Pancakes

A friend of mine was searching for tips to make good pancakes on Facebook last week. I sent her my tips and links for my pancake recipes when I realised that I have never posted my basic pancake recipe on here. How could that be? I'm always making pancakes. So here's my recipe, it comes from Betty Crocker's Red Cookbook (adapted a little).

1 large egg
1 cup all purpose or whole wheat flour (I almost always use whole wheat)
3/4 cup milk (I usually up this to a full cup of milk, it depends how thin or thick you like your pancakes)
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp veg. oil
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
(not called for but I usually add a tsp of vanilla extract too)

Beat egg until fluffy. Add rest of remaining ingredients and mix with a whisk (don't over mix). Heat griddle or pan over low-medium heat (or 375* on griddle). Grease with non-stick spray or margarine/butter. For each pancake pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the heated pan. Cook until they are bubbly on top, then flip to cook the other side. Serve with margarine/butter and syrup.

Calling All Cooks - A Challenge!

Hi everyone! Some of you know that we are expecting baby #3 in a month. I'm starting to make ahead freezer meals so I don't have to cook much during that first month of newborn life. I've already got a chicken corn chowder done and plans for a lasagna. I'm looking for great family freezer recipes to add into my deep freeze over the next month - any links that you have on your blogs would be so appreciated by me in my comments section! Thank you ahead of time :o) Cheers!

Nanaimo Bars

These are my very favorite treats, anytime of the year. I don't make them often because you can imagine how much weight I'd gain if they were always around the house. So I make them at Christmastime and just one batch. Someone once commented to me that of course I like these because I'm from BC. Are these a BC treat? I don't know? I've seen them other places. Anyone know?

1/2 C butter (soft)
5 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 C graham wafer crumbs
1 C coconut
1/2 C chopped walnuts
4 tbsp butter
3 tbsp milk
2 1/2 tbsp vanilla custard powder
2 C icing sugar
4 squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted
1 tbsp butter

Place 1st 5 ingredients into a glass bowl. Set bowl in a pan of hot water. Stir until butter is melted. Mix in next 3 ingredients.
Pack into an ungreased 9x9 pan.
Combine next 4 ingredients - cream together. Spread over mixture in pan. Chill.
Melt chocolate and butter. Spread over top of the other layers. Chill.
I usually freeze this all at this point and then cut once everything is set.

*edit - what doesn't wikipedia know? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanaimo_bars They are a very Canadian, very BC dessert

The Best Shortbread

So I'm really, really behind on my blog posting. Yes, this was a pre-Christmas recipe that just didn't make it (I don't think I posted in December at all!) But the recipe is too good not to share and I have the pictures now anyway, so the next few days will have some treats posted in them.
This recipe was passed down from my mom who got it from her Uncle Eddie's neighbours, some nuns in Saskatchewan from long ago. The base recipe is good on its own. I change it up by adding some dried cranberries to it. My mom told me this year she dipped half of each of her cookies into chocolate which was delicious too. Here's the base recipe:

1 lb butter
1/2 C cornstarch
3 C flour
1 C icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Cream together butter and sugar. Add flour, cornstarch and vanilla. Beat together. Form dough into a log and slice 1/4 inch thick for each cookie. Bake at 300* for 12 minutes.

Lobster Night in the Maritimes - what a way to say goodbye!

This isn't as much of a how to cook lobster as much as a very fitting way to say goodbye to the place I've called home for the past 7 years. We recently moved out of the Maritimes into the big bad city for the next year while my husband works on his Master's degree and I take maternity leave (baby's due next month). One of the last things we did was have a seafood night with some wonderful friends of ours. We picked up the oysters, they picked up the lobsters! (The guys also did some oyster shots with lemon and seafood sauce - not my thing, but they like it)
If you haven't heard about the plight of the local lobster fishermen, CBC ran a great story on it as many, many people decided to get their Christmas lobster right off the wharf this year. You can read about it here.
And eat lobster we did! I've never seen lobsters the size of these ones before. Oh they were so delicious.
We let the kids see them and play with them on the kitchen floor for a while first. I did get some lovely pictures of that, but part of my new blogging policy is to be very vigilant on the pictures I post of my kids and their friends for privacy and safety purposes.
Our friend Larry got this huge pot of water going to a roaring boil on the deck, while his wife Luan and I made melted garlic butter on the kitchen stove.
Once the water is going, you just drop them in and cook them until their shells turn nice and red.
Getting into the shells was another story. These were not your average crack the lobster open with lobster tools. We had to get some serious tools out to crack these claws and tails open.
The meat was delicious dipped in the garlic butter and so filling! We had so much meat left over. I don't know what our friends did with theirs, but I ended up making mine into a manicotti that I'll post soon.

My dear husband with the lobster before cooking.


Ready for eating now!

Roast Beef Dinner and Updates

Happy end of November everyone! I had a nice little message from Ingrid of 3 B's today asking how things were going, so I thought it was time to update a little. Truth be told, I look back at November and think, once! That's it? I posted only one recipe? How is that possible?
Well, then I started to think about November and go "oh yeah, that's what happened to it" and December isn't likely to produce much more looking ahead.
I started off November sick. Although completely unconfimed I have suspicions that I had H1N1. The symptoms were there, fever, cough, sore throat, lack of energy - never mind working at 2 schools where there were confirmed cases and lots and lots of sick students and staff. So I had very little energy for about two weeks there. (I did recieve the vaccine, but the symptoms showed up before the 10 waiting days were over).
I recovered nicely in time for my birthday. I had a lovely, lovely dinner out with my husband and a few close friends. We went to Suwanna, which is my favorite restaurant in town. It is a Thai restaurant and luckily my friends think like we do, order 6 dishes and pass around to share. We had Pad Thai (of coure, 2 orders of it), Matsaman Curry (my pick, so delicious), Bamboo Shoots (tres spicy!), a beef stir fry (yummy) and I know there was one more dish, I'm just not remembering what it was now. We also had some Thai carrot/cabbage salad, which is so delicious and curry puffs as an appetizer. I'm going to miss this restaurant when we move away. I did take pictures of the evening, unfortunately, my photo card got accidentally erased before we downloaded anything.
The next part of the month has been dedicated to work, work and more work. Pretty much from Thanksgiving on till Christmas, my job kicks it up a notch (Canadian Thanksgiving - 2nd Monday in October). I teach music so I'm involved in getting performance groups ready for Remembrance Day ceremonies (Nov. 11th), the Empty Stocking Fund telecast (last weekend-a 70+ year old local telethon benefitting families that need help at Christmas time), the Santa Claus Parade (very strange to sit on a float, you can't believe the number of people that watch that thing!), and currently Christmas Concerts. As I said I work at 2 schools, so most of this is x2 work. Never mind that report cards fall into the middle of all this and parent teacher interviews (marks for 600 kids). So yes, work has kept me busy.
And through all this I've found myself right into my 3rd trimester. Yay! Of course 3rd trimester means less energy and I've definately seen myself slowing down a bit. I've started to teach sitting on a chair, instead of sitting on the floor with the kids. I also discovered that there are certain songs I cannot participate in with the kids. I had to laugh at myself when I was teaching this one song to kindergarten classes that involves getting down on all 4's and then jumping up and jumping up and down - I couldn't do it. Talk about changing your lesson plan on the fly! (I teach 4 kindergarten classes in a row, so that just wasn't going to work!).
My own little guys are doing well. They and my husband take up the rest of my energy really. I have done more cooking this month than my blogging shows for, but my pregnant brain often fails to remember to take a picture.
So here's a doozy of a blog post for you all. One of my favorite comfort meals of fall and winter, a pot roast beef dinner. Oh it is so yummy, I want to make it again right now. This dinner had the beef, gravy, yorkshire pudding (my Auntie Sue's Recipe), whipped potatoes, peas and a carrot bake (Katy's recipe of Food for a Hungry Soul).

Pot Roast

1 roast
1 tsp salt
ground pepper (have ready to grind)
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp cooking oil
1 1/2 cups each BBQ sauce, and beef broth
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic (crushed and minced)
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp lime juice

I like to cook my roasts in a crock pot, it just makes the meat so tender. I put this all on in the morning and let it cook for 8-10 hours. Prepare your crock pot by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.
Sprinkle roast lightly on all sides with salt, pepper and flour. Heat oil in a frying pan (med-high heat). Add roast and brown on all sides. Once it is browned/seared, place roast into the crock pot.
Mix remaining ingredients together. Pour over roast. Cover, put crock pot on low heat and cook for 8-10 hours. (You can also make this on high heat for 4-5 hours).

Roast gravy

Once roast is finished, remove it from the crock pot and cover with foil to keep hot. Drain the juices over a seive and into a saucepan. Add 1 cup water, 1 tbsp beef boullion powder and 1/4 cup + flour. Whisk everything together over med. heat, whisking constantly until gravy is heated thouroughly and thickens.

Auntie Sue's Yorkshire Pudding

My Auntie Sue is one of my very favorite people. She isn't really my aunt, but a good family friend that I've known my whole life. I grew up with her home being my second home and our families spending a lot of Sunday dinners and Holidays together. She is a wonderful cook. I'm glad my mom snagged this recipe of hers for me.

3 eggs
1 C flour
1 C milk
1 tsp butter
dash of salt.

Whisk eggs. Add rest of ingredients and whisk together. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 425* until done (about 10 minutes or so) - the puddings should puff up nicely and brown. My mom says this works best if the ingredients are cooled in the fridge while the oven is heating. My English husband insists it works best if you let the ingredients sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour or so before baking. I've done it both ways and both ways turn out well.

Chicken Chow Mein

This is very much American Chinese food, not authentic Chinese. My mom made this for us a lot when I was growing up and once I started cooking I added it to my repetiore. It's so easy to put together and comes together quite quickly. I'm always amazed that it tastes as good as it does. Pair it up with some egg rolls and you've got yourself dinner.

1 tbsp canola oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cooked chicken, chopped (I usually buy a rotisserie chicken every couple of weeks and use the meat in recipes like this)
1 cup bean sprouts
1 package chow mein noodles
1 cup chicken stock
soy sauce

Heat oil in a large frying pan or wok over medium heat. Add onion and green pepper and cook until veggies soften a little. Turn up the heat to med-high. Add the chicken and bean sprouts - mix altogether. Add chow mein noodles and chicken stock. (Keep extra water on hand just in case the noodles start to stick a little). Dash with soy sauce to your liking. Mix together. Keep cooking and stirring until the noodles are soft. Serve.

*You can add other ingredients to this one. I've used mushrooms, water chestnuts, snow peas, and celery at times, depending what I have on hand.