Small Time Cooks Giveaway WINNER!

Thanks for entering my first little giveaway guys! I used random.org's random number generator and got the number 4, which means that Cheryl is the winner. Shoot me an e-mail at jlgweirlaw at yahoo dot com Cheryl, so I can get your mailing address. I probably should have asked people to leave their e-mail address in the comments, right? Oh well, chock it up to beginner giveaway mistakes. Anyway, give me a shout Cheryl and your new cookbook and pancake mix will be on their way to you soon! Thanks again everyone for stopping by the blog to enter!

Small Time Cooks GIVEAWAY!

That's right food-friends, I'm hosting my first giveaway. I noticed the other day that I had over 100 subscribers in Google Reader, so I thought this somewhat random occasion was as good a reason as any to celebrate. Why not, right? So, here's the scoop- as you might have guessed by the pic above, I'm giving away one copy of Everyday Food's Great Food Fast. Everyday Food, as you might have noticed, is my favorite source for great recipes. A collection of their great ideas seemed like the perfect thing for my first giveaway. In addition I'm throwing in some pancakes. Well, not ready-to-eat pancakes, but a jar of my favorite pancake mix. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post and you could be making some pancakes or another great meal out of the great Everyday Food cookbook real soon. I'll accept comments from now until Sunday at midnight. A commenter will be chosen at random, via random.org. Feel free to spread the word and good luck!

Reheating Leftovers- Revisiting Cinnamon Oat Pancakes

I had something else on the agenda to share, but I can't seem to find the recipe now. Hardly seems right to share something with you when I can't quite tell you how to make it. But all day I've been thinking about how I should mention these pancakes again. These are my favorite pancakes. Now, I love a fluffy buttermilk flapjack. And I'd never turn my nose up at a blueberry version. But these guys really work hard for me. The cinnamon oat pancake has earned my love.

First, let's start with the fact that these things are pretty darn healthy as far as pancakes go. You've got oats for a nice dose of fiber, and substituting at least half whole wheat flour bumps up the nutritional bonus points. I regularly make these pancakes with soy milk, and using egg substitute would make these babies vegan in no time. The cinnamon and relatively low amount of sugar are just the right combo, no syrup required (though I'd never judge the use of it). And then, you throw in the freezer factor. These fellas freeze beautifully. I wrap them up in pairs in wax paper and pop them all in a big freezer bag. Reheating is a cinch. You could probably toss them in the oven, but I just pop them in the toaster. I usually toast twice, turning in between (that's just a personal tick/habit, probably not all that necessary). They come out warm with a slight crispness to the outside. It's like the best cinnamon toast you've ever had. Way healthier than that sugary cinnamon bread, less mess than sprinkling cinnamon-sugar over toast. Out of the toaster and into my hand for a super easy to eat breakfast. I made a batch prior to the start of the school year, and it's been such a breeze to make sure I eat something before heading off to class. I eat my banana or fruit smoothie while my pancake toasts, then munch on it while I head back to my room and pick out my clothes for the day. One hand for pancake, one hand for grabbing pants, socks, and shoes.

If you've got a big family you'd probably need to make a couple batches to have enough to stock the freezer, but I just don't see how it couldn't be worth it. A nice family breakfast on the weekend, and stock the freezer for weekday mornings? Seems like a no-brainer. If your kid can make a Pop Tart or a toaster streudel, then they can reheat these pancakes.

P.S.- In the original post I imagined that these pancakes would be great with preserves. I was right- they rocked when I recently had them with some homemade peach jam.

Escaping the Heat by Pretending It's Fall- Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes

I had been craving pancakes for weeks. For me, pancakes always seem like such a hassle. Probably because my electric griddle just doesn't seem to have the staying power it once did, so I end up cooking pancakes in a skillet. Two at a time, which ends up taking me awhile. I'd also, for some reason, been craving pumpkin. I think at the time it had something to do with my desperate yearning for autumn. Not only was it hot, making it natural to look forward to the next, cooler season, but it was also rainy and gray for almost two weeks. This is not common during the summer months in Texas, and it made it look like fall every time I glanced out my window. You knew it wasn't as soon as you stepped outside, and unfortunately I decided to take a walk before I made these pancakes on the most humid day of my life, but I forged ahead with my breakfast of denial anyhow. I just googled up "whole wheat pumpkin pancakes" and went with the recipe that I seemed to have most of the ingredients for, which was Pinch My Salt's recipe from 2007. I made a couple of small adjustments for what I had on hand and went forward into my fake fall meal.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes
Recipe from Pinch My Salt; Makes appx. 16

1 C. whole wheat flour
1/2 C. cake flour
1 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1 C. buttermilk
1 C. canned pumpkin puree
2 eggs
2 T. oil
1 t. vanilla
2 T. dark brown sugar

• In a large bowl, whisk together the first eight ingredients (whole wheat flour through nutmeg). In a separate bowl, whisk together the last six ingredients (buttermilk through brown sugar).
• Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and blend together with a wooden spoon until just combined. Lumps are ok, just make sure all the flour on the bottom of the bowl is mixed in. If batter seems too thick to pour, you can gently stir in a little more buttermilk.
• Drop pancakes by ladleful onto a medium-hot griddle. Pancakes are ready to turn when the edges start to look a little dry and you can see small bubbles forming on the surface.

My notes: I used all white whole wheat flour, soy milk, and light brown sugar. I had to add some extra milk to thin the batter a little, just adding little by little until it seemed easier to work with. Since I used soy milk, a switch to an egg substitute would make this recipe vegan. I used a 1/4 cup to ladle the batter for each pancake.

Using What You Have (And Don't Have)- Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

I have been under the control of a vicious cold bug since last Tuesday. I'm partially to blame, because I have been eating far from healthy lately. In part due to a foot injury which has kept me on my butt as often as possible, and in part due to sheer laziness. Either way, I certainly haven't been helping my immune system along. So this weekend I figured I could use a health food boost. Sure, the boost came in syrup covered form, but are we really going to nit pick? I had to work with what I had because this was a pre-grocery shopping trip meal. So, what did I have? Several bananas nearly beyond the point of usability. What did I not have? Eggs. But I kept coming back to pancakes, which I had been craving for weeks. So, I turned to Google for an egg-less pancake recipe. I came across this recipe on Recipezaar. It had some good reviews so I decided to use it as a starting point and after a few adjustments I was ready to get to flipping some flap jacks!

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes
Recipe adapted from Recipezaar; Makes 12-16


1 1/3 cups white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup toasted wheat germ
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 mashed bananas

• Whisk together the flour, wheat germ, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and sugar.
• Add to dry ingredients the milk, vanilla and mashed bananas. Mix until just combined.
• Cook by 1/4 cup full on well oiled skillet or griddle over medium/medium-high heat. Serve warm.

My notes: These pancakes didn't come out as sweet as I thought they might. I considered increasing the sugar, as one of the recipe reviewers suggested, but I thought that the very ripe bananas might lend enough sweetness on their own. Next time I'll definitely increase, and might even switch to brown sugar like the Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes that I love. Also, since we're soy milk drinkers around these parts and I was out of eggs this recipe is vegan friendly.

Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes

I like pancakes. I mean, I love pancakes. I probably think about them at least once a week. But I rarely make them. Pancakes always seem such a chore to me. They are one of those foods that just when I think I've got the process down pat I have a disastrous go round with them. And that happened this time around too, but luckily I was able to work through my frustration and had a delightful breakfast when all was said and done. The biggest problem this time around was the electric griddle that I typically use for making pancakes. I have just about decided to give that thing the heave-ho after this last experience, and get one of those griddles that goes on the stove burners instead. Once I switched over to a frying pan things went much smoother, although slower since I could only fit 2 pancakes in the pan at a time. I was intrigued with this pancake recipe when I saw it in the May issue of Everyday Food, but my general pancake apprehension caused me to repeatedly put off making them. I finally got to it on July 4th, and I'm glad that I did. Cause as I've mentioned, I love pancakes and these were good pancakes. They cooked up fluffy with a great flavor and texture from the oats. If you, like me, like pancakes, give these a flip.

Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes
Recipe from Everyday Food; Makes 20














2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups milk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for skillet

• In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and 1 cup oats and pulse a few times to coarsely grind oats. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and oil. Add dry ingredients and 1 cup oats and whisk just until moistened.
• Heat a large skillet (nonstick or cast-iron) or griddle over medium. Lightly oil skillet. Using 2 to 3 tablespoons for each pancake, drop batter in skillet and cook until a few bubbles have burst, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until browned on undersides, 1 to 2 minutes more. Repeat with more oil and batter.

My notes: I substituted half the all-purpose flour with some white whole wheat for a little bit of a healthier version. I also used soy milk for these. I came out with several more than they claim the recipe yields, but that was no problem since I now have another weekend breakfast awaiting us in the freezer. We had our pancakes with syrup, and EF suggested powdered sugar and bananas, but I think the cinnamon lends itself to lots of fruit options. I think peaches or apples, fresh or preserves, would both be quite nice with these.

In Memory

My Uncle Sammy passed away this past Friday morning. I just got back last night from the trip to Louisiana for the funeral. I told Aunt Carol how I named my pancakes after our annual trip to their farm, and she got a kick out of that. So, I thought I would put a link up to that recipe in memory of the good times we had at Uncle Sammy's. You can revisit Labor Day Pancakes here.

Light and Easy

For last night's dinner I went with something simple and light- wheat pancakes with fruit salad. I followed Jane's pancake recipe and they turned out delicious. These were so good that I ate them just as they are. No syrup, no butter, no sugar- just slightly sweet pancakey goodness. The fruit salad was just something I sort of tossed together. I used 1 green apple, half a pear, a handful of cherries, 1 kiwi, a handful of strawberries, 1 drained can of mandarin oranges, 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of sugar and some lime juice. Chop everything into bite sized pieces, except for the oranges, and toss together. I let it chill in the fridge while I made the pancakes.

Wheat Pancakes
Recipe from This Week For Dinner
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

• Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together. Mix wet and dry together- not too much, you want lumpy batter. Cook on medium heat until bubbles are bursting and edges look partially dry. Flip and cook until done.

My notes: Jane's recipe calls for whole wheat flour, I used white whole wheat. White whole wheat still has the whole grains, but is lighter than regular whole wheat. Next time around I'm going to try them with all white whole wheat, and we'll see how that goes.

Strawberry Shortstack

We had a pretty lazy day for July 4th. We slept in late, and lounged around a little bit before we made a quick trip to the store for cat food. While there I grabbed some pretty strawberries that were on sale, along with some heavy cream and a pint of vanilla ice cream. I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to do with them, I figured some kind of dessert. But then when we got home and I spied the 4 leftover pancakes from Monday night's dinner sitting in the fridge. And that's when I decided to create the Strawberry Shortstack. I made some whipped cream- 1 cup heavy cream, 1 tablespoon white sugar, 1/2 tablespoon powdered sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon Mexican vanilla. I popped that in the fridge and tossed my pancakes into a 350 degree oven to warm, only takes a few minutes. I cleaned and sliced my strawberries, and the blueberries I had leftover from the blueberry muffins while I was at it. Once all my ingredients were prepped I spread whipped cream on one pancakes, layered it with strawberries and then repeated with the second pancake. And of course I had to give it a little Independence Day flair! And to go with our Strawberry Shortstack I blended up some blueberry smoothies- 1 cup vanilla yogurt, 1 banana, and 1 cup blueberries. Mmmmm!

Two Left Hands

Sometimes I feel like the biggest klutz in the world. Lately even the simplest things seem to take me HOURS to make. Last night round 2 of Orange Ricotta Pancakes was a huge hassle, bordering on a disaster. The first 3 pancakes into the pan weren't cooking at all. I don't know what these people at Everyday Food mean by saying large skillet, but when I put my largest skillet on the stove I imagine it should be enough. 3 tablespoons of oil? Are you people crazy? And at medium-low heat, how do you expect my pancakes to cook in 1/4" of oil. After completely dumping the first 3, along with all the dang oil, I started over. I turned the heat up to medium, and rubbed the pan with an oil soaked paper towel. I also set the kitchen timer, to help ensure that I didn't try to flip the pancakes too soon. I seem to do that often. That helped a great deal, but things were still annoying. And then I burned my left hand, which sucked. Once again, they tasted great, and some of them actually came out looking pretty good. But not pretty enough for a photograph, ha. I'm sure it will be another 2 months before I forget about what a pain they are, only remember how good they taste and decide to make them again.