Blueberry Whole Grain Pancakes

Looking for a healthy and yummy way to start the new year off right? Try these. You can omit the fruit, or add a little cinnamon if you like to spice them up a bit. The batter is pretty thick, so you will want to spoon it onto your griddle as thin as possible so they cook evenly. If you want to add some ground flax seed, feel free. Just add a splash of milk per 1/4 cup of flaxseed and you should be fine. Also, I only serve them with real maple syrup (except for my husband, who likes to make them into peanut butter and honey sandwiches), which has some antioxidant benefit, particularly compared to something like Log Cabin or everyone's favorite pancake wench, Aunt Jemima.

Blueberry Whole Grain Pancakes

Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten
2 c. dry oatmeal
1 c. whole wheat flour (everyone has a favorite, and mine is Bob's Red Mill Organic. If it's not on sale, I like the white whole what variety).
2 c. buttermilk
1 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 T. canola oil
about 1 c. frozen blueberries

Combine all ingredients except blueberries, stir until just mixed. If you are using old fashioned oats (instead of quick oats), let the batter sit a couple minutes while you turn your griddle on to 350. Mix the berries until just combined (if you are using fresh berries, be very gentle with the stirring so you don't have purple pancakes. Frozen really work best here). Pam or brush your hot griddle with some canola oil. Plop batter down into pancake-shaped forms (see above as far as getting the chunky batter relatively thin). When it starts to bubble, flip. Cook until they are just done inside. Serve warm.

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Meal ideas?

Anybody else stuffed to the gills and Christmas'd out? I sure am. I am totally not feeling inspired for dinner ideas this week. Any suggestions?

Cookies for Santa

My kid and I made some cookies for Santa last night. They turned out pretty good--nice and soft, not too sweet, fairly spicy. I can't wait to eat them after he goes to bed tonight. Who am I kidding--I can't wait to eat the rest of these after he goes to bed tonight.

Big and Soft Ginger Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 

Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. 

Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. 

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. 

This is from allrecipes.com (actually, it's from their iPad app which is pretty nice, especially for the cool price of free).

Buffalo Chicken Salad

This is a salad for when you are really craving Buffalo wings but maybe don't want to down 1,000 calories in a sitting. Is it exactly like eating hot wings? Of course not. But it's still pretty good, pretty easy and pretty cheap.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
1-2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped into bite size pieces
salad greens
chopped celery*
crumbled blue cheese*

blue cheese dressing
buffalo wing sauce (We like the Frank's brand)

Fill big plates or bowls with the veggies. Top with warm chicken and blue cheese if using. Drizzle with a mixture of the dressing and wing sauce (we mix about half-and-half, which is pretty spicy. Use less wing sauce if you don't like it hot).

Caramels--Arrghh!

Please, somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong with caramel making. If you read last week, you found out my fancy Christmas cookie-making skills are lacking. Well, my candy-making skills are apparently non-existent.

I love caramel. Caramel turtles, caramel cookies, caramel barbecue chicken ... ok, maybe not on chicken, but I wouldn't rule it out. What"s not to love--sugar, butter, and cream. The ultimate trifecta, right? Not if you can't make a caramel (or any other candy) to save your life.

First, I made this recipe: Vanilla Sea-Salted Caramels. Sounds good, right? I used a candy thermometer and pulled the caramel right as directed by the recipe. And the caramel tastes really good, but cooled to room temperature they stayed soft. What did I do wrong? I did end up with a big batch of salted vanilla caramel sauce for ice cream though.

Next I tried this one: Caramel Shortbread. It claimed it was super easy--it was even cooked in the microwave. Turns out, my microwave must be a little more powerful than hers, as my caramel ended up a caramel brick. Boo.

So, please--can somebody share their candy-making tips so that I, too, can enjoy homemade holiday candy? Otherwise I will be forced to murder the next person bragging on facebook about how wonderful their caramels turned out.

Tomato Leek Tart

Full Circle sent us another leek in this week's box. Up to now, I did not know anything to do with a leek besides potato leek soup (which I did with last week's leek). Yikes, what to do with this one? A quick internet search yielded that most people also made potato leek soup out of leeks. But I found a tomato leek tart recipe on allrecipes.com that sounded really good. I tweaked it a bit, but it is VERY good. Also, I thought the tomato-leek combination would be really good in a quiche if you are a quiche fan. Try it, and comment with your results.

Tomato Leek Tart

Ingredients:
1 refrigerated pie crust
1 leek (white/light green parts only), sliced thin
2 large roma tomatoes, sliced thin
4 slices provolone cheese
1/2 c. or so shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 c. or so shredded parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
garlic powder

Preheat oven to 425. Put a pizza stone in the oven to preheat (if you don't have one, you can substitute a cookie sheet sprayed with pam). Thinly slice the leek and tomatoes. Pull the stone from the oven and put the pie crust on it flat. In the middle portion of the crust, evenly spread the slices of provolone. Then evenly distribute the leeks and then the tomatoes (leave the outer 1.5-2 inches uncovered). Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Spread the mozzarella and then the parmesan over the veggies. Fold up the edges of the crust (if you used a preheated stone, the fats in the crust will have made the crust pretty melty; use a thin spatula to help you with this if needed). Bake for 20 minutes, until crust and cheese are lightly browned.

Here's the finished product. Let 'er sit a couple minutes before you cut it to let the juices reabsorb.

This is what a leek looks like--green onion BEEFCAKE!

The top part went into the tart; the bottom part, the trash (or compost pile).

Tomatoes! Slice them up thin; I like a small serrated knife for this job.

Potato Soup--It's CHUNKY!

OK, this isn't just potato soup. It's not just potato leek soup. It's a mish-mash of potato leek and the yummy Zuppa Toscana from the Olive Garden. Yes, I will admit that I, too, am pretty excited that we are getting our first Olive Garden here in my town, mostly because of the soup-salad-breadstick lunch with the Zuppa Toscana soup. I came up with the idea when our CSA box from Full Circle this week had a leek and kale in it. So try it, let me know how it goes. I found it very tasty, pretty easy, and VERY filling.

CHUNKY Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients:
1 leek, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/4 stick butter
1 pound ground pork (I use this instead of sausage because it lacks those naughty nitrates/nitrites)
24 oz. chicken stock or broth
5 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
8-10 oz half and half
1 packed c. chopped kale (optional)
salt and pepper

In a big soup pot or dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. When it's melted, add the leek and onion and cook, stirring frequently, until the veggies are a little brown on the edges. Salt and pepper them.

While they are cooking, brown the ground pork (or ground sausage if you prefer) with salt and pepper (and any other seasonings you like--since I use ground pork, I also add garlic powder, dried sage, and a little cayenne) in a fry pan.

When the veggies are done (see picture below), deglaze the pan with the stock. Add the potatoes and a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and cover. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, until potatoes are soft. At this point, if you like a chunkier soup (CHUNKY!), you can mash by hand with a potato masher or whatever floats your boat. If you want something very smooth, run it through your food processor or use a stick/immersion blender. I did it chunky. Add the sausage, stir, then add the half and half. I would add the half-and-half until you reach a consistency that  you like. Add the chopped kale. Heat the mixture through, until the kale begins to wilt, then serve.

We served this with a nice, crusty loaf of sourdough bread. It was pretty darned good. But I'm still going to Olive Garden when they open.

Here are the browned bits from the cooked veggies that you will work off by adding chicken stock. YUM. If you use a non-stick pot, you will not get all of this color.

Here's the final product. The kale this week was a purple variety, hence the dark specks (I promise, I didn't burn it!).