Sour Cream Pancakes with a Dash of Cinnamon

If you've ever been in the kitchen with me, you have probably learned three things about my cooking style:
1. I can't ever follow a recipe directly.
2. If there isn't cinnamon (or cumin) included in the original recipe, it will now be included in mine.
3. I most enjoy cooking when I don't have to do it, but want to do it.

Which brings me to this morning. July 4th, a celebration of independence and freedom. It's really for our country. But let's get real here, a day off helps us worker bees enjoy some freedom from work, too.

Waking up and knowing that you have a whole day of relaxation, sun, and friends ahead of you is pretty much second to none. With MM still asleep, I started creeping around the kitchen and quickly realized that it was a perfect morning to leisurely get some dishes dirty in the kitchen.

Pancakes were the obvious choice, but that was quickly kiboshed by the fact that our refrigerator is currently milk-free. Clearly, that was not enough to deter me. A quick mental roll of the recipe rolodex pointed me towards an easy substitution: sour cream.

Sour cream gives the pancakes a fluffy texture that you don't get with traditional pancakes. There's a very slight tang that accompanies the pancakes, but it's offset by the sweetness of the syrup. Final verdict: 2 votes for "absolutely make these again!"

 Sour Cream Pancakes with a Dash of Cinnamon
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

7 tablespoons all purpose flour
2.5 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/ 2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter
Maple syrup

Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle over medium-low heat; you want it to slowly get nice and hot.

Stir the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together in the bottom of a medium bowl. Dump the sour cream in on top and stir it together very gently; it’s okay to leave the texture a bit uneven. Whisk the eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl and stir them into the sour cream mixture, once again, being careful not to overmix.

Melt about a tablespoon of butter in your skillet or griddle and pour the batter in, a scant 1/4 cup at a time. Cook for about 2 minutes on the first side, or until bubbles appear all over the surface, flipping them carefully and cooking for about a minute on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

Serve in a stack, topped with a pat of butter and a cascade of maple syrup.

Roasted Jalapeno Gaucamole

"Monster In-Law," "Father of the Bride," "Meet the Fockers"...the list is endless when it comes to movies showing the merging of two families and the full range of possible miseries that can ensue.

Saturday night was the first official meeting of MM's parents and my own. We know each set of parents, we love each set of parents, we were pretty sure the two sets would get along well, but there's always that moment of panic that's been fueled by years of romantic comedies issuing an undercurrent of warning.

I'm happy to say, we were right! Take that, Hollywood. The meet-the-in-laws cookout went beyond smoothly. In fact, MM and I probably could have skipped the event completely and the evening wouldn't have been much different! Even a last-minute addition of my grandparents thanks to a power outage in triple-digit weather, didn't faze anyone--it actually added to the festivities! End result: a sigh of relief, a full belly, and a happy heart. Makes me very excited for what's to come!

Enough of the mushy stuff, let's get down to business. The food. With a menu consisting of beef, shrimp, and chicken kebabs accompanied with roasted asparagus, rice, and salad, our household's contribution was small in size but big in taste.

MM is famous for his guacamole, and his batch this weekend lived up to snuff. We ate most of it before I could manage to snap a picture, but you get the idea!

Roasted Jalapeno Guacamole

Ingredients:
1 jalapeno pepper
1 tsp olive oil
4 avocados
1/3 yellow onion, diced finely
1 tomato, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Juice of 1/2 lime
1-2 tsp Cholula hot sauce
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450F. Place the jalapeno pepper on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 15-20 minutes until pepper is charred. Let cool, and then mince.

In a large bowl, mash avocados until they have a consistency that is relatively creamy but includes several chunks. Add in all other ingredients and mix until ingredients are just combined. For extra heat, add a second jalapeno, diced raw. Season to taste, and serve immediately.

If needed, you can add the pit of one of the avocados in the bowl to help keep the guacamole green a bit longer. But I recommend digging in as soon as possible!

Peanut Butter Brownies

My grandpa has long touted the healing powers of peanut butter. In fact, just the other night, he entertained us with his historical love of the crunchy stuff, going so far as to call it a "pillar of life." My dad inherited this love, and truthfully, so did I.

Flash forward to this past week: Sarah and Ben were coming for dinner on Friday, and I was as excited as could be to put my baking gloves back on and get all floured up in the kitchen. I search recipes high and low until I settled on a new treat: chocolate whoopie pies with espresso icing. Thursday night, I get the kitchen all cleaned up and pull out my mixer, only to find that when I grab the sugar from the pantry, I am actually grabbing a 5lb brick. (This sounds dramatic; I assure you it's not.)

Scratch plan A. Go to sleep. Wake up on Friday with full-fledged plans to leave work early, go to the store, and start baking in plenty of time to be ready when S&B come. Reality check: no leaving work early. Resort to plan C: brownies.

Whoever invented brownies, I am forever in your debt. They satisfy nearly every tastebud in the world, and you can tailor them to your liking. I always use my tried and trusted recipe, and this time, I think I've found a way to make them even better.

Yep, that's right. Add peanut butter chips. Hellooooooo, delicious. Goooodbyeeeeee, willpower.

The night turned out to be a blast! So much fun that even an 11pm power outage didn't end the party. We made it another two hours before throwing in the towel (and power did get restored that evening--which is more than many of our neighbors can say!). Fun night, friends!

Spinach-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Resolutions are a funny thing--you make them because you genuinely want to accomplish whatever it is you're setting out to do. It's a public declaration, and that translates to you being accountable for whatever your resolution may be. So when I set out to be better about blogging, I brought you all into my thoughts and asked for you to remind me when I started to slack. Well, remind me you did! Thanks for keeping me on track. And, um, sorry for being a slacker.

I do want to assure you that I haven't just been twiddling my fingers over here since my last post. A lot of things have been going on since then!

Thing 1: We moved! This lucky kitchen is the new home to all of our cooking adventures.

 Thing 2: A trip to ever-exciting Heathrow, Florida for work!

Thing 3: Blake and Courtney come to visit! Time to be tourists in DC. Sad fact: they knew more about the monument locations than Mike or I did. #localfail

Thing 4: Back on the airplane...another trip to Florida! This time to Heathrow, Miami, and Orlando. Hands down, the highlight of that trip was Miami. A morning run on the beach followed by breakfast on your personal balcony overlooking the ocean is a winning way to start any day. I hear that people have mixed feelings about Miami, but I have to say, I was a fan!

Thing 5: Road tripping on down to Wilmington, NC for Carole Ann and David's wedding - Congrats CA & David! Of course, we stopped for barbeque on the way down. And GPC and I created our own modeling photo shoot after our hair appointments at the salon. 

As you can see, while I've been derelict in my blogging, it hasn't been for lack of excitement! This chicken meal is actually the first meal that we made in the new apartment. MM loves to cook, and this is really his creation. Not only is it DELICIOUS, it's simple enough to put together on a weeknight and impressive-looking enough to serve for company. We served it with steamed asparagus and a rice pilaf (and a cold glass of chardonnay!).

Spinach-Stuffed Chicken Breasts


Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 9oz bag of baby spinach 
1/4 cup pine nuts + extra for garnish
4 boneless chicken breasts
1/2- 3/4 cup feta cheese (varies, to taste)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425F.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large skillet. Saute onion and garlic until onion begins sweating. Add spinach and salt and pepper to taste, cover the skillet, and let spinach cook down (approximately 3 minutes). Take spinach mixture off of the stove and add pine nuts. 


Trim chicken breasts of all fat, and then make an incision into the thick side of the chicken breast to the point that it creates a pocket inside the breast (but do not cut the breast all the way through so that it is in two pieces).


Stuff approximately 2 heaping tablespoons of the spinach mixture into each chicken breast in the "pocket." Once stuffed, add a light layer of feta cheese on top of the spinach mixture in each breast.


Place the chicken breasts in a greased 9x12 baking dish, and sprinkle each chicken breast with the remaining spinach mixture, feta, and pine nuts.


Bake for approximately 32 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink in the center and juices run clear.

Cilantro Pesto Pasta

On my 26^th birthday, I created my list of “26 Things I Want To Do While I’m 26.” The list was varied, ranging from the simple start an herb garden to the more difficult climb Mt. St. Helen’s. I accomplished all but three of them (oh, pull-ups, how you haunt me), and while I’m biased, I consider this year one of my best.

Nothing highlighted this more for me than BF and my trip to Seattle last weekend. Did I say BF? I think I meant to say fiancé. Yep, that was a part of this wonderful trip. But so was the recognition that, while a lot has changed in the past year, some things always stay the same.

West coast to east coast, fellowship to “grown-up” job, single to engaged—the changes this year were big. But helped remind me that the important things remain constant: friends. The people that saw you through your awkward phases (ahem, can we forget those?), the people that can make you laugh with a half-second dance step, the people that have soaked up your tears, and the people who you always want beside you on a patio somewhere swinging in an old hammock together.

The Seattle trip was amazing for a variety of reasons (did anyone say “Paseo”?), but it also was a strong reminder to me that just because you leave a place doesn’t mean that it’s like you were never there. North Carolina, I’m looking at you, too.

Now that it’s year 27, I’m switching thing up. 26 goals are out. One goal is in: 27 blog postings. That’s over two per month. No more slacking for this girl. All you *friends* get to hold me to this!

Post #1 of the birthday year: a pasta creation from roommate night. E, I’m going to miss living with you! But a big shout-out for your acceptance into the Knight Fellowship. We’ll all be cheering you on from the sidelines until you return to this tree-lined city with a book deal in hand. Congratulations!

Look how many leftovers we had!

Pesto
1 bunch fresh cilantro, stems removed
4 cloves garlic
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup parmesan cheese
½ cup walnuts
salt to taste

Put all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth. Feel free to add more garlic/olive oil/parmesan to your liking.


Pasta with Vegetables
1 onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 zucchini, cut in small half-moons
2-3 cups arugula
1 package whole-wheat spaghetti


Bring water to a boil and cook pasta as directed.


Meanwhile, saute the onion until it becomes translucent. Add in the red pepper and zucchini and allow to saute until the zucchini is just cooked, preventing the red pepper from becoming too mushy.


In a large bowl, lay the arugula at the base and add the sauteed vegetables on top. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes until the arugula has wilted. Add in cooked pasta and cilantro pesto (to taste). Top with parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Quinoa Soup with Corn

I think I might have forgotten to mention something with my last post. My "living" has changed a little bit. No, I haven't changed states. Or married a traveling juggler. But I did start a new job! I started last week, and I have to say that it is kind of fun to start a job and feel like you actually know what you're doing. Well, I shouldn't get carried away. I still have no idea what I'm doing. But they think I do. That's half the battle, right?

I am quickly learning that one component of this new job is going to be an increase in my work travel. If that's to a place like, say, Hawaii, that's pretty exciting. If it's to somewhere like where I'm headed tomorrow (Indianapolis), it doesn't quite have the same appeal!

Regardless, knowing that I will be traveling more has motivated me to make a few freezer-ready dishes so that I have some homemade goods in stock for the times I won't have a chance to cook. This soup took less than 30 minutes, start to finish, and is a perfect freezer-ready item. Only change I made was to not add the avocado. Best to save that until you're ready to eat!

Have you ever had quinoa (KEEN-wah)? It's one of my favorite grains. Not only is it delicious, but it's also one of the only non-meat food items that is a complete protein. High in iron and fiber, this little guy is a dynamo. If you're iffy on the taste, I recommend toasting it in a skillet briefly before boiling it in order to give it an almost nutty taste.

Quinoa Soup with Corn

Adapted from The Seattle Times

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup quinoa
1 can corn kernels
1 green pepper, diced
2/3 cup chunky salsa, to taste

Juice of one lime
1 ripe but firm Hass avocado, diced
Salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:
1) In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat broth over high until it comes to a boil. Add quinoa and green pepper. Drop heat to medium-high. Cook (still boiling) 15 minutes.

2) Add corn and salsa. Stir. When it comes back up to a simmer, kill the heat. Remove the pot from the burner. Add lime juice and avocado. Stir gently. Salt and pepper to taste. Add cilantro. Stir again.

Bruschetta

Here's a pattern for you: cook, cook, cook, live, live, live, cook, REMEMBER TO POST.

In other words, true to form, my posting has been a bit underwhelming. But, fear not, with a few gentle pokes and prods (and a to-the-point email--thanks, Gillian!), I am back. Not only am I back, but I bring you a snack.

If spring time does one thing for me besides inflating my sinuses to the size of Kim Kardashian's ego, it's that it gets me excited for fresh produce. Granted, I might be a little overeager in this instance, as tomatoes and basil really belong more to the summer than the spring, but that's beside the point.

What is the point? That bruschetta is delicious. And simple. And it may even prolong your life (yay, Lycopene!). Is there any reason that you should NOT make this oh-so-delicious side dish? Not a one.

This particular bruschetta-making event was for a movie night to watch "The Help" with my mom (heeeeeeyyyyyy, Mom! Do you read this?) and BF's mom (heeeeeeeeey, Mrs G! Thanks for having us!). Ciabatta topped with bruschetta, cheeses galores, homemade chicken fingers, and a salad (with fruity cheese, which I will have you know I ate and I even enjoyed) made for a wonderfully relaxing night. We even got to sport our slippers!

Bruschetta


Ingredients:
6 plum tomatos, cored and diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced (feel free to lower if you need to spare your breath)
1 bunch of basil, chopped
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste


Directions:
Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl, and let sit for 5-10 minutes for the flavors to infuse. Feel free to add more or less vinegar, depending on your taste preference. Serve on a toasted baguette or ciabatta bread (thinly sliced). Some people recommend lightly brushing the bread with oil and toasting it prior to eating, but we were too eager to bother with that step and it turned out just great!