Tag Archives: breakfast

Feb15

Honey cornmeal pancakes

Posted on February 15, 2016 by athaidek

Three places you can guarantee I will be on a Saturday morning in Atlanta: 1) Walking to Ponce City Market to get coffee from Spiller Park, 2) laying on my couch watching an episode of the Pioneer Woman or 3) in my kitchen making the best food of all time, pancakes.

I’ve been making the most out of the box of cornmeal I bought recently as we are in the thick of chili and cornbread season. A few weeks ago I made this cornbread which was the perfect mix of not-too-sweet and extremely moist for a chili dinner, and I also made these cornmeal waffles to top off another chili dinner! I highly recommend both recipes if you like corn! (sorry Arianna)

This Saturday morning, we had a good girl-talk group at my St. Charles casa – my roommate Kelley, my sister, and I sat and chatted whilst the sweet cakes sizzled 2 inches away in my shoebox kitchen. Winter 2015/2016 has been a fun time for communal eating at my house and I’m learning more and more about how to entertain without a) pulling my hair out and b) burning my house down.

From entertaining thus far, I’ve learned that to get my sister to come over asap, I should keep a bag of bagels on hand in the freezer (which happens to always be the case), and that apparently a paper bag can entertain up to 20 people in my living room for at least 4 hours.

A few weeks ago, my friends and I ran the Will to Live 5k (find our stud teammate William at 2:17 in the video) in memory of our friend Harry and later that night decided to all re-convene at the house where I live along with three of my high school friends. Clearly the first thing I thought was “what will we eat?” while I think others had the cocktails covered. Besides playing “the bag game,” where you try to pick up a paper bag with your teeth while balancing on one foot, we ate these carnitas accompanied by the necessary guac and salsa.

For breakfast entertainment, I try and have the coffee going before people get here and to have a sweet and savory option. My sister doesn’t like sweets as much (still not sure how we are related), so I usually provide the bagels, and some people don’t even really want breakfast which makes the stocked coffee jar that much more important!

Another thing that’s key here is getting the music selection right. To start off the new year, we matched the mood of a yoga class taught in my living room with the “Acoustic Soul” Spotify playlist. When Julia and I cook together, we play country often. With my sister and roommate Kelley, we listen to Mat Kearney’s Air I Breathe on repeat along with Needtobreathe, I Am They, Chris Tomlin, and Casting Crowns.

Pancakes are my comfort food – both in the fact that they’re a warm, sweet dish and that they remind me of so many good memories.They’re comfortable.

Though I’ve been bad about posting some of my recipes lately, I’ll share with you a few here in addition to the pancakes that I made lately.

Melissa Clark’s Sweet and Spicy Chicken – so so great, had it again the next week

Spiced jam cake with Salted Caramel Chocolate Ganache

Honey Mustard Brussels Sprout slaw and Curried Chicken Salad for a bridal shower

On to pancakes!

Honey Cornmeal Pancakes, adapted just slightly from Brooklyn Supper

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fine cornmeal – I used the regular yellow kind from Kroger
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 TBS unsalted butter
2 TBS coconut oil
1/4 tsp fine grain salt
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup buttermilk, or a mix of buttermilk, yogurt, and regular milk
2 large eggs

Heat your oven to 150-200 degrees, this will be for the pancakes that are ready but need to stay warm before you’re ready to eat.
Start by measuring the butter, coconut oil, and honey into a small bowl. Pop them in the microwave for about 15 seconds at a time to melt all together. Let these cool for a few minutes – you don’t want to add to the pancake mix when it’s too hot because it will curdle the eggs.
Whisk together both flours, cornmeal, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until evenly mixed.
In a separate bowl or in a glass measuring cup, whisk together milk and eggs.
Mix the buttermilk/egg mixture into your dry ingredients until JUST mixed evenly (try not to overmix).
Then, pour in the honey butter mixture and fold into the batter.

7. Heat a wide skillet to medium heat (my burner tends to get really hot so I put it at around medium) and melt about a 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil.

8. Here’s where you have some room for creativity. I like to pour a ladle-ful at a time per pancake, but if you like minis you could do just a few tablespoons. If you like your cakes really big, you could do ones that fill up half the pan that are closer to 3/4 cup. I went with around a 1/3 scoop mix of batter at a time into the pan.

9. Let your pancakes cook for about 2-3 minutes on the first side, until bubbles form across the entire surface.

10. Flip with a spatula, and cook on the other side for about a minute.

11. Put the ready pancakes on a baking sheet in your low-temp oven until ready to eat so that they stay warm. Meanwhile, for each additional round of pancakes, add a little more coconut oil to just coat the pan each time so as not to burn the cakes

12. Serve with maple syrup and fresh fruit!

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Mar3

Two gals and one large stack of Banana Oat Walnut Pancakes – Galentine’s Brunch

Posted on March 3, 2015 by athaidek

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I agree with the lovely Deb Perelman in her recent Valentine’s post about what one should cook for Valentine’s day. Deb makes a lovely slow cooked beef (someone tell my future husband anything involving the words “slow cook” is a straight path to my heart) and says that although the words pot roast don’t exactly sound romantically, cozy, cold-weather, home-cooked foods are the perfect way to celebrate in a way that both you and your loved one can enjoy.

When I was pinterest-ing to find the ultimate Valentine’s dishes, I was surprised to see fancy lamb chop dishes and wayyy too many chocolate-covered strawberry posts. If you come to my house, I will make you my “warm and fuzzy” dishes – pancakes with maple syrup drizzle and my signature slab of peanut butter as a side “dip”. For those of you just joining us, pancakes = love, at least in my book.

As our lovebird neighbors left Atlanta for the weekend, my friend Jules and I had quite the baking/cooking adventure. First, we attempted red wine brownies and then couldn’t stay away from each other and had a delicious Galentine’s brunch the next morning.

As all pancake recipes start, this one started from a chocolate chip pancake base and evolved into an oat-y, banana, walnut cinnamon pancake recipe. Following this brunch, I also celebrated Galentine’s with an Indian brunch with my mom, Grandma, and sister, hung out with my main man (Dad), and sang my heart out with a dose of late night karaoke. A solid weekend to say the least.

Banana Oat Walnut Pancakes

3/4 cup oat flour (grind oats in food processor until they are the consistency of coarse flour)

3/4 cup white wheat or all-purpose flour

2 TBS brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup almond milk/low fat milk

1 TBS cider vinegar

1 egg

2 TBS melted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 brown-spotted bananas, mashed up

a handful of walnuts, chopped coarsely

1. In a small bowl, whisk milk and vinegar together and let sit aside for 5 minutes. This will make your regular milk the consistency of buttermilk which seems weird but adds richness.

2. Whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and sugar in a large bowl.

3. In another bowl, whisk melted butter (or coconut oil or veg oil), mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla together. Once milk is ready, whisk into this bowl as well.

4. Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and add in your walnut pieces.

5. Let the batter sit 5-10 minutes to let the oat flour absorb the liquids. Heat griddle or large skillet to medium/medium high heat and coat the pan in a thin layer of butter/oil.

6. Dollop a ladle-full scoop of batter onto your skillet once the oil starts to sizzle. This should be around 1/3 cup of batter, but if you want them smaller or larger take some liberties. Cook for 3 minutes on one side, flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

7. While you are still making pancakes but have some ready, keep them warming in the oven set around 200 degrees.

8. Serve on a perfectly set kitchen table with the “lazy weekend” or “indie brunch” (if you’re feelin cool) Spotify playlist in the background. Top pancakes with banana slices and an uncomfortably large mound of maple syrup. Light a candle. Feel romantic.

xoxo,

the gals of Galentine’s brunch

Apr27

Easter Cinnamon Swirly Buns

Posted on April 27, 2014 by athaidek

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Hello hello! Happy Easter (belated, that is). I decided to have a bit of a comeback attempt this year with my Easter cooking. Last year, I was SO excited to finally make cinnamon buns for Easter that I had the dough, filling, and topping all planned out ahead of time and felt so prepared. Then when it actually came time to bake the buns, I got caught up talking to a visitor and they burned!!!! They were so pretty but no one really ate them…so, here’s to you, comeback-katie-cinnamon-swirly-buns, you did it.

I’ve been missing you all lately and have been whipping up a lot of quick meals without much photography. I’m working on my pancakes, having tried zucchini pancakes (like zucchini bread) and strawberry ginger almond pancakes, and I’ve really been trying to get more make-ahead meals going. I made some delicious banh-mi from a food52 recipe that I’d love to share with you guys once I get it right.

I’m going to be honest about the intricacies of cinnamon buns. Here’s my take, be meticulous, be patient, and don’t skimp on the sugah-buttah mix. It’s all in the sugar here.

Ok so I made the first step around 7 pm the night before. And I’m SO PLEASED with the smitten kitchen recipe I used because you don’t have to mix yeast with water and wait for it to bubble. I tend to get the water temperature wrong or don’t wait long enough if I do that, etc. The Rapid Rise yeast here is the best thing since that blackberry ginger King of Pops popsicle I had yesterday.

What I learned here is that adding flour to sticky dough is the impatient way to go. Apparently adding extra flour can make the dough tough and that if you just keep kneading the sticky dough, scraping up the scraps and mashing it back together, the dough will become smooth and lose its unbearable stickyness. PS – how about that Cards against Humanity card – “Why am I sticky?”

I let this little ball-a-dough sit on my counter until approximately 1 am. This was when I felt like a real live baker, woohoo late night baking!! Except I wasn’t actually at the baking step, yet. So at this time, I’m craving my pillow, and stave it off by mixing up a yummy walnut, brown sugar, cinnamon filling. I adapted the filling from Deb’s other cinnamon swirl buns recipe, mixing 3/4 cup brown sugar with 2 TBS cinnamon, and using 1/4 cup butter to spread over the dough. This part was actually pretty fun. Roll gently, but firmly, and use a serrated knife to cut up these guys.

Give them some room in the baking pan and cover lightly with plastic wrap. I refrigerated them over night and got up 30 minutes early to let them come to room temp before baking them. For the icing, I didn’t want to use cream cheese so I just mixed together powdered sugar with some almond milk and little vanilla extract to the consistency I liked. They totally couldve used more icing but hey, there was a solid amount of butter and sugar inside the yummy buns!! Make things if you really feel like doing the work, have the time, and want to celebrate the fact that Christ is risen! Here’s a pic of our amazing spread at my cousins’ house. It was a beautiful breakfast with my amazing family. A wonderful way to celebrate our rebirth in Christ and kickoff the Easter season.

Feb2

Creating a BFF for your coffee: Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Posted on February 2, 2014 by athaidek

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Coffee is coffee is coffee. Or is it? I must say that I was NOT in the biscott-lovers boat as of even a few months ago, but once I changed my mind, coffee hasn’t been the same since. We can all agree that unless you are eating toast, dry is a terrible thing for bready foods. And that’s how I have judged you all these years, biscotti. A few weeks ago, I visited my fabulous artist grandma in Florida and spent way too long hanging out next to the biscotti tin. Maybe I’ve only tried boxed biscotti all these years, but my first taste of homemade chocolate-dipped biscotti changed my mind!

They ended up being fantastic on their own but seriously are they better with coffee or is coffee better with them?!?! I CANNOT tell. Sometimes I feel that way about my best friends. Do we become better people from knowing the other person or is it the friendship that makes us better people? All I know is I’m never looking back. While I was stuck inside during Atlanta’s 1inchsnowstormofthedecade, biscotti got me through! I started from the Cooks Illustrated Almond Orange Biscotti, a version of this recipe but hello, almonds are always better with chocolate chips!!

Chocolate chip Almond Biscotti

makes around 35 little biscotti cookies

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

4 TBS softened butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 cup toasted whole almonds

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Whisk together dry ingredients. Set oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Then add eggs one at a time, adding both extracts. This is the best part, it smells so yummy!

3. Chop up those almonds after toasting them for a few minutes either in a dry saute pan or the toaster oven.

4. Add the dry into the wet and mix until a cookie-like batter forms. Dump in your almonds and choco-chips until evenly distributed. Skilled at Play-dough formations? It’s your time to shine next.

5. Cut the dough in half and starting with the first, shape it into a 13 by 2 inch loaf. This recipe is sort of mini biscotti so if you wanted to make those really long ones, I would use the whole batch to make one large loaf. If the dough gets a bit too sticky, add some flour and continue shaping. Do the same with the second half of batter, and bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and crackly.

6. After the first lil bake sesh is over, slide the logs over to a cutting board and slice on a bias with a serrated knife. Then place the biscotti cut side down on the baking sheet and bake for another 15 minutes, flipping them over halfway through baking.

Serve with a hot cup of coffee and never break up this friendship!!!

Jan25

Nutty Coconut Cardamom Granola

Posted on January 25, 2014 by athaidek

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I didn’t quite believe thefauxmartha when she dubbed this recipe “The Last Granola Recipe” but I think this woman’s on to something. I am not at the stage yet where I’ve totally found my staples and to be honest, it feels a little dramatic to say this is THE ABSOLUTE LAST granola recipe I should ever try. But you know I’m really LEARNING a lot these days.

Cardamom. Usually sneaks itself into chai spice, but here it’s really only with cinnamon. The shining star, it counters the sweetness of the maple syrup and mixes well with the coconut and nuts. I’m a fan of you cardamom! I ate this granola atop yogurt, mixed with another cereal in milk, and actually used them to make these Magical Marvelous cookies from Food52. Thanks for being reliable, granola. You’re there for my mornings, my extra-secret-magical-cookie ingredient, and those mid-day snacks when I want to pick out some dried fruit or the nuts.

What are you loving these days besides your favorite granola recipe? I’m loving NeedtoBreathe, a certain special chapel, new skinny jeans, and wearing my Grandpa’s old scarf everywhere as if he’s with me.

Let’s begin…I made half of the recipe FYI.

Here goes cardamom, oats, salt, and cinnamon. Give it a lil swish with the whisk.

Olive oil, maple syrup, and vanilla mixin it up together

Mix up the oats and the sweet coating, reserving a few tablespoons of the oil mixture. Spread everything out on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet.

I like my granola more like cereal so I try and spread it out as flat as possible, but if you like it clumpy, keep it a bit more tightly packed. Into the oven! 350 for 20 mins

Meanwhile, I chop up whatever nuts I’ve got on hand! Literally every kind, cashews, peanuts, walnuts, and pecans

Mix them together with some leftover syrup-oil mix and the dried coconut. I have the thin strips not those thick flakes here.

After 20 minutes mix in the nuts etc into your granola and bake off for another 5-7 minutos.

When I serve mine I like some dried fruit so I added chopped apricots and raisins after the granola cooled!