nannerbrot.

Just putting this recipe here because this household frequently ends up with bananas that fall into the category of "no one but me would consider eating them anymore", also fkn known as "perfectly ripe".

What is it with ripe bananas? Or with people and ripe bananas, we can hardly blame the bananas. I know barely a single goddamn human who will tolerate a banana outside of this 24-48 hour window it takes to go from slightly green at the ends to having more than one brown spot, hashtag First World Problems ect ect ect.

Jesus Christ, anyway: optimism! And banana bread. I'm stealing a recipe from Oh She Glows b/c goddamnit I must be even more testosterone-deficient than I thought. I'm also probably going to fuck up what is probably a perfectly good recipe by substituting buckwheat flour for any or all of ohhh-I-can't say-it-again-so-we'll-acronymize-that-shit OSG's carefully-tested options.

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banana bread. 

wet
1 1/3 cups (320 g) mashed very ripe banana (about 4 medium)
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1/3 cup oat milk
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

dry
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (60 g) "healthy" sugar (I accidentally used 1/3 cup this time)
1/2 cup (50 g) rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups (210 g) buckwheat flour (I used 1 cup buckwheat and 1/4 cup almond meal this time)

ALSO: I've just made a version that included 100g of toasted chopped pecans, in which case you can add another banana as well to keep it moist.

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Preheat the Mister Stoves to 160°C. Wait, first buy an oven thermometer so you have some idea what temperature you end up with when you set Mister Stoves to 160°C. Then thoroughly oil a loaf pan with, duh, oil, I mean really get up in there, mash it into the little HEMA logo and everything....and then set aside.

In a large bowl, mash the banana until almost smooth, and make sure you have 1 and 1/3 cups. I ignored this last instruction. I know that I had at least 1 and 1/3 cups. OK. Stir the wet ingredients (ground flax, nut milk (snicker), melted oil, maple syrup, and vanilla) into the banana until combined. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients ONE AT A TIME IN THIS ORDER: sugar, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour. Control freak. Stop stirring when there are no flour patches at the bottom of the bowl. Spatula that shit into your HEMA loaf pan and spread out evenly.

Bake the loaf, uncovered, for 30 minutes or so, then check and see how it's going. My edges were getting a little too dark, so I dropped Mister Stoves by 10 more degrees and put foil over the top of the pan. You're trying to "bake until lightly golden and firm on top". The top of the loaf should slowly spring back when touched. This should take about 45 minutes in total. Place the loaf pan on a cooling rack for 30 minutes. Then, slide a knife around the loaf to loosen it and gently remove it from the pan, placing it directly onto the cooling rack until completely cooled (or to hasten, obviously not my verbiage, the cooling process, transfer to the fridge for 45 minutes). WTF.....I have never lived in an environment where any loaf of banana bread would survive this "cooling process" intact. You'd be lucky if there was half left by the time it was cool.

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here's the goddamn pancake recipe.

I don't mean that spitefully, I mean holy jesus I can never find "the good vegan/GF pancake recipe" when I'm looking for it. This is really forgiving, all you really want to do is get the right consistency and the right salt/sweetness ratio. Since there's no eggs in it you can feel free to taste the batter as much as you want to make sure it's right before you start making them. 

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buckwheat and hazelnut pancakes. 

dry stuff

1 cup / 125 g buckwheat flour
a good pinch of salt, i like to think of this as something around 1/2 tsp
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda

wet stuff

two options here:
1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk + 1/2 cup water
OR
1 cup almond, hazelnut, or oat milk
2 tbsp maple or agave or ginger or malt syrup
1 or 2 tbsp grated coconut if you feel like it
1 tbsp lime or lemon juice (i would say use lime if you're using coconut milk, and use lemon otherwise)
1 heaped tbsp hazelnut or almond butter or tahini, preferably soft. if it's not soft enough you can heat it up in your milk first and whisk til it dissolves

2 ripe bananas, cut into eights (optional)

1 or 2 tbsp coconut oil for frying.


Combine your dry stuff in one bowl, stir to combine everything. In another bowl combine your wet stuff. Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff, whisking as you go, until you have a smooth mixture. If it seems too thick you can add 1 or 2 tbsp of water.

Then, heat your coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat and pour a few tbsp of batter into the pan, optionally dotting your pancake with 4 of those optional banana pieces. Fry on one side until the bubbles appear, this should take 2 minutes tops. Flip, fry the other side for 2 minutes. Serve with date, malt, pear, or maple syrup. And a big pat of butter, mwaahahahaahahahahaha.

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champion sounds.

Damn you Kristy(!) Turner. Another really edible thing that just sounds ridiculous as titled, "Chickpea Omelets."

They're not fucking omelets. They're, eh....cheela. And that is not a sausage patty. Etc, And yet....damn you, Kristy(!)...if I'd made the patties a little smaller, this would've been a perfect breakfast plate that no meat eater I know wouldn't like. The above is non-vegan because I, eh, cooked them in butter, and that's Greek yogurt in the center of the plate. But it could be!

This recipe keeps evolving: lately I've been using fresh green beans and unsauteed iceberg lettuce and the result is very different but also good.

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besan ka cheela (chickpea flour, cabbage, onion and scallion patties).
1 cup chickpea flour
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup + maybe 1 or 2 tbsp water

2 cups pointed cabbage (ugh, what is the real name of this?), cut into non-stringy shapes
OR 2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
1/2 onion
1 cup scallion, sliced
salt to taste

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, stir in 1/2 cup of the water and keep going until it's mostly smooth. I had to add a little more than a tbsp of water here to get to a pourable pancake batter consistency.

Saute cabbage or lettuce and onion in a little olive oil for 5 minutes or so, or until cabbage (or lettuce) is mostly wilted, then add scallions for a couple minutes. Make sure to salt the contents of the pan once while sauteeing. Then throw those vegetables in with the batter, stir to coat everything.

Heat up your saute pan, oil or butter it, throw in about 3/4 cup batter for each patty. Here's what I think the key step was other than salting both the batter and the sauteed vegetables: you throw it in the pan, then cover immediately and cook for 3 minutes. Remove cover and flip, replace cover, cook for 2 more minutes, serve immediately.

That's it! This amount serves 2 or 3.

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anudder whorl.

I am cooking in another world. Elzer has gone gluten-free, and dairy-free, and sugar-free, and she was already meat-free and egg-free and fish-free. You might think that that means there's nothing left, but no, there are things left, you've just never eaten most of them in the forms we're turning them into. Today she made crackers out of seeds. I'm making tofu out of chickpea flour. Yogurt made from coconut cream is doing it's thing in the fridge. Nothing is as it seems. Up is down. Black is white.

I'm trying to quote Eddie Dane in Miller's Crossing, but I don't think I'm doing a very good job (Editor's note:

Eddie Dane: Very smart. What were you doing at the club, talking things over with Leo?
Tom Reagan: Don't think so hard, Eddie. You might sprain something.
Eddie Dane: You are so goddamn smart. Except you ain't. I get you, smart guy. I know what you are. Straight as a corkscrew. Mr. Inside-Outski, like some goddamn Bolshevik picking up his orders from Yegg Central. You think you're so goddamn smart. You join up with Johnny Caspar, you bump Bernie Bernbaum. Up is down. Black is white. Well, I think you're half smart. I think you were straight with your frail, I think you were queer with Johnny Caspar... and I think you'd sooner join a ladies' league than gun a guy down. Then I hear from these two geniuses they never even saw this rub-out take place.
Frankie: Boss said to have him do it. He didn't say nothing about...
Eddie Dane: Shut up! Or maybe you still got too many teeth. Everyone is so goddamn smart. Well, we'll go out to Miller's Crossing... and we'll see who's smart.)

The most surprising thing is that we're actually eating pretty well, lots of little things that feel healthy and taste good. Pictured above: sweet potato pao de queijo, without cheese, so they should really be called something else, but they were a totally viable breakfast food if you didn't eat 6 of them like I did (recipe here, though I left out the herbs and doubled the amount of water). And below is a nice oatmeal variation from Anna Jones, whose cookbook just seems to keep getting better the more weird stuff you try and even the obvious things end up being nice variations, like this: whole oats, oat milk, tahini, coconut yogurt, chia seed, date syrup, grated red apple, coconut flakes.

the healing power of french toast.

Nelson, Potato, me: going to Spain on Wednesday!

I know. In honor of this momentous occasion, let's take a li'l spin in the Wayback Machine to probably the first Spanish recipe I ever cooked, back in 1997 or something. I remember it taking foreeeeeeeever to make the syrup, and thinking the whole time, "Wow, that's a waste of a lot of booze."

The recipe is from the dark blue Best Of Food & Wine cookbook I think one or more of my parents gave to me, probably my first cookbook ever, after the now-legendary 365 Ways To Cook Chicken which was literally the first cookbook I ever cooked out of. Chicken Divan.

Anyway:

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torrijas with orange-flavored syrup.

1 1/4 cups fresh orange juice
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp Spanish brandy
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp orange liqueur
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp port
Zest of 1/2 orange, cut in fine julienne strips
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 quart milk
zest of 1/2 lemon
one 1 1/2 inch cinnamon stick
6 slices (3/4 inch thick) of crusty Italian bread
1/4 cup olive oil
3 eggs, well beaten

In a small nonreactive saucepan, combine the orange juice, lemon juice, brandy, orange liqueur, port, orange zest, and sugar. Bring to a gentle boil over moderately low heat and simmer until the liquid has reduced to 1 1/4 cups, about 25 minutes. Set aside. (The syrup can also be made the day beforehand and refrigerated.)

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk with the lemon zest and cinnamon stick; bring to a simmer over low heat, and let steep for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place 3 bread slices in a single layer in a baking dish. Pour half the milk over the bread and let sit for a few minutes.

Warm the syrup if necessary. Heat a large heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil.

Carefully dip the soaked bread in the beaten eggs and turn to coat both sides, then place in the skillet. Cook, turning once, until nicely browned and firm, 3 to 4 minutes per side. repeat with the remaining olive oil and bread.

Arrange the torrijas on a platter and drizzle with the warm orange syrup. Pass the remaining syrup on the side.

gas.

Gluten Avoidance Syndrome continues, and not only does it continue but it's now done gone airborne: the Mara is now also experimenting with the GF lifestylez. So yesterday we made something which needs a new moniker, a name other than cabbage lasagna, which is what it was but man does that not sound appetizing, how about lasagne di cavolo, anyway the cooking process needs some refinement (what to do about all the excess liquid per esempio) but the results were extremely lasagne-esque, especially the next day out of the fridge when they tasted like cold pizza; and hey check out that random semicolon there, today MT made a GF Q, AIWRFG.

Initials got contagion as well. MT made a gluten-free quiche, and it was real flippin güt.



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caramelized onion and gouda quiche.

2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp dried thyme
up to 1/2 tsp garlic powder, to taste (optional)
salt to taste
black pepper to taste

Combine all of the above, press it into a 9 or 10 inch pie pan, going up the sides at least an inch or so. Bake for 10 min at 175C/350F. Remove and let cool.

2 onions, sliced thin
1 cup canned, sliced mushrooms, drained, or, yes, fresh if you feel like it
1 knob butter
pinch thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the above together and cook over low heat til onions are caramelized, adding a little more butter if necessary.

6 eggs, beaten with a fork
1 cup Gouda or other softish and mild but interesting cheese, shredded
pinch salt
pinch pepper
Parmesan or other hard cheese, for grating on top

Combine sauteed ingredients with eggs and shredded cheese mixture, pour into crust, place the whole thing on a tray and bake in oven at 175C/350F on a middle rack for 20-25 min, keeping an eye on it.

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shakshouka.

Shakshouka. A good thing to do for a warming breakfast if you've made too much red sauce for your previous two days' Italian needs (yesterday's arancini risotto and the day before's unprecedented chicken parm casserole).

To your remaining red sauce, add a bunch of toasted cumin seed, dried thyme, and some crushed red pepper. Cook it down some, ten minutes or so, then lay a couple of eggs in there (make wells first if you want them to look pretty), cover, and cook for 4 minutes for still-runny yolks or until eggs are set to your liking. Throw some chopped cilantro, crumbled feta and pul biber on there afterwards and blast your sinuses out. The Wikipedia article says that you can/should even serve it with zhoug, which next time I maybe will.

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Chronology break: Day Two of shakshouka (after the Top Chef Brazil dream) was decorated with a pesto that I'd pestled up out of wilting arugula (1 cup), nearly stale pistachios (1/4 cup) and spotty basil (1/4 cup), plus garlic (3 cloves), salt and olive oil (to taste). Even better than the first day, fresh garlic and herbs bring a nice zing.

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here's looking at you.

This was designed to be a big healthy breakfast for a busy day of physical and mental activity, or at least what passes for those two things in my life, and it was so tasty and satisfying AND healthy-seeming that I would love to do it on a more frequent basis. Look at how excited I sound.

It does however have a couple semi-luxury items, smoked salmon (€2.99/100g) and watercress (€1.89/100g). Obviously those prices aren't breaking the bank, but breakfast-wise it's more of a budget hit than say an egg and toast. I should start looking into how much cheaper smoked salmon snippets are (these are the non-beautiful offcuts that are a by-product of slicing smoked salmon beautifully). Calorically speaking this was 410 calories as written below minus the shallot.

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soft-boiled eggs with smoked salmon and watercress. 

2 eggs

100g watercress, washed, spin-dried, and chopped rather fine so you don't have to discard the thickest stems. If you were serving this to someone you could separate the leaves from the stems and just finely chop the stems...I didn't care how it looked really, I was just trying to not waste any of my 100g of watercress.

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp potent coarse-grain mustard
1 small shallot, minced, if you don't really have to worry about your breath

100g smoked salmon
2 tbsp chives, minced, if you don't really have to worry about your breath

no salt necessary
cracked pepper possibly, I didn't use any.

I've decided that I like my watercress slightly wilted, so I dressed my salad quite early in the process. Basically, put your eggs in a pot with cold water to cover and bring to a boil. While this is happening, make your dressing by combining the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, and shallot. Once the eggs are boiling, set a timer for 3 minutes and put a bowl of cold or icy water in the sink. Dress the watercress with the vinaigrette. When the timer goes off, gently remove the eggs from the pan and put them in the bowl of cold water. Plate the salmon on top of the dressed cress, then peel your eggs, add them to the bowl and do the green scatter on top with the chives.

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eggs v. eggs.

I had a very unusual day with my fellow American sufferer Phil yesterday. At 11am I was sitting at his breakfast table eating the best omelette I've had in a long time. This in itself is awesomely unusual, that I would be at someone's house for a non-work-related event before noon. Then we talked about Schopenhauer for about 45 minutes and I finally read some of On The Sufferings of The World, about 30 years later than I should've read it (it feels very wrong to get such comfort out of something called "Studies in Pessimism"). A taste for you:

The pleasure in this world, it has been said, outweighs the pain; or, at any rate, there is an even balance between the two. If the reader wishes to see shortly whether this statement is true, let him compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating the other.

Then we went to the Stedelijk Museum via our Museumcards and looked at art for a while, my favorite things I saw being Willink, Calder and Breitner. Then we went and played pool for a couple hours at Sound Garden. Then off to see the Ellington band in the evening. I say off to see, but yes I mean downstairs. In other words, kind of what you'd think would be a perfect Tuesday, the kind that should happen way more often.

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of any of it b/c my SD card picked yesterday to officially finish falling apart, and the only other ones I can find are like 16mb. Here's the omelette as described by to me by Phil. It doesn't look like much on paper, but it was really quite something.

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eggs with eggs. 

1 strip of bacon, diced fine
1 large cremini mushroom, diced fine
1 pinch thyme
2 tbsp butter

1 egg
2 tbsp medium-age cheese, shredded, Phil used a belegen Gouda or maybe a mild cheddar would work too

2 tbsp caviar, he used this suuuuper great herring caviar from Marqt (where his girlfriend works, so they basically have discounted access to everything), I must procure some for myself. But said he'd used other caviars with just about equal success.

freshly cracked black pepper

Saute your bacon and mushroom and thyme rather slowly in the butter, maybe 10 minutes. Throw the egg in the pan, cook for 30 seconds, flip it, add the cheese, close, and plate with the caviar and black pepper on top.

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endless sunrise.

After a challenging transitional period suddenly we're at that figuratively fresh-faced "new" place (again) where, ok, if at this jaded old age we can't stupidly optimistically declare that "anything is possible", we can at least say that "some things seem possible". And that, my dear tiny and not-so-tiny friends, is, well, as we say around here, a vas deferens.

It basically adds up to a comparative and self-aware split-second yay (a la Cage/Kaufman's split-second yay in Adaptation, which is impossible get a purely joyful-looking screencap of), and so if we were to think to ourselves how best to represent that yayness via a diet-compliant breakfast full of the nutrition necessary to power us through today's task list without weighing us down too much, we might turn to the much-ballyhooed Sriracha Oatmeal, which I also found very difficult to get a joyful-looking screencap of as you can see above.

I first heard about this via my dad, who recommended it via email, which is quite an endorsement as he's not a big emailer and when we're not together I'm pretty sure we usually don't talk about food at all. That was four months ago or something, and yeah I just haven't had the right moment to try it. I try it now, using my below adaptation, no I'm not even trying to reference the previous paragraph there's just not a more accurate word.

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sriracha oatmeal.

This was totally edible as written, and got more edible as I got closer to the bottom of my bowl where the almonds and rosemary were hanging out. It was nose-runningly spicy, but in that good way.

The only thing I could immediately imagine improving it would be something a little umami-y, a word we don't like to use, in fact it's not even a word, but as we know from last paragraph sometimes there's not a more accurate etc etc etc. I do wonder if the always awesome almond pangrattato would be a smart addition (they have almonds and rosemary in common, and I think a little anchovy would not be out of place in this mix). And/or maybe a tiny pat of butter on top when serving, which brings up the only problem with this recipe as written: if you were to eat both servings that would be like 950 calories, which, if you're CRONing is more than half a day's calories. If you're me, better to make a half-recipe.

1 cup real oats (not instant IOW)
2 cups water
1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted almonds
1 tbsp soy sauce (seemed like a lot, but it ended up being right)
1 tbsp sriracha
1 tsp minced fresh rosemary or 1/4 tsp dried
1 clove garlic, minced

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 large eggs
salt and pepper to taste

chopped scallions
toasted sesame seeds or maybe pangrattato instead

Combine oats, almonds, soy sauce, sriracha, rosemary and garlic. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes. When oatmeal is just about done, fry your egg(s), I really only do mine about a minute a side if that. Plate or if "bowl" is a usable verb in this context, "bowl" your oatmeal and top with an egg and the obligatory green scatter and probably more sriracha I imagine. Serves 2.

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true, grits.

One gift leads to another. A certain giant man donated some uncooked pork belly leftover from a BBQ at his place. A certain tiny commanding presence had previously donated some real Carolina grits to our pantry.

Today the two met in a showdown of epic proportions (the pork belly and the grits).

This is Momofuku's Shrimp and Grits recipe. Yes that egg is big and weird-looking. But this was a total chompfest, another one of those underdog recipes from the book that doesn't seem like it can really be all that special, but in the end the mix of textures and flavors results in something potentially classic that just presses every single right button.

Quick notes to self: 4 to 1 liquid (1 part broth 3 parts water) to grits ratio (with these slow-cooking grits); grits needed 15-20 minutes after the first 5-minute starch thingie neurotic whisking frenzy; and they only needed half the amount of butter called for, though I can see how more would've been ok. Pork belly sugared, salted and slow cooked as if for steamed buns then dusted with smoked paprika: real bacon would've been quite different both in terms of salt and smoke. Just used vegetable bouillon instead of the ramen broth. The shrimp themselves were pure and great, involving a quick salt and oil marinade and some extra spatula pressure.

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pros, cons.

I've gotten to where I can squeeze a pretty darn satisfying fritatta out of 3 eggs, the idea being that it'll be healthier if I use fewer eggs, and if it came down to it I could make one in the morning and eat it all by myself throughout the day without having consumed 6 eggs before bedtime.

This morning's attempt, however, kind of negated itself in that department, it consists of: three eggs; a whole bag of kale (400g, good boy); last night's roasted parsnips, carrots, and onions (ok, use those leftovers); and yeah, the leftover bacon and reblochon from our tartiflette experiment last week (frown..yes those are leftovers, but...).

It's good enough to make again, I think I'd throw a clove of garlic in there next time, see what happens.

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nooks, crannies.

In other news, Mara made English muffins that look exactly like the real thing. WTF. I hear they're good. UPDATE: I finally had one four seven of them. They're Our New Favorite Thing.

huevos.

OK, the absolute best thing about making too much green chile pork? Having someone turn it into some badass huevos rancheros the next morning (what you're seeing, from the bottom up: corn tortilla, green chile pork, an egg over easy, pico de gallo, black beans, queso fresco, and a shot of habanero sauce)

bluetooth.

Downside: hangover. Upside: blueberry whole-wheat waffles. Upside: Scrabble. Upside: Rosemary's Baby. Upside: more Scrabble. Upside: Thai coconut-turmeric soup thingie, which is still easy and good.

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whole wheat blueberry waffles.


3 eggs, separated
2 tbsp raw sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 and 1/4 cup goat's milk yoghurt (or regular yoghurt as long as it's pourable)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder 

Grease and preheat both sides of waffle iron on medium heat for 3 minutes. Beat the yolks, sugar, vanilla and oil together in a medium bowl. Add half of the yoghurt and stir. Add dry ingredients and the remaining yoghurt. Mix until just blended. Set aside. Beat egg whites till stiff and fold into the batter. Pour 1 1/4 cups of batter into the center of the waffle iron. Cook for 1/2 to 1 minute. Flip to the other side and cook 2-3 minutes. Remove gently with a fork.

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kiss myself.

I just killed about 19 birds with one stone, a pancake-shaped, gluten-free wondrous stone of flax and almond flour. This is by no means a perfected recipe, but it was deeply satisfying and met all of my other requirements too.

But I must warn you: don't go all thinking you're going to make these for brunch or something without trying them yourself beforehand (or, if you do think you're going to do that, please make Elana's recipe instead, below). They're not like regular pancakes. On my first and only try so far, the texture was, mmm....Not exactly mushy, but floppy? Like you couldn't throw one of these, frisbee-like, across the room and have it retain its shape like you can with normal pancakes (sometimes you even come across a pancake that retains its shape so thoroughly that you can pick it up again and whizz it back at the person who threw it at you first).

But these, ze taste. Is good. And they's healthy. And what are you doing throwing pancakes around the room anyway, you fucking infant.

The original concept came from Elana, but someone in the Comments section over there suggested using ground flaxseed and water as an egg replacement, and my little eyes suddenly filled with the pancake equivalent of dollar signs. You know what I mean. Pancake cartoons.

Any any way. This recipe makes a lot of pancakes so scale appropriately: Or: I was only one person so maybe it just seemed like it would've been a lot. Whatever, I did a third of it and it made like three big silver dollar pancakes. WTF, I don't know what I'm talking about. Use your best judgement.

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almond-flax silver dollar pancakes.

3 tbsp flaxseed
9 tbsp hot water

1 tbsp water
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp honey

1 + 1/2 cups almond flour
¼ tsp salt
(¼ tsp baking soda) I didn't use this
2-3 tbsp yoghurt (I used Greek)
as much cinnamon as seems prudent for your tastes, I could also imagine cardamom working here, or well, shit, let's just use the whole spice rack

butter or coconut oil for cooking

+++

Many people who made this recipe on Elana's site said that it burned very quickly, I did not have that problem at all, but then again I was not using eggs, I was using "eggs". Real quick, to make the "eggs", combine the flaxseed and hot water and process until the seeds are broken down. These are your "eggs".

(UPDATE: I made another batch, and totally burned them. Be careful.)

Combine the 1 tbsp water, the honey, and vanilla in a bowl. Add the processed flaxseed, the almond flour, salt, and cinnamon and/or cardamom, and stir to make a batter. Add yoghurt until batter is, ehhh....like a thick pancake batter I guess. Mine was very thick, not pourable. But the final product tasted good texture-wise.

Heat fat in non-stick pan, drop large tablespoons of batter in pan and fry 2 minutes per side or so. Top with a syrup of your choosing. I chose maple. Boink.

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leafy green.

Tiny steps toward New Concepts in Dieting: kale and feta frittata with caramelized onions, smoked paprika and nutmeg. Based on this, pretty reliably great.

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självupptagen.

Yes. Big Bends Nut Sauce is officially a "stringed instrument tuning lubricant", so-called because the area on a guitar where the neck meets the headstock is called the nut, and that's where you put this.

Record-breaking lack of posts continues, with no discernible hint of abatement on the horizon. Today, an improvised tortilla/frittata that was pretty repeatable: caramelized onions (of course); courgette/zucchini; thyme; feta; mint; 6 eggs.

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block play.

Tying up loose ends from Arizona. First, it has come to my attention that not everyone realized that only one of the dachshunds in these pictures is real.

Secondly: hospitality is a wonderful thing. This is what greeted me Saturday morning: hot Italian sausage, the kind of fennel seed filled thing we don't see much of in Amsterdam.

Thirdly. In my quest to use up leftovers, I made an excellent omelette from some of our pizza topping leftovers.

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parmesan-arugula omelette with truffle oil.

2 handfuls arugula, chopped
1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano, grated
3 eggs
butter
salt
pepper
truffle oil

Wilt arugula, add cheese stir til it melts. Drain any liquid off and reserve arugula/cheese mixture. Melt butter, make omelette. Top with more cheese and a drizzle of truffle oil.

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kale frittata.

Trying to eat our way through Dirk's bargain leafy greens, this was a nice change from my standard egg repetoire. We also did it again with escarole/andijvie and that was a totally acceptable variation. Basically caramelize onions to whatever degree you prefer. Then set aside and saute the greens until tender, 6-10 minutes, then add a pressed clove of garlic, turn to low and saute for a minute or two, being careful not to burn garlic. Reincorpoate onions, salt and pepper everything, adding nutmeg and paprika if using. Add cheese, then eggs, and finish. Serves 2 to 4 people, depending.

+++

kale frittata with smoked goat cheese, gorgonzola, and caramelized onions.

1 small onion, chopped/sliced
1 tbsp butter or ghee

2 cups kale/boerenkool or escarole/andijvie, chopped, blanched
1 clove garlic, pressed

5 large eggs
black pepper
possibly nutmeg, and possibly 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
3-4 tbsp smoked goat cheese or possibly smoked mozzarella, grated/crumbled
1 tbsp gorgonzola, crumbled
salt to taste

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