Sorry for the radio silence this week, friends. This tiny mini-post is just an homage to my most popular post about, what else, pancakes. If you need a nice, quick little recipe this long weekend for breakfast, this is it! Pancakes. Pure and simple. Have a fabulous weekend, friends, and I’ll see you next week!
Tag Archives: Pancakes
What Is a Meal?
Pancakes with bacon hidden inside, topped with apples
I have an ongoing discussion with my friend Nicole on what constitutes a meal. I vehemently defend anything I’ve ever posted on this blog, and she denies most of it.
Nicole: Macaroni and cheese is NOT a meal.
DISAGREE
Nicole: Pancakes are cake, NOT a meal.
DISAGREE
Nicole: A muffin is NOT breakfast, it’s cake.
DISAGREE
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I can pretty much call anything into a meal. For one solid week last year I ate nothing but chocolate cake and red wine for dinner. If it’s 6PM, and I eat a slice of cake and drink a glass of wine, and then I’m full, and then I go to bed… how come that’s not dinner? I’m not feeding it to my growing children, or even my hungry boyfriend. Nicole would probably argue that there is literally zero nutritional value in chocolate cake and red wine (except for all those antioxidants! what whaaaaat). And that’s her argument against macaroni and cheese, and pancakes, too. Zero nutritional value. Does a “meal” have to have a certain amount of nutritional value to actually be worthy of the name? I dare you to find a single, city-living lady who has never called cheese and crackers dinner.
What do you think, guys? What’s a meal? Are pancakes a meal if you add bacon? Or top them with apples? Why is spaghetti with sauce and garlic bread considered dinner, but not pancakes? Why is a bowl of Lucky Charms breakfast, but not slice of pound cake (FYI: they both have TONS of sugar). Is greasy Chinese takeout a meal even though it has endless amounts of MSG, fat, and oil? How about a pepperoni pizza?
I rarely ask outright for your comments, but this time I want them! Go ahead. Comment away. That’s right… I’m lookin’ at you.
Filed under Miscellaneous
Happy Friday!
Happy Friday, loves. I woke up to white powdery beautiful streets this morning, and of course, immediately checked my e-mail to see if I had a snow day. No dice.
Have you seen this? It’s called “Smooth Criminal Flash Mob at Eataly.” Have you clicked it yet? No? Then what the H is wrong with you?
Just wanted to say a quick hello and remind you of some things you might like to make this weekend. It’s all comfort food, and it’s all guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Also guaranteed to make you want to hit the gym on Monday. You’re welcome.
Breakfast! pancakes…
Lunch! peanut butter…
Dinner! carbonara…
Dessert! cupcakes… (pictured above)
These Pancakes Have a Secret
I’m about to tell you a story, but in order to read it, you’re going to have to put your judgment face away and slap on an open minded grin.
Got it?
Okay, here goes. I ate pancakes 3 days in a row. I can’t explain it. I needed something comforting and warm and salty and sweet and when I got home last night it was beautiful and snowy and I thought, “What else do people eat when it’s cold and snowy and Christmastime but pancakes?” I couldn’t come up with anything. So I made these. And they have a secret.
HEY. Remember when I told you not to judge me? Pancakes with bacon sounded good, so I thought, I will combine these beauties into one easily consumed dish.
I started by crisping up the bacon real nice, setting it aside to drain, pouring the grease out of the pan, and then making the pancakes (using this recipe*, obviously) in that same beautiful pan all ready to go and coated with bacon grease. Once I poured the batter in the pan I laid the crispy strips in the center of the pancake and cooked as usual.
Then for the sauce: I cubed some apple and sauteed it in a small saucepan with 2 Tbsp of butter, 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, and 2 tsp of cinnamon. Once the apples are softened, you pour the mixture on top of the pancakes.
And then you eat your face off. Or you share. But… probably the former.
*I realized upon arriving home that I was out of baking powder. I said a few curse words, looked out at the snow, and then remembered I could make my own. 2 parts cream of tartar to 1 parts baking soda = baking powder. (For example: in this recipe you need 3 tsp of baking powder, so instead you’d use 2 tsp cream of tartar and 1 tsp baking soda) A handy trick for you in case you’re ever in the same predicament.
Let the Games Begin, Ja!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the World Cup kicked off this past weekend. While I cheered for the USA because, well… I am an American, I don’t feel a strict allegiance to any team. I find myself pulling for the underdog in every match, despite my heritage, and therefore could NOT root for Germany on Sunday when they played Australia. They’re so mean! And the Aussie team is nicknamed The Socceroos. Can you stand the adorableness?
Despite my disdain for the German team, I am 25% German and therefore showed a tiny bit of support by spending 25% of my Saturday eating German food and drinking a ridiculous amount of Spaten Oktoberfest. Don’t worry, it was ALMOST noon.
The colors got weirdly wonky in this picture, but many, many thanks to Ben for capturing them at all, since I am a terrible blogger and forgot my camera
Heidelberg Restaurant 1648 Second Avenue, between 85th St and 86th St, New York, NY. This place has been around since 1964, in a neighborhood called Yorkville that used to be predominantly German. The food is traditional German fare, and the beer is served in pints, half liters, liters, or 2 liter boots. That’s right. Two. Liter. Boots. And you thought the boot was a mythical figment of Beer Fest‘s imagination. The decor is pure kitsch (the waitstaff wears lederhosen and dirndl…) but so enjoyable.
On the menu:
Potato pancakes
Bratwurst with sauerkraut and potato salad
Sauerbraten with red cabbage (not pictured)
Potato Pancakes
Verdict: Jawhol! As a small aside, I dubbed this the year I will learn to love the foods I have typically shunned. On that list: sausage. I ordered a bratwurst because I felt like ordering potato pancakes was too safe, and I wanted to try a differently prepared type of sausage. Holy, holy mackerel, am I glad I did. This brat was lightly fried and spectacular; like a deep fried hot dog, with tangy sauerkraut and cool potato salad to smooth it all out. I did taste a dining partner’s potato pancake and it was SUBLIME. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and the size of my face. Did I mention I like pancakes? The sauerbraten was perfectly cooked and unbelievably tender, and I can not wait to go back to Heidelberg and order it for myself.
Filed under Heritage, New York Restaurants
I Love ‘em All
Pancakes, that is. I. Love. Pancakes. Is it a simple batter? Can it be flipped using a spatula and a griddle? Is it flat and round? I will eat it, sir.
To celebrate the early acquisition of a highly coveted new cookbook, I picked a pancake recipe and hopped to. Amanda Hesser’s upcoming The Essential New York Times Cookbook is everything you could ever want from food in the New York Times. She has pulled recipes from literally every decade of the Times’ recipe section’s existence, tried the recipes out, and offered up her suggestions for making them delicious in the present day. I freaking love this cookbook. And I ESPECIALLY love the hilarious but still tempting recipes from the 1970s and 80s, most of which involve pickling and weird methods of serving eggs. This is the stuff, people. This. Is. The. Stuff.
On the menu:
Fresh corn griddle cakes with parmesan and chives
Serves 4-6
Adapted from Amanda Hesser’s version of Jack Bishop’s “If Corn’s Off the Cob, Use Your Imagination” from The Essential New York Times Cookbook, published by W. W. Norton, available in October 2010
4 medium ears corn, shucked
1 egg
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 Tbsp chives, snipped
1/2 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
Working over a large bowl, grate the corn on the large holes of a box grater until the cobs are clean; discard the cobs. Add the egg, flour, cheese, chives, salt, and pepper to the corn. Stir until the batter is smooth. Taste and add more salt and/or pepper as needed.
Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Scoop up 1/4 cup of the thick batter and scrape it into the skillet, smoothing the mound to a flat pancake for cooking. Cook each pancake for 6 minutes on each side for best results (you want each cake crispy on the outside and cooked all the way through, unlike a traditional pancake that is more delicate).
Et voila! Crispy corn cakes that you can serve with virtually any meal. They would be lovely in a bread basket on the table at dinner with roast chicken and mashed potatoes, or warmed in the toaster with a pat of butter and maybe a little mango salsa over top. I was also thinking these would be phenomenal in place of an English muffin in Eggs Benedict. But then again… I am literally always thinking of Eggs Benedict.
Please don’t judge me.
Bon weekend!
Why Don’t You…
Dear friends,
This weekend I’m taking off and I’m leaving my computer behind. I’ll be back on Tuesday with brilliant posts about Garbage Plates and sweet cheese Belgian waffles (you can hardly stand the wait, right?) but in the meantime I leave you with this list of things that I would be doing if I was staying in town this weekend. So…
Why Don’t You…
Get your drink on all sneaky-like at a speakeasy like Dutch Kills (27-24 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City) or Please Don’t Tell (113 St. Marks Place).
Or, opening this weekend and offering free hot dogs (I said FREE HOT DOGS! Go people, go!) in the old East Side Company Bar space on the Lower East Side, Painkiller. 49 Essex Street at Grand Street
Take a culinary vacation from impending rain, use whatcha got, and pretend you’re in Australia while you eat Fairy Bread in bed whilst watching Young Einstein.
Feed your sweetheart little dollops of heaven via chopsticks at Blue Ribbon Sushi. 119 Sullivan Street
Watch Food, Inc. or Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, both available instantly on your Netflix.
Bask in the lusciousness of a $26 pre-fixe lunch menu at Nougatine by Jean-Georges (1 Central Park West); none of the wallet strain, all of the succulent flavor that this famous French chef is known for.
Nurse your Sunday morning hangover with a stack of sour cream pancakes, heavy on the syrup, at Bubby’s (120 Hudson Street). Just don’t look too ragged. It’s a notorious celebrity hangout and you wouldn’t want to miss your chance to woo Justin Timberlake, now would you? Thought so.
Happy weekend, kiddies!
Filed under Chefs, Miscellaneous, New York Restaurants
Because: Pancakes = Love
Another post blatantly lifted from The Kitchn because last night I ate egg salad with carrots and pea pods for dinner, and who really wants to read about that?
I want these. A lot. Add a little yellow food coloring to the sun, a little blue to the planet, a little green to the moon (maybe some moon somewhere is green, you don’t know)… What a spread!
Filed under Miscellaneous
Lauren E. is a food writer and recipe tester living in New York City. She is a regular contributor to Yumm.com and has been featured on The Martha Stewart Show.
