July 1, 2011- Sandwiches and Pancakes

We left Seattle at 12:30 today, driving to Redmond, OR, for the weekend.  We met up with Kate and Spencer, who were driving down separately, in Madras, OR, for dinner at the Black Bear Diner.  Other than a weird situation with a claustrophobic woman while waiting to be seated,  it was a pretty good meal.  I had a pulled pork sandwich with fries.  The barbecue sauce on my sandwich was a bit sweeter than I like it, but it was still very good.  Ben had a great tri-tip sandwich with fries.  Katie opted for breakfast and had chocolate chip pancakes, heavily dipped in syrup, with chocolate milk and fruit.  Spencer had a half rack of pork ribs with clam chowder, and Kate had the California Bacon Benedict.  

After dinner, we drove into Redmond and met Jennifer at Fred Meyer to pick up groceries for the weekend.  If we had driven straight to her house without the grocery store stop, we would have arrived in exactly 7.5 hours.  Not bad considering it included a bathroom stop, long dinner, and a construction zone where we had to drive pretty slow.  The worst part of the trip was that we got a long crack in our windshield when a rock hit our window in the construction zone. 

Wednesday, 3/9/2011

When I was growing up, my mom would sometimes make cornmeal pancakes for dinner.  This week I decided it was time to introduce them to my family.  This morning I searched the internet until I found a recipe that only called for ingredients I had in the house.  I didn't want to make an extra trip to the store today.  The pancakes turned out great.  Ben and I really liked them, but Katie was not a fan.  She ate applesauce, pre-packaged with no extra sugar, and some bacon with just a few bites of pancake.  Even adding syrup didn't entice her to eat more.  Here's the recipe for the pancakes.

CORN MEAL PANCAKES

Ingredients:
1 cup ALBERS Yellow Corn Meal
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, (optional)
1 large egg
1/2 cup NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

Directions:
1.  Combine corn meal, honey and salt in a medium bowl. Slowly stir in boiling water. Cover; let stand for 10 minutes. Stir in flour, baking powder and cinnamon just until blended.
2.  Combine egg and evaporated milk in a small bowl; add to corn meal mixture. Spoon 1/3 cup batter for each pancake onto a heated, lightly greased griddle or skillet; cook for about 1 minute, or until bubbles appear. Turn; continue to cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until golden. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm with maple syrup or applesauce, if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

I made a fancier applesauce for Ben and me to eat.  I cored, peeled and roughly chopped up two honeycrisp apples and put them into a saucepan with a 1/4 cup of water.  I covered the pan and turned the heat on medium and let them steam until soft enough to mash.  When they were ready, I roughly mashed them.  Ben added some Splenda and cinnamon to his applesauce, while I had mine plain.  Soo good!

Monday, 10/4/2010

Our family has a cold:(  Our noses are running, we have headaches, and we are generally under the weather.  I tried to feed Katie some organic kids Elmo soup for dinner.  She took one bite and spit it out.  I stirred it with my finger and wished I hadn't licked my finger afterward.  It's no wonder she spit it out--it was gross. 

My back up plan was to have breakfast for dinner.  Since we just had nice sausage and egg breakfast sandwiches yesterday morning, I decided to go with pancakes and bacon tonight.  I made two batches using different mixes: Bisquick and Snoqualmie Falls.  I first made the Bisquick batch because it is less expensive, and I thought it would be easier than Snoqualmie.  Yes, Bisquick it is less expensive, but it takes milk and eggs.  You only need to add water to the  Snoqualmie mix.  Anyway, I made the Bisquick batch and decided I don't like how it tastes anymore.  I much prefer the Snoqualmie mix, and I know Ben does too.  So, I finished using the Bisquick mix and will save those for Katie.  Then I made a batch for Ben and I out of the good stuff. Is it horrible of me to feed my daughter the cheaper, not as tasty pancakes?  I decided no.  In the end, she will just appreciate it more when she gets a good one.  Right?  :)