Alternate Doctored Up Tomato Soup

Still feeling ill and still needing to go grocery shopping, I had tomato soup again tonight. I remembered a good recipe for homemade tomato soup in my Cooking From Quilt Country cookbook, so I found it again and used it to make my canned tomato soup a little more tasty. While the garlic powder was good, this version makes a more complexly flavored soup. I simply added 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1 whole clove, a couple dashes of cinnamon, a pinch of allspice, and a couple dashes of Tabasco sauce. It's amazing how well the spices blend with the tomato. Of course, I also make this with milk. No watery tomato soup for me. I'll settle on something like that when I'm a starving and struggling actress in New York City; at which point I will enter my local, shabby diner and order a mug of hot water into which I will pour a healthy amount of ketchup. But until that day, milk in my condensed tomato soup from a can.

Pancakes with Banana Sauce

I forgot to get syrup at the store last weekend. So I made pancakes and used two ripe bananas to make a sauce for them. If you like banana bread, you'll like this.

Pancakes (enough for 2 to 3 people)

1 1/4 c buttermilk
1 egg
1 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and egg.
Add the remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.
Allow to sit while you make the banana sauce.
Once the banana sauce is started, heat a skillet over medium to medium-high heat.
Once the skillet is hot, lower heat to medium to medium-low.
Use a paper towel to spread some shortening on the skillet before the first pancakes go on.
Using 1/4 c measuring spoon, put three measures of pancake batter on the skillet.
Once pancakes are bubbly and starting to just dry along the edges, flip. Do not press down on the pancakes - that makes them flat.
Allow to cook on other side a few moments, remove and add more pancake batter to the skillet.
I keep the pancakes warm by putting them on a plate covered with aluminum foil.

Banana Sauce

2 ripe bananas that have started getting a lot of brown spots
1/4 c sugar
2 tbsp molasses
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter

Put bananas in a sauce pan and mash.
Add sugar and molasses and stir.
Cook over medium-high heat, bring to a boil.
Stir in the salt and butter.
Once butter is melted, turn off the heat and allow to cool a bit before serving.

Experimenting with Cranberries

Breakfast is a fun thing to experiment with. This morning we decided to have french toast, and I decided to make a cranberry syrup to go with it. I've done some experimenting with cranberry syrups before, but this time I added cinnamon and maple flavoring. Before I was just making a fruit syrup (sugar, water, fruit, maybe some vanilla extract or vanilla bean). We also made scrambled eggs.

French Toast
11 slices of homemade bread
6 eggs
1/4 c milk
2 tbsp cinnamon and sugar mix
butter for the pan

Beat eggs in a shallow dish.
Add milk and beat.
Add cinnamon and sugar mix and beat.
Heat a skillet (we use cast iron) over medium-high heat.
Once hot, reduce heat to medium to medium-low.
Put butter on pan and spread around.
Dip each side of two slices of bread in the egg mixture and place on the skillet.
Brown the first side, turn, and brown second side.
Too keep warm while making the rest of the toast, place on a plate in an oven set to about 200 degrees.

Cranberry Syrup
1/2 bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 c water
1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp mapeleine (maple flavoring)
1 tsp cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a sauce pan over medium-high heat.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low.
Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Allow to cool a bit before serving.

Scrambled Eggs

8 eggs
1/2 to 1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp butter

Beat eggs well.
Add pepper and salt and beat until blended.
Melt butter in a steel skillet over medium to medium-low heat.
Once the pan is hot, add the eggs.
Allow a layer to cook and scrape up.
Repeat until the eggs are cooked, but still glistening.
Do NOT overcook, unless you like rubber for breakfast.

Never tease a starving person

The other night I went to the gym for an intense aerobic workout (heavy bag, 3 1/5 mile run and 20 minutes on the stationary bike). I would have done some stair climber as well, but my ride had arrived. On the the way home, hunger pangs stabbing, I inquired as to what we were having for dinner. The response? "Leftover pea soup." I love pea soup, but like anything, I don't like eating it repeatedly within a short period of time. The excuse was that mom didn't feel like cooking and he was "lazy." I was angry. I admit it. The result was a less than enthusiastic response when I found out he HAD cooked. I snapped. I'm ashamed. I blame hunger and a not-so-hot day. A sorry excuse I guess.
Now, the family joke is, when dad cooks dinner is one of the following:
Frozen pizza
Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup
Chicken cacciatore
(and more recently:)
meatloaf
spaghetti

That evening, though, dad had gotten creative. A pork dish reminiscent of Caribbean dishes, asparagus, and (sweet) cornbread. It was delicious. I ate a bit before taking a picture. *sheepish grin* This is how he described making this dish.
He found a recipe for stuffed pork and sort of followed it, but not really. He chopped half of a large onion, an apple and some walnuts. He cooked the pork loin, which he had sliced, in a pan with water. He sauteed the onion, apple and walnuts together and added undefined amounts of sage, marjoram, cinnamon, salt, pepper and honey. The result was a slightly sweet pork dish. It was so good. The asparagus was boiled. The cornbread (from a Land o' Lakes cookbook) was baked. My angry stomach monster was assuaged. Thanks Dad!

Apple Walnut Muffins

I made these this morning. They were very good, though I may add a bit more liquid to them next time, or make sure to remember that the new oven takes less time than the old one to bake most things. Except cornbread. That still takes more time than the cookbook allots. Who knows why. Anyways, here is the recipe, adapted from a sweet muffin recipe in an old cookbook.

Apple Walnut Muffins

1 egg
1/2 c buttermilk
1/4 c oil
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
just shy of 1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tart apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1/2 c walnuts, chopped

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 to 15 muffin cups. Beat the egg with a whisk until foamy, then slowly beat in the buttermilk and oil. Place flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in the bowl, and fold until mostly moist. Add apple and walnuts, and fold into the batter. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full and bake for 18 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool in pans for about 5 minutes, then remove (this prevents completely mashing the muffins, which inevitably happens when you try to take them out while hot).