Scrumptious Homemade Caramel Apples

I am a big fan of caramel. As a kid I had a love-hate relationship with Wrapples, the discs of caramel that are meant to be wrapped around your apple. They're really hard to get right, and the caramel is not even all that good. I loved the idea but hated how it was impossible to produce a gorgeous caramel apple with them.

Many of you have made caramel apples with those Kraft caramels. My memory of those is the labor involved in unwrapping all those little squares. And Kraft caramel is not the tastiest - nothing like a Werther's or a Sugar Daddy. Mmmm. Sugar Daddies have sweetened many a road trip. They last for miles!

This year I decided to do things the right way and I made a potful of glossy caramel for my daughter's halloween party. Well, I made it twice to get it exactly right, but it was really pretty easy. Honestly, the hardest part was the sticks. I used wooden dowels leftover from my wedding cake making days (dowels support the layers). I cut them down to size and sharpened them. You need something longer and sturdier than your average popsicle stick. Maybe a craft store sells something suitable. Anyhoo, here's that recipe:

Caramel Apples
Print recipe only here

INGREDIENTS
10 Granny Smith apples
1 cup butter
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
14 ounces (1 can) sweetened condensed milk
2 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
decorative toppings

METHOD
Insert wooden sticks through the tops of the apples so that the stick is about 3/4 the way in the apple. Set on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup and condensed milk in sauce pan over medium high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for about 25 minutes*. Keep close by after about 20 minutes so that it doesn't start to burn. When the caramel looks dark and thick, remove the pot from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Allow to cool slightly. (You can also do this part in advance and pick up the dipping later in the day. When you resume for dipping, just gently reheat the caramel, adding a tablespoon of water at a time if it's too thick.)

Dip the apples into the caramel at an angle, rotating them to coat the entire apple. Lift the apple to let the caramel drip off of the bottom, scraping excess off the bottom of the apple back into the pot.

Line the apples up on a greased wax paper. If desired, decorate the apples with sprinkles, nuts, or other toppings before they dry completely. If you want to put them in candy bags you will need to let them sit and air dry for about 30-45 minutes.


* UPDATE: If you have a candy thermometer, use it and let the caramel cool until it reaches 235 or so, then remove from heat.

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Chain of Command in the Family Kitchen

Four years ago, I mused about teaching my children to cook by letting them be the sous chef in the family kitchen. The experiment was short lived. I didn't make it fun, or even pleasant. Maybe the failure was that the kids were too young, or I was too impatient. Or, maybe, in assigning them the role of sous chef, the under-chef or not-boss, I had it all wrong.

My daughters are older now. They're at the point I imagined when I wrote the piece: old enough to be responsible for dinner one night a week. We started the practice this summer, which was good timing as everyone has more time on their hands and it's still light out at 8pm. Each Monday morning they decided on a  dinner menu. I had final edit to ensure it wasn't going to be French Toast or Elbow Pasta with Butter and Garlic Powder. Often they shopped for their menu with me, though not always.

I think the success of the exercise was that they got to be chef. I was the sous chef. I did whatever they wanted me to. My job always included getting the animal protein out of whatever packaging it came in, transferring it to a pan, marinating it, or trimming the fat. The part they liked best: picking a menu they were excited about (including dessert) and then taking all the credit for its success. I was present in the kitchen for the entire prep/cooking period (it wasn't a night off cooking for me entirely). They took the responsibility seriously and I think they learned a lot. And we ate really well.

We fell out of the routine during our summer travels and several weeks passed without a kid-cooked meal. But with the CTU strike we are finding ourselves in need of some weekday structure.  On the kids menu last week: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, and Fish and Chips with a Pinch House Salad on the side. The practice isn't always confined to a single night. Last night my oldest contributed a wonderful Baby Spinach Salad to my homemade tagliatelle and Ragu Bolognese (check back for those recipes). And tonight the little one is going to make Grilled Salmon Sandwiches with Dill Aioli and Steamed Artichokes. Tomorrow night, my oldest is going to make Fajitas.She hasn't decided yet if she'll make them chicken or steak but they will feature Guacamole and her Chipotle-inspired rice (basmati tossed with fresh cilantro and a bit of fresh lime).

You live. You learn. School or no school.

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Breakfast of Champions

Thank goodness for sprouted wheat bread. It's wonderfully delicious and nutritious. My children have eaten it their entire lives. I'm thankful for any opportunity to squeeze a bit of protein into their diet, and the bread I buy at Trader Joe's has 5 grams per slice. They love it toasted and slathered with peanut butter and honey, or with cheddar cheese or avocado slices. And at breakfast time they enjoy it as French Toast, shown here.

Now, truth be told, they really LOVE French Toast made with a good sourdough (they got their Dad's sourdough gene intact). But that's something to be enjoyed more on a once-a-month or occasional weekend. Using a nutritious bread for the basis means I can send them off to school or camp well-fueled, not just fed.

All you need are the basics: an egg, some lowfat milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract and butter for the pan. I keep a mesh tea immerser in my container of powdered sugar for dusting. A couple of shakes and you'd think I had given them a bowl of Skittles for breakfast. I don't do the sugar bit every time - and I didn't do it when they were small. But I did travel with French Toast sticks frequently. They're a great finger food for kids on the go.

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Why You Should Participate in Kids Restaurant Week

We've never participated in this before, believe it or not. But we're around for it this year and I'm starting to make reservations around town.

It's so important to practice eating out with kids as it really enforces table manners and good public behavior. And exposing children to a variety of different foods and presentations is it's own valuable lesson.

When our children were smaller I found it far easier to practice both manners and variety in the comfort of our dining room. It seems to have paid off fairly well. What they lack for in terms of being adventurous eaters they make up for in ability to sit in a chair and make appropriate contributions to the conversation.

Some of the Chicago restaurants I'm most excited to see participating: Bistro 110 (I hear only praise for Chef Dominique Tougne's food), newcomers Eve and Big Jones, and One Sixty Blue.


Further reading:
Eating Out with Kids: Restaurant Behavior - eHarmony Parenting
How to dine out with kids aged 2-4 ... and enjoy it - BabyCenter

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The Only Smoothie

For years I couldn't make a good smoothie. I have no idea what I was doing wrong. How can you go wrong with fruit, juice and yogurt?

Over the years I've developed a standard smoothie that rarely disappoints. The key is to use good, ripe fruit. Frozen fruit is often flavorless. Taste a frozen strawberry sometime - if it doesn't taste like anything it's just the same as adding ice to your smoothie, an item I'm shocked (SHOCKED!) to see in so many smoothie recipes (runners up: added sugar or honey, and milk - blechk).

I like frosty smoothies, so I use ripe fruit I've frozen myself. Next time you buy bananas, peel two or 3, break them into chunks and pop them in a ziploc. Bananas will continue to ripen in the freezer, so don't freeze more than you'll use in a month.

I do the same with pineapple and strawberries. When perfect fruit is available, buy extra and freeze some for your smoothie supply. For strawberries, rinse and remove the stems (hull them if you've got time to kill). Trim pineapple into chunks. Both can be placed on a baking sheet first, spread out so they're not touching each other, and frozen. Once frozen, put them into Ziploc bags for longer storage. This process prevents the fruit from freezing into a solid mass. Grocers call it IQF (Individual Quality Frozen). Lazy people call it Anal.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Print recipe only here

Makes four 8-ounce smoothies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup orange juice
1-2 cups frozen strawberries
1 banana
3/4 cup pineapple
1/2 cup lowfat yogurt (vanilla, strawberry or banana flavored)

METHOD
Starting with the OJ, measure all the ingredients - except the yogurt - into a blender. A chef in Telluride once advised me to always add the yogurt last so that the heat generated by blending didn't detroy the yogurt cultures. I'm not certain of the validity of the claim, but am willing to put my yogurt in at the end of the blending process just the same.

Anyway, start blending on low speed. You might need to stop and stir things up with a spoon if the fruit jams the blender up. Increase to high speed for a few seconds. Stop the blender, add the yogurt and blend until just mixed it. Serve and enjoy.

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On Mother's Day and the Feeding of Children

Ahh, Mother’s Day. I had a good one, thanks. I wish I had taken a picture of the M-O-M shaped pancakes my kids made for me. There was one low point - being wished a happy Mother’s Day by some college dudes who passed whilst I was gardening. My children were nowhere in sight! Do I have MOM tattooed on my forehead? How did they know?!?

I’ve been lately thinking about how to use this space for more kid-specific foods. I haven’t been sure what to advocate seeing as I never fully embraced our own family meals. True, we always eat dinner together. But we haven’t always eaten the same thing, a fact that’s driven me a bit crazy.

My kids know me to be fairly strict parent but I think I’ve been a pushover in the kitchen. My mother a steadfast rule about dinner - we had to eat what was put in front of us. You know what she said when we complained? “You don’t have to have seconds.”

My sister and I were allowed one free pass, a food we never had to eat. I picked lima beans. I’m sort of curious to try them again, fresh ones, but they’re hard to find. Is it possible that the lima bean has been discontinued??

My girls are largely vegetarians, assuming that’s what you call someone who doesn’t eat meat, vegetables, legumes, or whole grains excluding breads and cereals. It’s a wonder they’ve grown at all. (To be fair, they enjoy trout, salmon, artichokes, lettuce, hummus and olives.) Some nights are easier than others at dinnertime. If we’re having tacos, for example, they fill their shells with cheese, lettuce and guacamole. The other night when we had lamb burgers, I made them a pesto pizza with a premade whole grain crust from Whole Foods.

I wish I had taken my mom’s stance early on but I did always feel that I wanted my kids to look forward to dinnertime and be excited about their food. Some kids seem to pop out with a more adventurous palate and others need more time to grow into it. There’s no right answer, just whatever works for you. What works for you?

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Cookies for Kids who Like to Make Cookies

The best advertisement ever comes from a cowboy in Telluride who offers this:

Gentle horses for gentle people,
Fast horses for fast people,
And for people who don't like to ride,
Horses that don't like to be rode.

I have several recipes that don't like to be made; you'll never see them here. On the other end of the spectrum are recipes that make everything easy for the cook. This is one of those - a recipe my daughters can nearly handle on their own. The cookie dough recipe was written for one of those spritz or press cookie thingies. I have come to detest the cookie press (I seem to lack the requisite flick-of-the-wrist gene) but was happy to take my sister's recommendation of simply rolling out the dough and forming cookies with traditional cutters.

Even better, this dough doesn't require any resting time in the fridge, like a sugar or butter cookie dough does. You just mix, roll, bake and decorate. My kids appreciate the quick turnaround time between deciding to make cookies and eating the finished product. With either almond extract or a zested lemon or orange, they are tasty, too.

Simple Cutout Cookies for Kids
Print recipe only here

Makes 4-5 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS
* 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 egg
* 2 T milk
* 1 t vanilla
* 1 t almond extract (or grated lemon or orange zest)
* 3 ½ cups flour
* 1 t baking powder

METHOD
Preheat oven to 375°

Cream butter and sugar.

Add egg and beat until combined. Add milk and extracts or zest and mix well.

Sift together flour and baking powder. Add slowly to butter mixture and mix to combine.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, gently roll dough to desired thickness (I like them on the thicker side, about 3-4mm high) and form using cookie cutters. Dough can be re-rolled once or twice, but after that it gets too tough and should be tossed.

Bake on parchment lined baking sheets for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Or, top with a fine dusting of sanding sugar before baking.

Cool to room temperature, then frost and decorate.

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Baby Spinach Salad with a Side of Deception

There are several times where I've pushed the envelope on truthiness in reporting the food on my children's plates. Unless I'm serving up homemade pizza or pasta or another favorite meal of theirs they come to the table with polite apprehension, at best, or, more commonly, like arrant skeptics. Their policy on food is Disgusting until Proven Edible.

I haven't been able to stomach lying to them about what they're eating like one pediatrician advised. My oldest is a virtual vegetarian which the good doctor considered unacceptable. More acceptable was that I find ways to sneak meat into her diet, which was not something I was willing, ethically or physically, to do. For all the hoopla over the Jessica Seinfeld book, the one thing I couldn't escape was that to keep foods from being detected by picky eaters there would have to be so little of that food present in the meal that the child couldn't possibly get the food's essential nutrients. For the amount of time spent steaming and pureeing, there's little nutritional benefit.

I'd prefer my kids get to know their veggies, and to develop an understanding of what they're putting in their mouths, whether it's a chopped salad, low fat brownies or baked cheese curls. Similarly, adults are well-advised to read labels and be more aware of the contents of our food choices.

This salad is the only item I've tricked them into eating by not telling them it was spinach. I just called it Baby Greens, as in "I made that baby greens salad you both like," while smirking to myself. They'd been eating it happily for several years before two things happened. First, I slipped and said, "Pass the spina- ...err, baby greens." Then, they started reading the produce packages in the fridge. It was only a matter of time. Luckily, they really do love the salad, so there was no backlash.

What foods do you trick your children in enjoying?

Baby Spinach Salad
Print recipe only here

Serves 4-6

This dressing takes its inspiration from the Garlic-Parmesan dressing in Pizza, Pasta, Panini. It's a spicy one, due to the garlic.

In a salad bowl mix together:

* 2 cloves garlic, pressed
* 1 t kosher salt

Add:

* ¼ cup grated Parmesan
* 1/3 cup olive oil
* 3-4 T red wine vinegar
* Fresh ground pepper

Balance flavors with more oil or vinegar to taste. Toss with 4-6 ounces baby spinach and serve.

Oh, and read this from The New York Times for more:
Spinach: Nutrition in a Bag
Those ubiquitous bags of baby spinach make for convenience food that’s hard to beat.

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Sous Chef Wanted? On teaching kids to cook

I’ve recently extended the offer to my school-aged children to help out in the kitchen. When they’re older they might be in charge of making dinner on their own during the week and it’ll be better for everyone if they approach that task with some tools in their kit. Cooking is a safe way for a kid to have some of the autonomy they want so desperately. And if they can be autonomous in the friendly confines of our kitchen everybody wins.

This isn’t a novel idea. The New York Times Well Blog recently published 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make. Kicking your kids out of the kitchen was the first mistake.

When I was a small child I was usually deposited in a playpen when my mother was cooking. Recently, my children and I happened upon a wooden playpen in an antiques shop. They had no idea what it was so I told them it was a box mothers put their children in. They still think I was making it all up. Like the majority of the coddled generation, my daughters hold inalienable their right to be stapled to me.

The playpen sighting made me question the necessity of culinary training for kids. This post is an attempt to answer this question: Is this business of teaching young children to cook just another example of the ways contemporary parents over-schedule our children? Is it yet another activity we thrust upon our children when what they really need is time for free play and opportunities to entertain themselves?

I welcome your comments to help me sort through the following thoughts:

Evidence it teaches independence
Teaching kids to cook is important because they learn skills that will be useful later. The 6 Mistakes author writes, "Studies suggest that involving children in meal preparation is an important first step in getting them to try new foods." Children also enjoy the opportunity for one-on-one parent interaction (the cook in charge only wants one sous chef to train at a time). It can provide a time to rehash the events of the day.

Evidence it’s just One More Thing
Remember the line from Free to be You and Me? "Some kind of help is the kind of help we all can do without?" The very fact that children are present in a household makes dinner preparation a very rushed time. The 4-5 hour window between when school lets out and when children need to be ushered up to bed is jammed with homework, after school activities, play dates and bathing. Lengthening dinner prep to accommodate culinary lessons means taking time away from those other things, most of which we’re rushing though already. Today's children are overexposed to activity. Let's give them some down time.

Evidence our mothers knew best
Remember being a newlywed, cooking as a couple? There was peace and quiet and a glass of wine. No one cried if they bonked their head and no one needed love and affection from her mommy right when the risotto needed another ladleful of broth and a good stir. Our mothers remembered, and wisely deposited us in the playpen where at least they could tend to the risotto without tripping over us.

Evidence I just don’t want to share cooking responsibilities
I’ve long been accused of hoarding all the fun cooking tasks and delegating the grunt work. After reading “He Cooks. She Stews. It’s Love.” in the New York Times I accepted the Alpha cook label. I found I was not alone in my habit of prone to giving kitchen helpers menial kitchen tasks like rinsing chicken breasts, emptying the garbage, or washing a pot so I can reuse it.

From the story:

“This, of course, is the way it works in restaurants, where the chef’s authority is nearly absolute. It is somebody else’s job to peel the carrots. And that person is expected to peel the carrots without muttering bitterly under his breath. The top-down system helps to avoid chaos, speeds the process and enforces quality control. But at home that same system can have emotional consequences.”

It’s hard to resist the urge to give my youngest a carrot and have her peel it for me to eat instead of actually doing something critical for the night’s dinner. My oldest, at nine, fully appreciates the inherent condescension of this task.

Conclusions
Everybody wins if I loosen my grip on the kitchen. My first attempt at training a sous chef ended up with my youngest in tears after learning how to cut an onion (the onion made her cry, not me). I should have started her off with an easier task. Our sophomore try will take place on a weekend night when we have more time. And I’ll chose an onion-free menu.

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Packing a Better Bagged Lunch

School lunch is an easy target for gross violation of healthy eating standards. But what about the standard issue bagged lunch? What can parents pack their children that will be nutritious, sustainable, eaten and enjoyed?

Four or five things go into my kids’ lunchboxes:

1. A water bottle. Both kids now have stainless steel water bottles ever since the BPA-leaching hysteria of polycarbonate bottles. In all truth, I think our old Nalgenes are just fine for daily use. The leaching centered over storage which is easily averted by tossing what comes home onto my houseplants. Am I mistaken?

2. A main course. This is usually a sandwich of sorts. I got my kids eating sprouted wheat bread when they first cut teeth so it's never been a source of complaint for them. And at 5 grams of protein per slice, a very nourishing lunch staple. On especially cold days they might take a thermos with pasta and some roasted chicken. I'd like to get them enjoying soups but they still don't. Other options are yogurt or a caesar salad, with cut romaine in a container along with some parmesan and slices of chicken breast, and a separate mini Tupperware pot of dressing and often croutons because, COME ON!! You gotta have croutons!

3. Fruit. It's often a whole pear or apple. Sometimes I cut up either one put it in a mini Tupperware container and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar. Other times it's applesauce. My oldest loves cinnamon on her applesauce so I found her a little covered shaker at a camping supplies store and filled it with cinnamon.

4. Vegetable. Carrots. I'm not very ambitious here. Carrots get eaten and other stuff doesn't.

5. A treat. The treat doesn't go in every day but when it does it's either a couple of Hershey kisses, a few cookies (something from Whole Foods) or a freshly baked cookie, straight from the toaster oven.

Details please:
Waxed paper bags are available at Whole Foods and are good for sandwiches, cookies, chips. I admit to using the snack sized Ziploc bags for carrots. I could improve lunchbox sustainability by using containers or being better about reusing those plastic bags.

I buy sprouted sandwich bread at Trader Joes. I also really like the Alvarado Street sandwich bread available in the freezer at Whole Foods.

What are you packing in those lunchboxes that your children enjoy?

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On the Importance of a Freshly Baked Cookie

There is no substitute. Yesterday's cookie is just not worth eating. All the love is lost. The folks at Nestle know this and have addressed it by packaging cookie dough in refrigerated tubs and rolls in supermarkets. All we have to do is take them out of the equation to produce fully homemade cookies (with no preservatives).

It’s elementary, dears. Just make a batch of your favorite cookie dough. Take half the dough and plop it only a long piece of plastic wrap. Wrap it up loosely and roll it into a log. Repeat with remaining cookie dough. I usually refrigerate one log and freeze the other. When you want a cookie, simply slice off a round of dough and bake in a preheated oven. I crank them out in my beloved toaster oven (where baking times are faster) and tuck them into my kids lunches.

Homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Logs
Print recipe only here

YOU WILL NEED:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract
1 ½ cups AP flour
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
½ t salt
3 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips

METHOD:
Cream butter in mixer with paddle attachment for 3-4 minutes. Add sugars and cream well for about five minutes, scraping bowl a couple of times. Add eggs one at a time, mixing in well between additions. Add vanilla.

Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. Add to butter and mix in slowly. Add oats and chocolate chips and mix just to combine.

Form into logs as described above and refrigerate or freeze. Bake for 6-8 minutes in a preheated 350° oven. Remove and cool to room temperature before wrapping or bagging.

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Indoor S'mores. Seriously.

On account of bloodthirsty Midwestern bugs I’ve resolved not to go camping again in the summer. Campfires will have to wait until fall. Meanwhile, we've been getting our s’mores fix via the rosy glow of two electric heating elements in our toaster oven.

We discovered the way to a great indoor s’more a few summers ago after sampling my nephew’s efforts to produce the same. The key is to replicate the outdoor process: roast a marshmallow then slide the puffy, browned, oozy mass onto a graham cracker preloaded with squares of Hershey bar. Anyone with an oven can do it - preferably a toaster oven since less energy is required.

I don't disagree that the loss of ambiance is critical. Something about dodging smoke, the hunt for a good, long stick, and jockeying for space by the reddest embers makes a s'more taste even better. For those willing to forgo ambiance and kindling:

Indoor S’mores

YOU WILL NEED
Marshmallows
Hershey bars
Graham crackers

METHOD
Preheat oven to about 350° and place marshmallows on a tray. Roast for about 4-5 minutes, watching carefully after three minutes of roasting time. Once browned on top, flip the marshmallows over and brown the other side. You’ll notice the marshmallows deflate if not consumed quickly once roasted. Returning them to the oven will make them puff back up again. Just don’t ask me why; marshmallow science eludes me.


Seriously?
A big shout-out goes to Così, the flatbread chain, for offering indoor s’mores with a nod to danger. Così provides youngsters - any paying customer, really - with wooden skewers, a handful of marshmallows, a Hershey bar, and a flaming scoop of napalm jelly in a small cast iron pot. It’s all fun and games until someone hurls a flaming sugar wad into someone else’s eye (an easily imagined consequence of the hot disagreement over who got more of the Hershey bar). I can’t believe Così is allowed to do this. As long as they are, we’ll be sucking napalm fumes and gesticulating wildly with flaming marshmallow in hand about how AWESOME it is. Seriously.

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Daddy Pancakes

Ava, the daughter of good friends, is a smart cookie. By age four she started making requests for Daddy Pancakes. Mommy, it turns out, is a Bisquick user. Daddy makes pancakes the old-fashioned way. He sends Mommy back to bed, makes pancakes from scratch AND a huge mess for Mommy to clean up when she gets up.

I love Ava's classification. I even have my own recipe for Daddy Pancakes. The pancakes I wrote about previously are quick morning pancakes. They're light and fluffy and somewhat nondescript. My kids LOVE them. They actually think these are too thick. I think they rock. I made them every once in awhile on Sunday mornings at Cafe Nola.

Daddy Pancakes
Print recipe only here

Serves Four

Melt:
* 3 T unsalted butter

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together:
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 T sugar
* 1 t baking soda
* ½ t baking powder
* ½ t salt

Whisk together:
* 2 eggs
* 2 1/3 cup buttermilk
* melted butter from above

Swiftly combine the liquid and dry ingredients (just dump the liquids into the dry). Be thorough, but don't overmix or you will end up with tough, yucky pancakes. Most lumps will resolve themselves.

Cook on a preheated griddle and enjoy.

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Crack of Dawn Pancakes

I have two distinct memories of eating breakfast as a small child. One involves a poached egg and other cleaning out the inside of both halves of a grapefruit to the pith.

My mom died when I was nine and this is where my breakfast memories really kick in. To keep us feeling loved and, well, mothered, my dad made us amazing breakfasts every morning before school. He made muffins, popovers, French toast, pancakes and - oh, this was good! - broiled grapefruit. I have no clue how he did it, though I suspect waking at the CRACK OF DAWN had something to do with it. I regularly pull off French toast and pancakes, but only developed my method on the latter in past couple of years. I cannot fathom muffins or cornbread on a school morning. I like my sleep too much.

What does the work-week breakfast look like in your house? Is it a free-for-all in the cereal cabinet? We have our fair share of those.

Here's my pancake trick. It's nothing new, really. Betty Crocker has been helping people do it for years with Bisquick.

My shortcut is to sift about 10 times the amount of pancake dry ingredients into a storage container and then, on bleak and bleary school mornings, combine 1 cupful of the mix with 1 egg, 1 cup buttermilk and a few tablespoons of canola oil. Voila. No need to get out everything and start measuring and make a huge mess. This is simple and time saving. I even bring it camping.

Pancakes
Print recipe only here.

Here's what to do:
1. Buy a good storage container. Mine is the stainless steel variety. Get one that holds at least 10 cups.
2. Buy a few boxes of cake flour. Cake flour is a little bit of a sticking point for me, as I prefer to use organic flours. I have not found an organic one yet. Low in gluten and protein, cake flour really is necessary for certain things - it really keeps pancakes light. You'll find it in the baking isle at any grocery store. It's in a 2# box.
3. Make your mix:
Sift the cake flour once before measuring. This is important. Don't even think about skipping this step.

Sift together (yes! again!):
• 9 cups cake flour
• 3 T sugar
• 2 T plus 3/4 t baking powder
• 1.5 T (equals 1 T plus 1 1/2 t) salt
• 1.5 T baking soda

You're done. See. That wasn't so bad. Now you can clean up the enormous mess you made on the floor and counter and feel happy that you won't have to make the same mess again until the container is empty.

To make pancakes:
I make half this amount for two kids, but I'm doubling it the first time so you get an idea of the quantity.

Whisk together in a medium sized mixing bowl:
• 2 eggs

Add, whisking in thoroughly:
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 3 T canola oil

Add:
• 2 cups pancake mix

Stir gently but thoroughly with a spoon or spatula. Cook. We like silver dollar pancakes around here. And snowmen. OH! I just remembered! My mom used to put our initials on our pancakes. She'd cook one side, then dribble our initials with batter onto the cooked side, let it set, then flip it over to cook the initial. That took some creative genius, but I can still taste Dad's popovers dribbling with honey-butter.

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