Buckwheat Pancakes

I just did a search for how many posts I have written since the inception of this blog with the word "pancake". I have only written about my love of the pancake 10 times. (NOTE: I've written about poop 27 times.) We are in the process of getting our priorities straight here at Allbeehive, and we need to bump up our Pancake talk, because with the onset of FALL comes my desire to be in the kitchen sipping coffee and baking EVERY week-end.

This Saturday, I finally cracked open my new Buckwheat Flour that I purchased at the Littleton Grist Mill in New Hampshire. For those of you who don't know what Buckwheat is, here is a lovely definition from the Grist Mill website: Our organic, stone-ground buckwheat, from U.S. buckwheat berries, has a nut-like and robust flavor. Buckwheat is gluten and wheat-free. It is the fruit of a plant rather than a grain so is suitable for those with wheat allergies. The picture above shows the back of the building with the wheel that powered the original Grist Mill.


This recipe is an adaptation of Cynthia's Grandmother Ginny's Pancake recipe that I have been using for 10+ years. Note that I need to write my name on the Baking Soda box or else it will wind up dumped on a carpet, used to clean the bathroom, or stolen from my baking cabinet. It used to say "NOT YOURS DG", but since we got married I've calmed down a bit.

Buckwheat Pancakes Ingredients
3/4C Whole Wheat Flour
3/4C Buckwheat Flour
1tsp Baking Soda
1tsp Salt
1tsp Cinnamon
3TBL Sugar
2TBL Cooled Coffee
3 eggs
1 2/3C Buttermilk (or whatever milk you have on hand)
3TBL melted butter

Mix together the flours, soda, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar, eggs, coffee, and milk. Mix the wet and dry, fold in the butter. Cook over medium heat until bubbly, then flip and serve with real maple syrup.

It appears that I'm not the only one in this house who likes pancakes.

How to Make a Watermelon Stroller

Step One: When your best friend gets knocked up, throw her a baby shower.

Step Two: Buy a nice large watermelon.

Step Three: Draw your pattern on the watermelon putting a handle on one end and a scalloped bassinette overhang on the other.

Step Four: Using a sharp serrated knife, cut out the top portion.

Step Five: Using a melon baller, (I've always wanted to use this word in a blog post) scoop out some nice round balls of watermelon. When you have enough for some fruit salad, you can use a large spoon to scoop out the rest.

Step Six: Mix the watermelon with balled cantaloup and red and green grapes. Add back into the stroller.

Step Seven: Add the wheels by inserting two wooden skewers through the watermelon at each end. Attach some sliced oranges for wheels and grapes for hubcaps.

A little cheesy? Yes, but a big hit as well. You can also watch this great video demonstration.

Lora and I hosted a couples baby shower last night for our BFF Holly. We had quite a tasty little spread of food. Lora made some Morroccan chicken the likes of which we are still drooling over. I plan on making it my new favorite dish. I might have to make it weekly. But until I get the recipe, you will have to settle for balled fruit salad. There I was able to use a variation of the word balls at least 5 times in this entry. I am satisfied. You can go now.

2 Year Anniversary

Aunt Jinnie came over to baby sit so that David and I could get gussied up and go out to dinner in celebration of our TWO marital years together. Last year, we celebrated Paper, this year, Cotton.


David made reservations at an amazing restaurant where we have always wanted to eat, Highland's Garden. It's an old house in the middle of a great neighborhood that creates a lush and inviting setting with it's greenery. There was a special table set for us on the side porch, as seen above.


For the first course, we split the Pear, Sherried Walnuts and Saga Bleu Cheese Salad. This is 1/2 of the salad! So much food. All pictures were taken on David's iPhone, but apparently my hand was a titch shaky. It could have been because after 2 sips of my Colorado Riesling, I was a tres loopy.


For the first course, I had the Blackened Sea Bass on a sauté of shrimp, corn, okra, and tomato sauce. This was my second choice, as earlier in the day, when I had previewed the menu, I had chosen the Soy Glazed Tuna. Alas, they had already sold out of it.


David had the Mini Ribs with zucchini, onion, potatoes and feta.


For a sweet ending, we ordered the strawberry rhubarb crisp, and I had a French Sautern which is a lovely cool dessert wine that I highly recommend.

The box on the table above held my cotton gifts to David from our new favorite store Martin and Osa. Finally a clothing store that markets to me. We had a great time out together, getting to enjoy eachother's company.

Making Your Own Baby Food

"Have you seen the Super Baby Food cookbook?", I asked DG yesterday. "I can't find it anywhere." "Oh yeah, I've seen it", he says. "It's in the bathroom." You heard it here ladies and gentlemen, good enough to be toilet reading.

I'm pretty excited about all the baby food I've been making. The colorful cubes are so pretty that I had to line them up for a photo op. From left to right there is sweet potato, squash, peas, oatmeal, summer squash, green beans and prunes. I've stopped feeding her carrots, bananas and rice as those are apparently constipating. But these are so easy to make I'm not sure why anyone would buy baby food. Though I definitely have a few jars on hand for traveling. But even when we were on the go all week-end, I'd pop a few cubes in a small tupperware or empty baby jar and off we would go.

To make any of the food, first you steam or microwave the veggies for a few minutes, then you blend them up adding water to get to the consistency you desire. I love using my magic bullet because it is small and just the perfect size. I fill the ice cube trays and freeze them overnight and then pop them into baggies the next day.

Hadley is now eating three meals a day. In the mornings she will usually eat oatmeal or pearled barley (blend 1/4C dry in the blender until a powder consistency and then cook with 1C water for 10 minutes). I mix this with pears, mangos, plums or prunes. At noon she will have asparagus, green beans or peas, and then for dinner her favorite sweet potatoes or summer squash. Though as always she will keep her mouth shut and let the food touch her lip to taste it before she decides if it is something that she has pre-approved.

Moosewood Cookbook Farmer's Market Gazpacho

I've posted recipes before from, The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen (my favorite). But all it would take is one look at my book's tattered corners and food-splattered pages and you would be able to scratch and taste the love. I really need to move on and spread the love to some of my other cookbooks, but I just can't manage to break the ties. I always come back for more.

So I am very excited to be a part of Jemangelaville's week-end cookbook challenge in which the only rules are to make a recipe out of a cookbook made with ingredients that you purchased from a Farmer's Market. I thought about branching out and making the Chilled Cucumber Yogurt Soup or even the Cream of Summer Green Soup. But I have issues with change, so am sticking with the tried and true. I love making this soup at least once a summer. You may even call it a summer tradition.

I go to the farmer's market every weekend. You should try to find one near you too. They make me feel 1) social 2) good for supporting local farms and businesses and 3) green because I bring my own bags. Last Saturday morning, I packed up the family and headed to the Cherry Creek Farmer's Market, narrowly making it with 15 minutes to spare. This is the best time to go as the crowds have died down and vendors are more willing to cut you a better deal on the veggies. Wasting no time, I ran through grabbing all the ingredients needed for Gazpacho.

Everything pictured here totalled $17! A total steal. The only items I won't be using in the recipe are the broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, and green beans which are for Hadley. But that is another cookbook and another post that requires steaming, ice cube trays, and the magic bullet.

Here are the ingredients:
4C cold tomato juice
1 small well-minced onion
2C fresh diced tomatoes
1C minced green pepper
1 tsp honey
1 clove crushed garlic
1 diced cucumber
2 scallions, chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon and 1 lime
2 TBL wine vinegar
1 tsp each tarragon and basil
dash of ground cumin
1/4C fresh chopped parsley
dash of tabasco sauce
2 TBL olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Now here's the best part, are you ready? Combine all ingredients. No seriously that's it. Then you throw it in the fridge and let it chill for two hours while you go watch the new Batman movie, or mow your lawn or something.

Ok, since I'm not ready to let you go yet, here's a few little tricks that I like to do. First, I take the seeds out of the cucumber with a grapefruit spoon.

This is not necessary and I usually don't do it. But I had some extra time today so why not.

Next, depending on how lazy you are, there are several ways to mince/dice the ingredients. If you are a super fast fancy chef-like chopper with a good knife, then good for you. Give yourself a pat on the back, but make sure you take that knife out of your hand first!

But if you are like me, you need to whip this up fast because you are so hungry you're about to start dipping into that ciabatta bread you bought, and ruin your dinner. So your other choice is to use a Cuisinart. Just toss the whole kit-and-caboodle in there and don't stop until it's all minced, because this soup can be pureed as well. Me, I chose the middle option, my Pampered Chef chopper. This is a speedy way to get the mince/dice I want without having to clean the whole Cuisinart.

On another green note, make sure you take all your scraps out to the compost pile.


But that's it, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and serve as a first course of a light summer meal or pair it with other things.


It's really good with a slice of crusty bread. I bought ciabatta at the farmer's market for $1. I paired it with shrimp cocktail because it's Saturday and my fridge was empty for the week, but I had pre-cooked shrimp in the freezer. Voila, a perfectly cool ending for a 98 degree day.

Peaches? Not so much.

In case you were wondering whether or not Hadley is 100% angel baby, here's some proof of her being little miss finicky. We've been experimenting with lots of different homemade foods. When she loves something, she opens her mouth and gobbles down the whole portion. However, when she does not like something, (take for instance these peaches) upon the first mouthful she gags, acting as if I was trying to feed her liver and onions. Then she will purse her little lips together and clamp them shut. Not even the chuga chuga choo choo train will get her to open up.

GOBBLES DOWN: sweet potato, carrots, peas, green beans, rice cereal, pears
GAGS: avocado, banana, peaches, prunes

This week we are moving on to super porridge (oatmeal) and squash. She's got to love oatmeal, I ate it almost every day when I was pregnant.

The New Improved Me

DG took this photo at 11:15pm last night in the bathroom when I was getting ready for bed. Even though you guys were no help at all, I got a new shorter cut for the summer with some lighter highlights including a honey, blonde, and an auburn tint. (Sometimes a girl just has to try and feel pretty.) Hard to see the lovely colors in the bad bathroom light. DG got his haircut too, and our hairstylist at Grand, Jessica, lives near us and gave me a ride home after so I didn't have to take the light rail. Now that's service!

I proceeded to go out and strut my stuff at nine 75 to celebrate Meaux's big old 40th birthday! It was great seeing all of my old friends, who mostly now have kids. Three of us have babies just 2 months apart.

We had goat cheese ravioli, won ton tuna tacos, chipotle lobster tacos, and flash seared yellowtail sashimi to start. Then I had the shrimp and scallop risotto. I highly recommend this fun restaurant. Now I just need to go try and make it around the park again today though I'm still a little sore from earlier this week.

Pesto Lasagna

Working with what you have.

Often times, rather than have a set menu for the week, I buy the usual suspects at the grocery store and each night, I open the refrigerator door and take a peek in to see what I can rustle up for dinner.

On Sunday after our party, I had leftover pesto, ricotta, parmesan, mozzerella, and sauce. I also knew that I had several types of lasagna noodles in the pasta drawer that moved in with the dawn of DG. So what does this spell? Lasagna! Which is something I haven't made in about 10 years. It was the last meal I ate before I got the flu it's taken me 10 years to get over it. But I digress.

I did not do anything real fancy, and actually just followed the instructions on the side box of no cook noodles. Oh crap, does this fall under Sandra Lee's semi-homeade?

15oz ricotta
2 eggs
1/2C pesto (3C basil, 3cl garlic, 1/4C pine nuts, 1/2C olive oil, 3/4C grated parmesan, 1/2tsp salt) oooh, a recipe within a recipe
1/4C Parmesan
3C Mozzarella
1 jar sauce
1 box no cook noodles

Mix the ricotta, eggs, 1 1/2C mozzarella, and pesto. I only had 7oz of ricotta which I had premixed with garlic, basil and oregano for the pizza I made. Since I didn't have the full 15oz, I substituted some non-fat cottage cheese which worked just fine.

Spray a 13 x 9 baking pan and pour 1C sauce in the bottom. Add the first layer of 4 noodles. Then add 1/3 of the ricotta mixture and another cup of sauce. Repeat 4 times until the last layer is noodles. Top with the remaining parmesan and mozarella. Bake for 50-60 minutes at 375.

I cut this up into 12 servings and froze half of it for later this winter when the fridge is completely empty except for limp celery and condiments.

Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast

Here's another example of something that I would never make, if I were not pregnant.

This recipe came to me during a midnight snacking frenzy on Friday. I had gone 6 hours without eating and I needed a quick snack for Baby G before going to bed. So I took a small slice of bread from a leftover baguette and put a teaspoon of peanut butter on it to tide me over. As I was standing in the kitchen, by myself, guiltily eating the bread, I knew what I was making for breakfast in the morning.

Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast

Ingredients
1/2 french baguette
Organic Peanut Butter
Bonne Maman Strawberry Preserves
4 eggs
3/4C skim milk
1TBL sugar
1tsp. vanilla
1tsp. cinnamon
dash of salt together
1-2 TBL each butter and vegetable oil

Slice the baquette in the morning and make 3-4 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Mix together the rest of the ingredients. Let each sandwich soak in the egg mixture for a couple of minutes on each side. Cook up on the stove in a combination of butter and vegetable oil until golden brown.



Serve with real maple syrup, NOT Mrs. Butterworths. Shame on your for even thinking of it.

Last Week's Menus

I noticed in my lastest email installment of Martha Stewart Food, they had a lovely little side panel with a list of fresh healthy meals to make for a week. I'm all about the 5 minute meal (aka Rachel Ray) and I'm reading "The French Don't Diet Plan". Lesson number 1 is DON'T eat fake foods! The grocery store is full of packaged dinners and boxed mixes of human made chemicals created to simulate real food. It started in the 60s with the American LifeStyle of needing it hot, fast and now. We were fooled into thinking that Cool Whip was a fast and easy treat. But it is just chemicals we are putting in our bodies. Take High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) for instance. This was processed in the 60's to simulate sugar. But your body doesn't recognize it as a sugar, and your body has to process it through the liver with the rest of the toxins. HFCS is hard to get away from as it is in everything because it is cheaper for manufacturers to use than sugar. It's in most cereals, snacks, and even ketchup!

Normally we eat pretty close to the food chain, but even this one gets into our diet. I am going to try and be better about not buying anything with HFCS in it anymore.

Here's a sampling of our own quick and easy menus of what we ate last week for dinner:

Tuesday
Skillet chicken
Stuffed Acorn Squash (from The Moosewood)

Wednesday
Baked Salmon with lemon and dill
Roasted Asparagus
1/2 Baked Sweet Potato

Thursday
Homemade Turkey Meatballs (from the Body for Life cookbook)
Tomato Sauce (organic fat free)
Angel Hair Pasta (1 portion only!)

Sunday Special Birthday Dinner
Seared Ahi with Cilantro Dipping Sauce
Cucumber Salad
Udon Noodles with peanut sauce (Sauce recipe from The Enchanted Broccoli Forrest)
Individual Chocolate Truffle Cakes

Table for One

Friday night, after eating sushi, DG and I found ourselves with nothing to do. So we stopped at Cost Plus World Market to roam the aisles in search of things we do not need. This is a fun store with a myriad of ethnic food offerings and home decor. While there, I found this great mini pasta filled with pesto and artichoke sauce. Both are from Italy. I decided it would be a tasty and easy dinner for us (i.e. no slaving over a hot oven). I called up Cyn and asked the family over for dinner and began planning my meal.

I got up early on Sunday and made 2 loaves of my mom's French Bread. Wow, it is eat the whole loaf good. Then I got the phone call that due to sick children they would not be coming over. Later in the afternoon, DG came down with a case of the hurls and stayed in bed.

This did not deter me from eating my meal, so I made it anyway. It was as good as I had hoped and that pasta sauce is some of the best jarred sauce I have ever had. Goodbye Prego.

The Jordan Almonds Are All Mine

As a rule, I don't buy cookies, candy, or chips because I don't want the lure of having them in the house when I am hungry. I mean really, when I need a quick snack to fill that pit in my stomach and all I have is an apple and a moldy orange, I'm going to eat the apple. Yay me. It's the small steps.

But I do have a snack drawer. I'm not sure if DG even knows that it exists. Right now, in the snack drawer, there is half a bag of walnuts, dried cranberries, 2 Odwalla bars, one dark chocolate ghiradelli bar, some yellow corn for air popping and a few sugary pieces of broken Jordan almonds.

Yes Jordan almonds. When DG and I were planning the wedding, we would take trips to Michael's in search of DIY inspiration. One day, DG spotted a bag of Jordan Almonds, a traditional wedding favor and he threw it in our cart. Hence began our love of the Jordan Almond. That first day, we almost devoured the entire bag on our drive home.

This past week-end, while at Michael's getting knitting supplies, DG snuck in a bag. During the ride home, I tried to limit us to 9, the stated serving size. All this aided in doing was save the entire bag for me to eat by myself now that DG is gone. I can't stop eating them. DG nothing, me 3lbs.

European Cookiegasm

When David and I were on our cruise, the ship hosted a European pastry bar every afternoon from 3:00-5:00pm. We would go down, drink coffee, play cards, listen to a piano player and eat these amazing cookies. I wouldn't touch any other pastry on the bar except for these small hamburger like cookies that melted in your mouth. Thoughts of these tasty morsels made me get up from my post lunch food coma and drag myself down every afternoon. I would be eating my 5 course meal at night, and only be thinking about how long it would be before I would be eating these cookies again. Alas, the cruise was over, and I never found out what they were called. Until, mais oui, I was staying chez Paris in Las Vegas and the pastry shop in the hotel carried them. How giddy was I? Tres giddy! And as if I wasn't losing enough $$$ at the BJ table, I had to go spend $25 *gulp*, yes, $25 for this box of cookies. I suspect that they cost so much because they came directly from this cafe Lenotre in Paris. The plane ride alone for those sweets was probably $20, not including the peanuts. It was so worth it!

Gobble gobble gone

Before


We ate so much that dinner was not an option, though the cook drank her way through dinner after the work of cooking for two days.

After


Notice in the after who has licked the plate clean (DG and CAG) and who has not. Hmmm.

Cage free, hormone free, hopefully not taste free

Slept in to the late hour of 8:30am, rolled out of bed, into clothes on the floor and out the door to the supermarket. It was tank top day here as it was v. warm outside. Had a great day with the dogs listening to music and cooking. Here is tomorrow's menu:
Appetizers at 1:00pm
Flat Bread Crackers
White Bean dip
Saint Albray Cheese - from the Aquitaine region of France. It is soft and creamy like Camembert.
Wenslydale Cheese with Cranberries - Harder young white cheese from England.
Cranberry Orange Martini's

Dinner at 2:00pm
11lb cage free, hormone free, vegetarian fed turkey, brining as I type
Cheesy potatoes au gratin
Gravy
Cranberry Pecan Dressing
Lemon herb biscuits
Cranberry Orange Relish
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Pecan Pie

Jinnie (SIL) is also bringing several sides (green beans and sweet potatoes) and wine. It will be a feast.

The relish and bean dip are done, and I am making stock with the giblets for my gravy tomorrow. Later tonight I'm moving on to pies. Cooking can be fun when it is done ahead of time. Check back with me tomorrow at 12:45 though!

Dieting 101

Eat less food.

Between cake night and 2 weeks of honeymooning, I gained a few extra pounds after the wedding. Now 4 lbs. is not a lot, however try picking up a 5lb. bag of sugar and imagine carrying that extra weight on your body all day. I also have a propensity to gain 10-20lbs during the winter because I hibernate and I am less active. And while I am stuck in the house, I like to bake cookies, cakes, and trays of brownies. All in all, I am trying to end the trend.

Now there are 2 thoughts on weight loss. There is the Weight Watchers, eat right, count your points, and lose the weight slowly over time, and then there is Slim 4 Life, eat less now, and lose it faster. I myself prefer the fast results so a week and a half ago I went back to my Slim 4 Life diet. Day 1-3 gets your body ready for losing weight fast.

The Diet for days 1-3 consists of:
2 eggs
1 orange
unlimited lean meat (chicken, fish, white meat turkey, red meat)
unlimited raw green vegetables
2 TBL fat free salad dressing
2 C coffee
morton lite salt

Doesn't sound like a lot of food does it? Well it is not, but doing it this time was much easier than doing it the first time, because my stomach has shrunk from a year ago. I think I went through 3 green peppers and an entire stalk of celery. The hardest part is that your body goes through carb withdrawal.

After that, I began the regulatory diet consisting each day of:
2 lean meats
2 vegetables
2 fruits
2 carbs
2 TBL fat free salad dressing
2 Slim 4 Life Supplement (I like their energy bars, pretzels, and hot chocolate)

No dairy, fat, oil, butter, or condiments. There is a list of everything I am allowed to each for each of the above. For example, carbs consist of 1 slice of diet bread, 2 akmak crackers, 1/2 small potato, or a salt free rice cake. Likewise fruit portions are 10 green grapes, 3/4 C pineapple, 1 small apple etc.

Well let's just say that I've lost 5lbs. in 11 days and my pants better. woo hoo, my stomach is flat again.