cheesy pancakes

when i was growing up, my mom had a specialty breakfast that we all looked forward to on those relatively rare occasions when she prepared it: cheesy waffles! oh yes, my friends, fluffy white waffles with shredded cheese in them that browned and crisped. then we smothered them in butter and white sugar. oh man. they were so good.

it’s been years since i’ve had a cheesy waffle, but for reasons unexplainable, i woke up thinking about them this morning. i wondered if i could recreate them gluten-free, and perhaps sans white sugar. but i also realized that i don’t have a waffle maker, so they’d have to be pancakes.

while tim still slept, i got out of bed and googled a few cheesy pancake recipes, then using the general idea from two of them, i got to work on creating my own rendition with healthy ingredients. i also made some cooked apples in butter and maple syrup to use as a topping instead of the white sugar.

on this spring morning, we are enjoying cheesy pancakes, watching our baby girl wiggle happily in my belly, and dreaming about the plans of God unfolding in our neighborhood. amen.

a stack of flapjacks

 

cheesy pancakes topped with maple apples

t enjoys a hot cup of french press coffee

we’re nearly 31 weeks pregnant now! can’t believe our amazing little baby is going to be here, outside my womb and in our home, in about 2 months. goodness!

sporting the silly pregnancy t-shirt

and then, because i’m sure you want to have cheesy pancakes, too, here’s the recipe that i came up with this morning. it should be noted, however, that all measurements approximate because i didn’t actually use measuring spoons/cups. i will not be held responsible for any bad pancakes that result from following this recipe to a “t”….

Cheesy Pancakes (GF)

• 1/4 cup oat flour (or just grind some oats in the coffee grinder to make a flour)
• 1/3 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup sorghum flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup plain kefir
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 2 Tbsp agave nectar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup grated cheddar or Monterey jack cheese
• 2-3 Tbsp sliced almonds

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl. In another larger bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, mixing well. Then fold in the cheese and almonds.

Drop 1/4 cup at a time onto a preheated skillet. Cook about 2 minutes on each side, until golden.

Maple-Cinnamon Apples

• 2 golden delicious apples, diced
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Put all ingredients in a small sauce pan and simmer until apples are softened.

Serve over pancakes.

glad to see domesticity making a come-back

i am so glad that this generation is taking back domesticity and the work of home.

i am so glad that it is no longer seen as degrading or slightly embaressing to want to concern oneself with the matters of keeping a house. that now, to knit, to sew, to bake, to cook, to clean, to organize, to decorate… these are now entirely valid expressions of femininity, even in many whom would call themselves feminists.

i am glad to be allowed to listen to those parts in me that long for a rich home life, without so many conflicting voices telling me i oughtn’t want such things.

because:

i like the smell of yeast bread baking,

i love the texture of fabrics waiting to be remade into something useful,

i relish the aromas and colors of a home-cooked dinner,

i enjoy the meditative quality of redundant tasks such as folding laundry or washing dishes, and

i am blessed to have folks over and set them down in a beautiful and calm place to rest.

yes, domesticity is making a come-back: culturally, i believe, but also in my own heart.

7 of 101: fresh bread, sans gluten

well, i’ve made plenty of quick breads in gluten-free fashion. there’s the zucchini chocolate chip bread, the banana bread, the polenta-pear muffins/bread…. all delicious. but the formidable, unconquered terrain of bread with YEAST in it had not yet been explored.

until today.

today my new friend erin came with purpose of baking a couple of loaves of gluten-free bread together. thankfully, erin is a seasoned bread-baker and i am a seasoned user of gluten-free flours. so between the two of us, we knew we had a good chance of success. we did some homework ahead of time, each finding a recipe that looked promising.

1. gluten-free multi-grain sandwich bread by karina, my gluten-free goddess (whose recipes never fail me)

2. gluten-free bread that just might make you cry [for joy] written up on Gluten-Free Bay, but apparently adapted from a Celiac.com recipe

we made a list of all the bazillion flours we’d need and headed out to woodman’s to purchase them all (luckily, i’ll use these flours for future projects). upon arriving home, she took recipe #2 and i took recipe #1. we mixed the two sets of dry ingredients, then the wet ones.

we poured the doughs into bread pans and allowed both loaves to rise a while in a warmed oven, even thought recipe #1 said it only needed 20 minutes to rise, we allowed it to rise for close to the 90 minutes recipe #2 required. (i love the image of a mound of dough in a porcelain loaf pan, covered in a cheese cloth. it’s so wholesome).

there is a lot of waiting involved with baking any sort of yeasted bread. thankfully, with the gluten-free varieties, there is no kneading involved, however. so, we sat in the living room, still apron-ed, sipping on mugs full of rooibos and talked about our life work, future dreams, and longings for adventure until the rising process was complete.

recipe #1 rose to high heaven, almost doubling in size. recipe #2, however, seemed flat. this did not change through the baking time.

while the loaves cooled, we had a simple meal of kale, sweet potato, and black-eyed peas, topped with feta and a side of corn tortilla.

then, along with t, who always shows up once the food is ready to eat, we sat down at the table and tried a half slice of each, with pasture butter spread on top.  we were careful to chew slowly, after sniffing, and noted aloud what we noticed about taste, texture, and aromas. for a few moments we were food critics, though perhaps not very qualified ones.

final verdict: both very decent breads (though i have a slight bias towards recipe #1). they actually taste and feel like BREAD, unlike many gluten-free store-bought options. worth doing again? yes, indeed. though erin will opt to stay with the traditional gluten-laden breads because, well, she can.

thanks to erin for a wonderful afternoon of baking, laughter, and good conversation. not to mention tasty eats.

ruby rice with chevre (a new christmas recipe)

cube the following veggies into 1/2-inch sizes:

• beets (3)
• sweet potato (1 large)
• butternut squash (1 cup worth)
• carrots (2 medium)
• parsnips (3 medium)
• yukon gold or red potatoes (6)
• fennel (1-2 bulbs)
• onion (1)

put all veggies in large bowl and drizzle with olive oil. sprinkle with cinnamon, allspice, basil, garlic powder, paprika, and salt (all to taste). toss to coat.

spread veggies on 1 or 2 large baking sheets or shallow baking dishes. roast on middle rack for 45 minutes, until edges brown and become crisp.

meanwhile, place the following ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil:

• 2 cups pure water
• 1 cup orange juice
• sprinkling of salt
• Tbsp of butter
• 1 1/2 cups wild/brown rice blend (e.g., Lundenberg)

once it reaches a boil, reduce to simmer, cover, and let cook about 1 hour.

once veggies are done roasting and rice is cooked, combine both in a large bowl. after the dish has cooled just a bit, add in 1 container of goat cheese crumbles and mix in (or you could add this to each individual serving on plates).

orange-basil pancakes (and sabbath rest)

i slept poorly last night. probably because i can’t really breath, thanks to this cold i’ve caught, which kept me home sick from work yesterday. but i got up this morning, while tim slept on, and put on a teaching about sabbath, which had been recommended by a friend. (to give credit where it is due, i’ll tell you the teacher of this sermon was Ruth Haley Barton and the title Longing for Rest. it was delivered at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI).

it sorta kicked my butt. I guess I’ve known that I’m bad at resting. but the point was driven home yesterday when i was supposedly having a “sick day”. i slept until 10:30, but when i awoke, i thought i felt a bit better. so i made a smoothie for myself, showered, dressed, and readied myself to go run several errands, then come home to cook a tomato sauce and prepare ice cream mix for later that night. as i got into the car, i realized i still felt like crap and that i wasn’t really resting at all! so,  in an act of rapid repentance, i reduced my errands to one (the only necessary one) and took everything off my to-do list except for the ice cream preparation.

anyway, one part that stuck with me about what Ruth said, was the part about sabbath (or rest) being an act of DEEP TRUST, not to mention humility. she said that when you resolve to keep the sabbath, you will find every week that something or another will some up and scream at you that you cannot afford to take a break. the sabbath takes you the edges of your sense of indispensability and over-responsibility every single week. and when you choose to look at your to-do list square in the face and say, “no, i will rest. God said i needed the sabbath and i will accept that from Him,” it is a radical act of trust, not to mention counter-cultural. so i wrote down my to-do lists and asked for grace to let them go. “For six days i have striven and done my best; now I trust you, Papa, to give what is needed on this seventh day.”

then t and i proceeded to have a perfectly worthless day. we made pancakes (see below), took a bath, saw a movie, ate leftover curry, laid on the couch and read for hours, and consumed some of the homemade ice cream from the day before. i did not cook. i did not email, photo-edit, or facebook. i did not plan menus or make phone calls. it was the first of what i hope will be a string of many successful sabbath days.

so, onto the recipe, which i know you’re dying to snag….

we have gluten-free pancakes every Saturday morning, but we’re always experimenting with new mix-ins and combinations. this one was good enough to make especial note of. sadly, i didn’t photograph these beauties directly, but only a slice of them, plus their reflection in Colette (the french press):

• ½ cup sorghum flour
• ½ cup brown rice flour
• ½ cup corn meal
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp ground nutmeg
• Zest of one orange
• 2 Tbsp shredded coconut

• 1 cup hemp milk
• Juice of one orange
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 Tbsp agave nectar
• 4 large basil leaves, cigar rolled and finely sliced

• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

In a batter bowl, combine the dry ingredients.

In a separate small mixing bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, using a rubber spatula to combine. Gently fold in the chocolate chips.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Pour batter onto skillet to make pancakes as large or as small as you prefer, cooking each side for 3-5 minutes, or until golden brown.

Butter and drizzle with maple syrup each pancake as you stack them.

Makes 3 large pancakes.

savory-sweet stuffed squash

here is one of those recipes born out of creative piecing-together of what was on hand at the moment on a monday night. i was running late one my way home from work, so over the phone i instructed tim on the preparation of the squash and the cooking of the quinoa, so that when i got home, there was only assembly yet to be done.  it was delicious enough to photograph and share, and i’m pretty sure that our boiler room leadership team, who was over for a family business meeting last night, was a little envious as they watched us eat it.

• 1 medium Delicata squash, cut in half length-wise with a channel scooped down the middle
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup of quinoa
• 2 cups of vegetable broth
• 2 cranberry-cognac chicken sausages (by Amylu), chopped into small pieces
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup
• 2 Tbsp sliced almonds
• 2 Tbsp craisins

Put the quinoa and broth in a small saucepan and cook according to package instructions (10-15 minutes), until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Meanwhile, spread ½ Tbsp butter in each squash half. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put the squash halves, cut side upward, in a small baking dish with about 1/3 cup of water in the bottom.

Mix together the sausage pieces and quinoa. Spread the quinoa-sausage mixture into the channels of the squash. Drizzle with the maple syrup and sprinkle with the almond and craisins.

Cover the baking dish with tin foil and bake, covered, for 30-40 minutes, or until squash flesh is fork tender.

Serves 2.

baking

Setting up to make gluten-free banana bread

xanthan gum, brown rice flour, corn meal, tapioca starch, flax meal, arrowroot, sorghum flour, millet flour, agave nectar… these words (and the ingredients they label) are taking up increasing space in my kitchen vocabulary (and the cabinets). they are what gluten-free, sugar-free baked goods are made of.

they are expensive, but they turn out some real delicacies. and they let me get that homey satisfaction of freshly baked goodies, even with my dietary constrictions.

today i’ve got a fresh batch of polenta-pear muffins and cranberry-apple-sunflower seed muffins cooling on the racks. earlier this week there was banana bread. and last weekend we had buckwheat-blueberry pancakes for saturday breakfast. this weekend we’ll try strawberry-multigrain pancakes.

Polenta-Pear Muffins (recipe from the Gluten-Free Goddes)

i love it. tim loves it, too.

“does something magically switch in your head when you settle down with the man you love… something that makes you want to BAKE?” i asked my friend nicolette, who bakes pies on a very regular basis since her marriage last year.

i went on to explain, “you took up pies, and i am now on a kick to master the delicate art of gluten-free baking because suddenly i want very much to have muffins, pancakes, and quick breads around our home.”

“yes,” she replied, “I think it is the making a house a home kind of feel and you want warm and welcoming stuff surrounding you and your loved one and baking is a tried and true homey feel. “

indeed. it pleases me greatly to think filling our new home with these smells, and his belly with these good things.

so this is perhaps the modern face of feminism: we bake a lot (and sew). and we want to maintain the right to be unabashedly feminine and domestic, as long as we know we’re equally welcome to become a CEO.