Carb o' the Week

Pancake Day 2010

Little did I know that there is such a thing as Pancake Day. How have I been missing this all these years? This was brought to my attention by the the folks at IHOP and their TV ads during the Winter Olympics.

A smidgen of online research revealed that Pancake Day is a mosty British variation on Fat Tuesday, which, of course, marks the last day before the start of Lent. This day rates as a Notable Date in England, a step or so below the lofty status of Bank Holiday (one of my favorite concepts). Related festivities include foot races involving running with skillets, and mob football. Tell me - what's not to like here? I think I have a new favorite holiday!

Also revealed were other variations on the Fat Tuesday theme, including Fastnacht Bay (large, Pennsylvanian Dutch donut-like things), Malasada Day in Hawaii (fried dough), and Bursting Day in Iceland (salt meat and peas, from the culinary tradition that brought us the split, singed sheep's head). You can look that last one up yourself, but I can assure you it is very real.

Anyway, all this called for waumping up a fresh batch of Bob's Random Multigrain Pancakes. This effort featured:

- 1 cup white flour, 1/2 cup semolina flour, 1/2 cup blue cornmeal
- molasses
- 1T or so wheat germ
- 1T or so ground flax
- 1T whole flax seeds
- blueberries
- the usual nuts and bolts (salt, baking powder, etc)


BEFORE:

AFTER:

Cooking Errors

Always a fun topic. In the kitchen, not everything goes right all the time, as even Julie Child could attest.

1) I made a pot roast in the Romertopf clay baker last week. I had really forgotten that we owned one. But I heard my cycling buddy George going on about how he had just gotten a Romertopf and how great it was. So I dug it out. I had a big, honkin' pot roast from Costco, along with the traditional potatoes, onions, and carrots. The first recipe that came up on Google said 425°F for two hours. Well, that was not quite enough time to tenderize that tough old hunk o' meat - the veggies were great, though! I had to run out to a band rehearsal, so Betsy was tasked with the rest of the roasting. Well... time kind of got away from her. (I suspect knitting was involved!) I came home to a clay baker that now contained seven charred, dessicated rectangles that had been pot roast in a former lifetime. Should have taken a picture!

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2) This is what happens when you are late at adding the chopped nuts and raisins to the bread machine. It was too far into the knead cycle to incorporate all the bits. They essentially stuck to the outside. The raisins kind of got a bit, umm, toasty. Kind of a short loaf, too, but tasted good once you plucked the burnt up raisins from the surface...

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3) The old waffle maker croaked back before the holidays. Fortunately, Santa gave someone - guess what? - a new waffle iron for Christmas! Go Santa! The first waffle didn't turn out so great, though. They did get better after that.

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4) And this is what happens if you deep fat fry a chunk of plastic by mistake:

Carb o' the Week

Back to pancakes for this weeks' featured carb.

Double batch of 'cakes, starting with the classic Betty Crocker recipe. Changes:

• Substitute buttermilk for 1/2 the milk (adjust baking powder and soda accordingly)
• Use 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 plain old white flour
• mix in the big half of an apple, diced up fine (just eat the remaining bits)
• mix in a handful of Craisins.

I think it's time to do something about that backsplash. Maybe when the Great Room is finished! The burn mark on the plain Formica is mostly hidden by that cast iron pan. Pretty grim.

Carb O' the Week

Yikes! It's been decades since the BlichBlog has been updated. No better way to break the bad old non-posting habit than with a new Carb O' the Week, eh?

Let's start with this evening's "Stump the Chef" dinner, with apologies to NPR's Lynne Rossetto Kasper. In the fridge was:

1. one green pepper



2. some 'shrooms



3. an onion



4. two leftover grilled Italian chicken sausages.



5. some chopped up garlic in oil



6. leftover whole wheat ziti



7. feta cheese

Chop up 1-4 as needed, saute in olive oil with the garlic, throw in pasta, season with s+p and basil. Sprinkle with feta. Eat.

Pancake Tip

When making pancakes, always include one ingredient that you are unsure of the origin of.

For example:

• Use up that little bag of unlabeled flour that’s been hiding in the corner of the fridge.
• “Is this wheat germ, or some kind of ground nuts in this jar?” Throw it in!
• Not sure if it’s yogurt or sour cream? Whatever…

This will help guaranty hearty, one-of-a-kind pancakes.

Beware: Sunflower seeds do go stale.

Carb O' the Week - and a Warning

Not sure if this qualifies as a true Carb. But it does contain at least some actual Chex, so it can't be too far off, even if said Chex had a suspicious orange hue.

I purchased this bag o' snax while driving home from a "smoky dive"gig the other night. A guy just gotta munch on something if he expects to stay awake driving alone at 3:00 in the morning. Note the subtle hints like Hot 'n Spicy and The Hottest Ever!. "Yeah, right", I thought. Well, they weren't kidding this time. Not Jalapeno hot, but seriously hot nonetheless. The bag is even on fire - look at those flames!

I can say they did their job.

Domestic Activity

Grandmother W loved mothballs. She even loaded her cedar chest up with them. For decades. Eventually the cedar chest ended up with us. It was exiled to the attic for years, with the lid open through heat of summer and cold of winter. It was refinished, and sanded inside as well as outside. It was sprayed with products claiming to remove odors. The mothball outgassing has never diminished, decades after the last mothball was dropped in. So every fall the woolens get spread out on the deck rail to air out before wearing. And we remember Grandmother W.

Yesterday was also the day for round one of fig preserve making. Despite the drought we had a reasonable crop of figs this year. They all come ripe at the same time, and you don't want to eat that many fresh figs at a time--they have side effects. This year we got smart and prepped and froze the fruit until a more convenient time (like when it was less than 104F out) to make the preserves and do the canning. Batch one is complete--used this recipe. Have another load of frozen figs, but we seem to be out of half pint jars, had to press a couple of full pints into service... Guess they are all full of wild blackberry pancake topping that we thought was going to be jam. Fire up the griddle.

Carb O' the Week

1) More pancake goodness from Bill's in Green Bay.

Raisins. Nuts. Mmmm...

2) No picture (eaten too fast), but C whipped up a post-Father's Day breakfast on Sunday: Multi-grain waffles, with raisins and shredded carrots. Needless to say, they were awesome!

Fear No Carb: carb o' the week photo

Time to introduce our first regular feature.

What's all this about carbs being the root of all evil? Nonsense! Carbs, and to some extent peanut butter, are what makes life as we know it work. Mentok the Mindtaker consumes carbs. Everyone should.

We traveled over 1000 miles to bring you this fine carb photo. These pancakes come from the fabulous Bill's Restaurant and Pancake House in Green Bay, WI. Yes, they are bigger than your head. Don't even consider ordering a full stack unless you just finished a century bicycle ride, an Ironman triathlon, or the endurance event of your choice.

Watch this spot for future Carb O' the Week photos!