Friday Food 03-12-22

I have recently read a number of posts about the joys of living alone!  But nobody seems to think cooking for one person is easy or fun.  I mostly just buy groceries I have always used and each evening I open the frig and think up something to eat.  Very simple meals and sometimes just one thing - I am fond of broccoli and can cook it quickly in the microwave.   But sometimes I linger in the "day old or dented" section of the market and see if there are any bargain treats.  Which led me to purchase for 50Cents:

I am familiar with cake in a mug, but how could pancakes be "in a mug"? Of course, they cannot, this is more like a cupcake.  It tasted okay, very light and fluffy, I topped it with a little butter.  But it won't be on my grocery list in the future.  It may be tasty, but just look at all the strange ingredients used to keep it fresh.  

   Real pancakes - shaped to fit my pan. 

I do enjoy breakfast at a restaurant, but since the Covid lockdown I  rarely eat out.  I do get a craving for pancakes and I make them using this recipe for "Pancakes for One", which is sort of "Pancakes for two if they are not very hungry".  I make six pancakes and frequently eat only four, putting the other two in the frig and try to reheat them later, but they are sort of tough and soggy reheated. Half the time I just make four and pour the rest of the batter down the garbage disposal.  Sometimes I pig out and eat all six!  Recipe: 

 1 large egg, 1 Tablespoon oil, 3/4 cup milk.  Mix together in small bowl.

 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, a pinch of salt.  Stir together in a medium bowl.   

           Add the liquid ingredients and mix, leaving some small lumps to make the                pancakes a bit fluffier.  Heat a frypan and coat very lightly with oil.  

         Use about 1/4 cup per pancake.  Turn when bubbles pop on the first side. 

I top with maple syrup or sometimes raspberry jam and plain yogurt.   Makes a meal. 

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Friday Food 04-17-20

Seems that everyone I know is sick and tired of thinking of something to fix for dinner and we all want to go out to our favorite restaurants.  I just finished a novel "Home Front Girls" that consists of fictitious letters sent back and forth between two women whose husbands are in WWII.  The two authors set up their exchange of letters as if they were the two 1944 women.  It is an interesting way of writing a novel, but I found it irritating to jump back and forth with letters.  Anyway, they included some wartime recipes including Welsh Rarebit which I made as a child and back in the 60s and 70s, but somehow dropped it from my mealtime repertoire.  It sounded so good that when I last went to the market I made sure I had the ingredients, although the one can of beer has been in my refrigerator for a decade or so.  I made it tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it and will enjoy the leftover tomorrow night with some fresh broccoli from the farmer's market.  One thing I forgot that I used to do is cut up the toast into bite sized pieces instead of having to saw through the toast and the sauce on my plate.  It also distributes the cheese sauce better.  I didn't take a picture of my plate, but borrowed this one from the Internet.   My blue/white plates are different!

The receipe from the book is as follows, although I'm sure you can find one in your old printed cookbook or, of course, online.  

One pound grated cheddar cheese [Tillamook is best]

One Tablespoon butter

One cup of beer

Two egg yolks [large eggs] beaten

Hot buttered toast or crackers [ick!]

Paprika that you bought within the last year. 

Using a double boiler melt the butter and cheese over medium heat, stir continuously until about one fourth of the cheese has melted.  Then add half of the beer and continue stirring.  Mix the remaining beer with the beaten egg yolks,  pour slowly into the cheese and continue stirring until the mixture is smooth and thickened.  Serve immediately over toast.  Sprinkle with paprika. 

Unfortunately the weather is just getting hotter and this seems like a cold weather dish, so I probably won't make it again until next fall.  And then I will be busy going out to my favorite restaurants.  

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Book Club 09-04-18

I wonder how many of us belong to a book group of some kind.  I've been in the "Book Group" since about 1978.  And I have posted about the group over the years.  See "Book Group" in the right sidebar if you are interested in some of our adventures.  

At the last meeting one of the members loaned me a book " The Book Club Cook Book"  by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp (2004 Tarcher/Penquin).  Since I hardly ever cook I was interested mostly in the pages that talk about book groups around the country.  I found that most of the groups started in the late 1990s and mostly have fewer than a dozen members.  The listing is done by book titles A to Z and each has a recipe, a report on a group and some other tidbits of interest.  It was interesting to see that many of them have the same favorite books, which are also some of the favorites of our group.  Most books mentioned are contemporary fiction although some date back to The Good Earth and Grapes of Wrath.  About the oldest is Middlemarch by George Eliot, published in 1871.

Of course, being a reader, I had to read the recipes also.  They are widely varied and many look like they would be a treat.  Maybe I will take up cooking again.  They are all connected in some way with the book mentioned and some groups specialize in serving foods related to their current book selection.  

I recommend this book for anyone who is both reader and cook.  Perhaps it is available at your library.   

The Book Group Christmas  12-15-10
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Wednesday Watermelon Salad 06-25-14

This is the best summer salad.  It is a recipe shared by Meg in Australia back in July 2009. 

There aren't any exact measurements, but this is what I use for just one dinner size serving:

3 - 4 radishes sliced

half a small can of sliced black olives

1/2 naval orange cut into small pieces

2 cups of watermelon squares - about an inch.

a couple hands full of mixed greens OR baby spinach OR what have you.

Toss with a dressing made with olive oil and fresh lemon juice. 

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