Some New Favorites

I'm easily impressed.  I delight in some really ridiculous little things.  Here are just a few of my recent favorite things. 

Thing #1:  My $1.00 - yes, you read right $1.00 - mini grater from Michael's.  I'm a little embarrassed that I'm so pleased with it, but I am.  Yes, I have a microplane that I adore, but it's my fancy kitchen toy.  I don't use it on the everyday stuff...like cheese for quesadillas.  So while I was at Michael's last week I found a nice little stainless steel grater in the cheapy aisle that is fantastic.  That's all.

Thing #2:  Laughing Cow light swiss cheese wedges.  They satisfy this cheese-lover's cheese tooth without all the unnecessary calories, fat and cholesterol of the regular stuff.  I haven't even missed having real cheese lately.  That's saying something.  I spread this on a toasted whole wheat English muffin the other night, topped it with some grilled turkey, and topped it all with sauteed onions and mushrooms.  It was fantastic.  And, for under 300 calories, it made a great meal. 

Thing #3:  Probably my most-loved kitchen fun of the moment:  SMOOTHIES.  I've been using these lots lately for breakfast or snacks.  My favorite is a combination of ice, fat-free vanilla yogurt, skim milk, frozen orange juice, a banana and vanilla whey powder.  Yummo! 

Pancakes - Volume I

My grandma made amazing pancakes.  She made pancakes unlike any I've tasted since I ate her pancakes, probably 30 years ago.  They had a buttermilk bite.  I don't just mean a hint of buttermilk, I mean the sour, get you in the back corners of your tongue bite that made for phenomenal pancakes.  I don't know the secret. My mom doesn't know the secret.  I want to figure it out so I can share it with my little ladies. 

While I didn't succeed in tonight's attempt, I didn't really make too big of an effort to do so.   When my sister gave me the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion last year I decided I wanted to attempt every recipe in there.  I've tried out several recipes so far with great results and am looking forward to trying more.  (I just need to find somebody to eat it all, but that's beside the point.)  But this is about pancakes.  And the Baker's Companion.  I now make pancakes from scratch...with buttermilk.  And they're amazing.  They're not Grandma amazing, but they're downright tasty.  I used to be a pancake mix kind of girl, but not anymore.  I keep tweaking the recipe every time I make them, being sure to make note of the changes in my cookbook (along with the outcomes), but I still haven't got the bite.   So while this is the first post about pancakes, it inevitably will not be the last.  It's just a good thing everybody around here has grown to like them.