Powerhouse Pancakes

My kids love pancakes. My three year old asks for them, like, everyday. And did you know Bisquick has trans fat in it? It's found in the partially hydrogenated oils in the mix. Know where those end up? In your arteries. Fortunately, homemade pancake mix is super easy to make, stores well in the freezer, and is as quick to whip up as Bisquick pancakes on any morning of the week, which my makes my kids their hero for at least five minutes. And it's SO MUCH HEALTHIER. Best of all... they taste amazing. Seriously, I don't mean to toot my own horn here, but these are the best pancakes I've ever had. 

I've been working on the ratios for awhile, but I've finally got it nailed. And I've incorporated a bunch of powerhouse ingredients into it — oats, whole wheat flour, almonds, flax, and coconut oil. You're welcome.

POWERHOUSE PANCAKES

Ingredients: (makes 10 cups of dry mix)
3 cups quick oats
1/2 cup almond meal
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
3 Tb ground flax
4 Tb brown sugar
1 Tb baking soda
3 Tb baking powder
1 Tb salt
1 Tb vanilla extract
1 cup coconut oil

To make mix:

Put first nine ingredients (oats through salt) in your stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and mix on low until well-blended (or gently mix by hand). With motor running, slowly pour in vanilla extract and coconut oil. Store in the freezer in a gallon-sized freezer bag or freezer-safe container.

To make pancakes:

Put 1 cup pancake mix, 3/4 cup milk (don't use almond milk), and 1 egg into a bowl. Whisk well and let stand for five minutes. Heat a griddle to 325º (or a pan on the oven to medium). Once it's very hot, drop your wet pancake mix onto the griddle in small rounds. Flip when bubbles begin to form and the edges start to look cooked. Remove from the griddle after they cook through and brown on the other side. This amount will make about ten pancakes (or more if making silver dollars).

Serve with real maple syrup. The kind that was tapped from an actual maple tree. Please, whatever you do, don't serve your kids that maple-flavored corn syrup monstrosity that Big Agro tries to pass off as food (I'm looking at you, Butterworth). Happy pancake mornings!

BLT Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette

Bacon is, like, my favorite. But isn't it everybody's?

I think there's probably no way to downgrade a salad's nutritional value faster than to dump bacon all over it. But it was gooooooood.

My kids loved it. Even the baby ate it. He loves salad. He won't eat things like pears or bananas, but put a salad or roast beef in front of him and he's a happy camper.

BLT SALAD with WARM BACON VINAIGRETTE 
Ingredients:
3/4 lb thick sliced bacon, diced (uncooked)
1/4 cup minced onion
1/2 Tb brown sugar
1 tsp grainy mustard
1/2 cup red wine vinegar

4 cups romaine leaves, torn
1 beefsteak or heirloom tomato, chopped
2 hardboiled eggs, quartered
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

To make:
Cook the bacon pieces over medium heat until crispy. Drain on paper towels and try not to eat too many of the cooked pieces while you're putting the rest of the salad together. Pour off all but 4 Tb of the bacon grease and put the pan back on the burner (make sure you wipe the side of the pan where you poured or you'll end up with a grease fire... no, I don't know this firsthand. Maybe I do.)

Add the minced onion and cook until translucent. Add the brown sugar, mustard and vinegar. Note that the vinegar will flare up and make you jump when you add it, so stand back as you do. Throw a handful of bacon pieces back into the dressing. Stir and cook for about 30 seconds and remove from heat. Pour into a mason jar and let it cool off for a few minutes while you assemble the salad.

This will recipe makes enough for two main course salads or four side salads, so divvy up your lettuce among either two large plates or four small ones. Top with tomatoes, cheese, bacon (the bacon you didn't throw back into the dressing) and eggs. By now the dressing should be warm, so give that baby a shake and pour over the salad. Voila! Serve with a beer to further downgrade the nutritional value.

Basics: Guacamole

I call guacamole a basic because it's one of the five food groups. Did you know? Fruits & veggies, meats, grains, dairy, guac.

I mean, it should be. It is in my house.

My three year old calls it whack-a-mole-y. He says whack-a-mole-y makes his belly smile.

I throw this together on a weekly basis, and it doesn't even make it to the fridge. I have never seen avocados disappear so fast. Even my parents who don't care for guac gobble this up.

GUACAMOLE

Ingredients:

3 ripe Hass avocados, peeled & pitted

4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

2-4 Tb key lime juice

1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro

salt to taste

Optional add-ins:

minced red onion

seeded & minced jalapeño

seeded & diced tomatoes

To make:

Put avocados in a medium bowl and mash with a fork or potato masher. I like the potato masher because it's bigger and gets the job done faster. Incidentally, I use my potato masher for everything BUT mashing potatoes. Add the rest of the ingredients. Start with 2 Tb of lime juice and taste. Add more if needed. My favorite juice to use is Nellie & Joe's key lime juice. It's on the juice aisle near the Real Lemon. My husband's stepmom lived in Key West for awhile and actually knows Nellie and Joe personally, but I'm not holding my breath for free lime juice anytime soon.

As far as add-ins go, throw in with whatever your family likes. Or what YOU like. You're the one who made it, for crying out loud. Don't let those people dictate your life like that. You want red onion? Add red onion. You want flaked salmon? Add flaked sal... no wait, don't. That's gross. 

Serve with tortilla chips and wine. Or drink your wine in the other room while your family is devouring the guacamole so you can have a few minutes' peace. Either way works just fine.

Pork Chops with Pear & Pecan Salsa

Pork chops. Pears. Pecans. Mmmmm. The letter P sure tastes good over here at It's All Gravy. In fact, it seems to be the recipe letter of the week. Not surprisingly, tomorrow we're having pizza. I promise it wasn't on purpose. My subconscious probably propelled me to produce a plethora of palate-pleasing plates for you to prepare.

Sorry.

I've made this recipe a LOT of times. It's one of my husband's top ten favorite meals that I make. His other favorites in the list are my white sauce chicken enchiladas, chicken posole, eggplant parmesan, pan-seared filet mignon, steelhead trout, orange beef stir fry, chipotle pork chili, minestrone, and one other I can't think of right now (all of those recipes will come in the future — look for the trout recipe next week). I found the original recipe for these pork chops in some old cooking magazine at a hole-in-the-wall auto shop I was waiting in once for a few hours, and I scribbled it down and then revamped it at home. I don't remember the magazine, but my recipe has been adapted from that one.

I like to buy a whole pork loin (loin — not tenderloin) and slice half of it into chops of any thickness I want and then freeze the other half for a pork roast or pulled pork BBQ in the crockpot. It's a great way to get two meals out of a $14 loin.

PORK CHOPS with PEAR & PECAN SALSA

Ingredients:

4-6 pork chops, depending on thickness

salt & pepper to taste

1 3-inch piece of fresh ginger root

2 ripe pears (I like to use Anjou for this recipe), cored and diced

1/2 cup pecans, toasted briefly & chopped

1 Tb ground ginger (optional)

1 Tb brown sugar

1 can guava nectar (you won't use the whole can)*

To make:

Peel and grate the fresh ginger until you have a tablespoon of it and set aside. Slice the rest of the ginger into thin strips.

In a medium bowl, mix the diced pears, pecans, the ginger you just grated, the ground ginger (this is optional because I like a LOT of ginger — you will probably want to taste the salsa without this ingredient and decide if you want to take the ginger plunge. If your significant other is a redhead, congratulations. You've already taken the ginger plunge) the brown sugar, and a tablespoon of the guava nectar. Give it a good stir and set aside — you're done with the salsa.

Heat an oil with a moderately high smoke point in a skillet (preferably cast iron, or any non-Teflon — you get the best brown bits this way) over medium-high heat. I like to use coconut oil. Spectrum has one that does NOT taste like coconut at all. Nutiva coconut oil on the other hand does taste pretty strongly of coconut, so if you don't want your dinner to taste like a piña colada, stay away from that one or use it on your face instead of in your food. Anyway, put the sliced ginger in the hot oil and fry it on both sides for about a minute, total. You're just trying to flavor the oil in this step. Because mmmmmmmm, ginger.

Remove and discard the fried ginger pieces. Sprinkle salt & pepper on both sides of the pork chops and add to the hot oil in the skillet. You may need to do the chops in two batches depending on the size of your skillet and the number of chops you're using. Sauté about three minutes per side. I wish I could give you an exact time here, but again, it's going to depend on the thickness of your chops. After six minutes, cut a slice in the thickest part of one and check the inside for doneness. 

Put your cooked chops on a serving plate and keep them warm. Pour off the oil in your skillet and put back on the burner but turn the heat down to medium. Add 1/2 cup of guava nectar to the hot skillet and scrape up all the crispy brown bits. Simmer this for about three or four minutes until it thickens. Pour the guava pan sauce over the chops and serve with the salsa. We also like to have jasmine rice & black beans with ours.

I wish there were leftovers. But I ate them.

Basics: Mayonnaise

Lots of people don't like mayonnaise. I hope you're not one of them.

Actually, tons of people DO like mayo. Beaucoup dollars are spent on it every year. As in, $2 billion in the U.S. alone. It's the #1 condiment (and you thought it was ketchup, didn't you?).

That's a lot of moola to spend on whipped oil & eggs.

But fortunately, you can make your own. And it doesn't look (or taste!) like the white glop you find in a jar. It's really, REALLY good. Once you make your own, you won't go back. I'm telling you. It's good with a little Sriracha mixed in (I like to dip sweet potato fries in that mess) or with pesto stirred in and spread on sandwiches. Or mixed with a mashed avocado. Or stirred into tuna with some Lawry's. Seriously, the possibilities are endless.

MAYONNAISE
Ingredients:
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 whole egg*
2 egg yolks*
1 Tb grainy mustard
salt & pepper to taste
2 cups oil (I usually use 1 cup of light olive oil + 1 cup of another coking oil. DON'T use extra virgin olive oil, it will NOT taste good and the color will be a weird yellow)

To make:
Put the first 5 ingredients in your food processor and turn on to blend. Add oil in a steady, very slow stream so it emulsifies as it's pouring in. This process usually takes about 5 minutes. I'd tell you to drink wine here but I almost always make mayo in the morning, and it's generally not advised to hit the bottle quite so early in the day, but you be the judge.

After all the oil is added, you're done. It will be lusciously whipped into yummy mayo. Taste it to check the seasoning, but I don't recommend putting a giant spoonful into your mouth, because... ew. It's mayo. Never eat mayo with a spoon. That honor is reserved for Nutella and Trader Joe's Cookie Butter.

*It's important to note that this recipe utilizes raw eggs. They are not nearly the threat that they're made out to be. We buy local eggs from a farmers market or from people we know. To further reduce contamination, you can wash the eggshells before you crack your eggs.

Pesto Pasta Pomodoro

I like to combine two different dishes into one sometimes, because I live on the edge. I'm out of control.

It's pesto. It's pomodoro. Did you know pomodoro means "tomato" in Italian? You can use that tidbit next time you find yourself at Olive Garden. They won't know what it means, of course, because they're mostly not Italian there. But YOU'LL know. Once, at a restaurant I won't name here, I ordered haricots verts and I actually pronounced it the way it's supposed to be pronounced (ah-REE-koh vehr, if you were wondering) and the waitress looked at me like I had a couple of extra mouths and made me point to what I wanted. She said, "Oh, you mean the harry-cots verts?" I get it. It's not English. But you work here, so...

Anyway, onto pesto pomodoro. By the way, this would taste really good with some grilled chicken thrown in, but otherwise it's super-awesome vegetarian or a good Meatless Monday deal. It's also ridiculously easy to put together if you've made the pesto (or bought it) ahead of time — we're talking 15 minutes. Winning.

PESTO PASTA POMODORO
Ingredients:
1 lb pasta, cooked and drained, any shape (I used fusili, above)
1/2 cup reserved cooking water from the pasta
1 beefsteak tomato, diced (or sub 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained)
1 can white Northern beans, drained & rinsed
2 cups chopped baby spinach
dollop or two of pesto (find my recipe for it here)
grated romano cheese (or parmesan)

To make:
Pour the reserved pasta cooking water back into the pot with the pasta. Add the tomato, beans and spinach and stir well. Cover with a lid for a few minutes so the spinach can wilt and the other ingredients can heat through. Drink some wine.

Drop in your dollop (or two) of prepared pesto. How much you use will be up to you. Give it a good stir and see where it takes you. Then taste it and make sure it's got enough salt (only a problem if your pesto didn't have enough to begin with) and serve with grated cheese on top.

This will make a lot of pasta. Eat the leftovers for lunch the next day... or later that night when the kids are in bed. Guiltily, in a corner, sneaking glances over your shoulder. Pesto is just that good.

Basics: Pesto

Pesto is one of those things that sound scary to make yourself but it's actually as easy as dumping things into a food processor. Can you dump ingredients into a food processor? Then you're set. I mean, you also need to be able to turn it on, and handle a spatula, but I have faith in you.

PESTO
Ingredients:
2-3 cups of fresh basil*
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 cup walnuts, pine nuts, or sunflower seeds
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup grated romano cheese (or parmesan)
salt & pepper to taste

To make:
Dump the first three ingredients into your food processor. Turn it on and let it pulverize the ingredients. This is a good time to take a sip of that wine I know you're pretending you're not drinking.

With the motor running, add the olive oil in a slow & steady stream until it's all incorporated. You will need to stop it and scrape the pesto down the sides with a spatula a couple of times.

Turn it off and add your cheese, salt and pepper. Pulse it until combined and then taste and check the seasoning. It might need more salt, unless you're like me and just pour tons of salt into everything. If you're not like me, then you'll probably need more salt.

Enjoy, refrigerate, or freeze. Note that it will turn brownish in the freezer. It helps to put a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pesto before refrigerating or freezing to help with this.

*Sometimes when I'm feeling sneaky, I substitute bagged baby spinach for all or most of the basil. Sometimes I even use arugula. The kids won't notice. Your husband might, but your kids won't. Just make sure the spinach is really dry before starting this recipe.