Tag Archives: winter

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!

IMG_0034 (1) IMG_0031 (1) IMG_0033 (1)

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

Feb28

Challah, Challah Bill Y’all – A Judeo-Christian culinary experience

Posted on February 28, 2015 by athaidek

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About a month ago, my expert challah-making friend Kate (who has a laundry list of talents I might add), taught our group of friends how to make challah! In school, Kate made challah every week with an extracurricular group to raise money for hunger relief and let me tell you, it was the highlight of my week. My roommates in our sorority house NOMMED every week on one savory and one sweet loaf – usually some herby garlic, cinnamon raisin, or the cherished pumpkin chocolate chip (life will never be the same without you).

Bringing back the college memories and teaching us a little about Jewish traditions, Kate brought the dough and we contributed the toppings. I learned that in the Jewish tradition, you always bless the bread, hence, the importance of the challah. Shoutout to our snazziest consultant travelling visitor, Chandler who contributed most of these pics. While I didn’t actually make this dough, I can show you a bit about the process and how to get to the pretty part of the challah baking process 🙂

First, we rolled the dough (that had been rising for a few hours), into tiny balls that would later be rolled out

Then, you take two dough balls for your little challah roll and roll them into long thin flat rectangles. This is where you’re going to create a bed for all the fillings. In the pockets, you want to OVERLOAD on ingredients. This is one thing I hadn’t thought of – but apparently when you’re adding filling to these, since the dough expands so much, you always want to put more filling than looks necessary.

In this instance, we made chocolate chip-PB, chocolate cinnamon, sundried tomato garlic basil, peanut butter nutella, and I think cinnamon sugar. Delicious!

After you put the fillings in, you want to start tucking them in. There’s a sort of braiding going on where you tuck the right bottom corner to the left side of the dough and up. Then you go the opposite way and press into the dough to seal it. Do this until the filling is completely enclosed. The one below is sundried tomato, garlic, olive oil, and basil.

Once everybody’s sealed up, you want to make an X with the two pieces of dough. Then, carefully wrap the two strands around each other, seal the ends together, and spiral to make a round loaf.

Place on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 for around 25-35 minutes – seems to be an art to this timing! Serve the savory ones with some yummy soup and have the sweet ones for dessert! Here’s to faith-sharing and food. Cheers 🙂

Feb16

Blueberry Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies

Posted on February 16, 2015 by athaidek

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My friend JP likes to preface every discussion over which type of baked good to make with, “How about something that makes me feel like it’s really healthy but it tastes really NOT healthy.” Frozen fruit combined with chocolate and oats? I think you’ve found your mate my friend. I’ve always been a huge fan of the trail mix cookie, or as I like to think of it, pantry dump baking. In the past I’ve made popcorn cookies, and dumped graham cracker crumbs, broken pretzel sticks, and granola into my cookies to add texture and flavor to the classic cookie.

At my apartment, we are partial to certain types of baked goods – mostly muffins, bars, and cookies. I’ve made fewer cakes and pies in the past year because they’re not as portable/shareable. Tell me if you agree with me here – a warm plate of cookies or muffins seems more homey and personal when bringing something to a potluck.

I just thought of the play out of a scene (go with me for a second) – you bring a warm plate of cookies to a party and as you set them down, the party-goers/cookie monsters all dive for dessert. The quickest hands grab one or two for themselves and a friend, disappear, and then as two singles go for the last cookie, they graze hands and awkwardly defer to the other. Before you know it, the two sweets-lovers are now sweethearts and you are now responsible not only for their cavities but eternal happiness. ALL BECAUSE of your blueberry oatmeal dark chocolate cookies. It’s hard being you, sometimes, is it not?

So – I’m not going to claim that that’s actually happened to me, but the point is, cookies are a crowd-pleaser and always a good dinner party companion. I brought these to a paella dinner at a dear friend’s parents house, and they warmed our hearts and stomachs on a cold January night.

When you make this for a crowd, will you let me know if you become the cookie match-maker and now have four beautiful God-children and recently find yourself as a main of honor/best man? Because then I’m going to write a match-making cookbook.

Blueberry Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies

adapted slightly from lady and pups

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/3 cup granulated white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark, I used light)

1 large egg, at room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt (fine grain or table salt)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate

1 cup frozen blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter and both sugars together until fluffy (like a whipped butter). Then beat in egg and vanilla.

3. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Slowly beat this mixture into the wet ingredients. Stir in oats slowly with a spoon. Then, fold in chopped chocolate and blueberries.

I had to put this picture in here because this Penzey’s cinnamon is a GAME CHANGER MY FRIENDS. My friend Mike got this for me for Christmas and it makes the biggest difference in my baked goods. Splurge if you are feelin lucky.

4. Roll dough into 1-2 inch balls and space out about 3 inches apart on a greased baking sheet.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let rest in the pan for 1 minute, then remove and let cool on a baking sheet.

Enjoy!

Jan29

“Brinner from the Threeg”

Posted on January 29, 2015 by athaidek

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Here it goes….first guest post (from the one and only Edward. For those of you unfamiliar with “the Threeg,” it refers to an apartment in the land of Buckhead where Ed and his roommates live).

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Miss Katie. It is truly an honor to have been asked to be the first guest poster for the blog; and you can only image how humbled and flattered I was when the BeetsMe queen herself asserted that I was “the most handsome and culinarily gifted of [her] friends” **

**(In true BeetsMe fashion, we may be taking a few liberties with the facts / quotes here).

Wthout further ado…

BeetsMe Presents: Brinner from the Threeg

The inspiration for this recipe comes from a Sunday family tradition in the Sampognaro household – Breakfast for Dinner (“Brinner”). Mama Carmen was always a visionary in finding the most efficient ways to feed the present and future physicians of America, and the Brinner tradition is no exception — no better way to get rid of the Sunday scaries than with a simple, tasty meal everyone can look forward to. I like this recipe in particular because its quick, highly customizable (there are various combinations of meat and vegetables you can substitute), and makes for great leftovers. I made up this recipe myself for 2 main reasons: 1) to have a pre-made breakfast prepared for the rest of the week, and 2) to incorporate more vegetables into my diet earlier in the day. But you don’t need to have these goals to appreciate this recipe.

Breakfast Shepherd’s Pie

Portion serves 5 average eaters, or 1 cross training private equity professional

What You’ll need

Ingredients

· 9 Eggs (beaten)

· 12oz ground bison (but you can substitute for any lean ground meat)

· 1 medium onion (diced)

· 1 large sweet potato – (baked or raw, diced roughly)

· 2 cups broccoli (chopped)

· 1 TSP paprika

· 1 TSP salt

· 1/2 TSP black pepper

· Your choice of oil

· 8oz of cheddar cheese [Optional]

Other

· Favorite outfit [read: dress for comfort – Coffield approval Optional]

· Chef’s Choice Music [HMU if you need any spotify or soundcloud recommendations]

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F

2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs together with the paprika, salt and pepper. Mix in the chopped sweet potato. Set aside.

3. In a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat add oil and brown your choice of meat. Once meat is cooked, remove it to a separate bowl.

mmm. bisons

4. In the same skillet, add the onion and broccoli and sauté on medium heat until they are softened (~6 mins), then returned the cooked meat to the pan.

5. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet. Turn off the heat and stir the ingredients to combine. Once complete, cover the top with your choice of cheese (if you are electing to do so)

6. Put the entire skillet into the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the eggs are set and not runny.

I forgot to take a picture of this part….

7. Serve directly from the skillet or slice and store for leftovers.