Taking a Break

If you've been following a while, you've probably noticed that some of my posts lately have been empty. That's because blogging takes a lot more time than I have some days. With that said, I'm going to try to do an amended version of NaNoWriMo for the first time ever this year (that's National Novel Writing Month, for those of you unfamiliar). During the challenge, you try to write an entire novel in a month. Sooo, I will be extra busy, and am  not planning on having any time to blog. I'm going to *try* to start back up in December, but you never know. At some point, though, I will be back with Fannie. So do not despair, I will still be trying out recipes and giving a verdict...but I'm not sure when.

For now, this has been a long and taxing process (the blogging, not the cooking), so I'm taking a little break to work on a shelved novel. I will still be cooking and hopefully keeping track so I can post about them sometime later.

Have a happy November and enjoy NaNo if you're participating!

What I've Learned about Cooking (so far)

So, I've been doing this blog for three months now, and today I'm doing my first non-recipe post.

After three months of experimentations, trials and some errors, there's a few things I've learned. First of all, I cook seasonally. And there's not a cookbook out there that can give me enough recipes for all the vegetables I grew. I can make every cabbage recipe in any cookbook, and I'll still have more cabbage than can be cooked. So at times you have to go off the cookbook and go on Pinterest.

Second of all, cooking takes a lot of time....and even more dishes. I may have never noticed this if I had a dishwasher, but since we don't have a dishwasher in our new place, believe me, it's hard not to notice. Especially when the sink is piled so high with dishes I'm in fear of an avalanche. Cooking takes a lot of time, and then you have to do dishes, and that takes about twice as long as the cooking. I end up spending a lot more time in the kitchen than I ever thought I would, not being the Holly Housewife type.

And lastly, if cooking takes a lot of time, blogging takes a LOT of time. My husband doesn't have a problem with my cooking, but the time I spend blogging has been an issue of several occasions. But, the whole thing kind of went hand-in-hand. So it's new recipes and blogs, or it's tuna sandwiches. I can't really believe I've stuck with it this long, but here it is, 3 months later, and I haven't missed a single day. Of course, sometimes I make two or three recipes in one day, and that way I can skip a day here and there. But I've yet to skip a blog. So here's to nine more months.

Happy Cooking everyone!

Buttermilk Pancakes

These come with a whole buttermilk story. But that's a story for another day.

Anyhoo, to make the cream cheese, I bought buttermilk culture. I made the buttermilk, which made a quart. The cheese took 2 tbsp. of it. Then I had a whole quart (minus 2 tbsp) of buttermilk left over! So, I made buttermilk pancakes, which is the only recipe I could think of that used buttermilk, since my mom used to make them when I was a kid. I wanted to share the memory with my son, and since he loves any and all pancakes, it was a good chance to make them.

Hence, buttermilk pancakes.

For these, I used:
3/4 c. buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 c. white flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda

• Beat milk & eggs in a bowl. 
• Mix flour and baking soda and add to milk mixture.
• Mix until just moistened.
• Butter a cast iron skillet and heat.
• Pour batter into pan in pan in the size you want for pancakes.
• Cook until just set around edges and flip quickly, browning on each side.

 When I was a kid, I remember these having a very distinctive taste, almost like sourdough bread. But now, they just tasted like regular pancakes but a little more tender. I usually use yogurt along with the milk, so maybe that's why these weren't much different. They were good though, and everyone ate them up without a complaint.

A basic pancake recipe, but a good one.

Hamburgers

I know what you're probably thinking--there's no way you made that delicious hamburger in the picture. And you're right. But I DID make hamburgers for dinner last night, and I did forget to take pictures of them, so I'm just posting a mouth-watering picture of a burger I got at this little diner across from the local gas station. They are as delicious as Fannie's for sure.

Fannie Farmer doesn't have much of a recipe for burgers. She doesn't have those fancy stuffed burgers that are all the rage lately. She doesn't even fancy them up like I do with bread crumbs and eggs and onions and all that fun stuff.

Fannie's recipe goes like this:
1 lb ground beef
butter for frying
salt & pepper

Just barely mix the salt and pepper. Do not handle the meat more than necessary or it gets tough and dry.

Shape the meat into patties and fry in butter 3-4 minutes per side.

I like my burgers a bit rare (my husband was scared to eat them without further cooking), so I probably cooked them less than that. I'd never fried hamburgers in butter before, so that was new. And I've never made them so plain. But, with tomatoes I had picked literally 20 minutes ago, how could they go wrong?

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but some days, I'm lucky I managed to make anything at all. Days like this, when I work all day, take my son to Tae Kwon Do, drive an hour to get home, work in the garden, unload the clean dishes, wash the dirty dishes, and THEN start dinner, well, remembering my camera just isn't going to happen. Lucky for me, everyone in my house likes burgers, so they didn't mind that they weren't fancied up. So, this 'recipe' is for a busy week night dinner. Can't get much more simple than this.