Maudy's Cooking Journal!

Saturday morning is the time day hubby & I could sit down, relax, & have breakfast together. I would not emphasize on the relaxing part because we have routine on Saturday morning. Hubby picks up vegetables and cleans the house while wifey chats with her family back home (oh yeah, we have to keep it balanced). Still, we can still have more relaxing breakfast time on Saturday morning than any other day.

I made pancake that day because he'd been requesting it for a long time. The reason was simple: we had a bottle of maple syrup. I found a very simple recipe from the legendary Mennonite Cookbook. I only make half recipe, which was more than enough for two of us. It really is a great recipe especially for someone that is in a hurry. It took me about 30 minutes from gathering the ingredients, frying, and serving.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Source: More-with-less

Ingredients:
1 cup Buttermilk (I used regular whole milk)
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Combine the milk, oil, and egg. Add the dry ingredients. Fry in hot, lightly greased skillet.

The idea of making Eggs Benedict came out when Mennonite Girls Can Cook website posted an English muffin recipe. My other driving force was beautiful eggs we got from our CSA farmer. The eggs were from the chicken she raised herself. I never ordered Egg Benedict when we went out for breakfast, so this was my first one without any reference what it should taste like. I was full of confident though. What could go wrong with egg-based dish? Right!


The English muffins turned out great. The recipe from Mennonite Girls Can Cook website was very straight forward. I didn't use biscuit cutter as the recipe suggested but divided the dough to small balls then pressed them with hand to form flat round muffins. I also baked half of the dough and pan fried the rest following what's written on the recipe. Hubby and I liked the pan-fried better since they were more moist.


I used Alton Brown's recipe for other components of Eggs Benedict. The poached eggs were fine, but the Hollandaise Sauce didn't turn out really well. Hubby said I put too much lemon juice, which made the sauce too sour. I planned on having this dish for lunch and dinner, but having it for lunch was already too much for me. I think I didn't do it correctly because my sauce was too egg-yolky. It was cooked through for sure since I used a cooking temperature to check if it was done. Hubby said it was fine though, so I might be too picky.

So, next time we go out for breakfast, I know what to order

Granola bars had never been our favorite until Earth Fare gave away a coupon entitled "Breakfast Revolution" couple weeks ago. The coupon included a granola bar for a dollar. We bought the bar and brought it on our hike the weekend after. Since then, hubby loves granola bar. Unfortunately, granola bars aren't inexpensive especially the good ones.

So, I decided to make them myself. After I found the recipe I liked, we went to the store to get the ingredients. Little did I know that the ingredients for the bars could get so expensive. I then realized that those were mostly oats, organic nuts and organic dried fruits; and some ingredients are sold in packages. So I have to make more and more batch to decrease the cost per bar

We brought our first bars to our hiking trip last weekend. That was our fourth hiking trip this past month. Note: The picture above shows a view along Alum Cave Trail. It was a dark and cloudy day when we were there.

Homemade Granola Bar
Ingredients:
2 cups oats
3/4 cup wheat germ
1 cup chopped pecan
3/4 cup chopped sliced almond
2 Tbs flax seed
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
4 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz. chopped dried cranberry
4 oz. chopped prunes

Mix the oats, nuts, and flax seed in a baking dish lined with a parchment paper and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ.
Place the butter, honey, brown sugar, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the toasted oat mixture. Add the dried fruits and stir well.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan lined with parchment paper. Using finger or parchment paper, hardly press the mixture evenly into the pan. Cool for at least 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares.