Self-Rising Baked Pancake with Berries

If you're planning to wake Mom up with something special yet easy for Mother's Day, make this pancake for brunch. Instead of standing at the stove flipping a bunch of smaller pancakes, you stir together a simple batter, drop berries over it, and stick the pan in the oven to bake.  The pancake is moist and tender, and insanely good with the strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries -- topped with maple syrup, of course.  One of these will feed three or four people, with some bacon or scrambled eggs on the side.  If you're feeding a crowd, double the recipe and bake them in two pans at the same time.

I adapted this recipe to use self-rising flour for two reasons: I ran out of all-purpose flour, and I can't find enough uses for my self-rising flour.  I've included directions for using either in the recipe below.  I recently traveled to see my mom and won't be seeing her this Sunday, but I can't help thinking she would love this if I made it for her.  I'll have to give her a rain check.  If you're seeing your mom this Sunday, treat her to this pancake.  She'll love it.

Corn Cakes with Smoked Salmon

If you're looking for a brunch dish that's a little indulgent but not heavy, and just fancy enough for weekend guests, this is it.  I made these on Easter and just loved them, and they'd be great for treating moms on Mother's Day morning.  This savory spin on pancakes is made with cornmeal and corn, topped with slices of smoked salmon, and dolloped with light sour cream.

I also experimented with popovers recently.  These are my first ever.  Look at that pop!  This is a plain one, but I also experimented with crumbled bacon and want to play more with them.

For those of you who prefer a better corn product for the corn cakes, I found an organic yellow cornmeal made by Arrowhead Mills at my local health food store.  No luck in the supermarket organic section.  If you don't eat fish, you can substitute the smoked salmon with slices of ham, or top it with a fried egg.  The recipe is pretty easy, and if you have a large electric griddle you can make all the corn cakes at once in one batch.  That equals a little more time for weekend relaxin'.

Gruyere and Caramelized Onion Pull-Apart Bread

Gruyere, caramelized onions, and thyme -- this could be my favorite out of all the breads I've ever made.  I love a simple country loaf with just butter or olive oil, or naked if the bread is that good, but this pull-apart bread has so much going for it.  There are lots of cheesy pull-apart bread recipes out there, including convenient ones that call for layering storebought bread with cheese and then baking it.  But a yeasted bread you baked from scratch is special.  There's something about the beer-like smell of the yeast, watching the dough rise, and the intoxicating aroma of the gruyere, onions, and butter filling the house.  Have I got you hooked yet?

This bread sure put a smile on my face.  I've been sick for four weeks.  The doctor said it was the flu or a virus like it, and that it came and went in waves because I had gotten the flu shot and saved myself from the full-force flu.  That sounds like a good thing, but week after week of sore throats, sniffles, chills, nausea, and headaches tapped me out.  Never mind the nonstop snowstorms we've had.  But now that I'm almost 100 percent, I wanted to bake.  The hands-on process of bread-making is methodical and soothing, and the result was pure comfort food.  I also finally got around to working on my next dining review for the paper, so I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things again.  At least on all the food front.

This recipe is from Williams-Sonoma's blog, and I didn't change it much.  One problem was that it called for a particular type of flour that is no longer available, so I used a blend of all-purpose and bread flours.  It also called for mustard seeds and I didn't have any, so I subbed in whole-grain Dijon mustard.  I also reduced the butter a tiny bit, but worry not, there's still plenty in there.  The bread will have crusty, cheesy edges, and soft centers sweet with caramelized onions and butter.  The next time a blizzard comes your way, make sure you've got gruyere and onions, then settle in for pure winter comfort.

Flour's Tortilla with Chorizo, Peppers & Potato

I've been making liberal use of my oven during the recent snowstorms and "polar vortex," the better to warm up the house. Icy, grey mornings call for a hearty breakfast or brunch like this tortilla.  Red peppers are sauteed and potatoes get browned before pouring in an egg mixture laced with Parmesan, and then the skillet is thrown in the oven to finish.  You can keep the recipe vegetarian as is, or add some chorizo like I did.  It adds a nice, salty bite.

Sprinkle on some chopped scallions and parsley for freshness, then slice into wedges.  I like that the tortilla can be served hot or at room temperature, and that you can make it a day or so in advance and reheat when serving.  Perfect if you want to get a head start before house guests arrive, or for getting one weekend brunch dish out of the way.

Making a Spanish tortilla usually involves flipping the eggs, hot skillet and all, onto a plate, and then sliding the filling back into the skillet to cook the other side.  I'm not a fan of inverting piping-hot cast iron skillets with ingredients that could still be runny, so I'm glad this recipe involves no flipping!  When the next snowfall hits, I hope this is in my oven.  It'll sustain us through lots of shoveling.  Stay warm, friends!

White Chocolate-Macadamia Cookies, plus Christmas Roundup

Happy 2014!  I had plans to cook and bake so many things and share them with you last month, including these White Chocolate-Macadamia Cookies.  That all went out the window as the holiday season got so busy.  I love that time of year, but it's downright stressful and tires me out.  Even my vacation time was hectic since we hadn't gotten around to sending out cards, getting a tree, or shipping out the annual family cookies.  And my sister has to have her cookies -- it was our birthday!  We're Christmas twins and my dad's birthday is in the same week, so it's always a big time of year in my family.

Another thing that kept us busy was our new family member!  Joe and I adopted Betty from the local shelter a few days before Christmas.  Her name is enormously popular among our friends and family, so we'll probably get grief for changing it, but right now we're thinking Katsu.  Yes, like the Japanese pork cutlet. but I've changed it to Dorie, after one of my favorite bakers.  We lost our second cat, Shnooky, in September, and we were ready for another furry love.  She has the prettiest green eyes and a crazy coat striped and patched with marmalade, white, grey, and black.  As you can see, she made herself right at home.  She loves playing with toy mice and the laser pointer, and has taken to drinking from the bathroom faucet.  It took Gandalf a few days to warm up to her, but now they chase each other and play daily at the crack of dawn while we're trying to sleep.  And on Christmas Day we found them snuggling together!  Gandalf, my loveybug, likes to sit under the Christmas tree like he's out in the wild.

But just because I wasn't posting doesn't mean my kitchen wasn't seeing lots of use.  This year we included Hot Chocolate on a Stick (recipe by Giver's Log) in our cookie baskets.  Who wouldn't want hot cocoa with their cookies? You stir it into a mug of hot milk, and it's instant hot chocolate!  I also made homemade Vanilla Marshmallows, and you can kind of see a snowflake-shaped one in the back piped with dark chocolate.

For my friends' British-themed Christmas party, I made Braided Lemon Bread filled with lemon curd.

I also made my Mini-Cornish Beef Pasties for the party.  These are ready to go in the oven.

This year I switched up the Christmas Butter Cookies -- Joe's dad's favorite -- by decorating them with white chocolate instead of royal icing.  White chocolate dries so much faster.

And everybody else's favorite is the Linzer Cookie.  It's labor-intensive for me, so it's reserved for Christmas and maybe Valentine's Day also.  Everybody just loves the hazelnut cookies sandwiched with jam and dusted with snowy sugar.

The new cookie this year was the White Chocolate-Macadamia.  This recipe by chocolate baking expert Alice Medrich is not overly sugary like those storebought versions, and the oats give it some hearty flavor.  The cookies come out soft and chewy with crisp, golden bottoms.  The dough needs to sit in the fridge for at least two hours, so plan ahead.  I didn't love the cookies as I'd hoped, but I should disclose that I'm not usually a fan of white chocolate.  I fall into the camp of people who find it inferior to "real" chocolate.  But if you like white chocolate, this cookie's for you.  You can also make the dough ahead of time, scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, freeze until hard, and bake when needed.  Store them in zip-top bags in the freezer once they've fully hardened.  They'll bake at the same temperature and time, and add a minute or two to the baking time if needed.

Here's to 2014!