Grandma's Whole Wheat Pancakes

As I’ve mentioned other places in this blog, I spent a lot of time at my Grandma Smith’s house during my growing up years. We went nearly every Friday night, then she and Grandpa would bring us home on Saturday. She helped us work on sewing projects ,or read stories, or listen to music, or play games like Flinch and Mahjong. But she always encouraged us to help out in the kitchen when it was mealtime.

Best of all was when she decided to make pancakes for breakfast. She never made it out of a box, and she was quite health-conscious, so we ground the wheat ourselves. Grandma owned a large old wheat grinder that allowed you to pour the wheat into the opening at the top, and a fine brown flour would be deposited in a drawer at the bottom. Of course, a good deal of it got sprayed into the air too, so you never wanted to stand too close, especially because it sounded like a jet engine taking off and the noise was deafening.

The wheat grinder I bought a decade ago is significantly smaller, considerably quieter, and much less messy. Yet I don’t always take the time to set it up and use it. Hence, I often make pancakes from mixes when I’m in a hurry. But every time I make them from scratch I only use this recipe. With my family, I have to triple the batch in an enormous bowl so that everyone can have their fill. They’re that good.

2 eggs (separated)
2 c. milk
1/3 c. oil
3 T. sugar
1 T. baking powder (rounded)
1 t. salt
2 c. whole wheat flour

In small bowl, whip egg whites until stiff.
In large bowl, mix egg yolks, milk, and oil. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix thoroughly. Add flour. Fold in egg whites gently.
Fry on 300° griddle, measure out with ¼ c.
If you want a special treat, slice up some bananas on top before you pour the syrup on—we never failed to hear how that was the way Uncle Bri ate pancakes on his mission to South Africa. So we often ate them that way too.

http://intuitivehomemaking.blogspot.com/

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

John is now in training for his second marathon. Last fall, when he was preparing for a long Saturday morning run, we would often go to Olive Garden so that he could “carb-up” for his 15+ mile treks. Well, our budget isn’t what it once was in the “going-out-to-eat” category, so the challenge now was to create an alfredo sauce to match that of a restaurant. Anyone can cook pasta easily enough, at least I had that part down.

I looked at many recipes in cookbooks and online. They all called for one of two varieties: heavy cream and parmesean or cream cheese and butter. So last week, I made one batch of each. Guess what? They were both pretty good, but the ideal sauce, I thought, was when I mixed the leftovers together.

So this week, I tried a combination recipe of my own making:
4 oz cream cheese
½ stick butter
Melt together and add
1/4 to 1/3 c. parmesean cheese
Blend until smooth and add
1 c cream (either whole or half & half, depending on how rich you like it)
Stir until thick.

That’s it! Four ingredients for perfect alfredo sauce. Granted, they’re all quite fattening, which probably has a lot to do with it, but it really doesn’t take a lot of sauce to coat a bowl of fettuccine. If it’s too thick, add a little milk to the mixture until it is the desired consistency. I like a little pepper in mine as well.

Another nice addition was some grilled chicken. I invested in a small countertop grill that went on sale for half price last week and already feel I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it. Earlier in the day, I took my kitchen shears to two chicken breasts and cut them up into bite-sized pieces, poured about 1/3 c. zesty Italian dressing over them, and let them marinade for a few hours. After a few minutes in the grill, they were a delicious addition to make a perfect Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo.

http:// intuitivehomemaking.blogspot.com