Pancakes and Paella Re-Launch & Greek Yogurt Parfaits

Welcome to Pancakes and Paella! I’m considering this is a re-launch of my blog, since I’ve largely neglected it for 2 years, and even then, wasn’t all that active for a while.  Why the name? Well, I like pancakes, ALOT; it’s really the ultimate comfort food for me.  Paella? – example of my experimenting nature and desire to cook and eat new and interesting things.

Before we get to the parfait.....a little bit about me.  Know that I am not a writer; I’m an engineer.  So apologies in advance for my overuse of the exclamation point and rambling that may occur.  This is basically stream of consciousness.   Ok, now on to food -  My food philosophy is this – I believe wholeheartedly as Hippocrates said that Food is Medicine.  We are what we eat.   Michael Pollan is my food idol, and these three food rules of his sum up my eating philosophy perfectly:

I’ve been trying to eat food free of chemicals, preservatives, and processed food for close to 5 years now. Some call this “clean eating”, I didn’t know that term at the time, maybe it wasn’t around, but that’s what I call it now.  I’m not going to tell you it’s easy, because it’s not, but it’s a lot easier now then when I started.  Grocery stores near us have A LOT more options now (the Publix Greenwise line is awesome).  I still eat out, especially when I’m traveling, but am more picky about it.  I also do eat frozen meals, I just pick the kind that have ingredients that I can pronounce and generally are organic.  Am I all organic in what I eat? No. It’s seriously too hard.  We don’t have access to a wide range of organic things here in our local town, and I'm not driving 30 mins to Whole Foods every time I need something.  BUT, if you can do that from a convenience standpoint, I’m all for it.   I also realize and am very passionate about economic disparity as it relates to food and health.  I am lucky that I can even choose to eat this way, because I can afford it.  Many don't have this choice, and eat processed cheap food and fast food because it’s all they can afford.  There is no deciding if the organic strawberries are worth the extra $2.  The entire subsidy of the food industry is totally out of whack.  It's no mystery why the most economically disadvantaged also have some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, and other preventable health issues.  Doctors can prescribe pills, but not fruits and vegetables.  Our society needs to fix this folks.  

Back on topic - My weakness is sweets. I have a MAJOR sweet tooth.  Always have.  When I do have sweets, I do try and eat the “healthiest” sweets I can, meaning nothing processed or full of chemicals, additives, etc.  Still not healthy, but no poisonous either.  Also, I’m not perfect by any means when I talk about how I eat.  Generally, I feel like I do a pretty good job most of the time, so if I eat horribly some of the time it’s not the end of the world.   My weaknesses are Sonic hot fudge sundaes, donuts (NOT cake-y donuts, yuck), and any chocolate cake.   I will eat those things when tempted, which means if I see it with my eyeballs.   So yes, you will see pics of donuts and cakes and crazy sweet and delicious things on this blog as well as kale, quinoa, tofu, and kefir. 

Chocolate Ganache cake I made for my father in law's birthday this year

I’m a pretty adventurous eater thanks to my husband Zac.  Not that I was super picky before, but since we met he has really helped me to try just about anything (I'll try most everything at least once), and I’ve found a lot of things I now love that I used to think I hated (like stuffed mushrooms).   We love to eat, and you’ll see a lot of what I post here is of our food adventures outside of our kitchen.  I’m also lucky to be married to a guy that also loves to cook, so we have fun doing it together!  Zac is often our sous chef, doing the chopping and prepping, while I’m cooking.

Us.

 

Our dog. 

So, with this blog relaunch, my goal is to play a bit of catch up and post about what we’ve been up to lately, or at least the highlights.  Also current stuff of course.  Likely all mismatched chronologically.  Here’s a preview…..

First totally from scratch cinnamon rolls

We have a Whole Foods now! Well, 30 mins away, but still excellent news.
Love the free cheese, especially the cave aged variety. (I've never actually heard
of cave aged...)

Miami!

Dessert in Key West at a place actually called Better Than Sex

Homemade Ribs.  UA football game on TV.  Good day. 

My first Wisconsin cheese curd

Fresh Alabama farm raised shrimp! Said shrimp cooked in the Quinoa dish below...

Shrimp and Artichoke Quinoa

My first "Sheet Pan" Dinner.  Genius idea whoever came up with it. 

Now on to a recipe! We have both been eating this for a couple of years, nearly every day.  It’s our breakfast – Greek Yogurt Parfait. I make a variance of this a lot as overnight oats with largely the same ingredients.   When we first started eating plain Greek yogurt, neither of us thought it tasted “good”.  I thought it was honestly pretty intolerable.  I was used to sugar laden single cups full of healthy sounding things, but at the end of the day had just as much sugar as a donut, which no one thinks is healthy, yet I thought the yogurt cups were healthy.   Most of the pre-flavored kind are full of not-good fillers and additives too (you need to read the labels).  So, plain Greek yogurt it is, and we flavor and add things to it that we know are good for us, and are filling.  Most of these ingredients are said to boost metabolism too, so that’s a plus.

Recipe:

Greek Yogurt Parfait Breakfast

Ingredients and Directions:

Refrigerated portion – put the following in a small container, cover, and refrigerate.

3/4 cup Greek yogurt – plain

¼ cup plain Kefir (good for your gut health!)

½ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1 tbsp ground flax seed

Non-refrigerated dry goods – put the following in another small container and cover.

¼ cup plain granola.  Read the ingredients and get as plain Jane as you can. 

1 tbsp chia seeds

¼ cup pepitas

1 tbsp almonds, shape of your choice, we like them sliced

Dash of cinnamon.

This recipe is for a Zac portion size.  I make mine with just a little less of everything, I don’t have exact measurements, just a little less.  You can play around with the exact amount that makes you full and keeps you full.  Greek yogurt has a ton of protein, a good reason to use that vs non-Greek varieties.

Some hints:  Grind your own flax seed with a coffee grinder (don’t use it for coffee and this though). It’s much cheaper and is better for you.  Keep flax seed (whole or ground) in the refrigerator as it goes bad quickly. Frozen blueberries can sometimes be better as when they thaw, they release juices which end up flavoring the yogurt once you mix it all up.  Score.  Also, the reason to package these separately is so the dry good don’t get mushy.  Mushy is not tasty. Each Sunday we generally make enough servings for the entire week, stack up the yogurt/blueberry containers in the fridge, and stack up the dry goods on the counter.  Easy grab and go each morning before work!

Also feel free to sub in walnuts or any other nut in place of the almonds too.  Almonds have more of a metabolism boosting effect than some other nuts, which is why we chose them.   I’m still waiting for a grass-fed Greek plain yogurt to be available here, that would be the ultimate!

I’ll post my overnight oat variation soon!  Overnight oats are awesome.  I despise regular hot oatmeal (consistency is just awful, right?) but love overnight oats!

Other posts on the horizon soon (hopefully), in no particular order:

• Shrimp dishes.   Lot of shrimp dishes – (backstory, I recently bought a lot of very tasty fresh locally raised Alabama shrimp, details to follow).  
• Hot and Hot Fish Club  
• Emeril! 
• That time we went to Miami and the Fl Keys  
• Thai coconut-y things 
• Gumbo

  

Me with my very fresh alive-the-day-before super jumbo shrimp!

Weekend Getaway - Charleston SC

The weekend before Thanksgiving Zac and I spent Thursday - Sunday on a long weekend trip to Charleston SC and Savannah, Georgia.  I detailed our amazing meal at Husk in Charleston here, check it out.  Friday began with work, but by midday we were ready to conquer historic Charleston. We started off with lunch at Slightly North of Broad, or S.N.O.B.  

We started with a couple of appetizers, the Butternut Squash Bisque with pecan crumble, creme fraîche, and Steamed Local Clams parsley, roasted garlic cream, grilled baguette. 

For an entree, Zac ordered the Shrimp and Grits with house sausage, country ham, tomatoes, green onions, Geechie Boy grits.

I had one of the specials, which was sauteed shrimp with vegetables and avocado salad. All the food was good, shrimp and grits was probably my favorite!  Bisque had the perfect consistency, it was surprisingly light and airy.

After lunch we set about exploring the peninsula of historic Charleston on our own self paced walking tour.  Charleston is a beautiful city, and I particularly enjoyed the area south of Broad on Meeting Street. Below is the Calhoun mansion, so pretty! 

We walked down to the tip of the peninsula to Battery street and park.  The blue skies, blue water, and trees (and perfect upper 50s low 60s temps) made the park a perfect place to take a break and enjoy the scenery!

Ft Sumter in the distance

Along the bay on E Battery

Zac in front of the cobblestone Vendue Range, cute street!

For dinner we headed southwest of Charleston to the Folly Beach area to Bowens Island Restaurant. We passed the restaurant and went all the way to Folly Beach to catch a glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean, and got there just at sunset! 

Folly Beach

We watched the sun completely set over at Bowen's Island Restaurant, which is a few minutes inland from the Ocean.  What a show!  A small boat passing by made it that much better, it was beyond perfect.  One of the best sunsets ever.

Now down to business - dinner!  We knew we had to get the oysters, heard good things about them here, and decided to get a sampling of just about everything.  At Bowen's you order at a counter, find your table, and then listen up when your food is ready. Pretty casual place.  For the oysters, they give you a ticket and instruct you to go downstairs to the "Oyster room" where your batch is steamed fresh just for you.  I handled getting the oysters.  We ordered a tray, not really knowing what that meant.  It literally was a tray, like at a cafeteria, full of oysters.

One tray of oysters

Large sampler platter

Frog-more Stew aka Low Country Boil

All of the food was delicious and exactly what we were hoping for! So let me tell you about the oysters.....I wish we had a better photo, or better yet a video of what shucking those oysters was like. It's not shucking AN oyster but taking this huge chunk of what looked like ocean floor, which could have 5-10 oysters of varying sizes on each chunk.  Also, we had not actually shucked any oysters ever, much less thus mass of ocean floor like substance I'm describing.  But we are brave and adventurous, right? Right, we don't even hesitate.  

I dive right in.  Not to brag, but I'm a natural.  Zac said I looked like an otter or some other marine mammal analyzing it's prey, and immediately figured it out as if my life depended on it and shucked away. I cracked the code.  Anyway, it was a LOT of fun.  I shucked and shucked to the point one of the waitresses must have taken notice and brought ANOTHER HALF TRAY that another nearby couple had given up on.  They did not crack the code.   I could have used the towel more effectively to hold them, lesson learned.   Another tip - you can't be afraid to get your hands completely covered with seafood plunder.

Very glad we went to Bowen's Island Restaurant! If back in that area could see us going back there again.  It was pretty affordable too, particularly the oysters (I guess since they make you do half the work!)  Fun casual place with great fresh seafood!

Later that night, we ventured out again to experience Charleston at night and hunt out some tasty sweet treats.  We first stopped at Belgian Gelato on Vendue Range.  I have never thought to put ice cream on a hot waffle.  Given my love of waffles, I don't see how I've never seen or had this before! We ordered one of the waffles with cappuccino gelato, chocolate, and coffee sauce.  It was SO GOOD.  Waffle + ice cream + hot fudge type sauce = heaven.

The night life picked up a bit near Market street, but we were actually a little surprised how quiet it was everywhere else. Since so much of historic Charleston is residential, I guess this shouldn't be so surprising after all.  We had Kaminsky's dessert bar the night before after Husk, and didn't have to wait at all (it was a Thursday night).  The line was now out the door and down the street! Tip - go to Kaminsky's on a night other than Friday at 9pm.

We kept walking, turned north on King Street, passed the College of Charleston area, until we got to Macintosh. Zac had heard good things, so we wanted to stop in just for a small bite (meaning a 2nd dessert, but it's a vacation, so it's ok).  Zac ordered the RC cola cake (with pop rocks on the inside!) which came with strawberry shortcake home made ice cream.  I got a coffee and the home made ice cream sampler.

Ok now we were officially full, but what a great ending to our time in Charleston!!  We Ubered back to the hotel, got a great night's sleep, and hit the road to Savannah Saturday morning.

So long Charleston, thanks for a tasty and fun couple of days!  

Next up - Savannah, GA!  Tune in, post coming soon.....

Thanksgiving Leftovers Sweet Potato Waffles

So it's been a while since I've written anything about the food I've cooked.  I mean a WHILE.  I'm one of those people who takes plenty of pictures and has all the best intentions, but you know life happens and I ignore this blog for months on end.  I post my food photo on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and move on.  Today though I totally want to share what is now one of my favorite waffle recipes ever!   This may be my absolute favorite actually.  I found it by googling recipes for leftover mashed sweet potatoes.  I first found Alton Brown's recipe, which i'm sure is delicious.  I use his classic waffle recipe, and all in all find all things Alton Brown to be delicious.  He is a genius.  But here, I stumbled upon a recipe from the company Nature Box (that snack box company) of all places, and adapted my recipe from there.   I rarely "adapt", which for me usually means I don't have exactly that the recipe calls for so i'm making due, but on a rare occasion i'm making it healthier or truly adapting to my tastes.   I suppose all of the above is true in this case.  Here we go, leftover mashed sweet potato waffles!

I literally used leftover mashed sweet potatoes.  My mom made them for Thanksgiving, so I can't tell you exactly the amount of butter and milk in them.  Point is, you don't need to know, as long as you have some faint idea.  It is important to know if there is any salt so you don't add even more when making the waffles.

Leftover mashed sweet potatoes

Gather your ingredients (this isn't everything but looks good for a picture ;)

I use the "Muffin Method" for making quick breads, waffles, pancakes, and muffins courtesy of Alton Brown, because again, he's a genius.  Mix your wet and dry ingredients in different bowls, then combine.

Wet Ingredients

Dry ingredients

Mix each well before mixing together

Make a well at the center of the dry ingredients and pour on the wet mixture.  Fold them together for no more than 10 strokes! DO NOT OVERMIX.  That ruins it (for years i wondered why my pancakes didn't rise well and it was because I was an overmixer).  It will be lumpy but that is ok.

If you felt inclined to add pecans or some other add in, fold it in now. (Wow toasted pecans sounds like a great addition for next time!)

Let the batter sit few minutes. Now is a good time to go find your waffle maker and let it preheat.  By the time it's ready your batter will be ready.  

I lightly sprayed mine with cooking spray the first time, but found I didn't need to as all the other batches released just fine.  

Now make waffles! I cooked my first one on 3.5 setting, but for waffles 2-6 bumped it up to 5.  Drizzle with real maple syrup (please none of the fake stuff!) or honey.  No butter needed. 

At this point since I'm the only waffle eater in my house, I put them on a pan to cool completely, the bag and freeze for later.  Homemade frozen waffles toast up great later!

Thanksgiving Leftover Sweet Potato Waffles

Makes: 6 waffles.  I'll let you decide how many servings that is. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup 100% whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (only if your mash doesn't have salt)
• 3/4 cup leftover mashed sweet potato
• 1 cup milk (almond or soy also works fine)
• 3/4 cup Greek yogurt (I use plain)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (can use any oil like canola, vegetable, olive, etc)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Maple syrup, for serving

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree, milk, Greek yogurt, melted coconut oil, eggs and vanilla. If the melted coconut oil is hot, drizzle it in slowly while constantly whisking. 

3. Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until moist, about 10 strokes. Do not overmix!!  It will be lumpy. Fold in pecans, if using. 

4. Preheat your waffle iron and let the batter rest while waffle iron heats. 

5. Lightly coat the waffle iron with nonstick spray (if needed). Scoop just enough batter to cover the waffle grid and cook until the waffle is golden brown on both sides.  I recommend using the highest setting on your waffle iron.  Serve with maple syrup.

Tips: If you’re making a big batch to serve, hold the waffles in a 200 degree F oven to keep them warm.   If you won't be eating them all immediatly, let cool and freeze.  When ready to eat, go straight from freezer to toaster oven.  Toast and eat. 

Adpated from NatureBox Blog - Sweet Potato Waffles

Husk - Charleston, SC by Chef Sean Brock

Last weekend we took a long weekend getaway to two cities we'd never been to before - Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA.  Zac had an opportunity to go to Charleston for a speaking engagement.  I took some time off work and we made a mini-vacation out of it.  We live in the South, but for whatever reason had never made it over to either city.  Charleston has been on our short list of places to visit due mostly to  the city going through a food renaissance of sorts over the past several years. What we've heard about James Beard Award Winner Chef Sean Brock and his restaurant Husk pretty much sealed the deal in our wanting to go sooner rather than later.   So off we went!  

We went down on a Thursday and came back on Sunday; Charleston is roughly a 7 hour drive from our house.  We were not able to get reservations to Husk, but found out that at 5:15pm you can get on a waiting list for the porch, which is literally a small porch on the front of the Charleston mansion turned restaurant.  We arrived about 5:25pm and were told we'd only have to wait 20 mins!  So far so good.   Oh, and they send you a text when your table is ready, super convenient!

Upon checking in with the hostess, we were told they had a cancellation, and asked if we preferred to sit inside or outside.  We opted for inside, even though eating outside on a cool November evening would have been fine too. 

As is our tradition for our fancy meal splurges, we created our own chef's tasting menu (they did not have that option available) and ordered lots of first courses to share, and then an entree each (which we also share!).  Here is our menu for the evening:

I won't spend much time on the background of the restaurant, cuisine, or Sean Brock, so I encourage you to check out Husk's website and read about it for yourself.  Also encourage you to watch PBS's Mind of a Chef season 2, on which Sean Brock is one of the two main subjects.   Basically Husk focuses on food regional to Charleston and using heirloom varieties of both produce and protein.   It's not your typical Farm to Table restaurant or your typical low-country restaurant, but the best of all of that.  They have contributed significantly to research and cultivation of many heirloom foods  native to the area that have long been lost to industrialized farming.  Same goes with pork, they are well known for what they are able to create with pork and the variety of pig as well.  So, that being said, we have to order lots of pork!

First up, appetizers.  We order the Kentuckyaki glazed pig's ear lettuce wraps with sweet vinegar marinated cucumber, red onion, Bourbon Barrel togarashi.    The pig's ears were super crispy and very tasty!

Next up - Tempura rock shrimp with tangerine, oyster mushrooms, napa cabbage, red pepper-soy dressing, radish, and cilantro.  Delicious.

Third course - Kurious Farm Bibb with crispy chicken skins, cherry tomato, farm egg, cucumber, radish, feta, and charred onion vinaigrette.  More deliciousness!

Fourth Course - Anson Mill's Farro Verde with preserved duck, heirloom pumpkin, fried egg, and baby brassicas.  This was my first time having farro, and I'm now a HUGE fan.  I recently bought some after Cooking Light highlighted it with other lesser known grains, but hadn't made it yet.   Can't wait! Although I don't think I can get it anywhere near this tasty.  They just rolled this out on the menu the day before, lucky us!

Close up of the farro - duck dish

Fifth courses - the entrees.  I got the Wreckfish from Mark Marhefka with roasted autumn squash and heirloom cauliflower, pecan gastrique, and brown butter.  Wreckfish was very mild and well cooked (never had it before or heard of it before), cauliflower and vegetables were perfectly charred.  The squash was so tender and sweet I almost convinced myself they had given me some sort of fruit by mistake! The pecan gastrique made it even more tasty.

Our other entree was the creme dela creme - American Spot Heritage Pork with Carolina Gold red rice, Benton's bacon, Heirloom kale, lemon, and chilies.   The entire dish lived up to all the hype and then some!  The pork was very terrine like, meaning it was several cuts mashed together in the patty shape.

close-up of pork terrine

We also got all of the sides, which were a skillet of Allan Benton's Bacon Cornbread, Wood fired Geechie Boy Mill Grits with TN Cheddar, and the last dish of Napa cabbage, Mepkin Abbey Shitake with peanuts and black garlic.

Grits and Cabbage side dishes

Napa cabbage dish

cornbread

Grits closeup (notice I have the pork dish now!)

So what did we think?  There is a good reason that Husk is one of the hottest restaurants in the country right now.  It's not just an award winning chef making good food, it's the food itself.  Using the heirloom varieties with so much more flavor than what we are used too is super cool.  If we had to choose just one thing to order again, it would be the pork entree.  Amazingly delicious! Overall a wonderful meal and very glad we had the opportunity to eat at Husk.  

Next up I'll write out all our other tasty adventures in Charleston and Savannah. Stay tuned!