Carrot Cake Pancakes (Joy!)

Desperately hungry around dinnertime, and craving something sweet, I finally got around to making something from my new Joy the Baker cookbook. I'd been eyeing several recipes, but this one for Carrot Cake Pancakes stood out- I think largely because I believe adding two cups of shredded carrot totally justifies this as a healthy dinner... right? I poured myself a glass of wine and got to it. 

By far, one of the most delicious pancake recipes I've EVER made. They were super-flavorful, had a great fluffy texture despite the moist carrots, and the cream cheese spread was a perfect topping. They tasted *just* like carrot cake, but were much less heavy and weren't overly sweet. (Do you like how in the picture above you can see our fire hydrant? I'm so terrible at taking pictures: Nathan encouraged me to go outside to get better light and while the light was, indeed, better, I captured this awesome background view.) 

I say- 2 cups of veggies? In a pancake? Totally healthy dinner. And I actually made some modifications to make these light, fluffy, spicy pancakes a tad bit (but only a tad) more nutritious. 

Carrot Cake Pancakes

(adapted from the Joy the Baker cookbook)

dry:

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

pinch salt

1/2 t each cinnamon and nutmeg and ginger

1/4 c chopped walnuts

1/4 cup raisins

wet:

1 egg

2 T brown sugar

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

2 cups finely grated carrots

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, mix wet in another. Add wet to dry all at once, mix to combine, but don't overmix. Cook the pancakes using your favorite method (mine involves butter and a non-stick pan). 

Top with a cream cheese topping. (Let's call it what it is: frosting.) 

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2 T milk

1 t vanilla extract

pinch salt

pinch cinnamon

Tell me if they are NOT amazing! I'll be making these pancakes again!

And if Luke can ever figure out how to eat... he'll love them too. 

Pioneer Woman!

It's been a good year for food blogger celebrities in Seattle so far... First Joy, now Ree (the Pioneer Woman), and soon, (I hope!) Deb. (Her cookbook should be coming out later this year, and I hope she comes to Seattle!) On Tuesday, Nathan and I ventured out to the Third Place Books at Lake Forest Park to see the Pioneer Woman and have my book signed. I knew she was popular... but this was ridiculous. 

We estimated that there were around 1000 people there- and unlike the hipster crowd at Joy's signing, these were mostly middle-aged ladies, giggly with delight at seeing Ree Drummond. There were, obviously, no seats by the time we showed up, so I stood at the back, my view of Ree mostly obscured by frosted wavy hairstyles. 

Nathan and Luke wandered the bookstore and managed to get this shot for me. 

The Pioneer Woman is, I think, one of the top three food bloggers. She's been doing it a long time, she's a consistent poster, her recipes are approachable (sometimes I think too approachable- she uses a lot of processed foods) and she's now got a show on the Food Network. Her writing is quirky and funny, and since she lives on a working cattle ranch in Oklahoma, the snippets of her country life that she includes in the blog are fascinating.

Unfortunately, since we only arrived a few minutes early, I was in "Signing Group L". When we left the store 20 minutes after her presentation, she was still signing group A and I imagine group L was several hours later. She did, however, say that if you left a copy of the book there with your name on it, she'd sign it and leave it at the store to pick up. With a tired fussy baby who needed to get to bed, I took that option. I thought that was pretty impressive of her. I can't imagine how long it took to sign all those books! I saw one lady waiting for Ree to sign SEVEN copies of the cookbook, and the memoir. (I'm clearly not that gung-ho.)

Just before we went to see Ree, Luke and I went swimming at the Mountlake Terrace pool. I'd heard that it was quite a warm pool and wanted to try it out, but Luke shivered through the entire swim session. (Kid needs to toughen up!) Apparently this is the way to get him to snuggle me (he's really un-snuggly)... make him chilly and he'll hug me for warmth!

"Hungry Monkey" book review

Awwwww, sweet...

I just finished reading "Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise and Adventurous Eater" by Matthew Amster-Burton.

This book was published a few years ago by a Seattle foodie and father who endeavors to turn his daughter, Iris, into a fellow foodie. Af first, she's an eager eater and munches down anything they feed her (pad thai, sushi, spicy curries) but as soon as she hits two years old, she turns picky. I've seen this happen to many kids and... well, it might happen to Luke.

The book is a very quick read, with simple meat-centric recipes (no baby purees here, it's all grown-up food that can be adapted to kid's preferences and made with a toddler's help) and lots of stories of Iris and Matthew's adventures in eating. Iris seems to love meat, easily differentiating between different brands of bacon, yet she's picky about vegetables and will only scarf down bok choi if it's a part of a Chinese dumpling.

I found myself aggravated and bemused, in turns, by his stories of feeding his kid. Since Luke is only 10 months old, I'm dealing with a whole different set of food-related issues and I'm still naive enough to hope that he'll be a flexible, mellow eater. The author seemed to allow a certain level of pickiness that I'm not sure I'll have the patience for; allowing her to eat an endless stream of pretzels, cookies, and other starches while steadfastly refusing most things green and vegetabley. On the other hand, Iris chows down on mackerel, lobster and cilantro, so her diet isn't entirely carb-laden.

The book made me think about how I'm going to handle Luke's inevitable "food preferences" as he grows. There's a well-known child nutritionist, Ellyn Satler, who has popularized the term "division of responsibility" in reference to feeding children. It basically states that parents are responsible for the what, when, and where of feeding, and children are responsible for the how much and whether of eating. So basically, I'm responsible for offering Luke 3 square meals a day of healthy and varied foods. Luke's responsible for actually choosing to put that food in his mouth and swallow it.

This is already a struggle for us. Though I've offered Luke innumerable types of vegetables, he rarely actually swallows them. And it's not just vegetables. Luke, at 10 months, is really not all that into food. He may or may not swallow a few nibbles of something but he inevitably spits it all up. It's frustrating and puzzling. Lately, we've found that he really likes freeze-dried mangoes and strawberries. Do you know how expensive freeze-dried mangoes and strawberries are? Yeah. Not cheap. But he'll happily put the mango in his mouth and let it dissolve and (likely accidentally) swallow it. He can do wholegrain hippie cheerios, too, and the occasional graham cracker, and he'll suck on broccoli for ages. But yogurt? salmon? beans? Nope.

Today we had a bit of a breakthrough. After slurping a large chunk of pear through this ridiculous mesh feeder (he won't actually eat a pear chunk) he seemed interested in my grapefruit. So I offered him some, thinking, "what baby likes grapefruit"? Mine, apparently. Later, I was eating avocado and spicy salsa and he exhibited curiosity, so I offered him a small chunk. Yup. He was totally into it, and ate at least a tablespoon. Weirdo.

So, who knows what our food future will bring with this particular, quirky little boy of ours. I enjoyed "Hungry Monkey", largely because the author is so clearly a food-loving man and wants nothing more than to enjoy his favorite things with his daughter. Despite her pickiness and strong preferences, Iris seemingly enjoys food, cooking, eating and trying out restaurants. It's an important reminder to me that it's important to stay relaxed and encouraging about this whole food thing, and know that, at some point, Luke will be excited about food.

Moroccan tagine

yes, it's a terrible picture but I was distracted by eating 

and barely remembered to even take a picture. whoops.

Oh my. This was one of our culinary highlights of the year so far! I wanted to make a tagine of some sort for my 2012 Food Challenge. I'd read about tagine in "Trail of Crumbs"and it seems to be making the food blog circuit, too. 


After googling, I found quite a few recipes that I borrowed from, like this one, and this one. Generally, they all called for similar ingredients, so (as I like to do) I winged it and created my own! 


I baked the tagine in a clay pot that looks similar to this pot. Nathan found it at Goodwill- interestingly, it's from West Germany. I soaked the pot in water for several hours, then threw in about 10 chicken drumsticks that were marinated overnight (see recipe below), a roughly chopped onion, a can of green olives, a handful of raisins, and about 3 diced preserved lemons. This baked in the oven (at about 400F) for around 90 minutes. We served it with brown rice, sauteed chard and homemade sweet potato french fries and a creamy herb dip. (Thanks to Chelsea and Scott!)


The sauce is tangy, bright, and rich thanks to the combination of spices, chunks of happy lemon and salty olives. The chicken was ridiculously tender- literally falling off the bone. (I recommend using bone-in chicken- preferably a combination of dark and light meat.) The raisins added some low, dark sweetness and didn't interfere with the texture of the dish (if the idea of squishy raisins concern you.)


This dish got rave reviews, and we plan to make it again.  In fact, I've got my second batch of preserved lemons going in the fridge- they are incredible. I'm going through a lemon withdrawal as we wait for them to finish the preservation process (it takes about 4 weeks.) 


We used the clay pot to be more authentic (as authentic as Seattle-dwelling caucasians making a dish from a country they've never visited can), but this dish can be made in a crock pot (Moroccans everywhere are gasping in horror) or in a large, covered saute pan on the stove. 


Considering how complex and rich the flavors are, the process is really easy! You don't even need to stir the ingredients, they all magically meld together in the pot. 


To a soaked clay pot (or other coverable, heatable vessel), add:
1 chopped large onion
1/2 cup rasins
1 cup green olives
1 cup chicken broth
3-4 chopped preserved lemon (remove the seeds, but just loosely chop the whole lemon)
handful fresh parsley
and
8-12 pieces of bone-in chicken- marinated


Chicken marinade*:
in a small dish, combine:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 heaping teaspoon each of turmeric, cinnamon, ground ginger, paprika and cumin
1/2 teaspoon each of saffron threads (if you have them- they won't make or break the dish)  
       and ground black pepper
3-4 diced cloves garlic**


Cover the clay pot and put it in the oven, THEN turn the oven heat on to 400F. If you put the clay pot directly into the oven, there's a risk of it cracking.


I let it bake for about 1.5 hours and it was perfect, so check your chicken around an hour and determine if it needs more time. Your house will smell amazing and your guests will be drooling. Enjoy!


*I put the chicken parts in a large ziplock bag and added the marinade, massaged the chicken firmly to coat it in marinade, and put it in the fridge overnight. 
**Note that I didn't add any salt: the preserved lemons and olives are pretty salty, so it's best to add salt after you've cooked and tasted the dish- if it's even necessary.