Cornbread. When it’s bad, it’s bad. Dry and flavorless, or too cakey and sweet. But when it’s good.. it is so good.

That said, when I have chili, I always want cornbread. I’m not sure why that is. Maybe it’s like gestalt.

You know, “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts”… like peanut butter and chocolate… Both are good on their own but together they create something much better. Chili and cornbread are like that for me too.

Then again, cornbread and butter are often enough to make me happy…

More buttermilk magic

Biscuits	Pancakes
Whoopie pies	Blackberry grunt
Devil’s food cupcakes	Red velvet cupcakes

Winter has been overstaying its welcome. And I’m tired of it. With a string of day upon day of gray and rainy, I have had it. I wanted a piping hot bowl of comfort.

But not if I have to work for it. Cause you know… I’m lazy.

And somewhere in the midst of that lazy gray mood, we invited some friends over for dinner. Aw man, that means I have to cook something.

Sounds like work to me. Cause you know… I’m lazy.

So I turned to my old buddy, Mr. Crockpot, for help. Actually, I let him to do most of the work.

I opened some cans, cooked a little ground turkey, stirred it up, and 10 minutes later I was curled up on the sofa with Raven watching NCIS reruns.

About half an hour before guests were due to arrive, I peeled myself off of the couch and made cornbread. And voila! We had the perfect dinner for a damp winter day. Thank you, Mr. Crockpot.

You know what’s even better than a hot bowl of chili on a rainy day? A fat slice of cheesecake made by Christine, the founder of fabulous Neococoa truffles.

That chocolate swirl? Oh, it’s just Scharfenberger 70% dark chocolate. Holy yum, Batman!

Now… let’s make some chili!

Gather your ingredients (2 cans each of black beans and kidney beans, 1 can corn, 1 large can of diced tomatoes, 1 large onion, 1 pound of ground turkey).

Dice the onion and brown the ground turkey.

Drain the beans and corn. Put everything into the crockpot.

Beware of the wild animals you may attract at the sound of the can opener.

Add a teaspoon of chili powder. I generally go light on spicy stuff so the kids can eat it, but I do add a little chili powder for flavor. It’s good without too though.

If you love spicy food, feel free to kick it up as many notches as you want with chili powder, cayenne, or adding jalapeños or green chiles.

Mix it all up and put a lid on it.

Set it and forget it (wait, is that trademarked?).

At any rate, set the slow cooker to low and leave it alone for at least 6 hours and up to 10. I generally shoot for 7-8 hours.

Before I tell you about this pie, I first want to thank you all for your support and kind words. The comments on yesterday’s post made me feel warm-and-fuzzy-special which is a nice change from the short-bus-special I normally feel.

I never rode a short bus but I did ride a special bus in high school that took me out of district to the nerd school. Maybe that explains a lot.

Well, anyway… let’s not delve too deeply into my high school world right now. We have pumpkin pie to talk about.

I was obsessed with finding the perfect flaky crust last year. And I found it: use a little lard with your butter to get the bestest crust imaginable. Although, it is a little difficult to find leaf lard so I would understand if you wanted to skip it. I often do. I think if you make a homemade crust with just about any recipe, most people will love you for it.

But this year I decided to try something different. And easier. A cookie crust. A ginger snap cookie crust to be exact. I mean, hello? Ginger snaps and pumpkin… why haven’t I tried this sooner?

By the way, have you tried the triple ginger snaps from Trader Joe’s? They are too good. You cannot eat just one. I dare you to try.

Cookie crusts are almost too easy. Sure, you can buy them ready made, but why would you? I mean, imagine the possibilities. Any crisp cookie would do. You could even add in chopped nuts. (I secretly wonder if I could use Oreos. I mean the cream filling would just melt away, right? Or would it? Inquiring minds want to know. Well, I want to know anyway).

And another thing, while we are talking pumpkin pie… you make your own whipped cream, right? I mean, I don’t want to get all bossy about it, but if you don’t, you really should. And if you do, try giving it a kick with your favorite liquor. I added a splash of bourbon to use with this pie and it was insanely fantastically delicious.

I wonder if a splash of Grand Marnier would give whipped cream a creamsicle flavor?

Pumpkin Pie

adapted from Joy of Cooking and How to Cook Everything

Using a cookie crust gives this pie less depth than a regular flaky crust (since you can build up the edge of the flaky crust above the pie pan), so I found that the following recipe actually makes enough filling for 2 pies if you are using cookie crusts. My guess is that you might have leftover filling anyway with a flaky crust but just a little… unless of course you are using a deep dish pie pan.

* I reduced the sugar in the recipe by about 1/4 cup. If you prefer your pie sweeter, add an additional 1/4 cup of granulated sugar.

1 9-inch cookie crust (recipe follows)
2 cups pumpkin purée, fresh or canned
3 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 teaspoons pumpkin spice* (I used 2 teaspoons but think I would increase it next time because I like a little more spice)
2 cups half-n-half or whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Beat eggs and sugar. Add spices and salt.
3. Stir in the pumpkin and then the milk.
4. Pour this into your prepared crust(s)
5. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the custard is mostly set (the center may still be a little jiggly but the rest should be set).

* If you don’t have pumpkin spice, use:
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves

Ginger snap cookie crust

adapted from Everyday Food, November 2010

I omitted the sugar in the crust as well because I thought the cookies had enough sugar already. We didn’t miss the extra sugar.

1 1/2 cups cookie crumbs (6 ounces or about 30-40 cookies)
optional – 3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Crush the cookies into crumbs: Either in a food processor or place cookies in a zip top bag and mash them with a rolling pin or frying pan.
3. In a bowl, stir together the cookie crumbs and salt. Add the melted butter, stirring until well-distributed throughout the cookie crumbs.
4. Press the crumb-butter mixture into your pie pan. (I found pressing around the rim first and then into the center worked best for me)
5. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the crust is dry and set.
6. Fill and enjoy

So, let’s say hypothetically that you went to a party on Friday night and had a smidge too much champagne.  Maybe you woke up Saturday morning with a tiny headache and a slightly delicate stomach. Not a hangover, goodness no, nothing like that, you know better than that.  You just woke up feeling a little off. What would you eat for breakfast?

Not that I really know what that’s like. But if theoretically I drank a little too much of the bubbly and needed to feel better fast, I would first drink a lot of water or something with electrolytes. Then I would want something comforting like pizza, pancakes, or maybe mac n cheese. But first thing in the morning? I’d probably reach for what we call around here a holey egg sandwich. You might know it as a birdie in the nest, egg in the basket, one-eyed Jack, or one of several other names.

Not that I ever need a hangover remedy, but here is one of my favorites:

Holey Egg Sandwich

First, choose your weapon. I use a biscuit cutter but if you don’t have one, a shot glass will work nicely.

You’ll need a slice of bread. Whatever you have around.

A little butter will cure what ails you (don’t worry we’re not using the whole stick).  Make sure it’s room temperature and spreadable.

One egg.

Butter both sides of the bread and using your biscuit cutter or shot glass, cut a whole in the middle of the slice.  My least favorite part of this whole process is that the bread will stick to whatever surface you put it on once both sides are buttered.  I know, it’s not really that bad but I still don’t like it.

Put your bread and the little hole you cut out into a hot pan (heat it on medium).

Crack the egg into the center of the hole.

Salt and pepper to taste.

When the bottom side is brown, flip it (about 2 minutes).

I am not so great at the flipping especially first thing in the morning. Cook until the egg is done to your liking (about 2 minutes if you like the yolk runny, more if you don’t).

Dig in.

My favorite part is dipping the little crispy bit into the egg yolk

Yum.

P.S. This is also a hit with kids (not the hangover part, just the holey egg sandwich).

Hi. How are you? Good I hope… By now I’m sure you’ve noticed I’ve been taking a bit of break. It wasn’t entirely planned but between birthdays and Valentine’s, and snow trips and Wicked, I’ve been eating out a lot the last couple of weeks and not cooking. But I’m back now and I made you pancakes.

I grew up eating pancakes from mixes. You know: Bisquick, Aunt Jemima, Hungry Jack. And in my adult life I moved on to the fancier mixes like Bob’s Mill and such. All of these make fine pancakes but I wanted to have more control over the outcome so I started playing with pancake recipes about a year ago. And after eating a lot of pancakes, I think I’ve found the best one. I stumbled upon Bette’s Buttermilk pancakes about six months ago and have tested it many times, adjusting a few things here and there along the way. And by-gum, these are darn good pancakes.

The baking powder, baking soda, and buttermilk come together in a chemical reaction that give these pancakes major lift. So much lift, in fact, that the batter gets fluffy after sitting for a few minutes (I’m talking big air bubbles here).

Buttermilk Pancakes

(adapted from Bette’s Buttermilk Pancakes)

The trouble I have with most recipes is that they make too many pancakes for 1-2 people which is the number of people I feed most often. So I put my math skills to use and cut everything in half, so if you want more pancakes just double it all.

The original recipe includes melted butter in the batter but I’ve found they are just as good without it (and I feel less guilty about slathering them with butter pre-syrup).

My favorite way to make these is with blueberries sprinkled over each pancake as they cook on the first side, but raspberries or a little cinnamon sugar is also nice. Or try chocolate chips if you’re feeling a little naughty.

Makes about 12 pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk, whole or 2 percent
(optional) choice of berries, chocolate chips, bananas, or other nuts.

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
2. In a small bowl, beat together the milks and egg.
3. Just before you’re ready to make the pancakes, add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once. Stir just until the dry ingredients are mixed in, the batter will be slightly lumpy.
4. If you are using berries or nuts (or chocolate chips), mix them in now or sprinkle on top of each pancake in the skillet (I usually use the sprinkle method because I don’t like my batter to turn blue from the blueberries even though I know it doesn’t affect the flavor, I’m just a little particular. Plus this means I can make sure each pancake has the right number of berries… er, nevermind).
5. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or heavy skillet to medium-high (I cook them on medium but my stove runs a little hot so you may want to experiment to find the right temperature for your stove).
6. Spoon 1/8 to 1/4 cup of batter onto the hot skillet. When bubbles appeear on the surface and the underside is lightly browned, flip it and cook another 2 minutes.
7. Serve immediately or keep warm in a 200 degree oven (or on “warm” if your oven has it).

Notes

• If you have leftovers, lay them in a single layer on a baking sheet and put it into the freezer. When frozen, transfer to a zip top bag and keep frozen. Then when you’re having a pancake emergency, take one out and toast it. Crisis averted.
• I use a regular spoon to scoop the batter (you know in a silverware set, there is the smaller teaspoon and larger (soup?) spoon. I use the latter). The batter is fluffy so the scoop probably is about double the volume of the spoon but it still makes smaller pancakes which I find easier to flip and let’s face it, pancakes are better in stacks and the smaller the pancake the bigger the stack.