes.

I heated a few drops of oil in the pan for a moment to discourage sticking, and in went my batter. I like to add my berries at this point, a handful or so on the top of the cake. Blueberries and their moistness will cause the pancakes to cook more slowly in the middle, so you have to keep that in mind when using fruit in pancakes or regular cakes or cobblers, et cetera.

Actually, I completely forgot to add the berries to the first batch of cakes, so I made a sandwich of pancakes, sausage, an over-easy egg, and a little syrup. Yes, it was good, and I enjoyed it. The second batch (I make two pancakes at a time so I have room to flip them) I remembered the berries. Then I started thinking: why not add the meatball mixture to the pancake batter and blueberries to make a sweet and savory pancake? The saltiness of the meat along with the sweetness of the berries and the syrup made a fine juxtaposition. Now I am full of breakfast goodness, and I'm thinking of taking a little siesta before heading to the ballpark this afternoon.

Mountain Pies

Last night, we had a few people over for spaghetti dinner and drinks. After surfeiting ourselves with pasta, we went back outside and continued sitting around a fire we built earlier in the evening until a good thunderstorm found us at about midnight. It rained for at least an hour, but I was not surprised when I awoke this morning at about six to find a few still-smoldering coals in the firepit. I had a lot of nice pieces of firewood left that I chainsawed yesterday afternoon, so I decided to make a pot of coffee, have a little Bailey's, and rebuild the fire.

As I sat there in the backyard on the swing over several hours this morning, relaxing and drinking my coffee, listening to the birds and the residual raindrops falling from the leaves, I had a very good idea: I decided to dig out the Mountain Pie irons from the shed to cook my breakfast outside in the fire (mostly.) We live in a wooded area, our yard heavily, so with my Pie irons in hand and a large amount of woodsmoke in the air, I might as well have been camping on this Sunday morning.

Mountain Pies have been a part of my life ever since I can remember anything. As a child, at my Aunt Georgia's place out in the country, building fires up on the hill was standard practice during family get-togethers. So was making Mountain Pies. Now, a Mountain Pie is a thing of beauty. The only kind I ever remember as a kid were pizza MPs, filled with sauce and cheese, maybe pepperoni, I don't recall, and that suited me just fine, but the fillings are really only limited by the maker's imagination.

I baked the irons in the fire for a time to get rid of whatever might have been on them from sitting in the shed. As the irons cleaned, I threw a few eggs into a pan and scrambled them just until they formed. I could have cooked them in a pan over the fire, but really I just thought of that. Anyway. I then sprayed the irons with non-stick and placed one piece of "buttered" bread on each side of the iron. I added a bit of my scrambled egg, a slice of good old American cheese and a few slices of tomato, closed the irons, and placed them back into the fire. The Walrus, who is a bread fanatic, enjoyed the Pie making, also. He ate the crusts sliced off by the irons.

So there I stood in front of the firepit on this already warm and humid North Carolina morning, flipping the irons occasionally to ensure even cooking because Mountain Pies will burn if you don't give them the attention they require. It was like a sauna out there, really, especially after I stoked the fire again, but I rather enjoyed the morning, a commingling of woodsmoke and fire, good coffee, sweat, and Mountain Pies.

Pierogi Pie and Peach Cobbler

Friday night is always a good night for pizza and beer. Last night, I decided to make my old favorite standby, the Margherita, and I cooked a new one--Pierogi pie--based on my cuz Stacey's suggestion. I already had a mashed-potato-and-spinach mixture in the freezer from a prior dish, and I used that for the bulk of my topping. Before I added my potatoes, I drizzled olive oil on the crust for more flavor. I also diced a little cheddar from a one-pound hunk in addition to some bagged shredded cheddar that needed to be used. Turned out pretty good, but it needed something, perhaps caramelized onion, perhaps a little red sauce atop the taters. In the past, when Janet made pierogies, she always cooked a mushroom sauce with sour cream, and that would have been good drizzled over the finished pie. As it was, I added a little bit of ranch dressing, and it suited me fine.

One simple change I made this go-round was the addition of flax seeds to my dough mix, and they added a nice flavor and chew to the crust. I always pre-bake the crust until it browns somewhat before I top the pizza and finish cooking it, and the crust seemed to cook a bit faster with the seeds. I almost burned it. Pre-baking the crust, I have learned, always ensures a crisp, not soggy crust, and that is important. I have also been adding Pasta Sprinkle, a dried-spice mixture to the dough mix, and that also imparts good flavor. So this morning, I had pizza for breakfast before I walked the dogs for the first time in awhile, and it was good. More in the fridge for snacks. I like snacks.

A few days ago, Janet and I ventured to the Farmer's Market to restock our supply of fruits and veggers, and she bought a half bushel of peaches. By today, the remaining peaches were ripe and ready. We have been thinking about peach cobblers and peach pies all week, so today we finally decided to make a nice peach cobbler. Depending on the variety, peaches can be a chore to peel and deseed. I was lucky today, though, and the skins peeled off easily in great sheets. In addition to about four cups of sliced peaches, the cobbler contains just a few other ingredients: milk, sugar, flour, and butter. The recipe called for one cup of sugar and one stick of butter, but we halved that, leaving the dessert still plenty sweet. The edges browned nicely, and the peaches are warm and moist. I might have another taste in a minute, but I'll add a little ice cream. Pretty good.

Mushroom Risotto

Tonight I decided to make a pan of mushroom risotto. Mushroom risotto, you say? Yes, and it was tasty. It is hard for me to imagine that at one time in my life I liked neither onions nor mushrooms, but those days have passed, fortunately. This dish was about as time consuming as any I've ever prepared, but I am pleased to say that we enjoyed the fruit, er fungus, of my labor quite a lot.

Probably I never would have ventured into the risotto realm had we not stopped meating (that's meat eating.) My cooking books would have continued gathering dust, and we would have missed out on a world of goodness. I am not saying that a dish as calorific as risotto should be eaten daily, but on occasion it's a nice treat.

To begin, I chopped a very large leek. Leeks are new to me, but I have been enjoying using them lately since we bought a huge batch of them this past weekend at the Farmer's Market. Along with what must have been two pounds of sliced shiitake, cremini, and portobello mushrooms, these items cooked in the pan with a few pats of butter and a couple tablespoons of olive oil until they softened. So far so good. When these ingredients were ready, into the pan went quite a bit of arborio rice. I cooked that for a bit, and then I was ready for the liquid.

In another pan, I put to simmer some vegetable broth and some Chardonnay. I really like the flavor wine imparts to food. A few crushed red pepper flakes, Salt, Pepper, and a little Pasta Sprinkle, and my broth was good to go. Now comes the busy part. At the rate of half a cup of broth into the rice and mushroom mixture, it is imperative to stand at the stove and stir the risotto to prevent sticking and burning. When the rice absorbed the liquid, I added another half cup. I continued stirring and adding liquid in this manner for about 25 minutes. Seems like a long time, but like many cooking endeavors, the time is well spent. Napoleon and The Walrus usually hang out with me while I cook, and today was no exception, so the company was good.

By now, the rice is cooked and creamy, and I am ready to eat. I garnished with some fresh basil, more cracked Black Pepper, and a little bit of feta. Deeeelicious. Lunch tomorrow will be excellent, also. I almost feel bad for the people I see eating deli-meat sammiches and Doritos.

Steel Coils and Poblanos

I have to decide whether I want to commit to continue writing my blog or let it go the way of so many well intentioned blogs since I am going to be pretty busy in the near future thanks to a new job I started today. Granted, it's a "temporary" position, but every feeling I get is that it will become permanent after the probationary period ends. In addition to a few other dead-end endeavors, I have been languishing away as a substitute teacher, a position I never felt good about, since I obtained my teaching degree a few years ago. I am hopeful about this new position and I am happy to be quite far away from the classroom. So keep your fingers crossed for me. I will still make time to cook. If I'm lucky, I will still be able to chronicle the occasional culinary escapade.

So the fridge is plumb full of fresh fruits and vegetables, and I am determined to use/eat each and every one of them before they go to shite. I have at least two days of dinner planning done and at least two vegetarian cookbooks to reference for the remainder of the week. It was one week ago that I had my last bite of animal protein, and I do not really feel as if I am missing a thing, other than blood and the occasion bad conscience that has grown slightly over the past few years that has been accompanied meat eating. I cannot say that I will never eat meat again, but we are enjoying our veggies enough to continue with our new lifestyle for a spell.

This evening, I knew I had four poblano peppers that needed to be eaten very soon, so I roasted them in the oven for a bit until the skin crisped and blackened. Usually I would stuff the peppers with cheese and onions, but tonight I did not feel like doing that, so I made a layered hot dish, let's call it a casserole, composed first of tomato sauce spiced with cumin, onion and garlic powder, salt, chili powder, and red-pepper flakes. In my small pan, I sauteed an onion and a container of cremini mushrooms just until the mushers were cooked a little. Before I ever threw the peppers into the oven, I started my brown and wild rice since it takes about 45 minutes.

So now I am ready to make my layers: sauce, one pepper de-skinned and de-seeded, rice, mushroom-and-onion mixture, cheese, and then repeat. I also added a little cilantro to the layers. I will admit that the dish was not as good as battering and frying the stuffed peppers (that sounds delicious) but the cut in calories will help me in the long term.

Into the oven until my cheese browned a little, and my Monday Meat-Free Meal is ready to eat. Not bad. I could stand a bit more heat in the dish, but not bad.

Pizza FTW

I realize I mentioned something about not blogging my repeats, but I've done it before, and I will probably do it again, particularly regarding pizza. By now, I hope you know that pizza is, in my opinion, the greatest edible ever created. I started making my own a few years ago just to see if I could, and I am learning. I recall helping my Aunt Sandra make Chef Boyardee pizza in a box when I was a kid, and I always enjoyed that.

Actually, if I sat here and attempted to gather my memories related to pizza, I could conjure a bunch. Most of those will have to wait for future postings, but I will share one now. When I was a teenager, the Spencer Pizza Hut was a good meeting place in that town for post-event gatherings. I suppose it still is, but my best memory about the place is playing video games with one of my oldest friends, C$, when we were just getting acquainted in Junior High. I also clandestinely drank a few there with one of my old bosses when I was in high school, but don't tell anyone. That ends my side trip down Memory Lane.

I also realize I am not the first person to make spaghetti sandwiches by adding spaghetti to garlic bread, preferably, but I think I have taken that idea to new heights with my Spaghetti Pizza. Whoo! and Damn! This pizza was good, now! I had a bit of spaghetti left from Sunday dinner, so I thought what a fine idea it would be to utilize it as a pizza topping. S-M-R-T. After I rolled out my dough and baked it a little in the oven to assure crispness, I gave the crust a good drizzling of olive oil and a good sprinkling of garlic powder before spreading that spaghetti. I think one meatball remained, so I chopped that up, too. A little Parmesan cheese on the top before going into the oven and dang, son. This was some good eatin.

On the next pie, first I quartered and roasted four Roma tomatoes with a little S & P. While the tomatoes roasted, I diced about half of an onion and sauteed it with a carton of sliced button mushrooms and a few cloves of garlic. This pie is very similar to one I have made in the past, but the end result was slightly different due to the roasted tomatoes that just dissolved when eaten. Very nice. A ball of fresh mozz concluded the pizza, and since I made three pies, Janet had a nice lunch today that consisted mostly of this pizza.

Pizza number three: in the freezer I had a small container of ratatouille that I thought might go very well on a pizza. I thawed it and evaporated most of the liquid from the rat before topping another crust and adding some feta cheese. Ratatouille pizza was pretty good to me, but it was not stellar like that spaghetti pie, as you might imagine.

Anyway, I'm getting better at making dough, as I am beginning to learn more about it. Yesterday I was tossing it and spinning it in the air like an old Pizzaiolo! Mangia! Mangia!

Omelettes, Et Cetera

Once a week. I'm now blogging at a rate of once per week, which is better than no entries per week, I guess, but barely. To what is owed the lack of writing? Well, for one thing, I have been making dishes that are repeats, and I did not feel like writing about these items again. I am breaking into my ever-expanding collection of cooking books, though, and I have found a few new meatless dishes that I will be working on in the very near future. Janet and I are attempting to decrease our meat consumption for a while.

Sunday mornings are very good times for cooking--begin the week on the right foot, as I see it, with some good victuals. Yesterday, I was thinking about omelettes, so that's what I made. As Ms. Kimberly says, one should always cook the omelette's ingredients before adding them, and it is a good rule of thumb. I have an awesome six-inch pan that does a splendid job for such things as omelettes, but first, before I ever cracked an egg, I finely diced a few potatoes and half of an onion and sauteed them slowly in a little olive oil (My huge can of oil that I bought awhile back is nearly empty at this point.)

I also had a few cherry tomatoes that I halved and added to the potatoes and onions near the end of their cooking time since I wanted the tomatoes to retain some of their physical character. A little crumbled feta, and I was just about ready for the eggs.

Now, I worked out my omeletting method a few years ago, and I think it is a pretty good method. Generally, I use two eggs. (I will tell you that the difference in the yolks between the HT-bought eggs and the eggs I purchased at the Downtown Farm Market is marked. HT egg yolks are yellow. Eggs from the local farm have bright orange yolks that are slightly larger. I can tell no difference in the taste, however.)

I stir the two eggs quite well in a bowl. Add a little Salt and Pepper, but not too much salt since the feta is salty. Into the pan they go. I generally use cooking spray for my omelettes, but a nice pat of butter would be delicious also. As soon as the eggs begin to cook, I run my rubber spatula around the edge of the egg. Then I tilt my pan all the way around until the walls of the pan are covered with egg, which immediately begins cooking. Then I run my spatula around again and tilt the pan again until the eggs are no longer runny. At this time, I fill the omelette, and I always use too many ingredients. (I would post a picture of the folded omelette, but it broke wide apart when I folded it in half.) It tasted delicious, though, with a slice of buttered whole-grain toast. For dessert, another piece of buttered toast with a little bit of tasty strawberry-rhubarb jam that Ma White made. As I said, this was a very good meal to ring in the new week.

I also made a chocolate cake. I won't go into much detail, but I will tell you that the cake and the ganache contained two sticks of butter, nearly a bag of chocolate chips, and a good glug of Bailey's Irish Cream. I had a piece yesterday, but before I ate it, I microwaved it for a few seconds to loosen the ganache. Alongside a little vanilla ice cream, and I was Mr. Creosote all over again.