making dad's pancakes

The first thing that I learned how to cook was my dad's pancakes. He would make them for the family most Sunday mornings and even once or twice we ate them as a late dinner following the Christmas Eve service at church. I love making them for Tiffany. We don't eat them very often (once every few months) as they're quite filling and make enough for 4 - 6. The pancakes don't taste quite as great the following day ...

I made this most recent batch on the Sunday before Me and T's winter vacation trip(s) to New Albany and Tallahassee to see our families. The original recipe was found in a real old edition of the Southern Homemaker's Cookbook (or something to the effect) that we have lying around the house in Killearn. It calls for the typical cake-like ingredients: flour, sugar, butter, egg, shortening, salt, eye of newt, etc. (haha - just kidding about the salt).

On spicier days of my life I've been known to add orange zest or replace the shortening with yogurt, but this day was Southern Cooking to the nines and I was more interested in the right consistency and perfect color. To this end I was aided by the awesome and seasonal snowflake-spatula.

Probably my favorite part of the cooking here is re-reading the instructions from dad. Note the description!

"It will want to congeal into lumps, so stir it constantly and quickly pour it into the bowl of dry ingredients. Keep the lumps as small as rice. With a fork, now mix up the wet and dry ingredients ONLY until the dry ingredients are wet. It may be a little lumpy. That is alright. Just don’t beat it until it is smoothe."

This batch turned our particularly fluffy and toothsome, served with syrup, butter, milk, coffee, and juice. Bon Apetite before 9 am!

mustardy winter chicken

We've been pretty good about planning meals lately. I attribute this to a little common sense, a shared enjoyment of 'the big weekly grocery run', and the positive example of my friends Andrew and Alexandria. Typically we pore over a few cookbooks on Sunday before grabbing a zipcar and heading to Traders Joe's, Shaws, and / or Whole Foods.

This particular recipe - unfortunately we've only taken pictures of the Final Answer - called for the serious influence of grainy mustard in the coating of the chicken as well as panko bread crumbs. These are a little more granular and provide for a crispier bite than the usual.

The chicken chartered the broiler on its maiden voyage, emerging mostly unscathed and quite tender. The dish proved crunchy, tender, and tangy.

going green (and white and red ...)

The Wednesday following our Thanksgiving trip, Tiffany and took another shot at our old standby, Veggie Lasagna. This was the first meal that we cooked together, so to us it smells extra special coming out of the oven. Once we made it for a double dinner date with Erin and Todd. Todd even ate it, which could either be a testament ("if Todd likes it, it must be good ...") or an indictment ("... so you're saying it tastes like ketchup or hot dogs or macaroni & cheese?"), depending on how you look at it.

But any way you look at it, it does at least look great.

As it turns out it tastes pretty great, too. Tiffany and I take our sweet time cutting up all of our favorite veggies. Occasionally we divide the dish into halves, hers maybe having more carrots and mine favoring mushrooms. We've decided that the top layer (there are three) needs to have spinach 'neath the mozzarella for aesthetics. In the under layers we discuss where we should put softer versus harder cheeses, and how exactly to arrange the veggies; each time we end up assembling a new variation on the theme.

The cat, though, is never impressed.