Ha!

http://xkcd.com/854/

If you are new to XKCD, it pays to visit the site and "hover" your mouse over the comic image.

Sunday morning pancakes

So called because reader AdanA asked for new ideas for Sunday mornings...I actually made mine on CarbDaySaturday!!!

My lovely wife and baby-mamma claims these are the best pancakes she has ever had; I'm glad she likes them, and I wish I could claim they were my creation, but I'm just using Michael Ruhlman's basic recipe from his book Ratio.  I think Ruhlman is pretty clever, and the book is a nice edition to any kitchen library.

We will also consider this post an experiment in video blogging...the "pop" you hear between cuts is the pause button clicking as I basically edit the cuts while shooting...

I've also noticed while reviewing the video that I omitted the salt component from the series...there should have been a shot showing the addition of ~ 1.5 teaspoons of salt to the dry mix.

Ruhlman's book operates on this principal that recipes are basically fixed ratios of component ingredients, and that once a cook is aware of the proper (or classic?) ratios, that cook is then free to experiment around the edges with flavorings (add cinnamon, or fruit, or what have you, to the base pancake mix), or can experiment with the ratios to effect the ultimate consistency of the dish (fluffier pancakes?).

For the version I made in the video:

12 oz flour (and 12 oz milk - this one to one ratio of flour and milk is the basis of the recipe)
3 large eggs (your you are shooting for one egg to each 4 oz flour/milk)
3 oz butter (1 oz to 1 egg...also, have the butter melted before introducing to the wet mix.  Believe me.)
1.5 teaspoons of a quality vanilla extract.  Costco's store brand is crazy cheap.
3 table spoons of sugar (1 spoon to each oz butter or egg...see how this ratio thing scales?)
3 tea spoons baking powder
1.5 tea spoons salt (I just kind of free-ground over the dry bowl until it felt right)

That's 8 ingredients.  And it goes together quick; please do not buy a pancake mix again...life's too short.

Bittman leaving "the Minimalist" behind

I'm a little sad:

"TODAY marks the exit of The Minimalist from the pages of the Dining section, as a weekly column at least. There may be return appearances, but the unbroken string of more than 13 years and nearly 700 columns ends here."

Easy veggie side dish

I stumbled on this last week, and it will now be a recurring player in our household diet.

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures.

Shallots
Spinach
Olive Oil
Butter
Wine vinegar

Shallots rock, and if you are not already using them in your kitchen you are seriously missing out.  Dice up a decent sized shallot, and get them shimmering in a pan with some oil and butter (I used both in this case).  You need one of your larger pans for wilting down the spinach...I used a ~10 inch skillet.

Spinach will disappear on you - making this side dish for two people, I started with about 6 cups of loose spinach...maybe 4 big handfuls.  Start feeding the spinach into the pan, stirring it around and into the oily, shalloty mixture...you will probably want to reduce the heat a bit at this point.  Three or four minutes later, that big pile of spinach will have disappeared into maybe one big handful...it's amazing.

Right when you are ready to take the mix out of the pan and split onto your plates, add a spash - just a bit - of the vinegar (Balsamic or red wine vinegar) and eat that stuff down.

How do you flip four fried eggs?

 Carefully!  At least I like my yolks broken and set.

wine and beans? yum!

I started some chopped red onion and garlic in the pan in a little butter and olive oil; when those were nice and cozy I added a quarter glass of red wine.  We had a left over sausage (spicy italian pork, from a few days ago), so I cut it into chunks and dumped it in the pot with a can of Iberia black beans*.  I let it simmer while the "normals" in my house prepared to eat chicken and dumplings.

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*If I had to guess, I probably consumed something like 5 pounds of black beans in aggregate in my life pre-diet.  And I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that I've eaten 10+ pounds in the last two weeks.

Not so fast...

I realized after posting the baked eggs bit that I've given pretty short shrift here to the breakfast meal.

The basic diet model that I'm following from the 4-Hour Body agrees with your mom that breakfast is important.  The book specifically suggests that you should eat your breakfast early, and it too should be heavy on the protein and very light on the carbs.

 This interim step from today's breakfast shows another short-cut I've been taking lately: I warm the beans in the left over bacon fat after the bacon is good and crispy.

Then I fry the eggs in the same pan in the same residual bacon fat / bean goo.  Again, like the last post, this is about kitchen efficiency and covering the basics, not necessarily about creating a showcase for my culinary skills...

Leftovers

I try to buy all of meat fresh, but particularly the beef.  I do freeze some for later use, but I try to cook a day or two's worth of steak while the beef is fresh.  The picture shows a couple of shortcuts I've started taking with my "leftover" meat - beef or chicken or pork I cooked yesterday and stuck in the 'frig*.

Basically, I cut the beef up into little chunks and dropped them into the pot with the canned beans to warm at the same time.  When they are warmed through, I lay the mix across some fresh spinach - the heat from the meat and beans helps wilt the spinach a little.  This method is not my preference for creating a specific flavor mix or visually appealing plate (I would not serve this to others at a dinner party) but it's a quick fix and dirties only one pan.

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*I know from past experience that AdanA does not care for the abbreviated forms of the word "refrigerator", in particular "fridge" - knowing this and being also aware that AdanA currently represents ~ 20% of my readership, I'm throwing him a bone here with a shot at a more correct shortening of the word...we'll see how it goes.

Baked Eggs and browned pig discs!

 A little butter smeared in the bottom of the baking dish (in this case a French Onion Soup crock), and a handful of spinach leaves, torn for sizing.

 Three eggs, some shallot, and some salt and black pepper.

After ~ 15 minutes or so (could be 12, could be 17, anywhere between 350 and 400 - using a toaster oven so it's best to not get too specific here - just check the yolks for "firmness")

Yum!

chicken in the pan!

 I started with these bone-in thighs, and sprinkled them with paprika and garlic powder...when I do this dish the next time, I think I will wait and add the spices to the "skin side" after it's turned up after the first round of cooking.

 I got the pan to the right heat using the technique detailed here, and then added a very little bit of Canola oil.  I cooked each side (skin side down first!) for between 4-5 minutes, and then set them aside on some paper towels to drain.

Served with raw broccoli (there was more there, but I munched a bit during the chicken cook time), and a can of black beans warmed with some Adobo seasoning.

Tuesday Night Pork Chops

 Sprinkled with chili powder, salt, and pepper...

 Cooked in a very little bit of Canola oil...

and served alongside some steamed broccoli and beans warmed with Tony Chachere's seasoning.

One word of warning:  I am forever trying to figure out exact cooking times to get to my level of doneness, and I took these off the heat just a tad early, requiring a spin in the microwave to get the centers white...

Good rule of thumb for chicken and pork - it's probably going to take 8 minutes to cook through on the grill or in the pan or in the fryer...maybe 4 minutes on a press grill like in the Sunday steak post.

A word about that pan - it's a small All-Clad deal, stainless inside and out, and it's awesome.  My sister gave it as a Xmas gift this year, and I've already used it more than 10 times.  I have cabinets FULL of non-stick (high quality non-stick, mostly Calphalon Pro), and I'm really digging the metal vibe from this pan.

Sunday night steak - see main blog for the story