Pancakes (From Scratch)

I'm still completely stuffed from breakfast this morning... ahh, good stuff!

Time to Prepare: ~1 hour

Ingredients:
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat/graham flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, separate the whites and the yolks
2 cups skim milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
anything else you feel like you want to have in your pancakes (I did half a batch of chocolate chip and half a batch of blueberry pancakes this morning, adding orange also tastes good)

Cookware:
2 large bowls
1 small bowl
whisk
skillet
at least one spatula (I find pancakes are easier to flip with two, though)

Directions:
1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl
2. Mix the wet ingredients and the egg YOLKS together in a bowl
3. Pour the liquids into the solids, slowly and stirring constantly. The consistency should end up being smooth and rather thick. Add your additional flavorings, and if your mixture is too runny, some flour.
4. Beat the egg WHITES until fluffy (you should be able to tip the bowl upside down without the whites falling out)
5. Gently add the whites to the batter. Try for minimal agitation of the batter after this step, as that results in less fluffy pancakes.
6. Have your skillet on medium heat and put a dab of oil on it, pour on your batter, and flip the pancake once bubbles start forming on it. If your stove is on too hot, the pancake will be raw on the inside even though the outside will be done.
7. Enjoy with maple syrup, fresh fruit or the like!

Whole Wheat Bread

I ended up baking three loaves of bread today, and they were all consumed while warm :D

Time to Prepare: ~20 minutes active, 20 minutes passive
Time in Oven: ~30-50 minutes

Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups warm water
2 cups wheat/graham flour
2 cups white flour
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons dry yeast
2 tablespoons molasses
spices (I used fennel and cumin today)

Cookware:
bread tin to bake your bread in
bowl
aluminium foil

Directions:
1) Put the warm water in a bowl and mix in the flour, yeast, and oil. Dough should be a consistency which does not stick to the sides or bottom of the bowl, and not too much to your hand either. Add flour or water to achieve this.
2) Cover the bowl and place it in a bath of warm/hot water to rise for 10 minutes
3) Set your oven to 350F
4) Once the dough has rizen just a bit, mix in molasses and spices.
5) Cover bowl again and leave in warm/hot water bath to rize for 20-25 minutes
6) Place in oven for 30-50 minutes, until top is a nice golden brown.

Creamy Garlic Potatoes and Tilapia

So, today for dinner I made Tilapia on the stove and some Creamy Garlic Potatoes in the oven as a side. Maybe it wasnt quite as AMAZING as last weeks salmon, but it still turned out pretty good :)

Potatoes first:

Time to Prepare: ~20-40 minutes
Time in the oven: ~60-90 minutes

Ingredients:
10-15 potatoes (either red or yellow, but not baked potato type potatoes)
one quart of half and half
one fresh garlic
garlic powder
olive oil
leek (optional)

Cookware Needed:
glass dish to put potatoes in oven in
knife to cut potatoes
knife to peel potatoes
cutting board

Directions:
1) wash and peel potatoes
2) set oven to 350F
3) cut potatoes into thin slices. you can either cut round slices ~2-3mm thick, or into long, thin rectangles with thickness ~2-3mm. It's not a big deal, the smaller they are, the more evenly they will cook and the nicer they are to eat.
4) if you have a leek, wash it and cut it into tiny pieces
5) cut all of your garlic into tiny pieces, or use a garlic crushing thing to reduce the cloves to small pieces.
4) make "layers" in your glass dish. each layer should include: potatoes, olive oil, garlic, garlic powder and leek.
5) pour the remaining half and half on top of the potatoes. The potatoes should be well covered, but not swimming in the half and half.
6) place in oven for 60-90 minutes. The tops of the potatoes may be brown, but the potatoes should be soft. (test with a spoon)


Now for the tilapia:

Time to Prepare: ~30 minutes

Ingredients:
tilapia fillets
olive oil
lemon
spices (I used chives, lemon pepper, oregano, tarragon)

Cookware:
Skillet or flat-bottomed pan
at least one spatula (two are easier for me)

Directions:
1) season your fillets. I used all but the "leafy" seasonings for this, as the leafy ones are more apt to burn on your pan.
2) put your stove on high heat and put olive oil on the bottom of your pan
3) put the fillets in the pan, and wait a while until the bottoms get a nice brownish color, then flip the fishes
4) when the tops of the fish get a nice brownish color, flip them again, turn your heat on medium, and add a tiny amount of water in your pan. This will keep your fish from drying out (it will evaporate out by the time you are done).
5) add more seasoning to your fish, if you like. I added the chives, oregano and tarragon leaves at this point.
6) let simmer on medium/low heat until the fish is done. (~5-10 minutes. it will break apart easily)


I served the food with a salad I made while the potatoes were in the oven before I prepared the fish.

Bon Apetit!

Salmon on a Bed of Leek

Living in the dorms means you either eat cafeteria food or eat out way too often. Sometimes you just crave food that's cooked just for you, and not industrially either. So you find a friend with an apartment and you make a deal with them that if they let you cook, they can eat the results. This series will feature stuff me and a friend cook over the weekends when the dining halls don't serve any food anyway. Oh and by the way, this is really written for everyone who has cooked to the extent of ramen noodles, which means DON'T BE AFRAID TO TRY IT OUT!!!!!

So this past Saturday, I was craving fish, so I made some salmon on a bed of leek (sounds fancy, but is easy and tastes good)

Time to prepare: ~10-20 minutes
Time in the oven: ~30-40 minutes, depending on the size of your fish.

Ingredients:
Fillet of salmon with skin still on
Sour Cream
Chives and Onion cream cheese (you can probably use any other flavor too)
Two Leeks
Dill
Garlic Powder
Lemon pepper
Lemon
Olive Oil (vegetable oil will do)

Cookware needed:
glass dish to put your fish on in the oven
small bowl to mix stuff
Tablespoon
Knife to cut leek with
Cutting board
scissors (for the dill, but optional)

Directions:
1) Set your oven to 375F.
2) Wash one leek, cut off the “rooty” part of it, and cut off any parts of the leaves that look dry or damaged. Then cut your leek into small rings, beginning from the white end.
3) Spread the cut leek onto the bottom of your dish. The rings usually stick together, use your fingers to spread them out.
4) Pour some olive oil on top of the leek. As far as how much is "enough", just go back and forth on top of the leeks, so that it looks like you've put some olive oil on.
5) Take your fish and put it on top of the leeks. To season the fish, pour a small amount of olive oil on it, then squeeze either half or both halves of a lemon on it. Sprinkle on garlic powder and lemon pepper, and then cut some dill on top of it all. If you've never used dill before, err on the side of caution with this herb.
6) Wash your second leek and cut it like the first one. Place it all on top of the fish. If you want, you can apply more olive oil on top of everything at this point.
7) Put the cream cheese in a bowl and mix it with 3-5 tablespoons of sour cream, in order to give the cream cheese a less dense texture.
8) Cover the leeks which are on top of your salmon with the cream cheese mixture. You want to cover it well enough so that no fish is showing. This will not spread in the oven, so make sure you have an even layer everywhere.
9) Put fish in the oven, and wait. When the leeks on the sides of the fish start browning your fish is about done. The cream cheese layer can get a slight brown tinge to it, but remove the fish promptly when it does. Let your fish sit for a couple of minutes before serving to “lock in the flavors”. ENJOY!

I cooked some rice to go along with this meal. Fairly simple and fail-safe, just follow the directions on the box and remember to stir so you don't burn your rice.

What to do with the leftover ingredients:
you can use any leftover leek and sour cream in pretty much anything, for me its kind of a cooking staple. So check back for more recipes incorporating it. I'm sure if you google dessert recipes with sour cream, you will probably find a good use for that.
As far as the dill goes, if you got fresh dill lay it on paper towels to dry. it will take a week or two to be dry, but then you can use it forever (or if not forever, as long as you will likely be in college for anyway).
squeeze the rest of the lemon in some water, to you know, make lemon water :D

That's about all for Saturday's meal, id say its one of the easier meals I know how to make. good luck!

Intro

Im too lazy to write an intro post, but im putting one up anyway as a placeholder in case I want to edit it.