Ma What's For Dinner?

Serves: 6   Prep time:  30 minutes  Cook time: 15 minutes

1 ¾ c  All Purpose Flour

3  1/2 t  Baking Powder

¾ t        Kosher salt

3/4 t     cinnamon

1/2 t     all spice

1/2 t    ground nutmeg

3 T         Granulated sugar

1 1/2  c  Milk

1 large    Egg

1 t            Real Vanilla Extract

3/4 can real pumpkin puree

In a medium size bowl combine the dry ingredients.  Make a well in the center and add in the egg, milk, and vanilla extract.  Mix until smooth.

Fold in pumpkin puree being sure not to overmix, this will toughen the pancakes.  Let your batter rest for 15 minutes before you cook them.

Preheat your frying pan to medium heat.  You’ll know it’s hot enough when a drop of water skips along the surface.  Melt a bit of butter on the pan.  Using a ladle drop about 1/3 cup batter onto your buttered pan for each pancake.  When you see bubbles all over the top of the pancake, it’s time to flip.  Flip only once and don’t press down on your pancake or they won’t be light and fluffy.  When the second side is browned pull them off and keep them warm under some tinfoil on a plate.

Top with butter and syrup or sprinkle with powdered sugar.  The kids will devour these!  Mine do!

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Serves: 8   Prep Time: overnight (optional)  Cook Time: 40 minutes

This part is optional if you want to make your own turkey stock.

1 leftover turkey bones and all

8 quarts water

S&P

2 carrots chopped

2 celery stalks chopped

1 head garlic halved

1 head fennel quartered

1 onion chopped

Toss everything in a big ol’ stockpot and let it simmer away for 6 hours.  Remove large pieces from stock and strain through a cheese cloth.  Allow to sit overnight in the fridge.  Remove fat in the morning.

leftover turkey cut into bite sized chunks

2 T extra virgin olive oil

10 button mushrooms, sliced

3 carrots chopped

3 celery stalks chopped

1 leek cleaned and chopped

1/2 package egg noodles

S&P

Set  a large pot over medium high heat.  Add in your olive oil.  When the oil is hot toss in your leeks, allow to cook for 5 minutes or until soft.  Then add in your mushrooms, carrots and celery and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Pour in 8 cups of your turkey stock (you can use store bought turkey stock, or even chicken stock if you like).  Allow to simmer for 20 minutes.  Add in your noodles and cook for an additional 7 minutes or until tender.  Serve up with some grilled cheese sandwiches.

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So this is a new one for MWFD, it’s a reader appreciation….

Meet Lisa.

Lisa is adorable, she’s a mother of two little boys, and wife to a cute little hubs, who is pickier than my 4 year old.

Lisa emailed me before the holidays in a panic.  She was supposed to host the Christmas brunch.  This in itself makes me laugh because

A. Lisa is Jewish and

B. she doesn’t cook and

C. here she is hosting her Catholic hubby’s Christmas brunch and

D. her MIL is staying with her for the holidays.

Well Merry Christmas, Lisa!

So she wants to know if I have any good egg recipes for her.  Lo and behold I tell her to check out the

Hash Brown Quiche

So her hubs (and MIL & kids to boot) loved it so much that I got called out by said hubs in the middle of a kickboxing class screaming, “Hey Ma, What’s For Dinner?” and telling me how good the quiche was, even though it had scallions in it….

See it works, even with green stuff.

So congrats, Lisa on a great Christmas brunch!  Thanks to her hubs, Chris, for sending me the photo.  Keep ‘em coming guys!  This is just the first reader appreciation of 2010!

Happy New Year!

Ma

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It’s the end of 2009 folks.  And some team of crack pot scientists put together by the health insurance companies governmental fact finding team came out and said that women don’t need mammograms until their 50’s?  Are you freaking insane kidding me?  And then a separate group of idiots team decided that sexually active young women don’t need pap smears either, and some of us don’t need to get them every year anymore.

In a time when we have the ability to detect not only breast and cervical cancer early but cure it at an incredible rate, the idiots the insurance companies are trying to tell us not to get tested in order to save our own lives?  Well you know what I have for you?  How about a big ol’ SCREW YOU NO THANK YOU.  I will continue to get my tests and make sure all of my loved ones do the same.

As someone who knows way way too many women who have both survived and battled and beat cancer, and some who have succumbed to the devastating disease, I am using this last day of the decade as a call to action to remind us we must stand up and fight cancer, all cancer, and find a cure by the end of this next decade.

This post is dedicated to my stepmother, Susan and my mother-in-law, Joanne.  Both fighters and survivors and lucky to have had mammograms and the ability to fight due to donations and research.  Please take a moment to click the link below.  It is a great little number put together by the staff of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Oregon where employees donned pink gloves and danced in support of breast cancer awareness.  Each click helps so take a look and enjoy.

Pink Glove Dance

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Serves: 8  Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook time: 50 minutes

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 sprig fresh thyme

2 garlic cloves, smashed

½  t ground nutmeg

Butter

2 pounds russet potatoes

S&P

¾ cup shredded swiss cheese

¾  cup grated Parmesan, plus more for broiling

3 scallions chopped

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a saucepan, heat up the cream with a sprig of thyme, smashed garlic and nutmeg.  Wash your potato and then slice them thin or use a mandolin to cut them into very thin slices.

While cream is heating up, butter a casserole dish. Place a layer of potato on the bottom of the pan and season with salt and pepper. Remove cream from heat and pour a little over the potatoes. Sprinkle with swiss cheese and parmesan cheese and some scallions. Make 2 more layers the same way. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Sprinkle with the last of the cheese and broil until cheese browns, about 5 minutes.

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