Tag Archives: butter

The pancake dance…with bacon!

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Weekends at our home usually include pancakes.  Everybody knows this, even the little guys. They seem to know the steps to the pancake-making dance and wait as close to my legs as I’ll allow just to remind me that they are here, and how much they love pancakes!

Before starting the pancake dance today I chopped up some nice bacon ends to fry.  This got me to thinking…bacon is amazing.  The last few years we’ve seen it pop up in milkshakes, cocktails,candy and brownnies, among other things.  Why not bacon pancakes? It’s a natural!  First I fried up the bacon…

 

Then I made my usualy pancakes batter….

.(see the official batter recipe below)…

Then I sprinkled a little chopped bacon on top….

Now the flip side. 

Add a, dab of butter and smiden of syrup….

 

 

 

Present my new creation to the kids and……no takers!  Nobody wanted to be the first to sample these.  Well, almost nobody!

These sweet guys gave it two big thumbs (Paws? Phalanges?) up.  They ate those pancakes in about two seconds flat.  They always love pancakes, but this time I think the little guy actually smiled.  Can you see it?

Then Grumpy returned home from his morning adventures.  I offered him some bacon pancakes.  He loooked sceptical.  I then assured him that they had recieved, not one but, two votes of approval!  He realized his caution was unfounded and saddled up to a big plate of pancakes.  The verdit is…3 thumbs (paws…phalanges..whatever) up! 

The Pancake Dance

First, put 3 Tablespoons of salted butter in a glass measuring cup. Microwave (covered) until just melted.

While this is melting, dance off to the pantry and grab a big bowl into which you put 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1/8 cup of sugar and 1 tsp baking powder. Give it a quick stir with the whisk or fork.

Now remove butter from microwave, add enough milk to equal 1 cup. Break 1 egg and add to the butter/milk mix. Stir it up briefly, then add to the dry ingredients. Whisk just until mixed.  Cook in the usual fashion.

That’s it! Luscious batter in one quick (<2 minutes) dance.  It helps to have some lively music on the radio, but even if you stumble out of bed with the queen-bee of all hangovers, you can get this batter into a hot pan in under 3 minutes.  Not that I’d know. ;-)  

Buttermilk Calamity..or An Accidental Cheese

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In the last post (Living on the edge…) I mentioned that I buy fresh (raw) milk at a small farm for my family.  I take off most of the cream to make butter.  This leaves buttermilk. And buttermilk is not where cheese comes from, right?

Have you ever actually poured buttermilk in a glass and sipped it?  Me either.  I can’t bring myself to try it.  It just sounds bad.  My father drank buttermilk.  He swore it was good.  He also said that about headcheese.  Lots of people seem to like headcheese, but it kind of canceled his vote with me, you know?

But back to buttermilk.  It doesn’t look good.  It doesn’t smell good.   After extracting the butter (and this is the current crop- luscious!) I end up with a big batch of buttermilk.  I can use it for fried chicken ( I’ll explain that another day with photos).  We don’t use up much this way since we don’t have fried chicken every week.  Hypothetically I use it for salad dressing too, but in reality we use very little salad dressing.  My kids like things “nekked”.  So all this buttermilk sits in the freezer.

The Buttermilk Calamity:  Tonight I took out just a bit to thaw.  It helps to put a little in with the cream before you start shaking the butter out.  I put that little bit into the microwave (cause I didn’t have my thinking cap on) and set it to thaw for about 3 minutes (see what I mean).  So when I noticed that it was boiling I took it out.  Then I realized that it had separated.  What was buttermilk, now looked like “curds and whey”. It kind of looked bad.  Like really bad.

It didn’t smell bad.  It smelled somehow familiar, and really, really good!  I grabbed a fork and tasted a little of the curd (yeah- I’m like that).  It was cheese! An accidental cheese.  And It was great! I also had the hubby taste it (he tried not to- the wuss!).  After I lovingly encouraged him (to stop being a baby) he tasted it.  He agreed- it’s like some sort of mild, buttery fresh mozzarella flavor.  I then googled “heat buttermilk make cheese” and discovered that there are many recipes for “farmer’s cheese”.  They all seem to be mainly milk, buttermilk and salt (occasionally vinegar).   Here is a link to a video of Matt and Ted Lee making  Buttermilk Fresh Cheese on the Martha Stewart show.   Don’t worry, Martha and I have an understanding.  Like: when there are links all over the video allowing you to share it, I understand that it’s probably okay to share.  So here it is.  Courtesy of  Matt and Ted, via Martha.  BTW, Matt and Ted have a truly brilliant cookbook: The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern.

So, if you have a Buttermilk calamity of your own (well, it could happen!) remember that it’s not a total waste.  Grab some crackers, put your feet up and enjoy a cheese break! .

Living on the edge…with fresh milk

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Tomorrow is Tuesday.  Milk day.  Raw milk.  Contraband.  I have to drive 25 minutes north of my house to buy this stuff.  It’s not legal here.  Makes me feel like one of those bootleggers from the last century. Like someone from the Beverly Hillbillies.  I loved that show.  That theme song still gets to me.

Oh yeah, this is about milk.  Raw milk causes so much controversy.  By law, in most states, cow milk must be cooked.  They heat it to high temperatures, ensuring that ALL the bacteria is killed.  Good and bad.  It also changes the proteins, and destroys most or all of the enzymes, making it hard for many people to digest.   It’s still a good idea for commercial dairy’s.   Their cows are raised under less healthy conditions, and the milk has many opportunities to get contaminated between the cow and your cup. Human breast milk is also raw milk.  No one ever expects you to cook human breast milk.  Or sterilize the stuff.  FYI- most women don’t use any special cleaning process.  It’s “hoist and latch”. 

But this is about cow milk.  I’ve been doing the running every Tuesday for just a few weeks now.  Some in our family are fans of the taste.  It’s also richer.  Especially Jersey milk.  There’s a lot of cream that rises to the top.  You have to shake it up to mix it.  Unless you’re PJ.  Then you sort of pretend to shake it and enjoy a big fat helping of cream in your milk. One person in our family, won’t touch it.  I’m not saying who…. but she recently returned from Guatemala and was quite happy to come back to a civilized country where milk is pasteurized.  She has no intention of drinking “that stuff”.   I still buy her the regular, legal, boring stuff.

But, back to the fresh stuff.  When I get home, I try to take off most of the cream (after I let PJ get at a cup of “premium”).  Usually we use it to make butter.  It’s easier than you’d think.  I pour it into a large glass jar, and add 1 Tblsp of butter milk (the real kind that’s left after making butter) or yogurt with active cultures.  I mix that and set it out for a few hours to culture.  Then, just start shaking.  It takes anywhere from 5-10 minutes to shake the butter out.  After all the butter is shaken out, pour off the liquid (that’s the buttermilk), but save it for another use.  I use a bit for more butter, and also to make salad dressing.  I also use it to soak chicken in before frying. 

Take the rest of the butter and put it into a bowl with icy cold water.  Swish it around; press lightly against bowl, rinsing, draining and refilling with cold water when the bowl of water looks cloudy.  The cloudiness is the last bit of buttermilk.  You want to get it out as it’s kind of tangy.  The butter will be sweeter if you do.  After the water stops clouding up, you can drain the bowl and add salt to the butter if you want.  If you want fancy butter pats you can press it into butter molds; or plastic candy molds work well too.  Or, you can just scoop it into a container and enjoy.  

 

*** Photo of rinsing butter was borrowed from http://www.raisingarrows.net/2010/05/making-butter-from-raw-milk/ 

Amy’s website is filled with great information and inspirational stories.

 

Was Chickens, then Border Collies, now MiniMoos

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Perhaps it’s the stress that makes me this way.  Life gets crazy, and my mind drifts to thoughts of peaceful farms with chickens roaming under the watchful eye of a rooster or two (they think they’re in charge).  In this little vignette is a pair of Border Collies  (who really are in charge). Then I picture goats. 

I never really thought of goats in my  perfect dream world before.  Lately, though, they seem to belong.  What do you do with goats?  I know you can milk them.  People say that the milk tastes just like cows milk.  No offense, but this kind of reminds me of how people say that frog/snake/rats taste just like chicken (have you also noticed that people say “no offense” just before they say offensive things?).  Goat milk is naturally homogenized.  You don’t get the cream separating, it’s all whole milk all the time.  No cream.  No butter.  No ice cream (could you even eat goat ice cream?).  .

Anyway, this is something to consider before becoming a goat herder.  Then I thought “Maybe we should have a cow”.  I thought this.  Even though, at this time, we are renting a lovely old Victorian home in downtown Mayberry.  I do like to think ahead.  I’d love to have a Jersey cow.  We get Jersey milk now.  The milk is so rich; even after we take off the cream (we make butter with it), the remaining milk tastes like whole milk.  Or maybe 3%.  Which probably is whole. Then I found out that one cow, even by conservative measures, would yield multiple gallons of milk.  Every day.  I’d need multiple acres of pasture for her.  And what if she were lonely? Ugh!  I’d pretty much put the idea of a cow on the back burner. 

Then I got an email.  From my sister in law Theresa.  I think she’s my favorite relative.  You know what she sent?  A link (***).  To a story about miniature cows.  No kidding.  They come in all sizes.  They even have mini Jerseys.  How cute are they???  So now I’m rethinking my dream home/farm.  I think I need one of these.  They give about 1/2 gallon a day.  They need at least 1/2 an acre of good grazing land.  That’s like a backyard here in Mayberry.  Maybe I should get two.  Or a minimoo plus a goat.  I’m soooo excited!  A goat and a minimoo.  We could have milk, and cream, and butter, and ice cream .  And mozzarella. And feta.  OMG- I think I just named them!  Ella and Feta.  I think this calls for coffee!

***http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/Small-Breed-Milk-Cows.aspx