Good (and Good for you) Pancake: Step 1

As a kid, I never really liked pancakes. Strange, cause my mother loves them, and my dad makes great pancakes (apparently). I think syrup was the root of the problem. I just don't like syrup. I would eat my pancakes with butter and jam. Still, I preferred Swedish pancakes--flat and rubbery, to regular fluffy pancakes.

At some point I had some tasty pancakes on a visit to Austin (I tried Ross's, I would never order pancakes!). I started to rethink my ideas about pancakes. Pancakes became my post-call treat when I was in Maryland. The hospital food was disgusting, but I loved the fluffy, buttery pancakes with jam on them.

I don't make fluffy, buttery pancakes. Instead I make apple-oat-flax pancakes. Healthy, yet not as fluffy and yummy as those cafeteria pancakes I'd come to know and love. My quest is to come up with a good for you pancake that isn't hard, flat, and rubbery.

Step 1: Make a good pancake that might not be so good for you. For this, I called my dad. Seems I take after him--he doesn't measure either. He gave me his pancake recipe and I tried it (with modifications of course) out tonight. Fluffy, yummy. Not as buttery as those ones in the caf--but I know they were just adding water to a mix, so they probably had some kind of imitation butter flavor in them.


The Fluffy Pancake

1 1/4 c all purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder

1 egg
3 Tbl. melted butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c milk
vanilla

1. Warm griddle over medium heat.
2. Whisk together flour and baking powder in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg. Stir in melted butter, salt, milk, and vanilla.
4. Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Do not over mix the ingredients--leave a few lumps.
5. Pour/spoon batter onto griddle. Flip pancake when you see a bunch of bubbles forming.
6. Cook other side for a minute or so.
7. Smear on butter, jam, or syrup if you have to.
8. Eat. Eat. Eat!

Oh--I had oj with my pancakes in an effort to conserve milk.

Milkaholic

Let us start at the beginning. I have always loved milk. By the time I was 12, I was drinking at least half a gallon a day. I think I was the only kid in my class that knew the price of milk. If I had continued on this path I would probably be drinking 2 gallons a day and weigh 300 pounds. Luckily, a doctor intervened and said I should cut back on the amount I was drinking and start drinking two percent milk. The phrase "addicted to the hormones in the milk" has always stuck in my head. The doctor must have said that to my mom. She had taken me to the doctor because of my growth spurt induced knee pain, not my milkaholism (I think he had some speculation that the hormones in the milk were contributing to my growth spurt).

I immediately started drinking two percent milk and slowly cut back on the amount I was drinking. I have pretty much managed to keep my milk consumption under control since then. I know I am still an addict, I can't go a week without milk. On my trip to Las Vegas I packed the little Horizon milk boxes in my luggage so that I could have milk every morning.

Three years ago I completely switched to organic milk. Wow. Quality stuff. I did something I said I'd never do--I started drinking skim milk! I was down to half a gallon (or less!) of skim milk a week for a long time. Recently, things got a little out of control. I got back on the two percent, and was up to a gallon and a half a week. I made all sorts of excuses--the holidays, cookies, cappuccinos, hot chocolate, and hot egg nog. Last week Ross bought a gallon of skim milk, and I finished it off this morning. Oops. That was supposed to last us two weeks. Us--that's my other excuse--I'm not the only one drinking it (but in reality I am the one drinking most of it).

I seriously need to cut back. My goal for next week is to only go through half a gallon.

Austin Indulgences

We went to Austin on Thursday and drove back late last night. On Thursday night I made yellow cake cupcakes and (dark) chocolate frosting. The cupcakes turned out all right, but I was a little disappointed in the frosting. I used 70% cacao chocolate instead of semisweet chocolate and didn't even think about adding extra sugar. Anyway, the frosting wasn't great, but it didn't keep any of us from eating the cupcakes.

On Friday morning Ross went mountain biking with Joey and I went to the gym for a weights class and some cardio. My abs were (still are) very sore from the medicine ball work out I did on Thursday before yoga.

Of course we had Amy's ice cream yesterday. I'm not sure how we managed to eat it after stuffing ourselves full of Indian food. I had Frangelico, Ross had sweet cream with cookie dough on top, and Joey had dark chocolate. We ate so much for lunch that we only had boba and popcorn chicken for dinner. Well, actually, we only had milk tea, no boba.

Joey was nice enough to drive me back to Atomic after we had our milk tea. Justin said the piercing looks good and took a few photos. He said that he will post them on the website soon. I'll check periodically and post a link if I see them. He showed me some bling that I can buy. I was tempted to buy it right away, but I just need to concentrate more on taking care of what I have. I haven't soaked the piercing in a couple of days.

Sweet Tamales

Last week Robert, Tiffany, and Ethan came over for chili. After dinner Ethan and Ross made yellow cake cookies. They all came over again this past Sunday (for Indian food), and Ethan helped me make sweet tamales. I made the plain masa ahead of time and Ethan added and stirred in the rest of the ingredients. Ethan liked the raw masa, but once cooked, he said he didn't like it. I think he was just really tired and would rather play MarioKart than sit down to eat dessert.

When I was little my mom would make these for me with sugar and raisins. She made these tropical sweet tamales a few weeks ago, and I had been wanting to try and make some myself.

Sweet Tamales

masa--this can be bought pre-mixed or as a powder that you mix with water, baking soda, salt, and fat. I have the powder and used pineapple juice from the canned pineapple in place of some of the water, and butter instead of vegetable shortening.
one large can crushed pineapple
shredded coconut
brown sugar
sugar (or snow, as Ethan called it)
cinnamon
nutmeg
allspice
vanilla

corn husks (ojas)
pot
steam rack

You know me, I don't measure. I let Ethan dump/shake/pour in the ingredients and stir the mixture until it tasted good. I added the pineapple in last. I don't think the order matters that much though. Well, here are some more detailed instructions.

1. Drain pineapple. Juice can be used to make masa.

2. If using powder, prepare masa according to directions on package (using 2 c of corn). The masa can be made ahead of time. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until ready to use.

3. Soak ojas in hot or warm water for a few minutes. Separate and clean the husks, leaving them to soak in the water to soften.

4. Add sugar (I think Ethan added about half a cup of brown sugar and one cup of regular), vanilla (2 tsp.) and spices to masa and mix thoroughly.

5. Add shredded coconut and drained pineapple and mix again.

6. Taste the mix and make sure it is yummy--if not add more sugar, and/or spices.

7. Place steam rack into the pot and add some water. My dad says it is best if the boiling water doesn't actually touch the tamales.

7. Stuff, roll, and fold the tamales and pack them into the pot. The last batch of tamales I made with my mom really oozed out the top, so this time I tried to leave some room at the top of each tamale for expansion. This step works best if one person rolls the tamales while a second person alternates between separating the ojas and packing the tamales into the pot. Tiffany was nice enough to help me with this step while Ethan played LEGOs with Uncle Ross.

8. Cover the pot and steam the tamales for about an hour. Check the water periodically and add more when it gets low.

For some more photos check out my other tamales post. Hmmm. I think I'll have a tamale now.

Updates

1. My piercing--it seems to be doing very well. I've been faithfully soaking it every night for 15-20 minutes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

2. Ebay--I sold two items: the soap and a video game. Now we have like 27 dollars more than we had before. I'm not going to call it profit, but it is money that I wouldn't have if I hadn't gotten up off my butt.

3. Waking up in the morning--I got up at least half an hour earlier than I had been getting up, so that is a start.

4. Productivity--I'm doing laundry and have managed to do several things on my to do list today, including clean out the dresser. Now I just need to keep working on the list.

Bingeeee

I have been eating like a mad woman since Christmas eve. The holidays (which were not a legitimate excuse) are over and I need to get back with the program. I have had a lot of late nights, and that has led to a lot of sleeping in and some skipped work outs. I desperately need to get into a routine. Well, a good routine. Currently the routine is to get up late, go to the gym, work out, come home, eat too much, do nothing productive, then stay up late (reading, visiting friends, or playing mariokart). I haven't been drinking my teas or taking my vitamins. I have just been all out lazy for the last two weeks. I am considering going to the No C diet for a week or two to help me get back on track. We'll see.

Third Time's the Charm?

On Wednesday I drove to Dallas to get a new piece of jewelry for my Madison piercing. Eric at Obscurties was a lot nicer (and more professional) than the last guys I dealt with. We decided on an 11/16" flat bar with internal threading. The easiest way to describe it is a flat piece of metal with a 3/32" long internally threaded post on either end. I really wish I had gotten this type of jewelry in the very beginning.

The bar seems to fit okay. The top is perfect of course. The bottom doesn't slip out the bottom hole, but it does seem to stick up. The flat disc doesn't sit right against the skin. I keep trying to push it in. The bar is flat, so I figure if the puncture wound heals around the round post it will be a lot harder for the bar to slip out.

I have been pretty good about cleaning it and soaking it. I want this to work out. I even went to Ulta and bought the pointed Q-tips that Eric suggested. They work better than regular ones at cleaning up under the discs. I have also been sleeping with the ends taped down--now that they are flat it is a lot easier to tape them down.

I'm hoping that the third time will be the charm and I'll be able to keep this piece of jewelry and this piercing forever.