and I've got the burners lit/ for you, you hungry thing.
Thoughts on Mad Men a little bit later -- well, not thoughts per se, more like pictures with cheesy lyrics attached to them, but still. Fannishness.
First: I've always loved the idea of pancakes -- cakes! That you fry in the pan! And if that wasn't enough, you pour liquid candy all over them! And sometimes you add chocolate chips! I mean, come on, who doesn't think that sounds amazing?
But the reality of pancakes was pretty blah. I'd tried various mixes, to various degrees of success, until it all came to a horrific and tragic end when I started dabbling with buckwheat pancakes, which were as tasteless as paper and dense as Republicans. Then I forayed into from-scratch recipes, and sure, it was dough fried in butter, but there was just no zing. And then I started browsing around the internet. Which is all to say, this week's Foodsday post is about:
I have never, ever, ever had pancakes like these. Now I understand! Life truly has meaning! And the meaning of life are these fucking yum pancakes. The recipe (plus some really handy tips) are at smitten kitchen's site, here.
A couple of things to know up front: (1) the recipe is originally Martha Stewart's, so there is a lot of fiddly things you have to do, and (q) these things, while indeed fiddly, are essential.
When I first read that the recipe wanted me to lightly brush melted butter on to the hot griddle, I was like OH HELL NO MARTHA, but I happened to have some melted butter left over and I tried it and it really, really does make a difference. The outside of the pancakes end up softly crispy and flaky without being greasy. One of the tips that I found to be super helpful was the suggestion that you ladle out the batter first, and then add blueberries directly to the pancake while it's cooking. This keeps the batter that beautiful cream color, and you can make plain pancakes (or pancakes with other fillings) without starting a new batch.
Another thing I found was truly necessary was the use of buttermilk. It added a zing to the flavor that I've been missing all these years with "buttermilk pancake" mixes. This does indeed mean getting an ingredient specifically for these pancakes, and which will be hard to use up, except that buttermilk keeps really well and you're going to be making these pancakes three or four times in the next few weekends. I ended up scraping as much of the batter as I could out of the bowl in order to maximize my pancake consumption experience.
Oh, man. I'm going to need more buttermilk.
*
Speaking of food and the weekend, this past Saturday was Sept. 11, obviously, so this is what happened to the pantry:
.
That was the worst of it though, so I'm counting this as a good year. I keep thinking next year will be the really bad one, but then again, maybe I'll just be grateful for how much can change in just two handfuls of years.
In any case, not only does the pantry look stellar now, but when Karl opened the pantry door and saw what I'd done, he let out an impressively high-pitched scream, so it was totally worth it.
+
I'm reading The Year of the Flood right now, and I have The Wind-up Girl and The Glass Room on deck. Any other recs?
* recipe for bacon not included.
First: I've always loved the idea of pancakes -- cakes! That you fry in the pan! And if that wasn't enough, you pour liquid candy all over them! And sometimes you add chocolate chips! I mean, come on, who doesn't think that sounds amazing?
But the reality of pancakes was pretty blah. I'd tried various mixes, to various degrees of success, until it all came to a horrific and tragic end when I started dabbling with buckwheat pancakes, which were as tasteless as paper and dense as Republicans. Then I forayed into from-scratch recipes, and sure, it was dough fried in butter, but there was just no zing. And then I started browsing around the internet. Which is all to say, this week's Foodsday post is about:
I have never, ever, ever had pancakes like these. Now I understand! Life truly has meaning! And the meaning of life are these fucking yum pancakes. The recipe (plus some really handy tips) are at smitten kitchen's site, here.
A couple of things to know up front: (1) the recipe is originally Martha Stewart's, so there is a lot of fiddly things you have to do, and (q) these things, while indeed fiddly, are essential.
When I first read that the recipe wanted me to lightly brush melted butter on to the hot griddle, I was like OH HELL NO MARTHA, but I happened to have some melted butter left over and I tried it and it really, really does make a difference. The outside of the pancakes end up softly crispy and flaky without being greasy. One of the tips that I found to be super helpful was the suggestion that you ladle out the batter first, and then add blueberries directly to the pancake while it's cooking. This keeps the batter that beautiful cream color, and you can make plain pancakes (or pancakes with other fillings) without starting a new batch.
Another thing I found was truly necessary was the use of buttermilk. It added a zing to the flavor that I've been missing all these years with "buttermilk pancake" mixes. This does indeed mean getting an ingredient specifically for these pancakes, and which will be hard to use up, except that buttermilk keeps really well and you're going to be making these pancakes three or four times in the next few weekends. I ended up scraping as much of the batter as I could out of the bowl in order to maximize my pancake consumption experience.
Oh, man. I'm going to need more buttermilk.
*
Speaking of food and the weekend, this past Saturday was Sept. 11, obviously, so this is what happened to the pantry:
.
That was the worst of it though, so I'm counting this as a good year. I keep thinking next year will be the really bad one, but then again, maybe I'll just be grateful for how much can change in just two handfuls of years.
In any case, not only does the pantry look stellar now, but when Karl opened the pantry door and saw what I'd done, he let out an impressively high-pitched scream, so it was totally worth it.
+
I'm reading The Year of the Flood right now, and I have The Wind-up Girl and The Glass Room on deck. Any other recs?
* recipe for bacon not included.