St. Patrick's Day Pancakes

Not your most Irish of dishes, I know. But, our kids LOVE pancakes!!! If you ask Shannon what he wants for dinner there is a pretty certain chance you will get that as an answer. And, like so often happens, I had promised to make them Monday night .. and then forgot .. so, St. Patrick's Day pancakes we had!

First, if you've never made pancakes from scratch you're missing out. Now that we've been making them from scratch, I can't even begin to fathom eating them any other way!! IHOP and Denny's commercials make me sick & angry .. their pancakes (and eggs, and bacon, and so on) look plastic and fake .. not the least bit appetizing! Making them from scratch is so easy!

Here is the recipe. Like so many of my favorite recipes, it comes from my Grandmother's Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. If you don't have one, go to a yard sale, the Goodwill, or wherever and find yourself a copy from about 1963.

Favorite Pancakes:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

~ Mix all ingredients well & bake on a hot griddle.

I'm not too fancy here. I don't sift my dry ingredients in one bowl, mix my wet ingredients in another and then blend .. I mix 'em all at one together in the same bowl. The batter will be lumpy, and this is ok. I use butter in lieu of oil, although I have been known to use a little bacon fat if I happen to have it. Of course, my butter is my homemade butter, my bacon fat comes from pasture-raised bacon. Our milk is raw milk, the flour usually locally grown and at least 1/2 whole wheat, the sugar is turbinado, and the salt is Real Salt (http://www.realsalt.com).
I DO cook them (as you can see in the photo) in a cast-iron skillet, and I HIGHLY recommend this!! I pre-heat my skillet on medium or medium-high, but as I am cooking I can usually turn it down to medium-low. I LOVE being able to cook on such a low heat without sacrificing anything!! Check out the bottom of my blog for more info about cast-iron cooking and cookware.
For the green coloring I will admit to using green food coloring. I've been reading some about making your own, all-natural food coloring and am VERY interested in this, but it was dinner time, the boys were hungry, I had it on hand.
And there you go, our St. Patrick's Day dinner for 2009. We even had company (Uncle Matt), and everyone left the table happy & with a full belly.

Quesadillas

Or, as they're now known around here, "Pizzas with Hats" or also just "Hats." Mexican food wasn't often on the menu around here growing up, especially not anything more than the standard hard-shell tacos. I'm quite embarrassed to admit that in my now 31 years of living, tonight was the first time I had made quesadillas! AND THEY'RE SO EASY TO MAKE!!!
I won't list a recipe here, but I will give you the link to where I found the recipe I used. It is a wonderful recipe and very easy to follow: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000226quesadilla.php

Some hints I will share that made this easier for a newbie:
1) I did use a cast-iron skillet. If you don't have one, do yourself a favor and go get one (http://www.lodgemfg.com/).
2) Have your ingredients ready. Just like you see on cooking shows, we mixed up our beans & corn ahead of time and had them in a bowl, ready to add when needed. Justin wanted freshly picked hot peppers (courtesy of Shannon) and onions in his, so he chopped them up and had them ready when I was ready for them. This saves a lot of "oh crap!" moments.
3) Do let them cool for a minute before eating. This not only saves on "shit, that's hot!" but also gives the ingredients a moment to set.
4) Don't be afraid of adding fun ingredients and spices!
5) Definitely have some "dippers" ready. Tonight we just used sour cream, but even the kids demanded they're own.
6) Don't think this is a hard dish to make. Like I said, I'm horrified that I have waited this long to make them. They are so much better, as most dishes are, when homemade. Even little kids like them, as they're nice and finger friendly!

Tristan & Shannon, who were very happy to get "Hats" for dinner & each gobbled it right up!