Tem[peh]ting

Its Obvious that Valentines Day is Over… But the love still lingers.
My love for you all never dies (except on days when I dont blog- i love you slighlty less- but the love is still there).
You know what else lingers?
Valentines Day goodies. Pink Chocolate Chip pancakes. I would love to have pancakes and other breakfast treats more often but with making myself look beautiful, walking my beautiful doggie and making my beautiful cup of coffee… i really dont have time for a beautiful breakfast. So I prep the night before.

Pink. I know what some of you are thinking.

“does it taste pink?” the answer is no. But if you saw pink and had to think FLAVOR…what flavor would Pink Be? For me… strawberry.

Look, I even had pink nails- ive been polishing my nails on a regular basis! i luvs it! i digress… i mixed up the pink stuff and got my griddle pan nice and hot.

I love my griddle pan! I can use it on my kitchen table! (but I didnt… i feel weird flipping pancakes in my living room)

I let them get golden brown and flipped them.

Nom Nom Nom. These were great. Normally I doctor the pancake batter and add vanilla and cinnamon but these were really good as they were…with the addition of syrup of course! And the chocolate chips were a delightful treat! Special thanks to Erica! thanks hun!

On to the Tempeh…

All you bloggers out there posting your tempeh pics and recipes really got my mind going. I always try something before i judge it… and Im going to share my first taste of tempeh with you. I started with the preparation of my side dish that happened by mistake. I was in the mood for breaded chicken cutlets. with garlic and parm. I had a crazy day and did not have my head on straight. I was supposed to defrost some chicken breasts…but somehow had steamed broccoli in front of me in my dredging station. I figured… why not just bread the broccoli and roast it?

I beat an egg with some garlic powder and parm cheese.

dredged the broccoli. and rolled it in italian style bread crumbs. I set it on a greased cookie sheet and roasted for 15 min…. then i unwrapped the tempeh.

and I read the PSA “DISCOLORATION IS A NATURAL EFFECT OF THE FERMENTATION PROCESS” translation: THATS FREAKING NASTY LOOKING.

But Im not giving up. I inspected the rotten looking block. I sniffed it. Kind of sweet smelling… and because certain bloggers i LOATHE eat it raw with jelly, i took a tiny nibble on its own and confirmed there is a reason why i LOATHE Certain Bloggers (Anyone wanna guess the accronym? or watch her newest obsession on youtube AKA herself?). I digress again. I need to lay off the white out.

i dont do white out. please dont think that.

i need to change the subject…. I diced up the rotten block and suateed it in some sesame oil.

I began to add random ingredients from my cupboard. Honey. soy sauce. ponzu sauce. garlic powder. red pepper flakes. and finally a touch of vinegar. The result? A homemade terriyaki of sorts. it went well with the sweetness of the tempeh and added a nice savory touch to it as well. the honey thickened up the sauce a lot and became, for the most part, edible.

The broccoli was done and it smelled sooo good. Not quite the “chicken cutlet” i wanted but the flavors were there! (all that was missing was the grease!)

I loved the broccoli. The tempeh? it wasnt terrible. its really a texture thing. Its grainy. Imagine eating a really tough piece of tofu with huge chunks of rice in it. Its not horrible but it sort of falls apart into grainy chewy bits in your mouth and I much rather prefer the texture of tofu.

Will i buy tempeh again? probably not. But I will tell you that the serving on my plate above had 22 grams of protein. 22 GRAMS! if thats enough for you to suffer weird textures for the sake of being full- go for it. I wasnt full I was STUFFED!

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!

ALSO A Happy Birthday to Karen… and most importantly A Very Special Happy Birthday to my late Aunt Denise. The Original Diva… today would have been her 58th birthday. this blog is the closest I have come to writing a book for her… a book i promised to dedicate to her before she passed- I still promise to finish the book! AND this post is dedicate to my auntie!

Its Griddler Pan Time!

I’m Whipping out the Appliances these days to get my cook on. Lucky you.

Saturday mornings are my “Nice Breakfast Days” and I really enjoy taking time in the kitchen to cook a nice meal after a nice long walk with Mickey. Today I was craving some pancakes. And I was craving them even more when I discovered a bag of chocolate chips begging to be battered… pancake battered. I got my dry ingredients all ready, I was heavily involved in a recipe I stole from Smitten Kitchen (LOVE THIS BLOG!) and just managed to take a pic of my flour only. sorry.

I spooned 1/4 cups full of batter onto my griddle and sprinkled the chocolate chips all over their faces; politely of course. I waited a few minutes for them to bubble up and then I flipped them. My Sous Chef, Mickey, stayed close but fell asleep on the job… She was working for crumbs but never got any… Which made it difficult to flip pancakes…

But I did my best. I put one of its ugly side to illustrate that next time I make chocolate chip pancakes, the chips will be in the batter first.

They were extremly tasty but I would have liked them to melt more (some were too metly and got crispy). I hate burnt pancakes so I made some notes for next time. I might use mini chips since they can take the heat… and they might even distribute nicer? whatevs.