If You Give a Pig a Pancake

Yes, I know you've all been waiting on me to post for just about forever, or a month. That whole college thing I'm doing is problematic and takes up all my time. So here goes!

"I ONLY EAT PANCAKES!" Audrey yelled as I tried to feed her anything but pancakes for lunch.

No, this is not an excerpt from a book, but a quick glimpse at my life as a nanny. I share a great love of pancakes like Audrey, but her idea of pancakes is putting M&Ms in them and dyeing it purple.

I actually spent a good hour compiling new and exciting pancake recipes to try, so I had to think of a good book so that I could share some of these new recipes. Because school has already started I don't have time to just sit and puzzle over books I've read that mention pancakes. Inspiration struck when I thought of the If You Give... series, I might just have to write a post for all the books.

I hesitate from quoting the book because it's a continual story, you can't just stop in the middle!

"If you give a pig a pancake, she'll want some syrup to go with it. You'll give her some of your favorite maple syrup. She'll probably get all sticky, so she'll want to take a bath." Numeroff

I would highly recommend reading especially once you get down in that mid-semester rut, go to the children’s section of the library and read some books that you read when you were a kid!

Really Ugly Cinnamon Roll Pancakes (Just ugly was already taken)

Adapted from: http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/03/01/cinnamon-roll-pancakes/

Yield: 4 servings (4 pancakes) Prep Time: 25 min Cook Time: 10 min

Ingredients:

PANCAKES:
1 heaping cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten, add a second egg if your batter isn’t fluffy enough

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Prepare pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg, just until batter is moistened (a few small lumps are fine).

2. In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. You don't want it to be really runny. It's best if it becomes a consistency similar to toothpaste, so squeezable. *I think ours was too thick and looked more like poop than toothpaste, see poopy looking cinnamon mixture below.

3. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl- heat butter and cream cheese until melted. Whisk together until smooth; whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla extract; set aside.

4. Heat large skillet over medium-low heat, if it is too high the sugar will burn! Spray with nonstick spray. Scoop about a 1/2 cup batter onto the skillet. Snip the corner of your baggie of filling and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake. **Our sugar started burning so we added a bit more batter on top of the cinnamon sugar filling to prevent the sugar from burning. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

5. When ready to serve, spoon warmed glaze onto the top of each pancake. Eat and then probably lay down for a while because they're super rich!

Tips:

*Keep the heat low or your pancakes might cook up too quickly. Don't flip them until you see those bubbles starting to pop on top. Flip them with a wide spatula so you can grasp the whole thing without batter and filling dripping all over the place!

*It's best if you pour the batter onto your skillet, wait a minute or so and then swirl the cinnamon onto the batter. That'll give it a chance to set a little before you add the swirl.

*If your baggie of filling begins to get too thick, just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up again. On that same note, it shouldn't be too runny. The consistency of soft toothpaste is perfect. If it's melty and runny, it will tend to run all over your pancakes. Once you micro it, let it sit on the counter at room temp for a while until it thickens slightly.

*Between pancakes take a damp paper towel and carefully wipe up your skillet, helpful for those of us who burnt sugar on their skillet.

*You might want to double the recipe, we got about 4.5 pancakes, yes a half pancake just go with it.

For more pancake fun check out some of these recipes:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/09/lemon-blueberry-pancakes/

http://www.theidearoom.net/2011/08/watermelon-pancake-recipe.html

I think these are absolutely adorable!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sunday-morning-lemon-poppy-seed-pancakes/detail.aspx

http://www.thatssoyummy.com/recipes/red-velvet-pancakes-chocolate-chips/

Maybe a little too rich for breakfast but, they look really yummy!

http://pickycook.com/breakfastandbrunch/carrotcakepancakeswithcinnamonhoneybutter.aspx

I could keep going with the pancakes but I’ll try to stop now.

Trifle

Hey! It's Anna, back to give you the first of many Harry Potter dessert recipes. Trifle is mentioned in several books. The first time is in Sorcerer's Stone, at the start of term feast.
"A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding..." (Rowling 125).
I have a copy of Sorcerer's Stone, like most of you, but in Philosopher's Stone (the British version), instead of Jell-O they say jelly in the UK. The British don't use jam and jelly interchangeably like we do, jam and jelly is jam to them and jelly for them is Jell-O for us. Everything clear as mud now? Good, today we're going to focus on trifle, not Jell-O. I don't know about you guys, but I really like chocolate, so we are going to look at a chocolate trifle recipe.

Ingredients
**Note: You can easily substitute many of these ingredients for something similar, or even add ingredients it doesn't call for like strawberries, get creative! There's already brownies in it, you pretty much can't go wrong!

• 1 (19.8 ounce) package brownie mix
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix (try cheesecake pudding mix for fun)
  
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed. Feel free to substitute French Vanilla flavored Cool Whip, or even just use whipping cream in it's place.
  
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (1.5 ounce) bar chocolate candy, or use chocolate chips, or chop up some candy bars instead
  

1. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and cool completely. (I know, I know, smelling those warm brownies right from the oven and not letting you eat them is really mean, but it'll be worth it I promise.) Cut into 1 inch squares.
2. In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until smooth, then fold in 8 ounces whipped topping until no streaks remain.
3. In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half of the brownies, half of the pudding mixture and half of the 12 ounce container of whipped topping. Repeat layers. Shave chocolate onto top layer for garnish. Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.

Here's my own personal trifle, I added some caramel in the middle and a peanut butter cup on top. My family loved being able to personalize their own cup, but we're all wishing we weren't out of milk! Enjoy!

Goulash

Hello friends! I'm Anna, I will be guest starring on this blog in Julie's absence. I'll give you a quick introduction and then we'll get down to what everyone's waiting for, food! Mary and I used to be roommates at Southern Virginia University, but now I'm at Brigham Young University studying Dietetics. I love cooking and baking, etc, my apartment is always filled with an abundance of food as Mary probably recalls from her trip to Utah. Well then, let's get down to business!
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 23
"Harry snorted into his plate of goulash." (Rowling 418).

So, what is goulash? It sounds pretty weird, but you may have had it before at a chili cook-off or something. It's a Hungarian one-pot dish, similar to chili. I'm doing a Mexican variation because I like Mexican food, so there.

Mexican-Style Goulash

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/4 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
• 2/3 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese

In a large nonstick skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, corn, water, chili powder, oregano and salt. Bring to a boil. Add macaroni, (yes, put the uncooked noodles in the pot with everything else). Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until macaroni is tender. Sprinkle with cheese; cover and cook 2-3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-style-goulash/detail.aspx

Here is the link for normal goulash if you don't want Mexican: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/Classic-Goulash/Detail.aspx?prop31=3

Julie's Gone... Now What?!

It’s been nearly 2 weeks since Julie reported to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She’ll be shipping off to Denmark sometime in August.  Very exciting stuff!  If you're not LDS and you want to know why Julie (or any Mormon for that matter) chose to serve a mission, feel free to visit Mormon.org for more info.

Naturally, since Julie is gone for the next year and a half, A Tale of 2 Foodies has to change its dynamic a bit.  Julie mentioned a little bit of what’s going to happen in the previous post. I’ll explain a little bit more. 

I will still be posting new recipes from literature regularly (my goal is at least once every two weeks – hopefully much more).  Julie is planning to send along cool food info and possibly recipes from Denmark.  I don’t know how much she can tell us about Denmark before she gets there, but for now the plan is a quick howdy from the Land of the Danes once a month.

Now, this blog is a lot of work to keep up by myself, but I definitely want there to be as much cool food/literature posted on here as often as possible.  So I’m recruiting help. 

First: I’ve invited a close friend and ex-roommate from Southern Virginia University, Anna, to help write stuff on the blog.  Don’t worry; I got permission from Julie first.  There’s no usurping of authorship here.  :)   Anna is a Dietetics major at BYU Provo, and is an amazing cook.  She knows tons of cool cooking techniques, as well as the science behind food, so she’s an excellent person to have on hand as a recurring guest on A Tale of Two Foodies.  We hope to hear from Anna at least once a month. 

Second: I’m offering you guys the chance to be authors as well.  Do you love to cook?  Do you love to read?  Would you like to pitch in a post to our humble blog?  The fact of the matter is, there are countless books out there, and everyone has their own genre preferences.  So the more varied literature and food we have, the more awesome our collection of recipes will be!

We need your help!!

If you would like to submit a blog post, please email ataleof2foodies@hotmail[dot]com with the subject “Guest Foodie.”  If you have the perfect recipe from a piece of literature, but you don’t want to write for the blog, please email me your ideas!  You can also leave a comment on any post and I’ll get the message.  Any input would be fantastic!

Basically, the point of this whole post is to say that we’re going to work hard to have a post up every week.  The more input/ideas we get, the more often we can post.  So help us make this blog a regular hub for avid readers and foodies alike!  Send us stuff!

I suppose now the blog name is a little inaccurate.  It should be A Tale of 2 Foodies and Their Awesome Friends. I hope you readers know that both Julie and I love you guys and especially love hearing from you.  We’ve been having so much fun on our food blog adventure and hope that you are, too!

Thanks so much for reading.  We’ll get back to our regular programming shortly.  (There’s still more of the tea party to report on.  Be excited!)