Strawberry Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup

Boy, have I got a treat for you. (Assuming you like strawberries)

Do you ever go through your freezer and find something that you totally forgot that you had, and get all excited about it? That happened to me the other day, with a gigantic bag of strawberries that I forgot I had. I mean, this is the bulk's bulk of strawberries. (Okay, I may be exaggerating a little, but it was a pretty big bag.)

So last night as I was trying to decide on what we have in the house to actually cook with (we need to grocery shop, oops.), I remembered those strawberries and immediately knew what I wanted to do!

(Well, immediately after I decided I should save posting my "skinny" strawberry milkshakes for summertime.)

I asked Hubby if he was okay with having breakfast for dinner and he kind of scoffed a little at the idea that I even had to ask, and said, "Always!"

P.S., this was my first time ever making from-scratch pancakes! Normally I go with pancake mix.

All recipes from allrecipes.com! (Sorry, I'm a smart alec.) Only the most minor adjustments, here.

Let's get down to it:

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Yields: About 15 small pancakes

Ingredients:

For the pancakes:

1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 cup milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons melted butter
3/4-1 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

For the syrup:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 cups strawberries

Directions:

1. Let's start with the strawberries to get them out of the way. If you're using frozen like me--

--make sure you thaw all three cups first. I just microwaved them on 70-80% power for 5 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes. They don't need to be 100% thawed.

Take one cup and finely dice it, almost a mince.

Set all of them aside.

2. Put all of your dry ingredients for the pancakes into a bowl: the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix well.

Add in all of the wet ingredients: milk, egg and butter, and mix those well, too. This was a pretty sticky batter.

Pile in the strawberry chunks, and mix that too.

3. While you heat up your "griddle" (I used a skillet) over medium-low heat, let's get started on the syrup.

In a small sauce pan, pour in the water.

Then the sugar. The recipe calls for 1 cup but I found it to be a little too sweet, so feel free to do 3/4 cup instead.

4. Mix those together, then start up the heat on low. Stir occasionally until the sugar totally dissolves into the water, which will be about 5 minutes.

5. Add in the strawberries and bring to a boil.

6. Meanwhile, your griddle has been patiently waiting, so let's get to that.

Plop a large bunch of batter onto your sprayed or buttered skillet.

You'll know the pancakes are ready to flip when the edges start to lift off the pan a little, as if they're asking to be flipped. Sometimes they'll bubble, too--It'll be about 3-4 minutes per pancake.

Flip those suckers and cook until the other side is set as well.

So pretty!

I may or may not have eaten the top one almost immediately after this photo.

...And then maybe bitten the second. Just a little. (I was hungry.)

Ahem.

7. Continue doing that until you have used a little over half of your pancake batter.

(And may or may not have snacked on that second pancake the whole way through.)

Then, because chocolate, add in some chocolate chips for good measure. It's like chocolate-covered strawberries in pancake form!

The chocolate chips melt super easily on the pan, though, FYI. You may have chocolate streaks that need cleaning before the next sets of pancakes go on.

8. Let's check your syrup, now.

Mmmmm.

I love that reddish-pink foam that it gets.

Make sure you stir it frequently or else the strawberries will stick to the bottom of the pan. It needs about 10 minutes boiling, and then it needs to cool almost completely to start to thicken up.

We didn't wait that long. It's still delicious when it's runny.

You can keep the extra syrup for another time--I just used the little container that my vegetable bouillon cubes come in, rinsed out of course. (Because bouillon-flavored strawberries probably won't be a hit with anyone.)

Slap some pancakes on a plate (some with and some without chocolate chips, of course).

Drizzle some of that deliciously sweet syrup on there, and you're all set!

I was very impressed with both of these recipes and had one pancake too many. (Okay, three.)

It's okay, we walked it off afterward.

Enjoy!


Kitchen Credits:

Pancake recipe: Here

Syrup recipe: Here


And now, for the first time ever, printable directions without all the step-by-step photos! Hopefully I'll have a print button, soon. I'll be going back and slowly adding them to past recipes, too.


Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Yields: About 15 small pancakes

Ingredients:

For the pancakes:

1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 cup milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons melted butter
3/4-1 cup frozen strawberries, thawed
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

For the syrup:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 cups strawberries, thawed

Directions:

For the syrup:

1. In a small sauce pan, combine water and sugar.

2. Over low heat, stir semi-frequently until sugar is fully dissolved, about five minutes

3. Add  strawberries and bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes and let cool completely before using.

For the pancakes:

1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Add in milk, egg, and butter and mix well. (The batter will be sticky)

3. Mince strawberries and mix into batter.

4. Spray a large skillet with non-stick cooking spray and heat over medium-low. Spoon about a 1/4 cup of pancake batter into the pan. (A large skillet should be able to fit 3-4 pancakes at a time.)

5. After about 3-4 minutes, when the edges of the pancakes are starting to lift off the pan and bubble, flip to other side. Cook another 3-4 minutes.

6. If desired, add chocolate chips to half of the batter and repeat steps 4-5.

Serve with syrup. Enjoy!

Pasta e Figioli and 3-Step Garlic Bread

Recently, I've decided to take a page from the book of the 101 Cookbooks blog. The author started her blog because she had a habit of buying lots of cookbooks, and still making the same dishes she knew over and over again. So, her blog began as an outlet for her to actually try recipes from her cookbooks.

I'm guilty of the same thing: I love cookbooks but I actually rarely cook from them. I also love pinning recipes on Pinterest, but rarely make them. Same with recipes from blogs I like. The list goes on, all containing uncooked recipes that I say, "Hmm, that sounds good!" about, and then promptly forget.

So! I'm going to make an effort to actually start to use my cookbooks and my pinned recipes. Of course, I make no promises on altering the recipes (which is a good thing because I started with this one!).

Today, we're making one of my mom's favorites: Pasta e figioli, AKA pasta fazool AKA pasta and beans. I mostly followed Food Network's Recipe, but as usual made some changes to fit mine and Hubby's tastes--and our pantry, too.

Let's get down to it:

Prep time: 5-10 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 carrot, peeled

1 tablespoon dried basil

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1 pinch garlic powder

5 cups vegetable bouillon

1 cup water

2 plum tomatoes, chopped

1 can tomatoes with chilies

1 can northern white beans (reduced sodium), rinsed and drained

1 cup macaroni
Salt, to taste

Parmesan cheese, to serve

Directions:

1. Chop your onion.

Mince your garlic.

Pour your olive oil into a large soup pot.

Add in the onions and garlic over low heat until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes.

2. Chop your peeled carrot.

Throw that in, too. (Or gently place it, your choice.)

Cook for another 3-5 minutes.

3. While that's going, chop your tomatoes. (It was about here that I started to really regret the color choice of my cutting board for a tomato-based dish...That was a little dumb of me.)

Add your basil and oregano to the soup pot.

Stir well, and immediately add the tomatoes.

Make sure with the tomatoes and chilies that you don't drain them--the juice adds flavor, too!

Also add in the bouillon and the water.

I have a problem with kale (the problem of liking it and having it in the house) so I chopped some of that and threw it in, too.

4. Cover and bring to a rolling boil. I didn't follow Food Network's directions and simmer for 30 minutes, since I let all the veggies get more tender than they did before the stock was added. I only simmered for about 5-7 minutes before grabbing my pasta.

I used macaroni, but since macaroni is a liquid-guzzler, feel free to use another pasta like penne or ditalini like Food Network calls for.

Add that in now, along with the beans.

While the pasta is boiling, also add in the garlic and onion powders.

Follow the directions on the pasta box for how long to cook it, and then call this baby done!

Here she is, by herself.

But wait, there's more! 99% of soups are better with some parmesan on top. (Shredded, this time)

And if you're feeling like taking it one step, further, add some easy-peasy 3-step garlic bread:

Prep time: 2 minutes

Cook time: 2 minutes

Serves: 2 (or 4, if you just want a teensy bit per person)

Ingredients:

4 slices bread (I used tomato basil bread from Panera)

3 tablespoons butter (more or less as needed)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (more or less as needed)

Directions:

1. Toast your bread.

2. Butter your bread.

3. Sprinkle a very thin layer of garlic powder on top of your bread.

The end! It's the most difficult thing you'll make all week, I know--I'm sorry. Tastes great with the pasta e figioli, though!

In fact I am now regretting that I didn't bring any bread to go with my leftovers for lunch, today.

Oh, well.

Enjoy!

"Turkey" Pot Pie Pockets

I may have a bit of a problem with pot pies.

I mean, it's a good problem to have. The "I want to make and eat them all the time" kind of problem. Hubby certainly doesn't seem to think it's a problem.

I do worry sometimes that you guys will get sick of my "Mrs. Webb's One Million and One Ways to Make Pot Pies." Maybe someday I'll have a pot pie cookbook.

(Realistically there have only been two recipes before this. I like to exaggerate just a little, sometimes.)

In any case...I decided this time that a calzone sort of treatment for these would be a good and tasty idea. And oh, my, was I right.

Let's get down to it:

Prep Time: 30-45 mins

Cook time: 1 hr 35 mins (if "turkey" not pre-cooked)

Serves:

Ingredients:

For the crust:

2 cups flour
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp salt

For the filling:

1 Quorn Turk'y Roast
1 small package frozen casserole veggies*, about 3-4 cups, thawed and chopped
2/3 cup frozen peas
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 cups bouillon (see Step 4)
3 heaping tablespoons flour
1/2 stick butter (or 1/4 cup)
(*Potatoes, carrots, celery & onions)

Directions:

1. Make the crust, following the directions from any of my pie recipes, halving it as usual.

To make smaller pockets, cut each pie crust in half an additional time.

If you'd like two large pockets, just trim the edges to make it a large oval.

We did both!

2. Melt the butter in a large skillet.

Add in the chopped onion, and the onions from the casserole veggies package (if you're using frozen veggies like me.) and cook until tender.

3. Add in your tablespoons of flour and mix until it is fully combined and thick.

4. Mix your bouillon with a 3:2 ratio bouillon : water. Since mine calls for 1 cube per 1 cup of water, I used 3 cubes for 2 cups of water.

Add in half of the bouillon to your onion mixture.

Stir until fully combined.

This is about the part that the entire kitchen starts to smell like pot pie and your mouth starts to water.

Add in the rest of the bouillon and mix until it starts to get thick. (This one did not work as well as usual for me, so just pretend this photo shows a thicker "broth."

5. Add in your casserole vegetables and cubed "turkey."

Cook for another few minutes until the "broth" is very thick--the thicker the better since this will not be held in a dish to keep all the liquid in like a normal pot pie.

6. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil and grab one of your halved pie crusts.

Plop some pot pie mix in there, making sure to keep the filling on a flat layer so that the pie crust will fold over it nicely.

Fold over the top half of the pie crust.

Pinch the ends together with a fork.

Use the fork to cut away any excess pie crust and pretty up the edges. Set the extra crust aside. (We will use it later!)

Repeat!

Here's what the big one looks like, following the same steps (although I cut the edges first):

7. Now, you can just pop that the oven if you like and leave tons of left-over filling, or you can do what I did: more ramekins like last time!

Spoon a bunch of the filling into some ramekins.

Top with the scraps of pie crust.

Heat on the tray with the pockets.

Or, you can just double-up the pie crust recipe and make more pockets than I did.

8. Regardless--Heat in a 375-degree F oven for 40-45 minutes, until the pie crust is crisp and just starting to get golden.

This is why you put down tinfoil. Oh, my.

All that gooey stuff breaks right off, though.

Take a look at that beautiful inside, too.

Here's the second one:

They remind me of those little McDonald's fruit pies.

(These are better, though.)

Don't forget the ramekins. They make great left-overs for lunches!

However you decide to make it, you're still having pot pie and life is good. Enjoy!

Kitchen Credits:

-The pie crust is, per usual, a family recipe.