Popover pancakes

I decided that I wanted to experiment with some new breakfast ideas, rather than oatmeal, for the gazillionth time.  I prefer cheerios, but cheerios don't last me very long, since I'll eat half the box in one sitting.  mmmm, cheerios.  So, three days after buying cheerios, I no longer have breakfast food, and end up back with oatmeal.  Anyway, one of the problems with oatmeal is that while I find it totally edible, and actually enjoy it when you take the time to cook it slowly without stirring and there is good chew to the oats and you've put lots of fruits and nuts on top, well I don't enjoy it *enough* that I can sit there and eat enough of it that I'm not starving to death by 10am.  I'm pretty sure part of this is that oatmeal is mostly carbs, with a smidge of protein, and my body is REALLY GOOD at burning through carbs.  So anyway, I decided that maybe I should try eating a breakfast that has more protein and fat in the mix, but I don't really want to be eating bacon and sausage every morning.  That doesn't seem healthy.  And also, it's expensive for both your wallet and the planet to eat meat.  I get sick of eggs really quickly, so that's also not the answer, and I don't feel satiated by smoothies. 

So in a semi-compromise, but also in a bid for deliciousness (though anything vs bacon is hard-pressed to win that battle), I decided to try making popover pancakes.  Real pancakes don't really solve the problem of incorporating more protein and fat into breakfast.  Popovers are delicious, and consist mostly of eggs and milk.  But popovers take a lot of time to bake.  So, the birth of popovers cooked in a frying pan!  But of course, I didn't have milk.  This is a problem, but a solvable one, because I did have yogurt.  Plain yogurt and milk are totally substitutes...

1/2C plain yogurt
1 egg
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of baking soda (popovers don't take leavening, but I didn't have a 450F oven to play with, and I did have yogurt, so baking soda it is)
1/2C flour
1 tbs butter, for cooking
1 peach

So, dump the ingredients into a 2C measure.  This lets you pour out your popovers!  And creates less mess to clean up.  Use a fork to beat everything together.  Melt the butter in a big frying pan.  Wash and cut up your peach (you can leave skin on).  Pour out some pancakes into the frying pan, dot with peach pieces.  Cook ~5min on one side, til the bubbles pop and don't re-fill.  Flip.  Cook another 3min.  Consume!  This made 4 pancakes.

I ate these plain, and they were delicious.  They aren't fluffy like pancakes; they're custardy like popovers.  Tomorrow, I am going to try putting some more yogurt and some rhubarb jam on top.  And maybe sprinkle with walnuts.  And maybe play with using a different flour than white flour, or see what happens when I use some almond flour in there with regular flour.  Or, since these aren't sweet except for the peach parts, I could go the savory route, and top with cheese, or avocado, or tomatoes and basil...

And hey, it's after 11am, and I'm not dying of starvation!

Though now that you mention it...

Nutritional breakdown -
Popover pancakes with a peach: 560cal, 22g fat, 73g carb, 23g protein
Oatmeal with a peach and walnuts: 360cal, 13g fat, 52g carb, 11g protein
So clearly, I just need to find something tasty and full of fat and protein to eat with my oatmeal to make it until lunchtime.  Back to the bacon hypothesis.  Or I could cook my oats in milk, but that makes it harder to clean the pan.  Or, keep eating popover pancakes!

Garlicky olives and panzanella

We got some jumbo green olives from the Greek store the other day, and decided to try and make those delicious marinated olives you can get from Whole Foods that cost $11.99/lb.  I'd say this was a raging success.  We used garlic (lots), preserved lemons, and red pepper flakes, and the result was very tasty when warm, and divine once it had sat in the fridge overnight.  Yum!

Garlicky Olives:
Olives, of some quantity (1-2C?)
A few cloves of garlic
1/4 of a preserved lemon
Red pepper flakes (~1/2 - 1tsp)
Olive oil

Warm some olive oil in a pan.  Dice your garlic and preserved lemon.  Toast the garlic lightly, then add the olives to the pan with the lemon and red pepper.  Cook for a bit, probably 10min, then put in a bowl and serve with toothpicks.  If you have the patience, leave the olives in the fridge overnight so the flavors can meld.  Enjoy!

Clearly, this was a long day.  Ed went out riding his bike and got mega sunburned, but revived upon smelling the garlicky olives, and then was happy to eat some panzanella, which is one of my favorite hot-weather salads of all time, even more so when you have some day-old bread that really needs using.  It's darn tasty, and gets a good Ed-rating.

Panzanella:
1 avocado
1-2 good tomatoes
1 cucumber
1/4 red onion
Lots of basil
1/4 loaf of french bread, or the equivalent amount of other bread
1 lemon
olive oil
salt
butter

To make the croutons, cut the bread into ~1/4" slices.  Toast the slices in a pan with the butter until one side is toasty golden brown.  Remove the bread from the pan (one side should be slightly chewy, one side should be crunchy and taste like butter), chop into bite-sized pieces.

Chop everything else into bite sized pieces.  Dress with salt, lemon juice, and olive oil.  Toss it all around in a bowl.  Serve, and enjoy!

Pasta with tomatoes and basil

Basil, tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese. these are some of my favorite things! Also, Rubaeus beer, which is a beer brewed with pure raspberries.  this makes a pretty darn good dinner, even though Ed is out of town.  Fresh tomatoes and basil on pasta with lots of Parmesan, really is one of the best ways to eat fresh pasta.  I highly recommend you try it!  For the real Alex – experience, eat it out of the mixing bowl straight from the pot!

With this sort of meal, you have to finish it with fresh peaches. Now THAT makes for true summer dinner!  Even better, you can cook it in the time it takes pasta to cook, so basically, seven minutes. Add some olive oil, some salt, and plenty of cheese and you're ready to go.

Nectarine season

It's nectarine season!  Fresh ripe nectarines have to be one of my favorite things ever.  A nectarine imported from California is a totally different beast - hard, mealy, and not that sweet (I'm sure it's the importing part, not the California part, that screws them up like that).  Local stone fruit is impossible to beat.  When you bite into a nectarine and the juice just runs down your chin and covers your hands, that's when you know life is good.  Nectarines are a nearly perfect fruit - they pair with meats, they pair with cheese, they're good in desserts, they're good raw... is there any situation where nectarines AREN'T your go-to fruit?  Didn't think so.  Unfortunately, the season here is far too short.  Massachusetts peaches and nectarines are so delicious, but so ephemeral.  Take advantage while you can!  Yum!

Also, a little St. Agur cheese never hurt anything...