panqueques

There is something about breakfast for dinner that just sets things right within the world. Breakfast is one of my favorite meals, which is odd considering I hated breakfast as a child. While I do love a good breakfast dining establishment (there's nothing like being served a delicious meal in the morning), I often make it here at home. Lately it has been lemon pancakes with boysenberry syrup with a side of eggs, but I'll occasionally stray and make burritos, potatoes, omelets, muffins, scrambles, biscuits, sandwiches....you get the picture.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you my most favorite pancake recipe. They're the easiest and quite possibly the tastiest (they fall right behind Ina) pancakes I have ever eaten. The best thing about them is you mix them in a blender. A blender, people! It doesn't get any easier than that.

American Breakfast Pancakes
How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking
By Nigella Lawson

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 1/3 cups milk
butter for frying

Nigella writes: "The easiest way to make these is to put all the ingredients into a blender and blitz.  But if you do mix up the batter by hand in a bowl, make a well in the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar, beat in the eggs, melted butter, and milk, and transfer to a pitcher: it's much easier to pour the batter into the pan that to spoon it.  I like to leave the batter for 20 minutes before using it; you may then want to add more milk to the mixture if you're frying in the blini pan, so that it runs right to the edges.  When you cook the pancakes, all you need to remember is that when the upper side of the pancake is blistering and bubbling it's time to cook the second side, and this needs only about 1 minute, if that.  1 get 11 blini-sized pancakes out of this, maybe 16 silver-dollar sized ones on the griddle."

While I do realize that posting photos with my recipes would be entertaining, I most certainly do not organize my time well enough to do so. Perhaps in the future I'll make the effort, but today I settled for shoving my mouth full of fluffy, yummy pancakes instead. Enjoy!

mixed berries and dumplings

I am very fond of Deb over at Smitten Kitchen. I follow her blog regularly and am constantly amazed at how simple and delicious her recipes are. Each recipe (usually adapted from another source) is accompanied by breathtakingly beautiful photographs and quirky commentary. Anyway, here is a recent recipe that I fell absolutely in love with. It's easy, it's quick, and it's oh-so delicious. The perfect summer dessert. 

Mixed Berries and Dumplings

(adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1-2 cups strawberries, trimmed and thickly sliced

1 cup blueberries

1 cup raspberries

1/4 cup sugar

juice of half a lemon

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Accompaniment: Heavy cream

Stir together berries, sugar and lemon in a 4-quart heavy saucepan and let stand, stirring occasionally, until juicy, about 15 minutes. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

For the dumplings:

Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Heat the milk and butter together just until butter melts (either stovetop or in the microwave). Stir the warmed milk mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until incorporated and smooth. Gather a ping pong-ball sized portion of the batter onto a small spoon and push it onto the stew using a second spoon. Do this until you cover the fruit with dumplings, leaving about 1/4 inch between each. 

Tightly cover saucepan and reduce heat to low. Cook, undisturbed, until dumpling looks dry on top, about 15 to 18 minutes; the dumplings will have doubled in size. Let stand off heat, uncovered, five minutes, then drizzle with heavy cream right before serving.

For the clever commentary and the juicy photographs, check out Deb's blog here: 

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/06/strawberries-and-dumplings

vegetable enchilada goodness

I have a weakness for really good enchiladas. Preferably cheese enchiladas, to be exact. Mike, on the other hand, has never taken a liking to the dish. They're either too cheesy or they contain meat, so it's never quite worked out for him. So, in a conquest to satisfy both of our tastes, I make vegetable enchiladas. And boy, are these babies good. Good is an understatement. They're spectacular. And what I love about them is you can literally put whatever vegetables you want in them, which makes it a great "clean out the fridge" dish. To make it easy on you, though, I've included the vegetables I most often use. Enjoy.

Vegetable Enchiladas

1 T olive oil
assorted spices (chili powder, cayenne, red chili flakes, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 zucchini, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 to 1 small can diced green chiles
2 to 3 cups grated cheese (cheddar, mexican blend, whatever)
1 regular to large-sized can enchilada sauce (I prefer Macayo's)
8 to 10 corn tortillas (or taco shells broken in half, yum!)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a large glass baking dish.

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pan. Add onion and saute until clear, about 3 minutes. Add zucchini and bell pepper and spices (I like to spice them to my liking using the above spices). Saute until zucchini and pepper are tender, about 6 minutes. Add frozen corn, black beans and more seasoning, if needed. Stir together and heat an additional minute or so.

When vegetables are ready, line the bottom of the dish with tortillas. Add a layer of the vegetable mixture and top it with cheese. Repeat this layering until pan is full. Pour enchilada sauce evenly over the top and add another layer of cheese. Bake covered with foil for 15 minutes, uncover and bake another 5 minutes or so. Remove from oven and serve immediately. Serves four.

Top with sour cream and garnish with chopped green onions. Delish!