Saturday, September 26, 2009

Oatmeal Pancakes

I've been MIA this week. The internet worked when we first arrived in Sta. Rosa and the morning we left -- at which point I was too busy cleaning and packing to use it. We made it home Thursday night and yesterday I had no writing mojo so I simply caught up on reading the blog posts everyone had written since Monday... between four loads of laundry and continuing with the small sewing projects. I am bound and determined to finish at least one of them this weekend!

Thought my plan was thwarted when I hooked up my Pfaff last evening and the peddle didn't work. But Mr. Fix It husband had it humming along in no time. Thanks honey!

Do you ever have a lot to say and don't know where to start? That's where I am. So rather than go on and on and on...and on, I'm going to share some food related items with you. Because that's who I am and that's what you get. 

We had a most delicious dinner last night that included lettuce and green onions from our garden. Baked potatoes were topped with butter, sour cream, the green part of green onions, freshly shredded Fontina cheese and chunks of bacon. For salad I tossed the thinly sliced white sections of green onions, lettuce and a sprinkling of fire engine red pepper chunks with olive oil, salt and a light Rosé balsamic vinegar. The last item I found a few months ago and we are on our third bottle. It's balsamic lite, in a sense; doesn't have quite the bite a traditional balsamic has, but it does have the sweetness and just the right amount of tang. In my humble opinion.

Hungry yet?

Then how about I share a hearty autumn recipe for those of you in the northern hemisphere. Although those here in the south would enjoy them too.

OATMEAL PANCAKES
*Note: Must start these the night before!!!*
2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats (i.e. NOT INSTANT)
2 c. buttermilk, plus a bit more
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
2 t. sugar
1-1/2 t. baking powder
1-1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 eggs
1/4 stick butter, melted and cooled
vegetable oil for frying
Partially prepare batter the night before: in a small bowl, combine oatmeal and 2 c. buttermilk. Cover and refridgerate overnight.
The next morning, sift together dry ingredients and set aside. In a larger mixer bowl beat the eggs until frothy. Add butter and blend, then add oatmeal mixture. Quickly blend in flour mixture. Batter will be very thick so you may need to add buttermilk -- CAUTION: one tablespoon at a time until it's the right consistency.
Fry pancakes, using heaping tablespoon of batter for each cake, and flatten to about 3/4" thickness. Pancakes will puff when turned over.
Serve however you like: with syrup, sauteed apples, powdered sugar...or WHATEVER. They're your pancakes; eat 'em how you want!
~ brought to you by Cooking from Quilt Country: 
Hearty Recipes from Amish & Mennonite Kitchens

~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, so attempt #3 with the no bake cookies failed as well last weekend.

I Am A No Bake Failure.

What am I doing wrong? I followed the recipe TO.THE.LETTER. They were dry and crumbly and we again ate them with a spoon. Because it is hard to eat the crumbs with the fingers. And eat them, yes we did. Not as good as batch #2 but definitely edible.

Could it be the higher altitude? We're at about 4,000' elevation. Would that make a difference?

Perhaps my ingredients here aren't equivalent to what I'd get in the U.S.? But it's basic stuff and I don't see how it could be that different. Sugar is sugar. Right?

I have not given up, oh no I have not. The fight has just begun! I am off to the store this morning to buy yet more oatmeal. I'm going to attempt recipe #2 again but add more oatmeal to see if that prevents it from being too gooey.

Although gooey is good. Sometimes I'm in a gooey mood.

8 comments:

Skoots1moM said...

go here...it might help :)

although your cookies that you eat with a spoon would be really good over ice cream

http://www.swcoloradohome.com/articles/food/020114_b.asp

Hubs is gone to help with flood cleanup and I'm going to be cooking some stuff to take, don't know what yet...but, i'm sure i've got something I can share. It's so hard to see friends dealing with such messes. and, it's raining again today, we're expecting 2-4" today.

I was laughing @ one of our youth...he noted on his facebook..."I'm lining up the animals, 2 by 2!" You never know what comments they're going to make...he always makes us smile.

Doing laundry today...i was up several times last night with my tummy so I'm going to take it a little easy...maybe some crocheting

Mari said...

Keep fighting! Those cookies are worth it. Although, you're right - gooey is good sometimes!

Christy Duffy said...

Dang, now I'm hungry!

sara said...

man, now I want cookies!!!

those oatmeal pancakes sounds great.

Robin Lambright said...

I am going to give those pancakes a go. We love breakfast for dinner around here!

Sorry no help here with the no bake cookies. I have actually never made any. Are they the chocolate oatmeal kind that you just drop and let harden???

Shalom
Robin

Sarah DeSalvo said...

I make No-bake cookies ALL the time. When I was a little kid, we always called them "monkey meat." Everyone at my school did. I have no idea why, but it seems like no one I talk to nowadays has any idea what I'm talking about :-)

The recipe I use is called "No Bake Cookies III" on AllRecipes. For some reason I am having trouble with their website right now or I would post the link for you, sorry!

I have had great success with it at sea level and also up in the mountains where we live now. I think I boil it a tad longer when I'm making it at high altitude (we're at 5,000 ft.) I don't know how this compares to the recipe you've tried before but I'd be interested to know if this one works for you!

Cristina Elizabeth said...

No bakes are icky. Just don't make them, make the real deal instead :)

Oldfangled said...

Mmm, Oatmeal pancakes sound good. We had a marvelous Zuppa Toscana last night. Everyone loved it. Zuppa Toscana is in no way related to oatmeal pancakes or no-bake cookies except that it was really super yummy.