Dr Frankenstein's Tomato Jam

Saturday is cooking shows.  Back when I was The Boss and worked M-F (with weekends and holidays off) we would start early and catch all the shows on KQED in San Francisco.  They would always be on in the background as we did our daily chores.  There was Brother Whomever who baked bread, Ciao Italia, and a score of other shows, ending with Lidia at 4pm.  Sometimes some great dinners came out of it.

Fast-forward almost 11 years, now, and I'm working on Saturday - but Victor still has the cooking shows on TV.  The players have changed, but the concept has not.

Yesterday, he saw someone (Giada?!?) make a savory blackberry jam and when I got home, commented on it and said I should think about creating a tomato jam.  He had just picked another million cherry tomatoes and they were sitting on the island in a lovely basket.  I hadn't made one before, but that usually doesn't stop me.

The wheels started turning.

I did a google-search for tomato jam and found plenty - but none of them were really what I wanted.   I decided to take the best of what I was seeing - and just create my own. I'm horrible at following recipes, anyway.

I had about 2 pounds of cherry tomatoes and a couple of perfectly-ripe heirlooms from the garden - maybe 2 1/2 pounds, total.  I started playing.

Dr Frankenstein's Tomato Jam

  • 2 1/2 pounds tomatoes
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp lime juice
  • 1/4 tsp cloves
  • 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 fresh cayenne pepper, minced
  • 2 tbsp fresh basil, minced

Keep cherry tomatoes whole and roughly-chop large tomatoes.

Place all ingredients into a medium saucepan and bring to boil.  Continue boiling and stirring regularly until jam is thick - about 90 minutes.  Place in a sterile jar and refrigerate after cooling.

This really was easy to make - and W-O-W it is good!  The secret is boiling/stirring/boiling/stirring to keep it from scorching on the bottom.

Use a heavy pot and if you're lucky yo have a diffuser (Thank you Ann & Julie!) it makes it all the better.  The steam just didn't allow for a very good picture, here, but it started off as more than half the pot and cooked down.

It is the perfect balance of sweet and savory.  There's just a hint of spice from the pepper, and the basil plays off the sweetness of the sugar perfectly.  The lemon and lime add the tartness... Dr Frankenstein did good.

I made just under a pint of jam so I didn't bother actually canning it.  For half-pint jars I'd probably do about a 20 minute water bath.

And speaking of tomatoes...

Last night was a Caprese that Victor made - with homemade pesto!

This really rocked!  We ate it atop slices of crusty baguette.

The tomatoes are just so fresh, so ripe. So totally flavorful!

And we have weeks to go with even more to come!


Leftovers

Yes, it's true.  We eat leftovers.

Sometimes they're planned leftovers - like the breaded chicken breasts I made the other night but, evidently, never wrote about - and sometimes they just are - like the roast beef from Tuesday.  The smallest roast at the store is too much for the two of us at one meal...

So every now and again, we're faced with several different things in the 'fridge that need using up.  And when there are also rolls that need using up, the only correct solution is sandwiches!

Sandwiches... They're named for the 4th Earl of Sandwich, but he really didn't invent them.  They had been around forever under many different names and guises.  He just got the credit - and for a while, the Sandwich Islands.  (That was the name Captain Cook gave to Hawai'i before the locals killed him for killing a local.)

But I digress...

It doesn't matter to me who they're named after or who first thought about them... anything between - or atop - slices of bread is okay with me.  I really do love the fact that they lend themselves to absolutely anything and everything.  The day after Thanksgiving would never be the same without turkey sandwiches on squishy white bread, dressing, cranberry sauce, and mayo!  It's just about the only time store-bought white bread is in our house.  And every different bread makes a different kind of sandwich.  I remember a restaurant at Tahoe in the '70s that made a rather dry 9-grain bread, but used it for an avocado, tomato, cream cheese, and alfalfa sprout sandwich that was to die for - especially after smoking a big ol' joint.  The dry bread worked perfectly with the rather moist filling.  I don't remember the name of the place but I think it was in Kings Beach. And any sort of grilled sandwich or panini...  or tuna salad with potato chips, salami on a sourdough roll, Andronico's Turkey with Lingonberry Sauce, a Monte Cristo, a Croque Monsieur, a PB&J... or...  or... or...

But I digress, again...

Tonight I had the aforementioned roast beef and the aforementioned rolls and chicken.   Since I was doing two different meats, I wanted to tie them together with other fillings.  The basket of cherry tomatoes were my inspiration; more candied cherry tomatoes!  Tomight I had some proseco that I used as the wine of choice and  I added a minced cayenne pepper from the yard.  I cooked them down a bit more - and then refrigerated it to get it ooey-gooey.

Mayonnaise and thinly-sliced red onion, candied tomatoes, and crispy breaded chicken breasts or cold roast beef on teeny little rolls were the perfect meal.

They were really messy with stuff oozing everywhere.  It was a numerous-napkin-meal.

And worth every bit of the mess.

And speaking of leftovers... in about an hour, we will be ready for more Flourless Chocolate Raspberry Cake.

Leftovers are good.

 

 

 


Birthday BLT's and Chocolate Raspberry Cake

It's the 38th Anniversary of my 21st Birthday.

A momentous occasion.  Considering there are plenty of reasons why I probably shouldn't have lived to see my 30th birthday, this is a pretty remarkable achievement.

I actually spent my 21st birthday on the USS Ranger (CVA 61) floating off the coast of San Francisco.  We had been back from Viet Nam for about a month and were just going out to sea for three days for a little waste of taxpayer money.  I put in for a three-day leave but when our Leading Chief found out it was for my 21st Birthday, he denied it.  He just didn't like my attitude and he had the power to keep me on the ship. It seems that even then I had issues with stupid people telling me what to do. Alas, I hadn't learned how to hide it very well at that young age.

38 years later and things are just a bit different.  Okay.  They're a lot different!  And how sweet it is!  No more stupid people telling me what to do and the ability to have what I want for my birthday dinner.

Victor was planning something a bit more elaborate, but I said that BLT's on little rolls and Tater Tots were really what I wanted.  Being the extremely intelligent man that he is, he readily agreed.  He didn't even argue when I said I'd cook.  As I said - smart man!

Thick slices of applewood-smoked bacon and thick slices of tomato from the garden.  It was gastronomic perfection.  I forgot to get the iceberg lettuce but did have some arugula.  It made for a nice little twist.

Home-grown tomatoes... I have been waiting for these.  They really are just too wonderful for words.  And it looks as if we're in for a bumper crop!  I'm psyched.  There is just no comparison to those things that are called tomatoes at the grocery store.  In fact...  you should read Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook.  I did.  I had issues with tasteless supermarket tomatoes before.  I don't see myself buying many more - and I definitely will want to know their parentage.

But back to those delicious home-grown tomatoes...

It was the perfect birthday dinner and in about an hour I shall be eating a (large) piece of the perfect birthday cake!  A flourless chocolate raspberry cake!

Victor made this while I was at work.

It is based upon Tyler Florence's Chocolate Cracked Earth Cake.

 Victor's Flourless Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
  • 1 stick butter
  • 9 large eggs, separated
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 pt raspberries, mashed with a fork
  • 1/4 cup strong espresso coffee

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

Melt chocolate and butter together.

Beat egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl until light yellow in color. Stir in a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs then mix in the rest of the chocolate mixture.  Stir in coffee and raspberries and mix well.

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold into the chocolate mixture.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is set, the top starts to crack and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, 35 to 40 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove sides of pan.

Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Birthdays are a good thing.

***UPDATE***

Under that mound of whipped cream is the most luscious feather-light, rich, decadent, chocolate-raspberry cake on the planet!

OMG!

I am so having a piece for breakfast!

 

 


Fresh Peach Salad

Tonight's dinner has been brought to you by another box of peaches.

I've been on a peach kick all month long... they have been beyond good.  (I wish I could say the same for plums and apricots - they've both been pretty sad.)  But the peaches?!?  Spectacular.

So with another 4 pounds of them rapidly ripening in the kitchen, it was time to think outside the (peach) box.

And that's where Peach Salad was born.

Sweet and savory are a favorite flavor combination of mine and sweet peaches with sharp cheese and onions just seemed a perfect blend of flavors.  A drizzle of raspberry vinegar and some chopped fresh basil brought it all together.

It really was that simple!  I sliced 4 peaches and thinly-sliced a quarter of a red onion.  I drizzled them with raspberry vinegar and put it in the 'fridge.  Right before serving I added basil and ribbons of a really sharp, aged asiago cheese I sliced using a potato peeler.

Rounding out the plate was a nice medium-rare roast beef with pan gravy and Israeli couscous.

To stay on the peach theme, Victor made iced tea and steeped 2 sliced peaches with the tea to make a really nice peach tea.  I usually eschew flavored beverages but this one was really good.

And tomorrow I'm thinking I need to make another peach dessert.

Time to start thinking...

 

 


Fig BBQ Sauce

I picked up some fresh figs the other day that looked great.  Sadly, they were picked for shipping, not eating.  They were dry and mealy - not the sweet-and sticky I was expecting.  I've been eating fresh figs for as long back as I can remember.  I should have paid more attention but I let my impulse-buying gene take over for a moment.  Oh well.

However... if they weren't great for eating out-of-hand, I knew I could sweeten them up in a BBQ sauce! Since I've been on a BBQ sauce kick, I thought it would be the perfect way to utilize them. We do have a "No Buyers Remorse" policy at home.  If we buy it - we use it.  It's made for some interesting meals towards the end of the week!

And I was right.  The sauce was the perfect use for them.

I went Asian-inspired for this one.  After starting to break out ingredients I could see a lot of variations on the theme.  Asian BBQ - it's not just Korean anymore!  Really!  Our cabinets overflow with Asian sauces and the like.  This was fun.

Fig and Plum BBQ Sauce

  • 12 oz fresh black figs, chopped
  • 1 small red onion, chopped
  • 1 small green pepper, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 cups rice wine
  • 1 cup plum jam
  • 1/2 cup onion soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup coconut vinegar
  • 2 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 heaping tbsp sambal oelek (chili paste)

Place onion and bell pepper in pot with sesame oil.  Cook until onion is translucent.  Add chopped figs and then remaining ingredients.

Bring to a boil and then simmer about 20 minutes until figs are softened and sauce is thickened.

Using immersion blender, puree sauce until smooth.

It was really good!  The Asian bent worked well with the bone-in chicken breasts.  I was actually going to make a different sauce because I really wanted to make the Pommes Anna tonight, as well.  I finally decided it didn't matter if the sauce was Asian and the potatoes were French.

Pommes Anna is a very traditional - and very easy - dish to make.  It is simply thinly-sliced potatoes layered in a skillet, liberally doused with butter, and then fried and baked until golden.

This was actually just one large russet potato sliced thin using a mandoline and cooked in an 8" skillet.

Yum.

So...  a little east-meets-west-meets-our-house tonight.


Fresh Summer Pasta

It's still a gazillion degrees outside but we just had pasta - and it was heavenly!

Light, refreshing, full of the flavors of summer.  Pasta.

Victor made fresh tagliatelle pasta today.  It's a pasta he has seriously mastered over time.  It is pure silken perfection.

And atop that pure silken perfection was an uncooked sauce comprised mostly of fresh garden produce.  It was unbelievably fresh-tasting; the perfect hot-weather meal.

The tomatoes, peppers, and basil came from the yard.  Fresh asparagus, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes pretty much finished it off.

There are no measurements for the sauce.  Use what you have to make as much as you need.

Salsa di Tagliatelle Fresche

  • olive oil
  • cherry tomatoes
  • bell peppers
  • roasted red and yellow peppers
  • asparagus
  • garlic
  • sun-dried tomatoes
  • fresh basil
  • parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Cut asparagus and quickly blanche.  Drain and drop into ice water immediately to stop cooking and chill.

Meanwhile, halve the cherry tomatoes and slice the peppers and place in bowl with asparagus, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and olive oil.  Add minced fresh basil, shredded parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper, to taste.

Leave at room temperature for flavors to meld up to an hour or so.

Tagliatelle Fresche

Ingredients

  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • Coarse sea salt

Instructions

On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add eggs and egg yolks to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from inside rim of well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.

Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.

Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting, then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.

Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is scant 1/16 inch thick.

Cut sheet in half widthwise; dust both sides of sheets with flour. Layer sheets between floured pieces of parchment or wax paper. Cover with paper and repeat with remaining dough.

With the short end of 1 pasta sheet facing you, loosely fold up sheet, folding sheet over two or three times from short ends toward the center. With a large chefs knife, cut folded sheet into ribbons, a scant 1/4 inch wide. Unroll strips and lightly dust with flour; spread on a lightly floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pasta sheets.

To cook the tagliatelle, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta, transfer to a large serving bowl and toss with sauce.

It really brought out the flavors of summer.  I had actually been craving ravioli for the past few days but kept thinking about how heavy they can be - and I just didn't need heavy food with this weather.

This solved the ravioli craving and brought summer's bounty indoors.

I made a loaf of beer bread at the last minute just to have something to sop up the juices on the plate.

Quick Beer Bread

  • 3 cups self-rising flour
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 12 oz beer

Use a 4″ x 8″ bread pan. Mix ingredients and place in buttered pan.  Top with melted butter and bake at 350° about 1 hour.

There was enough of the vegetables left over to have as a salad for lunch tomorrow.

A perfect summer dinner.


Sunday Muffins

Sunday morning.  It wasn't even 90° outside, yet.  Time to tiurn on the oven.

I picked up some blueberries yesterday to make blueberry muffins today.  I'm going to blame the heat for addling my brain.  This is not, exactly, baking weather.

But...

I wanted muffins.

So on went the oven this morning.  I worked fast, but it was still warmer in the kitchen than I would have preferred.  Oh well... I figured if the oven was going on, I was making two kinds of muffins!  I was definitely going to get my money's worth.

The end result was worth it!

I made the aforementioned Blueberry and I made a Banana Walnut.  Bananas go quickly in this weather, too.

I make a really basic muffin and then add to it as I see fit.  I made these with plain all-purpose white flour, but you can add different blends as you see fit.  These come out really light and cake-like.

Blueberry Muffins

  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp melted butter
  • 3 tbsp oil
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • Melted butter and demerera sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 400°.

Mix dry ingredients.  Mix melted butter and oil.  Stir into dry ingredients with milk, egg, and vanilla.  Fold in blueberries.

Scoop into 12 standard-sized muffin cups or 6 over-sized muffins.  Bake 12 muffins for 20 minutes or large muffins about 27 minutes.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with demerara sugar while warm.

The banana muffins are pretty much the same - the milk is a little less.

Banana Walnut Muffins

  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp melted butter
  • 3 tbsp oil
  • 1 cup banana, mashed
  • 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
  • Melted butter and demerera sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 400°.

Mix dry ingredients.  Mix melted butter and oil.  Stir into dry ingredients with milk, egg, and vanilla.  Fold in bananas and walnuts.

Scoop into 12 standard-sized muffin cups or 6 over-sized muffins.  Bake 12 muffins for 20 minutes or large muffins about 27 minutes.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with demerara sugar while warm.

Demerara sugar is a larger-grained unrefined sugar.  It adds a nice crunchiness to baked goods because it doesn't dissolve like basic white sugar.  It's not a mandatory ingredient, but it's a nice touch.

And I really am glad I made these - even if I did heat up the kitchen.  We'll have fresh-baked goodies for the next few days as our heat wave continues...

 


An Indoor Picnic

You may have heard that it's been a bit warm the past few days.  It's true.  It's been a bit warm.  In fact, it's been downright hot.  As in H-O-T.

Of course, nothing says hot back here better than high temperatures and high humidity.  When you hear someone say "it's not the heat, it's the humidity" there is an element of truth to it.  Right now, when we walk outside, it's like entering a primordial swamp.  The biggest problem is that I no longer have gills.  It would be much easier to breathe if I did.

I remember ridiculously hot 113°+ in Bakersfield as a kid.  I don't remember it feeling this bad.  Granted, 50 years can blur a bit of memory, but other than those 2pm-6pm hours when the sun was at its hottest, we spent most of the day outdoors.  Sweet youth, indeed.

So we're living in a cave with air conditioning.  Even with the dual-paned windows we installed a few years back, drapes are closed.  (That big bow window in front is still single-pane.  When we get a spare $15k we'll think about replacing it.)  But keeping everything closed really is helping - the AC isn't running non-stop.

So cooking just isn't at the top of my list of things I want to do.  Eating is.  I don't think I've ever lost my appetite - ever - but cooking and especially grilling are just not going to happen.

Enter the indoor picnic!

I did do a bit of cooking for this but poaching some tuna chunks was the extent of it.  Unless you count making toast.

Fresh tuna really does make a great tuna salad.  I poached the chunks in white wine, water, garlic, and bay leaves for maybe 10 minutes.  Just long enough to cook it through.  I then chilled it, shredded it, and mixed it with celery, red onion, pickle, and mayonnaise.  Really good.

The rest of the indoor picnic was slice-and-serve.  Baguette, Belletoile (a triple cream, bloomy rind cheese made by the French fromagerie Hutin. Both rich and mellow in flavor, Belletoile Triple Cream is a spreadable cheese that is creamy, buttery and luscious.) plus Secchi salume, pepper jack cheese, crackers, toasted rye bread, and fresh figs.

And a beer. (NA, but it quenched the thirst.)

We don't graze like this often enough.  I really do like having a variety of fun foods on the table, but get into that meat-starch-vegetable rut way too often.

Bein' that this weather isn't going anywhere soon, I may have to think up a few more picnic ideas.  I know those candied cherry tomatoes from the other night would be perfect with a spread like this.

Time to put the thinking cap on...

In the meantime, there's ice cream for dessert.

 

 

 


Mushroom and Cheesesteak Sandwiches

I may have changed my mind more times today about dinner than I have in a really long time.  Or, I had so many ideas going I couldn't decide on one.  I dunno.  All I know is dinner pretty much came to be as I was getting off work.

The weather played a major role today.  It's rather ridiculously hot outside.  I decided early on that grilling was out.  I'm just not interested in being outside right now.

Ravioli were looking good - as was a San Francisco favorite, Joe's Special.  I almost did salads.  But in the end, it was baby bella mushrooms, shaved beef, and colby jack cheese.  And french fries.

Ooey-gooey-cheesy-goodness on a roll.  How could it be wrong?

And we have not one, not two, but three different varieties of ice cream for dessert.  I even toyed with the idea of making an ice cream cake for dessert but decided cooking french fries for 15 minutes was enough oven time for the day.

Did I mention it's been a bit hot outside?

The next couple of days are going to be even hotter.  Oh joy.

Maybe we'll just have ice cream for dinner tomorrow.  And fruit-pops for dessert.


Candied Cherry Tomatoes

Victor is back from 3 days in New York City.  No more hot dogs and chili burgers eaten at the desk.  It's time for real food, again.

I'm really bad.  When Victor heads off for a business trip, my cooking ceases.  Well...  real cooking ceases.  Hot dogs and burgers on the grill with canned chili become my mainstay.  I've even been known to fry up a can of Mary Kitchen Roast Beef Hash.  It's not exactly healthful eating, but it's fun to slum it for a couple of days.  I really do get lazy.

It really isn't a lot of fun cooking for myself.  If there were to be  longer-than-3-day absence, I would probably break down and create a real meal, but his business travel is pretty infrequent.  Hot dogs work.

The return home was right on time for the cherry tomato harvest.  We have two cherry tomato plants out back that are producing bazillions of tomatoes.  Fortunately, they're not all ripening at the same time, but I am not going to waste one of them!

I have a dozen ideas for using them, from tarts to salads to frittatas and more, but I was looking for something a bit different tonight.

I came across a fun food blog - The Runaway Spoon - that had a recipe for Baked Ricotta and Goat Cheese with Candied Tomatoes.  The whole shebang sounded good - but I was looking for the tomatoes tonight.  I had the polenta and the pork loin  figured out  and wanted the tomatoes to tie it all together.

Recipes are guidelines to me.  They are generally the spark that gets the creative juices flowing.  Unless I'm baking, I rarely follow a recipe exactly.  And tonight was no exception.  I took the main idea and spun it around a bit.

Candied Cherry Tomatoes

  • 1 lb cherry tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp chopped basil
  • few sprigs minced parsley
  • salt and pepper, to taste.

Heat butter in skillet.  Add tomatoes and cook until skins begin to pop.  Add wine and bring to boil.  Add brown sugar and continue cooking until mixture is syrupy. Stir in fresh herbs and S&P to taste.

I could see this used in any number of ways.  As I did it tonight, it was great over pork tenderloin and would also be great over chicken or even flank steak.  It could be cooked down even further - letting the tomatoes really fall apart - and used as a bruschetta topping.  The original recipe called for vermouth, I used white wine, but I'm sure any number of wines or liquors could be used.

Let the imagination run...

One of these days I do want to try the recipe as written with the ricotta and goat cheese.  Victor has been making a really really good homemade ricotta.  I think it would be perfect.

 

 

 


Stuffed Peppers

Another bell pepper harvest!

Victor brought in 5 beautiful peppers from the yard today and decided he would make stuffed peppers for dinner tonight.

What?!?  Me argue?!?  I don't think so!  You're cookin', I'm eatin'.

The filling was a mixture of rice, Italian sausage, portobello mushroom, chopped asparagus, and garlic, moistened with a bit of his maranara sauce.  He then topped them with bread crumbs and a bit of parmesan cheese.

Oh.  Yum.

The peppers have been really good.  A really rich bell pepper flavor.  I can't wait for the tomatoes!

We painted the back bedroom today and he pulled the dinner together between cutting in corners and awaiting the first coat to dry.

A multi-tasking guy.

The room came out a good shade lighter than we were expecting - and we were expecting light.  I really like it after the bold gold color it was.  We both decided we're over the wall-color-as-a-statement period in our lives.  I'm liking the neutrals.  Besides, it will now make things like our hand-made quilt stand out even more.

We're going to move into that room next weekend.  It's the same square footage as our room right now - it's just configured a little differently.  Time for something different.

Cybil will probably go into a neurotic fit.  She doesn't always handle change well.  Moving her bed from one room to the other will probably send her right over the edge.

She'll get over it.

And dinner came out perfect.  The last decent meal I'll probably have until Wednesday.  Victor's off to NYC for a few days for business.

I tend to eat a lot of hot dogs and/or chili burgers when he travels on business.

I don't do cooking-for-one very well, anymore.

Cybil likes it, though...

 

 


Sunday Breakfast

I finally got my Sunday Breakfast!

Our Sunday Wake-Up Schedules can be anywhere form 30 to 60 minutes off.  Victor gets up and I roll over and catch another episode of the dream de la nuit.    I'm up at 5am five days a week.  On Sunday I'm just not in a hurry to crawl out of bed.  Unfortunately, Victor's usually ready to eat just as I'm getting my first shot of coffee.

I'm finding that if I plan in advance - and let him know that I'm planning in advance - the odds of us having breakfast together improve greatly.

So I planned.

I put the baking mix on the counter last night as a not-too-subtle reminder and got started in the kitchen a little earlier than is my wont.

I used a baking mix for the pancakes but didn't follow the recipe on the box.  I added two eggs instead of the one directed, added vanilla - because I always add vanilla to pancakes - and just added water until the consistency was where I wanted it.   Victor came walking into the kitchen as I was adding the water from a water glass and said "Ahh... carefully measuring, I see."  But, of course.

Pancakes are possibly the easiest thing in the world to make - even from scratch.  I used to make pancakes from whatever grains and flours were in the house at the time.  Just add this-n-that with some eggs, butter, baking powder - and vanilla - and breakfast was served!  I don't make pancakes as often as I used to.  Maye next time I'll do something a bit more non-traditional.

The biggest secret to making pancakes, though, is NOT smooshing them with the spatula after you flip them.

I cannot count the number of times I have seen the cook take the spatula and turn a light, fluffy, delicate pancake into a flattened version of its former self.  The whole concept of adding baking powder is to make them rise.  Really.

Another breakfast secret is to cook the bacon in the oven on a sheet pan.

It comes out flat and perfect every time.  If you use parchment paper on the pans - and everyone should use parchment paper on their pans - clean-up is a snap.