The Best Part of Waking Up...

...is a fried egg and cheese biscuit!
Happy Monday!

The Pancake Saga, Part III

For a while last semester, I was on a Thursday night pancakes roll. And by a “roll”, I mean, two weeks. Moosewood does have one more pancakes recipe, and I decided to whip it up tonight as a yummy dinner. Zucchini-Feta Pancakes are a savory and filling meal.

            Unfortunately, the return of pancakes means the return of grating. But the zukes were soft so they were easy to grate, unlike the apples and sweet potatoes. The cheese also made them very gooey and soft. The consistency was more like the Apple Pancakes, but still less of an actual pancake. They didn’t quite hold together or brown all the way through. I’m not sure what made the apple ones so much better; maybe it was the additional flour that the recipe called for? But tonight’s were still really delicious and very easy to make!

Short and sweet blog post today, and no picture. Things are starting to settle more this semester so I hope to be back to my more extensive and committed blogging next week. 

Freakin' Sweet (Potatoes)

I love breakfast for dinner. It is one of my favorite things in the whole entire world. And after last week’s adventures with Apple and Cottage Cheese Pancakes, I thought I’d continue the tradition. Moosewood has at least one more pancake recipe, so I know I have more breakfast yumminess in my future. And tonight’s sweet potato pancakes were pretty good. And quite filling!

            Though calling these things pancakes isn’t quite an accurate description. The primary ingredient is sweet potatoes, so they’re more like hash brown cakes. The ingredients, though few don’t really mix together very well, so there were times when all I could taste was egg and other times when all I could taste was sweet potato. I’m also not sure why I picked another recipe that required so much grating! It’s beyond frustrating, and one more reason why I need a food processor.

            Moosewood recommends topping the pancakes with yogurt, applesauce, or sour cream, but I ate mine plain again. Though they went nicely with beer; very breakfasty indeed. If you’re a meat eater, I can imagine these being heaven with bacon on the side. But, of course, what isn’t heaven when it’s got bacon on the side?

            14 recipes done! I’ve got a lot of baking planned for this weekend!

Cottage Cheese *Shudder*

There are eleven recipes in Moosewood that require cottage cheese. A few more have optional cottage cheese or the choice of cottage cheese or ricotta. I am literally quivering in fear.

            Now, full disclosure, I’ve never actually tried cottage cheese. At least, if I have, I don’t remember it. So, you might be saying it’s not fair for me to judge cottage cheese solely on its disgusting look. But seriously, it looks disgusting. Also, people have told me that it’s gross. So my judgments are based on appearance and hear say. Additionally, I was in a play in high school in which someone had to get cottage cheese dumped on him. And that pretty much ruined it for me permanently.

            But, because of Moosewood, I need to either learn to love it or find someone who really likes it. Like, eleven meals worth. I decided for my first cottage cheese exposure I would ease my way in with Cottage Cheese and Apple Pancakes.

            And shocker! They were totally delicious! I don’t know if it was because I was super hungry after three back to back classes, but seriously, these are awesome!

            I was ticking away my grievances with this recipe when it began: cottage cheese, grated apple (just annoying), separated eggs (also annoying). But I completely take them back now! I used my $5 Target hand mixer (a fantastic investment) to beat the egg whites and stirred everything else together by hand. I have to say that there’s nothing quite as fascinating as watching egg whites froth up and then turn to that thick creamy bowl of fluff. It’s actually just amazing. The pancake batter ends up thick and lumpy due to the cottage cheese and apples, but it pours well and fries up nicely.  

My pancake flipping skills leave something to be desired

            Moosewood recommends a few different toppings, but I forgot to buy maple syrup, so mine were plain. Though they do go nicely with a bottle of hard cider. I don’t think they need any additional toppings, but maple syrup would still be good. Moosewood also specifies using tart apples. I used Pink Lady apples, handpicked from a local orchard. They aren’t exactly tart, but I think they work perfectly!

            I’m excited to hit double digits in my recipe counter, but for now, I’m still at 9/241.