Fat Day

I reminded the boys last week that Fat Tuesday was coming up and that we would be having pancakes for dinner. My oldest promptly reported to his kindergarten class, "On Fat Day, Mommy makes pancakes."

Awesome. It's like the game of Operator, 6 year old style.

I did indeed make pancakes for dinner tonight, and wondered why I don't do it more often. I suppose part of it is because we eat pancakes often enough for breakfast, and part of it is because I've yet to find a wine that goes well with them (hmmm...mimosas with dinner, anyone??).

You just cannot beat this recipe for buttermilk pancakes from the Joy of Cooking. I've posted it before, but here it is again.

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients quickly into the dry ingredients, until just combined. Cook on griddle until bubble form and a couple of them pop. Flip, cook a minute or two more, and enjoy!

Popeye

No picture today and a short post...but we are getting the most wonderful spinach in our farm box delivery these day and just wanted to remind everyone that spinach is a great substitute for basil in your favorite pesto recipe.

Treasure Box

We had a a dreary Sunday morning here, with a bit of rain that dashed our morning playground plans. That wasn't so bad while the boys and I were watching (for them) and re-watching (for me) the UNC/Duke game on Tivo, but once the game was over and we had all done our Victory Dance (again), I was concerned they were going to get antsy. These are boys who like to be On The Go, and generally puttering around the house on a weekend morning is not their cup of tea. But, in a stroke of luck for me (since DH was working this weekend and I was solo parenting), they were both content to stay in and entertain themselves around the house. While they engaged in their new favorite game of Worm,* I continued with my own seemingly endless game of Cleaning Out Freezers And Closets.


Lo and behold, a little treasure, tucked among the green beans, lima beans, and okra. Frozen cookie dough, apparently leftover from making Christmas cookies. What could be more perfect for a rainy Sunday morning? When the game of Worm ended in tears, I distracted everyone with the promise of Shamrock cookies. And I swear, really, truly, that as soon as these came out of the oven, the sun started to poke through the clouds and make a rainbow.
The recipe is my Mother-in-law's, and we are all addicted to it come Christmas time, but it also makes wonderful cookies any time of the year.



Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
4 eggs
4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. lemon extract


Directions
Beat sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and lemon extract. Refrigerate overnight. Roll and cut out. Bake at 350 for approximately 10-12 minutes. Dough freezes beautifully.


*The game of Worm is played by the two of them getting in their sleeping bags, and then chasing each other by rolling around on the floor. If they get close enough they wrestle (Fighting Worms) while still in their sleeping bags. Inevitably the game ends with someone bumping his head, though once or twice they've just worn themselves completely out and drifted off right there on the floor.

The Object of My Affection

My husband gave me this Breville coffee maker for Christmas one year, and I have an irrationally strong attachment to it. As in, I love it. I actually feel fondness and affection for an appliance in my kitchen.

It's just perfect. It's fast, the coffee is scalding hot, and since I'm the only coffee drinker in the house, the one cup feature is wonderful. But here's my dilemma. We are traveling in a few weeks for the boys' spring break, and I'm not sure I can do without it for a full 9 mornings. I shudder at the thought. A quick weekend away, sure, I can survive, and then our reunion is all the sweeter for having missed each other. But 9 mornings without my morning love?? I'm really not sure I can do it. (A quick shout out to my sister-in-law, who, knowing my coffee addiction, actually has a similar coffee maker tucked away in a closet that gets trotted out during our visits. Bless her.) So, I think it's going to have to come with us. I didn't save the original box, which means I'll be running out to the UPS store to buy a box and bubble wrap. My husband thinks this plan is the Pinnacle Of Crazy. I say he has only himself to blame.

Say It With A Smile

The Tar Heels won a really big game last night, with a finish so close and nerve-wracking I had to cover my eyes in an effort to trick the team into thinking I wasn't watching, so no pressure, but please oh please pull this one out. Thankfully, they did. Whew.

My six year old had to go to bed at halftime, and I knew the first thing he would ask this morning was Who Won? So I had his breakfast ready and waiting for him, to let him know:

Peanut butter on toast with a chocolate chip smile and grapefruit. Happy boy, happy mommy, happy Tar Heels.

And to Dook for this upcoming Saturday: Bring. It. On.

What a Crock

I keep trying to write this post, and am totally distracted by my three year old "reading" to himself in bed. So I apologize ahead of time if it is completely incoherent...I just can't help but stop and listen to his sweet little voice.
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A week or two ago, we got a ton of gorgeous broccoli in our farm box delivery. We had it that night on baked potatoes with melted cheese, and then I put the rest of it, a huge bag, in one of the kitchen drawers. I had grand plans of finding a recipe for broccoli casserole using fresh broccoli, and posting it here. Want to know what really, really smells? Broccoli that was shoved to the back of a refrigerator drawer and completely forgotten about. Gah.
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I am a total sucker for all kitchen tools. I could never, ever be one of those minimalists who manages to cook all of Thanksgiving dinner with one knife, a cast iron pan, and a microwave. But I'm also ruthless when it comes to cleaning out drawers and closets. It doesn't take much for me to bring something home, but kitchen tools have to really pull their weight for me to keep them. I am on the verge of getting rid of my crock pot. I so rarely use it, and it takes up such prime real estate in the kitchen cabinets. It keeps getting a reprieve from all the magazines that come in swearing to have the "slow cooker recipe to change your life," though none of them ever sound like something I really want to make. If any readers really do have the crock pot recipe that changes your life, please share. The pot is on borrowed time.

On Top Of Spaghetti

The freezer and closet clean out continues. It is a perpetual failure of mine that I seem compelled to buy entirely random items at the grocery store and pop them in the freezer. Why do I do this? Why? Can't I just make a plan and stick to it? Apparently not. The latest discovery, way at the back and buried under a pound cake loaf and that damn shrimp etoufee that keeps mocking me, was a package of mild chicken sausage (1 pound). So tonight I made meatballs out of them, and served them up with homemade marina sauce and pasta. Yum, yum.

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Meatballs, like meatloaf, are one of those things you don't really need a recipe for, but tonight I actually took notes while I was making them so I could blog about them if they turned out good. As luck would have it, these were actually really, really good. Here's what to do:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove casings from sausage, put in large mixing bowl. Add a generous pinch of kosher salt, several strong turns on the pepper mill, 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (grind up 3 pieces of white bread, crusts removed), 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (if I had sage I would have added it since it goes so beautifully with chicken), 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese, and 1 beaten egg. Mix well, shape into balls. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 40 minutes. Here's what they'll look like - good luck not eating one right away.

While the meatballs are baking, saute 1 onion in 2 teaspoons olive oil over medium heat. Add 2 minced garlic cloves, cook an additional minute or so. Add 28 ounce can of San Marzano crushed tomatoes, 3 tablespoons tomato paste, a good pinch of kosher salt, a little fresh ground pepper, and a couple strong shakes of Italien seasoning. Stir well and simmer while the meatballs finish cooking. When the meatballs come out of the oven add them to the sauce, and cook an additional 5 minutes. Serve over pasta and dive in. So delicious and easy...perhaps chicken sausage isn't such a bad buy after all.