Monday 30 January 2012

Bacon (Part1)

Everything is better with bacon.  (Great article on real bacon here.)  I said that a few days ago and can't get it out of my mind.  On that morning, I had made a homemade version of a McGriddle sandwich.  I did not make maple syrup crystals but I did put some table syrup in the pancake batter, which I will do again.  I did, however, discover my new go-to recipe for light, fluffy, sweet pancakes that were a dream to work with and eat.
Here is my new pancake recipe:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 egg
¼ cup milk (or more to desired consistency)
¼ cup table syrup (I did not use real maple, I don't know why but this was great)
- In a large bowl, sift dry ingredients.  In a medium bowl, mix wet ingredieants.  Pour wet over dry and mix a bit.  Leave medium sized lumps. 
- Drop by ½ cup measure onto hot pan (a water drop should bounce when you drop it on)(I heat my pan to a 4.5 on my stovetop with a scale of 10).  Flip when bubbles cover the top and edges are getting dry.  Flip only once, cook to cooked in the centre.  Eat immediately, or keep hot in a hot oven, or freeze for a toaster treat later!
Note: I usually add grains and things to my pancakes, but this is a fun, "bubble gum" version.  I substitute up to half the flour with a combination of flax meal, wheat germ, oat bran or oats.  Go crazy and find your own happy.  I guess you could sub some applesauce for some oil too.
Directions for a breakfast sandwich:
lay 1 piece bacon (or two, whole or crumbled in a neat pile) on your frying pan
cover with about ¼ cup pancake batter and cook as if it were just an innocent pancake
make a second pancake, with or without bacon
keep pancakes hot
fry an egg (I love to use bacon fat for this)
Now the fun part, on your favourite plate lay 1 pancake (bacon to the inside perhaps), top with a slice of processed cheese (or not, my kids did not like this with processed cheese), tuck the egg on there, top with a second pancake and voilà, a breakfast of champions!  You can also add sausage patty in there if you want to, I haven't done that.

Here's the money shot, batter smothering bacon:


And here's my sandwich:
YUMMY!

This looks daring and I haven't tried it, just thought I'd share chocolate bacon cupcakes.

Carob raisin clusters

I do so love carob chips!  It brings me right back to some time in my childhood when my Mum was on a fad diet (it was the 80's, who wasn't?!) and she was trying to convince herself carob was a viable substitute for chocolate.  Well, it isn't BUT it IS great all alone with no excuses.  Today, I melted some and added a tiny bit of coconut oil, raisins, chopped peanuts and sunflower seeds for a snack.  I LOVED IT!  My kids, though, not so much.  One actually spat it out, the rest just didn't eat more than one bite.  I recommend you go to your nearest bulk food store or health food store and get a tiny amount - you will either love it or hate it.  It's safe for dogs if you want to make a treat for Rex too.  I've got to go now, my dough has risen.

More Day 1

Oh I hope I give everyone credit where credit is due.  I may just have verbal diarhea for a day or two (ooooo, probably shouldn't use that word on a food blog... meh) just bear with me.  Let's start with "why a blog".  Well, I am constantly in my kitchen (I have a small house and there's not many other places to hang out) and often create things I'd like to share.  With my family and many friends living far away, the best I can do is post about it, sometimes a link, sometimes a picture.  Will I have time?  I sure hope so!  I'm pretty busy, but maybe not busy enough from the looks of things.  I enjoy making bread and discovering nutrient-dense foods to serve my family - they all have much faster metabolisms than I so I have to watch myself.  Oh yeah, I don't diet in the sense to lose weight, but you will hear me use that word now and then and I'm referring to the old-school definition where it means "what you eat".  Our diet is very mainstream, grocery store based.  I use low-fat recipes, high fat recipes, gluten-free recipes, vegan and vegetarian recipes, I don't discriminate!  Whatever's yummy is in my kitchen.  Current favourite cookbooks are Moosewood Restaurant Low Fat Favourites, The Complete Canadian Living Baking Cookbook, Make It Tonight (Canadian Living), Entre cuisine et bambini (by Stefano Faita), Eat, Shrink and Be Merry and Looneyspoons (by Janet and Great Podleski), Miracle Foods (by Anna Selby), Kids Cooking (by the editors of Klutz Press).  I have various websites I frequent which include, but are not limited to, AllRecipes.com, CheekyKitchen, Chocolate-Covered Katie, Mmm... is for Mommy!.  This list is in no way conclusive and changes almost daily depending on what I'm looking for and what is available to work with. I enjoy making my own bread, ricotta cheese and eating them... together as one!  I drink coffee, enjoy wine (not often enough), love carob chips, baked goods, and any meal someone else wants to serve me.  I gotta go do something productive, see ya around.

Day 1

Well, hello there (à la Jian Ghomeshi)!  Welcome to my web log where it will be flowing and informal.  I hope you enjoy the ride.  I will try to keep my posts to my forays in the food world.  Some days there will be several posts, some days there'll be none.  Some days they'll be wordy, some days they'll be short.  That's how I roll, soon, that'll be how WE roll.  I'm excited and nervous all in one moment.  Please join me, it'll at least be fun - if it's not, please call  me on it and I'll see what I can do.