Pancakes

Everyone loves buttermilk pancakes, but I don't know many people that just keep buttermilk around all the time. Sometimes your wife wakes you up in the morning and is having bad week and wants pancakes and you don't want her to wait while you go shopping. In such cases, it's a good idea to have a simple recipe in your pocket that relies on more basic kitchen essentials. Well, I am here to provide!

Ingredients:

2 C flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1.5 C milk
2 tbsp melted butter
2 eggs

Directions:

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt before adding in the milk, melted butter, and eggs. Whisk it all together until it is mostly smooth but there are still a few lumps. If you work it until it is completely smooth, the pancakes won't rise as well.

Let the batter sit while you heat up and grease up a cast iron skillet until water droplets splashed on it skitter before evaporating entirely.

Ladle on a ladle full of batter and cook until the edges are done and bubbles in the middle burst without filling immediately. Flip and brown for an additional 30 seconds to a minute.

Store in a warm oven until ready to serve to a grateful world.

Makes 6-7 big pancakes

Note: In the picture above are whole wheat pancakes which use the same parts list just with whole wheat and an additional .25 cup of milk. I accidentally bought whole wheat flour for my second go around and just had to wing it a little.

Breakfast Burrito

So when I started my diet I wanted to make something that I could consistently make and eat without getting bored. That meant it needed to have meat, it needed to have cheese, and it needed to be packed with flavor. It also helps that I can prefab a lot of the pieces so it doesn't take much time in the morning.

Ingredients:

2 scrambled eggs
28 grams grated cheddar cheese
56 grams cooked turkey sausage
50 grams avocado
⅛ tsp red pepper flake
1 flour tortilla*

Directions:

Right after you finish cooking your scrambled eggs, using whatever method you prefer, sprinkle on the cheese and lay on the sausage. I like to do this while the eggs are still in the pan so the cheese gets nice and melted on top** and the sausage gets warmed through.

In a bowl, combine the avocado and the red pepper flake and use a fork to beat into a paste. Spread your paste on one quarter of your tortilla then lay on the eggs, cheese, and sausage. fold over the sides and one end and roll into a burrito.

Enjoy with a smoothie or some fresh orange juice.

*I love using flavored tortillas for this since it adds some nice color and it's an easy way to work some variety into a routine

**I don't recommend mixing the cheese into the eggs first because it's not much cheese and it can get lost. I prefer the layer of flavor on top. Also, mixing the cheese into the eggs makes the eggs much more liquidy and more likely to make a drippy mess all in your lap, or in my case, my beard.

Bourbon Maple Glazed Bacon

For Easter, my mother-in-law gave me a bottle of bourbon aged maple syrup. It was amazing. I've already used it up and bought a second. So, expect to see it featured in plenty of upcoming recipes. One of the first things I thought of when I tasted it was bacon. I'd never glazed my own bacon and every time I baked bacon, it turned out wrong. Now, after a little experimentation, I've come up with a method I like.

Ingredients:

8 or 9 strips of thick cut bacon
2 oz bourbon aged maple syrup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. While you oven heats up, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a cooling rack on top.

Lay your bacon on the rack and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the fat is rendered and the bacon is starting to brown. Remove from the oven. There will be a lot of liquid fat in the pan so be careful and feel free to drain it off.

Brush one side of the bacon with the coats of the maple syrup and then bake for 3-5 minutes. Remove again from the oven, flip the bacon, and brush the other side with another two coats before baking an additional 3 minutes or until desired crispiness. My wife likes hers nearly burnt while I like mine with a little flop.

Remove from the oven and let cool, though I recommend not letting the bacon cool entirely on the rack because the maple syrup will adhere the bacon to the rack.

This bacon is amazing by itself, with eggs, or even a cheese platter.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

About a week ago, I woke up with a hankering for some lemon poppy seed bread. So, I decided to make some. I looked around, couldn't find a recipe I liked, so I made my own. This goes really great with a citrusy black tea like Earl Grey.

Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1hr 20 min

Ingredients:

Bread

400 grams AP flour (aprx 14 oz or 3 cups)
1.5 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 cup butter or shortening

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs
¾ cup milk

2 tbsp lemon juice*

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp lemon zest

3 tbsp poppy seeds

Syrup:

⅔ cup sugar

⅓ cup lemon juice*

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a nine inch loaf pan.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Put the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and pour in the sugar. Beat on medium for 2 to 3 minutes or until the butter has lightened in color. This is called the creaming method, and the holes that the sugar punch in the butter help it to rise once it starts baking.

Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next one. Once the eggs are all in, pour in the milk then the lemon juice and vanilla and mix thoroughly.

Now slowly add the dry mix, in 3 batches, making sure each installment is mixed in before adding the next. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed between batches. Once the dry team is all in, turn your mixer to low and add the lemon zest and poppy seeds. Mix until the batter is smooth.

Pour into your loaf pan and bake for 1hr 15-20 min until a toothpick inserted in comes out clean or the bread reaches an internal temp of 190 degrees. Remove from the oven and let cool, in the pan, on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and cooling on the rack for another 20 minutes.

While the bread is cooling, it's time to make the syrup. Pour the sugar and lemon juice into a small saucepan over medium low heat and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Keep the syrup warm until the bread is finished cooling. Once the bread is cool, use a basting brush to brush the syrup on all sides, except the bottom.

When the bread has absorbed all the syrup it can, let it rest for a couple minutes and then serve. Drizzle the slices with any excess syrup. Enjoy!

*Before I made this bread, I would have sworn that fresh lemon juice vs bottled made no difference. I was wrong. My wife and I did a quick taste test, and I now have an almost-full bottle of lemon juice that I am not using. So, if you have the patience, I would highly recommend squeezing your own lemon juice for this. It only took me 4 small lemons to get all the juice I needed for this.

Buttermilk Pancakes

I love pancakes. I can't think of a time of day that isn't perfect for pancakes. In the pantheon of pancakes the buttermilk pancake is the gold standard of fluffy, sweet, yet tangy, pillowy perfection. A few weeks ago my wife and I had a rather negative experience with some pancakes, and this poor confection was calling out for redemption. When I went online for a good recipe, most of them seemed pretty poorly written, or just had ingredients that didn't make much sense. So, after a little experimenting, I put this together and I made some of the best buttermilk pancakes I have ever had. Warning: I'm going to get pretty indepth with my directions here, so the block of text might seem intimidating but I assure you it is very simple, I just want to explain why I'm having you do what I'm having you do.

Ingredients:

3 C AP flour

1 T baking powder

1.5 t baking soda

½ t salt

3 C lowfat buttermilk

3 eggs

¼ C sugar

⅓ C shortening or butter, melted*

Directions

These pancakes are assembled using the muffin method which means you combine all your dry ingredients first, then all your wet ingredients (yes, sugar counts as a wet ingredient when making cakes, which these are, just fried cakes) and then the two mixtures are added together. Making sure both sets are mixed thoroughly before combining means the final mixture will come together with less stirring, and less stirring means softer pancakes. So, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in one bowl then mix the buttermilk, eggs, sugar, and shortening or butter in another bowl.

While the wet and dry teams are separate, then can be held that way for a little while, but once they are combined, chemical reactions start taking place and you are committed. When you are ready for pancake making, mix the wet into the dry team using a whisk, stir only 12-15 times. Yes, there will be lumps, but that is ok, they will work themselves out. Besides, if you work the batter till it is completely smooth you will have a chewier, bread-like pancake. Now let the batter sit for 10 minutes. This will allow the flour to hydrate without agitation, and this is a pretty thick batter that will trap the air bubbles that the baking powder and soda are busily making.

While your batter is resting, heat up your favorite liberally oiled griddle. You'll know the griddle is ready when a few drops of water sprayed on the surface skitter before boiling off instead of instantly disappearing. Once the 10 minutes is up and your griddle is nice and hot, it's time to start cooking pancakes

Pour on a ladle of batter and, using the back of the ladle, spread the batter out into a roughly 5-6 inch circle. You'll know you are ready to flip when bubbles in the center of the pancake break without filling back in. Flip with a wide turning spatula, and cook until the side that is now down is golden brown. Keep finished pancakes warm in a low oven until ready to serve to a grateful world.

*I recommend shortening for this recipe because, with its lower water content, it creates a fluffier pancake. I know that shortening is worse for you than butter, but come on, we are making pancakes here, not health food.

Southern Style Biscuits with Sausage Gravy and Hash Browns

One of my favorite breakfasts to make because it's pretty impressive when you get everything ready and on the table at the same time. I go back to my southern roots with these biscuits, despite the fact that I'm not that southern, I just really love the food.

Ingredients:

Gravy:

1lb breakfast sausage

1T flour

1pint heavy cream

Black pepper to taste

Hash browns:

1T butter

1 Idaho potato
Salt

Biscuits:

2 cups AP flour

1 T plus 1 t baking powder

¼ t baking soda

½  t salt

2 T butter

2 T shortening

1.25 cups buttermilk

Directions:

Starting with the biscuits: preheat your oven to 450 then sift together the flour, baking powder, backing soda, and salt. Cut the butter and shortening into small pieces, make sure the butter is chilled, and work into the flour mixture using the tips of your fingers, so you don't melt the butter. Make a well in the dough and pour in the buttermilk, mix until the dough just comes together. Place the dough on a floured surface, flour the top of the dough, then fold the dough over itself 5 or 6 times. Press the dough into an inch thick square then cut out your biscuits using a 2 inch cutter. Reform the scraps and repeat.

Place the biscuits "shoulder to shoulder" or next to each other on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Make sure to gently press the top of each biscuit with your thumb to ensure that the biscuits rise evenly. Bake for 15 minutes or until the biscuits are nice and golden on the top.

Making the gravy starts with heating a 10 inch cast iron skillet over medium high heat and then breaking up 1lb of breakfast sausage into chunks then cooking them in the skillet. Once the sausage pieces are cooked thoroughly, remove from the heat. Sprinkle the flour on top of the sausage and stir the mixture until all of the moisture in the pan has been adsorbed by the flour. Then, slowly pour the pint of heavy cream into the skillet, being sure to stir constantly to keep the cream from breaking. Once all the cream is in the pan, return the heat to low and simmer until the gravy reaches the desired consistency. Season with fresh ground black pepper to taste. When the gravy has thickened, serve over biscuits split in half or reduce the heat further to keep it warm until it is time to serve.

The hash browns start by heating a 10 inch non-stick over medium high heat. Clean the potato and grate using the largest size opening in your box grater. Grate into a tea towel and squeeze out the extra moisture. Melt the butter in the skillet then add the potato and lightly salt it. Once the top starts cooking, flip over the potatoes, in once piece if possible. Cook until brown on both sides and then portion and serve.

I served all these elements together, but feel free to mix and match. I chose to serve this alongside a small fruit salad with scrambled eggs and the left over sausage links.