Power of the Pancake

Last year when Jamie was still mastering the art of eating solid food, we went through a phase where he would eat just about anything...if it was in a pancake. Who can really blame him? Pancakes are awesome. They can be sweet or savory. Obviously, they are a fabulous way to start the day, but they are just as good for lunch and brinner. And pancakes are just plain fun to make, especially with kids. These days when we have a pancake meal, I am flanked by Kara and Jamie for the whole cooking process. Even when they are fussing over who gets to stir or who can add the blueberries, I love every minute of it.

A box of pancake mix is great to have around. I am a big fan of Bisquick and the Trader Joe's multigrain mix. But if you find yourself out of pre-made mix, there is a 90% chance you have everything you need to make pancake batter right in your pantry. Here is Mark Bittman's recipe for basic pancakes. This is the one I use on a pretty regular basis. It makes a lot of batter; I almost always have leftover for another pancake meal. This is also a really flexible recipe. You can add more or less milk to get the thickness you like. You can easily add wheat flour, oat flour or other whole grains. If you like a tangy pancake, use some yogurt or buttermilk in place of the milk and substitute 1 tsp of baking soda for the baking powder.

Dave likes his pancakes straight up. Kara and Jamie love blueberry pancakes the best. Somehow I made it almost to 40 without putting it together that frozen blueberries work just fine in all manner of baked goods. I recommend keeping a bag in your freezer for the Saturday morning when nothing less than a stack of pancakes will do.

I don't think I have ever met a pancake product that I didn't like. However, one of my most favorite ways to have pancakes is to add corn, a little cornmeal, chopped green onion, garlic and chili powder to make a corn fritter of sorts. Serve them sour cream and salsa. A weeknight winner.

Kara, mouth full of pancake, pronounces them "delicious." (More on the hair accessory next week...)

Rice and Eggs - The Classic Brinner

When I was growing up, one of my mother's classic breakfast, and sometimes dinner, dishes was rice and eggs. Using the left over rice from Chinese take-out, my mom could whip up a delicious meal. (I realize as I am writing this that I don't know what the origin of this meal was - Mom, if you are reading, fill us in.)

Now that I am a mom,  I come back to this "recipe" time and again. Not only does it taste great, it reminds me of my mom and how much I loved when she made this for me as a little girl. Beyond nostalgic reasons to love rice and eggs, I also love that it is easy, healthy and my kids will eat it. In fact, when Jamie was about a year old, he would eat rice and eggs, with some vegetable thrown in, just about every day for lunch.

Last night Dave was out for dinner, so of course Kara requested brinner for dinner. I was happy to oblige. The kids had waffles and eggs and I had a delicious plate of rice and eggs. In this iteration of the meal, I added some red peppers, chopped spinach and green onions. And though left-over Chinese restaurant rice works best, I had to settle for the brown rice hiding in the back of our refrigerator.

Here is the "recipe" - a term I apply loosely. I generally use 2 eggs per adult and 1 per child. You do the math.

• Beat eggs with a little milk/water. Set aside.
• If you are going to add veggies or meat, get them ready. I recommend finely chopping any additions.
• Get the rice out. If it is really dry, like the kind in a take-out container, microwave it for a minute to soften it up.
• In a frying pan melt enough butter to thoroughly coat the pan. Don't be shy. If using veggies, saute for a few minutes. Add the rice. I use about 1/4 cup per egg. Saute for a few minutes until rice is warmed through.
• Add eggs and scramble. 
• You can throw in some cheese at the end if you are in to that kind of thing. 
• Serve alone or with anything that you might put with eggs: ketchup, salsa, hot sauce, bbq sauce. Personally, I love it with mango chutney. But I am a freak.

Sick Food

Our family has been under siege - for the last two weeks at least one member of our brood has been ill. Kara kicked it off with what for her was a mild cold. Jamie joined in on the fun with the added bonus of getting his two year molars. Good times. Then I got a cold, too, but in my case it turned from mild to horrendous. Every day another iteration of this virus cropped up. Runny nose, cough, sore throat, cough, clogged ears, cough. Just when I thought we might be out of the woods, Dave came down with a stomach bug (the lower GI variety) and on Monday night I got that bug too! (The very unpleasant upper GI kind.) Seriously!?!?

Yesterday, for the first time in over a decade, I spent the entire day in bed. (I can whole heartedly recommend Test of Wills by Charles Todd as a sick day read.) Thank goodness for my family and their willingness to care for the kids. I can honestly say there was no way I was capable of being a mom yesterday.

So after a day of ingesting one piece of toast, one cup of noodles (aka sodium stew), and a gallon of ginger ale, I was ready for something a little more substantial. This morning I made myself a classic "sick food" - soft boiled egg on toast. This is the meal my mom would make me whenever I was sick, and it still evokes all of the memories of having my mom take care of me as a little girl.

Here's what you do:
-Take one or two eggs out and put them in a bowl of warm water to prevent cracking.
-Fill a small pot with water and when the water is up to a boil, gently put the eggs in. Cook for four minutes.
-Toast one or two slices of bread, butter them and tear into small pieces into a bowl.
-Remove eggs from water, crack with a knife and scoop out the egg. Ideally, the white will be firm, not hard, and the yolk will be runny. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I promise eggy toast will make even the sickest kid, or mommy,  feel better.

The Strata (aka Brinner)

Just one day after writing about breakfast casserole for brinner, there is an article in the food section of today's Philadelphia Inquirer about strata. Strata, it turns out, is a fancy name for a bread and egg concoction. I think I actually had that tidbit of food trivia in my brain somewhere.

Here is the article and a couple of recipes, too.

Another Brinner Idea

I have already posted about my deep and abiding love of brinner. If my kids had it their way, we would have fried eggs and toast every night. Though that sounds appealing on several levels, I don't think that would be the most nutritionally sound plan. To satisfy our brinner cravings, I try to work in some other dishes.

This recipe for Breakfast Casserole came to me a few years ago. I was at a parent coffee for Kara's nursery school and one of the moms brought this delicious egg, bread and sausage casserole. You know you hit the jackpot as a cook when pretty much every other mom in the room is asking you to email the recipe asap. Julia, the mom in question, being super efficient, actually followed through the same day, and I immediately copied this recipe into my book. Don't you love it when you come across a delicious recipe by chance?

Here is the original, courtesy of Julia, aka Jack's mommy, aka home cook extraordinaire.

-Cook up one package of breakfast sausage and dice into small pieces
-Slice 6-8 thick pieces of crusty bread and then cut into 1-2 inch cubes
-Grate 1 cup cheddar cheese or measure one cup from the bag of shredded cheese you keep in your fridge.
-Mix 8 eggs and 2 cups of milk. Add in salt, pepper and 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder.
-Butter a deep dish casserole and layer bread, cheese and sausage ending with bread on top. Gently pour egg mixture into casserole and press bread down so that the bread is all wet.
-Cover and refrigerate overnight. (Note: If you are making this for brinner,  you can assemble it all in the morning and it will be ready to cook by dinner time.)
-Bake for 1 hour at 350

In addition to being delicious, this recipe is incredibly flexible. (The version I made yesterday morning and baked last night used half a loaf of stale baguette, onion, red pepper and mushrooms all finely chopped and a Mexican cheese mix.) You can add veggies, omit/change the meat, change up the cheeses, use more or less bread to vary the size of the finished product. It is a great pot-luck addition, and it is also perfect if you are hosting a brunch because all the "work" is done the day before. Finally, it is good leftover. Just pop it in the microwave and it is nearly as good as it was out of the oven.

Gotta love brinner!

Brinner

Driving to school the other morning, I asked Kara what we should have for dinner that night since daddy was going to be at a work. Without skipping a beat, she said, "Mommy, can we have brinner?" To which I replied, "Absolutely!"

Brinner, for the uninitiated, means breakfast for dinner. I know this is a tradition in many households. When I was little, my mom would sometimes make corned beef hash with eggs and toast for dinner. Dave remembers his mom making pancake dinners from time to time as well. Dave and I first heard this called "brinner" on the sitcom "Scrubs"  many years ago. (Here is link to a clip.) Needless to say, the term has become part of our family vernacular.

The excellence of brinner cannot be understated. Brinner is your go to meal when you don't feel like cooking. I always have the ingredients from brinner in the house.  Brinner takes about 20 minutes to make and less than that to clean up. And as fast dinners go, brinner is pretty healthy. Finally, when I say we are having brinner, my kids cheer. It is a complaint free meal. How many of those do you have in your repertoire?

Our most recent brinner included eggs, bacon, orange slices and, because its fall, pumpkin pancakes.

Here is the pancake recipe. 

Super Easy Version
Make pancake batter and add 1/4 to 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, a dash of pumpkin pie spice or any combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, ground cloves, alspice. Trader Joe's multigrain pancake mix is particularly well suited to this "method."

Easy Version
-In a mixing bowl combine:

• 2 cups flour (white, or a mix white and whole wheat)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1tbsp baking powder
• Dash  each cinnamon, nutmeg, alspice, ground cloves, OR about 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

-In a separate bowl beat 2 eggs and add 2 tbsp melted butter or canola oil.
-Pour egg mix plus 2 cups milk into dry ingredients; stir until just combined. Add 1/2 cup pumpkin puree. Stir to combine.