Community Crepes! (Orange Marmalade)

Friends,  I know you know the saying that necessity is the mother of invention, and that is certainly the truth today. I have just discovered my new favourite pancakes. Trying to come up with a new variety of pancakes with bare pantries can be a bit of a challenge. We have no nuts (man, those things are expensive!), we do have apples, but I've already used those, but no other fruit to really speak of. I opened the fridge in desperation to see Orange Marmalade. Yummm. Orange Marmalade is one of my favourite things in the world- the dollar store here sells little jars of it with the rind in it and it's delicious. So I pulled it out and voila. The best pancakes I have ever made- And I'm writing this before Dave gets home to try them, so that's pure selfishness. He's biking home now, and then we'll watch Community together...except I've already watched it. Shame! And here's a clip from the new episode, specifically for my father.

The main story this week is that one of the main characters (Annie) meets a girl that is just like who she used to be- a perfectionist to the point of serious problems. She can't help but butt heads with her, as she tries to fight her natural instinct to revert to her old self. It doesn't necessarily sound it, but it's one of the funniest episodes I've seen. Go watch it! Now, recipe!

1 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp oil
2 tsp. orange extract
3 Tbsp. (or so) of Orange Marmalade
1 cup milk




Combine your dry ingredients, and then stir in your oil. Add your wet ingredients all together, and stir until you get the consistency you want. I think it would be great if you switched out some of your milk for orange juice, but I didn't have any. I plan on trying this again with a different kind of jam... Maybe Raspberry. I think it just may be delicious. The sugar in the jam made the pancakes brown beautifully, and they taste kind of like the orange syrup you get at pancake places. They are soooo good. Edit: We kind of ate them so fast, we forgot to take a picture of them.

Dave has been super stressed out lately, and we're having new friends over for dinner tonight, so I'm really hoping these can help him relax, if even for a minute. We've had a good week, but there's so much going on, it feels like you never get a chance to slow down- and last night he barely slept. But again, that's the importance of silly little things like this. He gets to turn off his brain, eat good food, and laugh at a silly show. I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Community Crepes! (Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip)

Okay, so they're still pancakes and not really crepes. However, I love alliteration too much to give up on it completely. Since Futrama's season ended, Dave and I have decided to continue our little tradition with another favourite show of ours- Community. It airs Thursday Nights on NBC (yes that's a plug- it's a fantastic show, but not a ratings darling. WATCH IT.) Last night was the Season 3 premiere, so this morning Dave and I had some pancakes (and bacon! Bacon was on sale!) and settled in to enjoy it. Here's the opening clip:

That's just a silly little beginning, but fun, yes? So a fun show deserves a fun breakfast. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip! They were delicious. Dave loves to cook, so he helped out this  morning, even though he hasn't been feeling well. The poor man is so stressed out, and then he has to ride his bike to work 3 miles a day. He's really worn out. Anyway, I think he was really happy just to relax with a funny show and good food. Recipe!

1 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup chocolate chips
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup milk




Stir together your dry ingredients and then beat in the rest. Cook on a high heat greased skillet as normal. Stack 'em high with lots of love! No added sugar in these, I really thought it would be unnecessary.  I know these aren't healthy, but they are delicious. Though I suppose if you used whole wheat flour, all natural peanut butter, and dark chocolate chips, you could probably argue otherwise.

We've had a rough go of it lately in  my house. But God is good, and with the bad news there has been good news too. I was re-accepted to Harding, so I'll be starting in January. Plus Dave got word that his Visa application is moving along at a good pace- he may be coming with me, here's hoping. Definitely pray. I know pancakes are a small thing, but I love having that little window where we just cook and relax together, and don't let the world get to us. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Oven Corn Dogs

Here's another one of those recipes that's good for staving off the cravings- Corn Dogs. Corn Dogs will always have a sentimental place in my heart. I had loved them as a kid, but when Dave and I started dating, we found a lot of things got, shall we say, lost in translation. For example, they have a snack cake up here called a 'Wagon Wheel'... he was telling me about eating one for lunch over the phone one night, and I thought he was saying 'Reagan Meal.' I couldn't understand why Canadians would have a meal named after an American President. That went on for about 20 minutes before it cleared up. It happened again with Corn Dogs- up here they call them Pogos. It's an interesting moment when you have to describe a corn dog to someone. It's like a hot dog, on a stick, in a corn batter, deep fried.

Nevertheless, we love corn dogs (or Pogos!) in our house. However, Deep Frying is not so healthy, and buying them frozen is surprisingly expensive, and not unsurprisingly, unhealthy. Now, I'll admit, this recipe is not quite like the traditional pogo. But it is still very delicious, far more healthy, just as easy, and a lot cheaper. I also have to admit that my recipe is based very closely on one from Martha Stewart, so I can't take the credit. Recipe!


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal, fine to medium grind
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 Tbsp. Smoked Paprika
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2/3 cup milk
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. Liquid smoke
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
4-6 hot dogs or sausages


Combine your dry ingredients and then beat in your wet. Dip your hot dogs in the batter, surrounding them (this is easier to do with a spatula.) Put them on a well greased cookie sheet, and throw them in the oven at 375 for 20-25 minutes. After the first five minutes, you should check on them to make sure the batter has stayed on the hot dogs right. Just take your spatula with you and reapply it on the spots that need it. Make sure you serve with plenty of ketchup, or mustard if you're like David.

These are pretty delicious. You can play with the spices as much as you like, I like mine a little smoky. Stick a skewer or Popsicle stick in the bottom of them and eat like you would a real corn dog. My batch made 5 this time, but depending on how thick you make your batter or how much you like per hot dog, it could be more or less. We served ours with some home made oven fries. Maybe not the healthiest lunch, but a lot better than the alternative. Anyway, I hope you enjoy as much as we do!

Muffins Fix Everything, Right? (Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins)

So it's been a little while since I last posted- mostly because of the weekend we had. David had a conference in Toronto, so we left at 6 am to get to it. To save some money I made some Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins- Dave's favourite. Apparently I always do this for road trips, though I don't remember that! Dave says when he thinks of road trips, he thinks of my Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins and the Trews (a band we love to blast on the road.) I made them the night before, and threw them in a Zip Lock bag. Then, admittedly, all hell broke loose. Our car died about an hour from Toronto, and we had to get it towed off the highway. Then the mechanic we towed it to was trying to hustle David, so we had to get it towed again to a different place, who eventually told us it was kaput. Yay. So now David is riding a bike to work every day. But at least we had muffins, right? Right???

 

1 3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. Baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
3/4 cup  milk
1/4 cup oil
1 lemon, juiced and zested
Several Tbsp. of Poppy seeds

Stir the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and the remaining ingredients into the well. Stir them in! Don't over stir! That's why you add the ingredients all at once. The less you stir the better- the lumps will bake out. Throw them in a greased or papered muffin tin at 400 degrees for 20 minutes . Let cool and enjoy! These are my favourite too, I have to admit.


Anyway, Muffins don't fix everything, despite what I would like. We still are going to have to deal with money problems, and finding a way to get around town without a car. But we have each other, and that's really all we need- and occasionally muffins.

Futurama Friday Flapjacks (Banana Nutella! No eggs)

Welcome to the last edition of Futurama Friday Flapjacks! At least until next summer, anyway. Yes, today was the season finale of Futurama, and it was excellent! They split the episode up into 3 little mini-episodes, re-imagining the cartoon in other forms of animation. The first one was 1930's style, the second video game style, and the third was a spoof of anime shows. They were each cute, creative, funny, and sweet. It will definitely go down as one of my favourites! And of course, a special episode deserves a special pancake!

We had a jar of (off brand!) nutella, and I knew I wanted to incorporate it into a batch of pancakes. Banana off-set the flavour perfectly, and these were so delicious. When they were cooking, the smell was absolutely divine! Recipe!

1 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. Baking powder
2 tsp. oil
1/3 cup nutella (or equivilent)
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup milk
1 banana, mashed



Mix together your dry ingredients well. Stir in your oil well. Carefully Stir in your nutella, vanilla, and water until desired consistency. Fold in your banana (we like big chunks!) Careful not to over stir your pancakes. Bubbles are good. Lumps are good. They cook out easily. Spoon onto a hot greased skillet, and enjoy! These were so good. For a few, we spooned on a tiny bit of extra nutella and let it melt on the hot pancake. SO good.

I'm going to miss having Friday Flapjacks with Dave- it's such a fun little tradition, and it's so nice to just let everything go over good food, and a silly show. Like I said last week, we'll probably continue the tradition with a different show for a while, but still! Dave and I have our year and a half anniversary on Monday, and I have some steaks in the freezer I'm going to put to good use. :)  And since the 11th is Friday I hope everyone will do something to remember and enjoy the freedom we have all paid so dearly for. Enjoy your weekend!

Mini Blog for Mini Wheats

I won't do this often, but I am going to encourage a certain product, because it is delicious. Grown ups are always trying to eat healthy- which is good! In fact, it's encouraged by just about everyone (exception being friends with low self esteem.) I remember one incident when I was a child. It was a Saturday morning, and we were all trying to eat our cereals of choice, and move on to our activities of the day.  My brothers and I dug in to our frosted Mini-Wheats. Absolutely a classic, and absolutely delicious. Meanwhile, my parents poured over the nutrition information on their cardboard-esk cereal, which promised Fiber, Protein, and Vitamins I could not yet pronounce. As they announced various percentages off of their cereal box, I looked at the numbers on my Mini-Wheats. More fiber. More protein. Less sugar. Less fat. My Mini-Wheats were much healthier than my parents' cereal- and tasted a lot better too.

Fast forward about 10 years. I'm in college, absolutely poor, and up to my neck in papers. There's this little thing called the 'Freshman 15,' which I far surpassed, and then far made up for the summer before my sophomore year. The surprised comments of  'wow, you look skinny!' were nice, but they didn't make the cravings or the stress that had added to my weight the year before disappear. Then I discovered a new flavour of Mini-Wheats. They're called 'Mini-Wheats little bites, cocoa flavoured'. At 2 in the morning, writing a paper, and deathly craving chocolate, these little things are a GOD SEND. The flavour of cocoa is much more accurate than that of chocolate. I wish I could describe them, but they are rich, and it tastes like there is a little chocolate chip in every one. But with all of the goodness, they are still high in fiber, vitamins, and protein. Low in fat and sugar. Can you beat that?

Now today at the store, there they are. Canada is often behind with products, so seeing these was like a tiny miracle. And they were on sale! $2.77 CAD. Which is abnormally cheap for Canadian cereal. I was very excited. I had actually told Dave about these, so he was totally on board with picking them up. When I came home, I knew I wanted to write about them in the blog. So I scoured the internet for a recipe, and found this one for Mini-wheats muffins:

'1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. crushed shredded wheat
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 c. milk
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. blueberries
1 tbsp. lemon juice
Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in cereal. Add egg, milk, and oil. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in blueberries and lemon juice. Fill greased 2 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch muffin pans about 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees until done and browned, 18-20 minutes. Yields 12 muffins.' (via http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2010/02/mini-shredded-wheat-recipes.html )

I was going to try this recipe, but then it occurred to me that that meant I couldn't eat them straight out of the box to curb my chocolate cravings. So feel free to try it, but I'll stick with my box. :) Let's review!

Mini Wheats Cocoa:
Price: $2.77 CAD (34 cents per serving.)
1 serving: 55 grams (or 53 biscuits) 8 servings a box.
6 grams of fibre.
12 grams of sugar.
5 grams of protein.
14 vitamins.

1 Hershey's Chocolate Bar:
$1 (at least) CAD (1 dollar per serving.)
1 Serving: The whole bar, 43 grams.
1 gram dietary fibre.
24 grams of sugar
1 gram of protein.
2 vitamins, calcium and iron.

Also, there is the rumor that Hershey's doesn't actually use real chocolate anymore. Literally food for thought. Pick up a box, and take care of those cravings in a healthy, money-smart way!

Futurama Friday Flapjacks (Double Chocolate! No eggs)

Happy Friday everyone! Remember those healthy healthy pancakes from last week? Yeah, those are long gone. Today I made double chocolate pancakes, and while no one on earth would call them 'healthy' (per se) they were delicious.

Today's Futurama was written as an intended series finale, but the show was renewed, so there's more to come! But still, it turned out to be a big episode, as far as story-lines went. The main character's love story moved forward in a very touching way, and Bender B. Rodriguez (rapscallion, esquire) found himself dealing with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. It was a really fun episode, lots of laughs, with maybe a tear or two at the end. I'm just so glad there's more to come! Recipe!


1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. oil
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup chocolate chips



Combine your dry ingredients very well (no one likes biting down on a chunk of cocoa.) and then stir in your oil. Stir in your milk until the consistency you like is achieved (confession- I definitely didn't measure.) Stir in your chocolate chips, and put on a hot, greased griddle or pan. Now, you could make pretend that these are healthy, by adding a mashed banana or a chopped apple to it. It would still be very delicious. If I had had them, I would have added strawberries or a strawberry sauce on top. Yum! I like to serve with just a touch of powdered sugar on top for that little extra something.

Anyway, there's only one episode left of Futurama this season! We may have to look into other food/show days. Dave and I have a favourite show, Community that will air Thursday nights this fall. Since we'll watch them on Fridays, maybe the tradition will continue. But I am bummed it will mess up my alliteration. Oh well! Hope you enjoy!

Crumble Apple Pie

A guy Dave works with is moving into a new apartment today! This is very exciting for him, as he's been forced to live with his ex-girlfriend for the past month. Ouch. Good southern girl that I am, I thought I'd make him a good meal. Heaven knows a bachelor who works full time needs a good southern meal! So, I thought I'd go with some things that everyone likes and that re-heat well- Lasagna, Garlic sticks, and good old fashioned Apple Pie.

Nothing beats Apple Pie. Warm, with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, it is the perfect fall feel-good dessert.  (Yes, it's fall here.) I like the kind with the crumbly top, not the two crust. For 1, it's easier, but for 2, I like the contrast of the crunchy topping to the tender apples, to the flaky crust. That's hard to beat. SO here's the recipe!


1 pie shell (9 inch)
3 apples, peeled and sliced thinly
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. each, nutmeg, all spice, and cinnamon
2 Tbsp. flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. same spices as above
1-2 Tbsp. butter


Toss your apples in the sugar, first round of spices, and flour. Put your apples in your pie shell. Cut together the brown sugar, flour, and second round of spices with the butter. Spread the crumb mixture over the apples. Cover the pie loosely with foil, and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Then take the foil off, and bake for an additional 25 minutes without the foil. Let cool slightly before serving. It's delicious!

One thing that you can definitely do with this pie is experiment with the spices you use. I love the taste of nutmeg, but not everyone does, this I know. Cinnamon is the natural companion, but I love the bite of all spice. But it's up to you. I love to serve this warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and a drizzle of home made caramel,. if you have it. This is great for Thanksgiving and Christmas too. Enjoy!