126. Blueberry Pancakes

Date Cooked: February 21, 2010
Page: 649
Rating: A

For those of you that follow my blog you may notice that I don’t often talk about my life beyond the meals that I cook. But today as I post this recipe I would also like to say that while I know how infrequent my posting has been it has been for good reason. On February 15th, my third child was born. I am no longer a father of two boys, now I am a father of three boys! I had better start learning to cook faster because in a few years I’ll be feeding a hungry little army.

Blueberry Pancakes is actually a variation of the Light and Fluffy Pancakes recipe in the book. Considering that the only difference between the two recipes is the addition of blueberries I figured this would be a great opportunity to cross both off the list.

The recipe is a rather basic pancake recipe. It calls for combining an egg with melted butter and milk thickened with lemon juice. Since I had buttermilk in the fridge and the recipe mentioned I could use it if it was available I went ahead and used buttermilk instead of the thickened milk. The dry ingredients were flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. I folded the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until mixed and still lumpy (the key to fluffy pancakes).

I heated a pan until hot and then added my first quarter cup of batter. Let’s just say the batter was thick. The batter did not flow out of the measuring cup and looked more like muffin batter in the pan. I was smart though and only cooked one pancake. Once that had ‘cooked’ I devoured it to ensure quality and then thinned the batter out with another quarter cup of buttermilk. This was a lot more fluid and I began to produce pancakes like I was a factory worker. As the batter is poured into the pan blueberries are then sprinkled into the batter as it cooks. The finished products were stored in the oven, set at a low temperature, to keep warm.

Rating: A. These were tasty pancakes and they were definitely light and fluffy. This will be my go to recipe for pancakes, especially since both boys loved them. The only thing I need to do is find the right pan to cook them in. Since cooking these the first time I have already made them again. The second time I used my griddle and I am not exactly happy with it’s results. The griddle heats unevenly and the pancakes were spotty brown.

41. Cheese Omelet

Date Cooked: November 20, 2008
Page: 636
Rating: B

I have always been a anytime breakfast believer. I can eat bacon and eggs at anytime of day and it is not an uncommon occurrence at my house for dinner to be a quick meal of eggs, pancakes, sausage and/or bacon. This evening was one of those times when I was too tired to really cook but still wanted something decent. So I figured let’s try an omelet.

Now an omelet is one of those technique dishes where it is not about what goes in the omelet as much as it is about the timing while cooking the omelet. I made three cheese omelets and unfortunately the picture is that of the runner-up. I thought the third time would be the charm and that by then I would have known a bit more about the timing. It wasn’t to be. So my wife got to consume the real Miss Congeniality omelet, while the picture above is of the runner-up. My kids ate the omelet that, in the equine world, wasn’t fit for the glue factory. But since my youngest still likes to play with his food as much as he eats it, he didn’t mind.

So what did I learn? Scrambled eggs are omelets that failed. Failure is easier and just as tasty.

Rating: B. The omelets weren’t bad but unless they are going to contain fancy ingredients then they are just less scrambled, scrambled eggs.

34. Home Fries

Date Cooked: November 1st, 2008
Page: 659
Rating: A

I’ll start out by saying I loved these! First time through this recipe was a little time consuming but the end result was definitely worth it. So let me tell you how this excellent dish came together. The recipe has a little science lesson on potatoes and water and explains how to get crisp exteriors and moist fluffy interiors to the home fries. So once the potatoes are scrubbed and diced they are plunked into water and brought to a boil. The key here is that the water starts out at room temperature and then gets brought to a boil with the potatoes in it. As soon as the water begins to boil the potatoes are drained and set aside for the next step. The potatoes are not to be boiled.

In a skillet onions are sautéed in butter until browned and then set aside. The potatoes get dumped into the skillet and in a single layer are cooked for about 6 minutes then turned, cooked and turned some more. Once cooked through the onions, salt and pepper and some paprika are added. The ingredients are tossed to coat and then served. Simple and delicious. The potatoes came out perfectly! I admit they might have been a tad overcooked but since I like them a little crispier they were perfect.

I did slightly deviate from the book though in a very subtle way but I think it may have helped. When I was cooking the bacon from a previous post I had one slice left in the package that wouldn’t fit on the baking sheet so I quickly fried it up in the skillet before the potatoes were added. The bacon fat added a little flavor to the potatoes that was nice.

Rating: A. These were great and I look forward to cooking the next couple variations of this recipe. I will definitely be making these more often on weekends.

I’ve been reading through my older posts and I am noticing that I have fewer mishaps in the kitchen while cooking. I feel my posts are actually a little duller because of it. I’m going to have to tackle some harder dishes.

33. Fluffy Scrambled Eggs

Date Cooked: November 1st, 2008
Page: 629
Rating: B-

What Saturday morning breakfast would be complete without eggs, and since my kids are picky eaters they would have to be scrambled eggs. The book pretty much lays out cooking scrambled eggs the way I would normally do it (except it calls for more milk than I would traditionally use).

Whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper and they cook them until just before you think they are done. That is the part that took me a long time to learn… or at least put into practice. I really don’t like undercooked eggs, I’ll come short of hating them since I like runny yolks but undercooked egg whites or undercooked scrambled eggs really turn me off. So I always cook them a little longer and then they get all dried out. So I managed to stop short this time and was pleased with the results… or almost. I know why I use less milk.

Rating: B- They turned out nice but the milk resulted in a moister egg that left a lot of liquid behind in the serving bowl. They weren’t undercooked but just ‘wet’.

While this is a short post the next breakfast item was a good one. And I even tried my hand at some more baking!

32. Oven-Fried Bacon

Date Cooked: November 1st, 2008
Page: 658
Rating: A-

Yes this is an actual recipe in the book. I’m actually surprised it took me this long to make it since it was so simple and I have had a lot of bacon since starting this project. Maybe I was intimidated because it was so simple I felt there was a trick. Or maybe I felt it was such a ridiculously simple recipe that it didn’t really deserve a post. I suspect the latter. Saturday morning I decided to cook up a good breakfast for the family because 1) I don’t normally eat breakfast and 2) It was the first weekend in awhile with nothing planned. So I flipped through the breakfast chapter of the book and picked out a few quick recipes to use. This was one of them.

I’m going to do something I don’t normally do. Post the recipe.

Oven-Fried Bacon
12 slices of bacon
1. Preheat oven to 400°F
2. Place bacon on baking sheet.
3. Bake for 12 minutes turning once.

I admit I summarized a little. I think the book devotes two pages to the intricacies of bacon and this is the preparation it all boils down to.

Rating: A- I loved it and so did my wife. The kids love bacon regardless of how it is cooked. Oven-Fried the bacon came out nice and flat and mostly intact. I was about to type how it tasted just like every other slice of bacon I’ve eaten but that would be a lie. I just realize now that it didn’t leave that off-flavor taste of grease in the mouth… I will prepare bacon in this manner in the future as long as the oven is not required for something else. I really want a double wall oven.

09. Buttermilk Waffles

Date Cooked: September 1st, 2008
Recipe: 9
Page: 651

It was Labor Day morning and I wanted something different for breakfast. Considering I rarely eat breakfast (yeah, yeah I know how important the first meal of the day is), just having food would be different. Flipping through the ‘Best’ book I was looking for ideas and I wanted something a little more substantial to post about other than fried eggs or bacon, since the past few blog posts haven’t exactly been… complex. I stopped at page and read the entry for Buttermilk Waffles. I had buttermilk in my fridge from a few other recipes and figured it would be a great chance to use some more since I am not one of those people that can drink a glass of buttermilk… ughh!

So I dug out the waffle maker. Then I spent several minutes cleaning off the layers of dust that had adhered to it. I think we’ve owned this for almost six years and I can honestly say this was the third time it was used. I hope we bought it for a good deal. I would say the only other appliance I have that sees even less use would be the juicer, but we haven’t had that for a year yet so it might still see more use.

So I begin to mix all the ingredients together as directed and then comes the part where I need to whip the egg whites. Into the KitchenAid mixer they go and we watch hopelessly as the whisk attachment spins helplessly above the egg whites. We add more egg whites with no luck. Then I finally remove the bowl and hold it a mere fraction of an inch higher so the mixer can work its magic. I think I was supposed to stop at soft peaks but since I had never actually whipped egg whites before and I had no idea what soft peaks should look like, I think we stopped somewhere between hard peaks and molding clay. If I had seen this video earlier I would have been better informed. The clay got folded into the batter.

So onto the hot waffle iron I scoop some batter. I think I overestimated how much batter was needed because once I closed the lid it started pouring out all sides. The only comment Katt had for me was that I would be cleaning up the mess. In the end the waffles turned out pretty good. It will probably be awhile before I make these again because there is a fair bit of work involved. Also, I personally found them a bit salty. I ended up with a fair amount of powdered sugar and syrup on mine. My son really liked them though so that was a bonus.

The waffle iron was carefully tucked back into its corner where it will probably sit for another two years.

I would like to take this moment to profess my love for my wife Katt. Over the weekend she decided to treat me to an absolutely fantastic gift, a set of Henckel’s Knives! I had picked up a Boos Cutting Board while on vacation (the large 2ft model) and for the next few days I had been eyeing the knives in every kitchen department or kitchen supply store I could find. We were at the Bay when my wife disappeared for a few moments and the next thing I know she is handing me a bag with the knives in it and big smile on her face, although seconds later I’m sure my smile was bigger!

So to end this post. I am very excited to begin cooking with my new fabulous knives! Next on the list of must haves; La Creuset 7 ¼ qt. Round Dutch Oven (Slate) (Price at Williams-Sonoma in Buffalo, $260 USD, in Toronto, $350 CDN). I might be smuggling this one from across the border.

P.S. Yes that is a picture of one of the new knives in my title.