Beef Up Your Saturday Morning Pancakes

I was instantly puzzled in the store when my boyfriend stopped and raved about Aunt Jemima's Buckwheat Pancake mix. He droned on and on in excitement about how he used to eat them as a kid and he thought they stopped making the mix. I humored his excitement while he put the box in his cart. "I'll have to make you some real pancakes," he said. I wrinkled my nose. I didn't want to try them... they looked all dark and heavy in the picture. I voiced my concerns. "You don't eat them straight up". I still didn't want to try them, but I was a bit curious.

The morning came when he decided to make them. Fine, I'll try them. I took a bite. They weren't heavy, they had substance, but they were still light and not chewy. There was a bit of sweet nuttiness to them, and the color was alluring. Wow, these were actually really good. And healthy. I can't wait to try them with blueberries in them. It seems like it would be a match made in Heaven.

Doug's Buckwheat Pancake Mix:
1 Box Aunt Jemima's Buckwheat Pancake Mix
1 Box Aunt Jemima's Original Pancake Mix

Follow the directions on the box for the amount of pancakes you desire. Mix half Buckwheat and half Original to equal your desired amount. Add milk to desired consistency.

I'm not a big syrup fan, so I chose to smother mine in fresh strawberries mashed with sugar and chilled in the refrigerator for at least a half an hour. The sugar mingles with the strawberries and enhances their flavor. Yum! Try these on your next pancake morning.

A Tale of Two Frostings

It was the best of times... it was the worst of times...

Kidding! (I've never actually read that book either). Well, I intended for this post to be about cocoa powder, but I'll save that for another time. For in attempting to make chocolate cake from scratch, I stumbled upon a childhood favorite of mine. The idea was planted in my head from my friend, Malissa. In her latest blog, she mentioned Fluffy White Frosting. Oooh, Fluffy White! How you've slipped off my food radar these past years. In vain I searched for the recipe for one of my childhood favorites. You see, it was my dad's favorite frosting, so just about every year on his birthday, we would have a cake loaded with billowing mounds of fluffy white frosting. When I couldn't find the recipe, I panicked. So many online to choose from...all with conflicting ingredients, and all with conflicting results. Mo was kind enough to send me her recipe. There are two ways to accomplish the end result of fluffy pillows of sugary sweetness. The following recipes show both ways, but they can be interchanged with each other.

Fluffy White Frosting (courtesy of Malissa)
1 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup Water
1/4 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

In a saucepan combine sugar, water, and cream of tartar. Cook and stir till bubbly and sugar dissolves. In a small mixer bowl combine egg whites and vanilla. Add sugar mixture very slowly (and I do mean slowly; we need to temper the eggs, not scramble them) to egg whites, beating constantly with an electric mixer on high speed for about 7 minutes or till stiff peaks form. Pick a bowl that will be big enough to handle the frosting when the eggs fluff up. It will quadruple in size. If you are running out of room, no worries, just transfer into a bigger bown and keep beating.

Stiff peaks is the key word here. VERY STIFF peaks mind you. When I was about 10 or 11, I wanted to make the annual fluffy white for my dad's birthday cake. I was proud of myself for being able to use my mom's double boiler (used in the upcoming recipe). I beat the mixture and didn't really understand what stiff peaks meant. I spread it on the cake and put the cake on the counter in the corner to await dessert time. In a few hours, when dinner was over, we pulled the cake out to eat it. In my dismay, all of the frosting had melted off the cake and settled on the edges. I didn't beat the eggs enough for the proteins to break and reform new bonds. It simply just fell apart.

After topping my made-from-scratch chocolate cupcakes with the mixture, I dug in. The frosting was very, very good. And yet, it tasted like marshmallow....exactly like marshmallow. It wasn't the fluffy white from my childhood. It was stickier and a bit sweeter, but still very delicious. A little put out I put the remainder in container and took it to my mom's house and made them all taste it. "It's not the same!" I declared. We all agreed, it was different, but not as good. And that's when I pulled out the 1969 Betty Crocker's Cookbook to look for the frosting of my younger days. This recipe is no longer published in Betty Crocker's books, and probably for good food-police reasons. Somehow tempering eggs gets everyone scared in this day and age. But trust me, that bowl got HOT. Betty Crocker does make "Fluffy White" in a can, but I'm not even going to try it, for it's probably not the same.
I sifted through the yellowing pages until I found what I was looking for:

Double Boiler (7-Minute) Frosting
(so Betty didn't even call it fluffy white...hmmmm)
2 Egg Whites
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/2 Cup Water
1 tsp Vanilla (some cooks say to use clear, but regular doesn't tint the frosting too much)
(so far, the only difference is the water and sugar content)

Combine egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and water in top of double boiler. (If you don't have a double boiler, no worries. A stainless steel bowl on top of a saucepan of boiling water will do the same thing. Just make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water, and that it's big enough to handle the volume. This will quadruple in size when beating.) Beat on high speed for 1 minute with electric mixer. Place over boiling water (water should not touch bottom of pan); beat on high speed 7 minutes. Remove pan from boiling water and add vanilla. Continue beating on high speed until stiff peaks form. (It took me a lot longer than 2 minutes, but my hand mixer isn't that powerful)

Viola! Fluffy white (or 7-minute) frosting from my childhood. Even though it has the basic same ingredients, it doesn't have as sticky of a texture, and doesn't taste like marshmallow as much. It seems lighter some how. The best part about this frosting: it forms a delicious crust on it when left out for a while. Yum!

Not only are these frostings good on cake, they would be excellent in graham cracker sandwiches, or maybe even a fruit dip for your favorite melons and strawberries. Also a dollop in some hot chocolate or an Irish coffee would be heaven. :)

Fulfill that craving for spring with this Parsley Pesto

First off, I apologize for my absence. I had some medical issues in the last few weeks that took up most of my energy. I'll make it up with an exceptionally tasty recipe.
A magazine that I absolutely love is Everyday Food. Not only is it filled with loads of inspirational ingredients and mouth-watering recipes, they really have an upper hand with food photography and layout. Their March 2009 Issue focused on one my favorite foods: Pasta. One recipe in particular caught my eye:

Fettuccine with Parsley Pesto

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3/4 pound fettuccine
• 2 cups packed fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup walnuts, plus more chopped for serving
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 5 ounces baby spinach

1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water; drain pasta, and return to pot.

2. In a food processor, puree parsley, walnuts, Parmesan, garlic, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water until a paste forms. With machine running, add oil in a thin stream; process until very smooth, about 1 minute. Season pesto with salt and pepper.

3. To pasta in pot, add pesto, 1/4 cup pasta water, and spinach; toss to combine. Thin with pasta water as needed. Serve sprinkled with walnuts and Parmesan.


Notes:
The walnuts in the pesto add body and depth to the flavor, but you could also use cashews, peanuts, or any other nut favorite. Stay away from pre-salted nuts as this may lead to undesired results. Sprinkling the walnuts on top of the pasta when done added a pop of texture and crunch to keep your mouth happy.

I cut the baby spinach into ribbons by rolling several leaves together and then slicing. This made them more manageable to eat rather than leaving them whole, and added pretty streaks of greenery in the dish.

A food processor is almost a must for this recipe. The parsley leaves are so lightweight that they don't like to go near the blades of my magic bullet. (I have yet to get myself a KitchenAid Food Processor.) I bought one for my boyfriend, Doug last year and they are absolutely amazing. But that's another blog entry ;)

The parsley had a little bite to it, but a fresh finish which made the range of flavors expansive for so few ingredients.

I added more garlic than the recipe called for. Looking back I would've gone with 3-4 cloves total. But I LOVE garlic.

My final pesto turned out a bit bland, so I underestimated my salt and pepper a bit. Be sure to taste your pesto and remember that it will be cut with water when tossed with the pasta, so over seasoning a bit wouldn't be so bad.

When I heated up some leftovers, the parsley had lost it's bite and smelling it cook in the microwave again made me think that a quarter of a sweet onion added to the pesto would be a nice addition.

All in all I really enjoyed this recipe. It was such a nice twist on a classic pesto and really does taste like spring. This dish would be a nice compliment to a sun-warmed deck and a large pitcher of iced lemonade.