Lemon pancakes (p. 646) and Additions to pancakes (p. 644)

Somehow I hit "post" too quickly, so I apologize if you came to this blog and just saw a set of pictures. I hope you made up your own exciting copy to go with it.

On a whim, I decided to make pancakes for dinner. I always forget about the possibility of pancakes, which heat up amazingly, when I'm trying to figure out what is quick to make for dinner. I actually was in the mood for waffles but I don't have a waffle iron.

I wasn't particularly excited about Lemon pancakes (p. 646) but I wanted to knock them off the list. I mixed flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in one bowl and sour cream, milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, melted butter, an egg, and vanilla extract in another bowl:



The two were combined:



The batter was thick and bubbly, as TJOC said it would be. I totally missed the part about how each pancake should be about a quarter cup:



I was able to cut the pancake in half. At this point, I turned the pancake-making over to Josh and figured he could cook them more efficiently than I could. I have no picture of the finished product but it looked just like an average pancake.

I'm not big into lemon flavor, so I wasn't in love with these pancakes. They were certainly lemony and they had a strange tang from the sour cream. If you love lemon, make these pancakes. I think they would be really good with whipped cream on top and maybe raspberry sauce (sort of a Melba theme?). I also think they'd be good with vanilla ice cream and wrapped up like a burrito (am I the only one who does that?).

I also decided to make Additions to pancakes" (p. 644). Essentially, I just made pancakes and added raspberries.




The finished product:



Tasty! I like raspberries in pancakes, I think they are my favorite fruit addition. Now that I've worked out the teaspoon/tablespoon misprint in TJOC I'm having a much better success rate with my pancakes.

What do you like to add to pancakes?

Baked French toast (p. 648)

I don't love French toast. Everyone else seems to but I'm not very enthusiastic about it. Even so, I thought Baked French toast (p. 648) had the potential to be good and Josh was excited about it.

I mixed heavy cream, lots of eggs, honey (my stand in for maple syrup, which I didn't have), sugar (I also didn't have brown sugar, so my flavor profile was fairly compromised), vanilla and salt:



I dipped white bread in it (the recipe even says "white sandwich bread") and laid them in an 8x8 baking pan, layering in to a double layer. It was at this point that I realized it was supposed to sit overnight. Sigh. That's what I get for not reading through the recipe.



I pressed Saran wrap onto the surface and popped it in the fridge:



The next night it had soaked up most of the egg mixture:



Problem 1: The bread didn't want to come out of the pan, it was falling apart.
Problem 2: The bread was not shaped normally anymore

So this is what they looked like when I laid the bread on a cookie sheet:



Attractive, right? Something you would want to make for company, right?

I hoped they would get better with baking.



They did not. I flipped them after about 7 minutes:



Tell me that isn't the most pathetic thing you've ever seen. I mean, come on.

If you are going to make this recipe, I have some suggestions:
1. Don't use white sandwich bread, use a stronger bread like Italian or French bread
2. Grease the heck out of the pan.
3. Use maple syrup and brown sugar because these were rather boring

Honestly, these tasted okay, they were just really ugly and not worth waiting a day to eat. I'm thankful I only have one more French toast recipe to make.

Wikipedia says that some people eat French toast with ketchup. That horrifies me. Has anyone actually done that?
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Chilled grapefruit (p. 226)

I like the super simple recipes in TJOC because I can knock them out relatively easily when I have the ingredients. Chilled grapefruit (p. 226) was one of these recipes.

I halved a grapefruit, loosened the sections, dusted it with powdered sugar, and sprinkled Grand Marnier over the top.



Personally, I think the liqueur was a bit much. I don't really need a tablespoon of alcohol on my morning grapefruit and it was pretty overwhelming. I also like table sugar rather than powdered sugar, which I think was too sweet. So, although this is an insane recipe (doesn't everyone already know how to eat a grapefruit?), I doubt I will make it again.

Random facts:

• The bitter compounds in citrus peel are water soluble while the oils are not. That is why soaking is recommended when you use it. (On Food and Cooking, p. 373)
• The grapefruit was originally the hybrid of the sweet orange and pummelo (OFaC, p. 376)

New puppy! Pickles of the month! And contest winner!

This is a non-cooking post, so if you only read for the cooking, skip this post!

Josh and I added a new family member to the household! About a month ago we got a little papillon puppy that we named Lestat. We figured he is French, obstinate, and naughty, so it's the perfect name.



Our other dog, Duchess, didn't know what to think about him. Duch is only 20 lbs, Lestat was only 4 lbs when we got him:



Now THAT is a cute face!



Lestat thrives on danger:



See, he's already helping me blog:



Yes, I often blog wearing an apron and in that giant mess. I will admit it. It took all of my self control not to bore you with a thousand more doggie pictures.

Josh bought me a Pickle-of-the-month club membership for Christmas. It is, quite possibly, the best gift ever. I LOVE of-the-month clubs (he got me a puzzle subscription a few years ago).

February's pickles were:



Loved them both. The Really Chunky Dills with Garlic were extremely crisp and garlicky. The Pickles and Peppers were incredibly sweet and hot. I love bread and butter pickles and these were bread and butter pickles kicked up a few notches. I loved them. I need more pickles!

I had never heard of Tony Packo's in Ohio before receiving these pickles but between these delicious pickles and their awesome looking menu, I would love to eat there. There are SO many items on the menu that look great. Have any of you been there before? Apparently they were Klinger's favorite restaurant on MASH (slightly before my time) because the actor that played him Jamie Farr, was a huge fan.

Finally, the winner of the $35 CSN GC is....

Drumroll please...

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 21

SHARON! She has been notified. Congrats, Sharon! Hopefully more contests to come!

Pineapple glaze (p. 583) and Fish loaf (p. 106)

I had (yet another) ham, which meant (yet another) glaze. I thought Pineapple glaze (p. 583) looked promising.

Glazes are always easy. I mixed chopped pineapple, brown sugar, and ginger together:



And slopped it on the ham:



As you can see, a lot of the pineapple fell off, which probably insinuates that I did not chop it finely enough. This wasn't my favorite glaze, although I did like its sweetness. It was okay but nothing special and it wasn't as good as some of the other TJOC glazes. There also didn't seem to be enough of it--if I made it again, I would use a double batch.

There are very few foods I absolutely will not eat. In fact, I can only think of one--canned tuna. I hate tuna. I hate the taste, I hate the smell, I hate everything about it. Fresh tuna at a sushi restaurant? Delicious. In a can? Nope. So when I saw Fish loaf (p. 106) I knew I was going to have to make it for somebody else.

Like ham loaf, this is another super retro recipe. I've never even heard of anyone making a fish loaf. Even so, I would stick with the ham loaf for your Mad Men party because this might gross people out. Even the idea is strange.

I tore up a few slices of white bread, threw them in the food processor, and pulsed it so crumbs were produced:



I added an onion and celery and mixed:



I then added butter and an egg. At this point I started to worry that the food processor may be too small.



I added in several cans of tuna, lemon juice, oregano, red pepper sauce, salt, and pepper. I packed it all in to a buttered loaf pan:



And baked it:



I certainly didn't try it. Josh said it was strangely soft. He wasn't a big fan. I think the bread made it sort of mushy. It looked much better the next day after sitting (far improved texture) and Josh said it was okay on bread with mayonnaise. I think tartar sauce also would have improved it. A fish meatloaf just seems bizarre to me.

Has anyone ever made a fish loaf before? Would you eat a slice of this one?

Fruit sodas (p. 39) and Citrus juice medley (p. 38)

The "beverages" chapter in TJOC is just not very exciting to me. I really feel like I'm just powering through them. Maybe it's because I don't require much in the way of fancy drinks. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out who I'm going to pawn the "Lemonade for 100" off on when I get to that recipe.

I was hopeful about Fruit sodas (p. 39). I combined club soda, pineapple juice, and sugar syrup:



It was tasty! It was pretty close to soda, which I liked. I really love club soda--and I drink a lot of it--so that was great. I think I would rather have another juice, maybe cranberry or grape juice or something. And I think it would be absolutely perfect for juices that are really sweet (too sweet for me, at least) like apricot nectar.

I also made Citrus juice medley (p. 38), which Josh got to enjoy. I combined grapefruit, lemon, and orange juices with sugar syrup:



It was REALLY sour. If you like sour drinks, this is the one for you. If you don't, steer clear. I recommend using sugar syrup instead of sugar in these drinks, since sugar doesn't dissolve very well in cold liquids.

There really isn't a whole lot to say about these drinks, they are juice blends, that's that, right?

Yellow cupcakes (p. 737) and Black bottom cupcakes (p. 738)

When I bake, I prefer to bake as much as possible at once. My thought process is as follows: if I'm going to make the whole kitchen a giant mess, might as well make more items and only have to clean once. So since I already knew I was going to make Yellow cupcakes (p. 737)--might as well make Black bottom cupcakes (p. 738) too!

I beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth:



I then beat in an egg and added chocolate chips:



In another bowl, I mixed flour, sugar, non-alkalized cocoa powder*, and salt:



I added water, vegetable oil, distilled white vinegar (strange!), and vanilla:



I filled each cup about half full with the chocolate batter mixture:



I placed a heaping tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture in the middle of each cupcake:



They were then baked:



These were good! The middle was creamy and tsty, the different types of chocolate (chips and cake) lent a note of interest, and I really liked the idea of a filled cupcake that didn't take much extra effort. The cupcakes were also really moist and remained moist for quite a while. They were so rich they didn't even need to be frosted! Perfect. I really recommend these.

Yellow cupcakes (p. 737) isn't a very exciting recipe. I essentially just made Lightning cake and poured the batter in to a cupcake pan.

I whisked together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. I added eggs, milk, and vanilla, beat the batter for a few minutes, and then beat in some butter.



The batter was delicious. I poured the batter in to cupcake cups (I use a cookie scoop, it makes it much more simple):



And baked:



I actually have more pictures of this process but they don't seem very important. It's so frustrating to me how differently the cupcakes rise. I'm still not dealing with the altitude and baking well. These cupcakes were good but nothing special. In fact, they reminded me of boxed mix cupcakes, which isn't a real compliment. I don't know if I'd bother with this recipe again.

Random facts:

• *Non-alkalized cocoa powder: Alkalized cocoa powder is referred to as "Dutched". It has been treated with an alkaline substance and raises the pH of the cocoa. It results in a cocoa "with a milder flavor and darker color" (On Food and Cooking, p. 705-706).
• If you use alkalized and non-alkalized cocoa interchangeably in recipes, it can really screw them up.
  

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Hummus (Chickpea and tahini dip) (p. 74)

Ah, Hummus (Chickpea and tahini dip) (p. 74). There are about a thousand variations of hummus and I wasn't very impressed by TJOC's previous hummus recipe (Half moon hummus), which was far too lemony for my liking.

I took my (canned) chickpeas, combined them in the food processor with lemon juice (way less lemon juice than the HMH recipe, thankfully), tahini, garlic, and salt:



Drizzled a little olive oil on top, sprinkled a little paprika, and done!

This was a tasty, simple hummus. Was it my favorite hummus recipe ever? No. But it was super easy. I think it would be a good base recipe for creative cooks--I see myself adding a ton more garlic or black olives or something. It's nice to have hummus on hand since it's a nice, filling snack. And it always seems like a waste to buy since it's so easy to make.

Any favorite hummus recipes out there? Favorite add-ins?

Random facts:

• Hummus comes from the Arabic word for chickpea (Wikipedia). Simple right?
• Chickpeas have much more oil than most other legumes (On Food and Cooking, p. 491)
• Chickpeas and garbanzo beans are the same thing. The word "chickpea" comes from the Latin name and "garbanzo" comes from the Greek name (On Food and Cooking, p. 491)

Chocolate icebox cookies (p. 776)

I have been eying the giant list of icebox cookies for some time. I know exactly why they haven't been made, too. I really hate when I have to refrigerate cookie dough. Usually it means I'm in the mood to cook when I start but then have to take a break and I'm usually not in the mood to bake when I need to finish the cookies. This is also why I never make sugar cookies.

Even so, there are seven icebox cookie recipes in TJOC. I read them to Josh, he picked the chocolate chip version which requires tiny, expensive chocolate chips. Instead of making his choice (much to his dismay), I decided to make Chocolate icebox cookies (p. 776). Same thing, right? RIGHT?

So I mixed flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl I beat butter and sugar until fluffy, finally adding in an egg, melted chocolate, brandy, and some vanilla.



I rolled the whole thing up with parchment paper and popped it in the fridge:



The dough was really sticky and did not like rolling up. The next day it was extremely hard. I cut it in to slices:



And baked them:



These are odd cookies. They are thin and crisp. I think they would be an absolutely delicious ice cream sandwich. This particular version was chocolate-y without being overboard. The addition of brandy was excellent--it added some depth to the chocolate. That all being said, I hate making the dough and then having to finish the cookies hours later so I doubt that icebox cookies will ever be at the top of my list of favorite cookie recipes.