I’m Moving!

Ugh. Sorry for the long absence. I’m so glad winter seems to be coming to a close because it has been a rough one. I just wanted to hop on and say, in addition to moving house within the next month, I’m planning on moving this blog and merging it with my personal blog so I can post whatever I want in a single place. I’ve had several friends ask for posts specific not only to food and meal planning, but my skincare routine and bullet journal as well.

By Summer I plan to have a more lifestyle themed and independently hosted site up and running. If anyone has suggestions as to decently priced and reliable hosting, please drop a comment as I seem to only be able to find horror stories that have kept me from pulling the trigger for months!

If you’re still following, know that I appreciate you and hope you’ve had a lovely, warm spiked hot chocolate and cookie filled winter season.

❤

Advertisements

Eggnog Pancakes

I’M BACK. After a long and inexcusable absence during which I actually cooked very little (and experimented even less) I have finally come back around with something worth sharing. Pancakes aren’t exactly a staple around here per se, but we do have them on a whim about once a month or so. Usually, as probably expected, for Saturday or Sunday brunch.

Last week I had my yearly freakout in the dairy aisle whilst grocery shopping because I love eggnog. My stomach, not so much, but I don’t care. So, naturally, I had to have some. In the days when I used to eat what I wanted with neither consequence nor guilt, I used to buy myself a small carton of eggnog as soon as it was in season along with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s vanilla ice cream. Once or twice a week, I used to put a couple rounded tablespoons of ice cream in a tiny (6 oz) orange juice glass, fill in the remaining space with eggnog, and grate fresh nutmeg on top for the most contradictory seasonal treat ever. Once in a while I also added a drizzle of Pedro Ximenez Sherry or a splash of frozen Jagermeister, omg. (For some reason I wanted to add a y’all there (“omg y’all”) but I didn’t, you’re welcome.)

The point is – if you’re like me: buying eggnog the first time you see it in a store every year while reminiscing about the good times you’ve shared, this will be right up your alley. Otherwise, it’s a nice twist on a tradition to spice up your holiday breakfast, and a good way to use up the last few drops when everyone’s had their fill.

A word of caution: please, for the love of god, make sure there are no lumps in your baking powder. Sift it. Please. For everyone’s sake. Just do it. It doesn’t take long and it’s one hundred percent worth it. I’ve gone the lazy route and wow, even the tiniest little pill of that stuff in your pancake is like a bomb going off. The contrast after the initial sweetness is enough to make some people gag. And it lingers.

That said, they’re relatively simple to make!

Eggnog Pancakes

• 1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 4 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 1/4 Cups Eggnog
• 1 Egg
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 4 Tablespoons butter – Melted
• 1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg – Freshly Ground

1. Preheat a griddle over medium-low heat and spray or coat lightly with vegetable oil.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
3. Add eggnog, egg, and vanilla, but don’t stir.
4. Add melted butter to the cold eggnog mixture, then stir. Doing it this way adds tenderness and fluff to your pancakes: The cold of the eggnog makes the butter start to solidify into teeny pieces throughout the batter. When those teeny pieces of butter meet the heat of the pan, the water in the butter evaporates creating a little pocket of air, and the remaining fat adds moisture and flavor.
5. Once combined, stir in nutmeg. The batter will be mostly smooth, but don’t go crazy if there are a few small lumps. (As long as they aren’t baking powder, which they won’t be if you sifted)
6. Turn the griddle up to medium heat and pour the batter onto the prepared pan.
7. Heat the pancakes until bubbles begin to form on the uncooked side (the top) and they are just firm enough to flip. Flip once and cook just until done.
8. Serve immediately with any combination of butter, maple syrup, or apricot preserves.

Makes about 16 four-inch pancakes which can be stored frozen for up to 6 months. Simply pop into the toaster to reheat.

See you guys after Thanksgiving!

❤

 

What I’ve Been Up To

I haven’t forgotten about you! I’m sorry I’ve been absent. I’ve been trying to decide what to do because, it’s taken 13 weeks, but we’ve finally reached the point where the recipes are beginning to repeat often enough that I won’t have a week’s worth at a time anymore unless I space them out further. In fact, one of the recent weeks was completely repeats so I wouldn’t have had much to offer.

After about a month of prolonged processing, I’ve taken a part-time position as a cake decorator in a local grocery chain and have been focusing on schedule and training hours there. With any luck, things will normalize again in the next week or so.

In my off hours, I’ve continued to keep myself busy with leveling up my JavaScript knowledge, and also researching what I would need to do in order to open an Etsy shop for some of the journal and planner accessories I’ve taught myself to make…

All the while wondering to myself how to make it all work without letting something go. As you can see I am a maker of things and have been called “a creative”, but I have so many passions it’s hard not to feel like I need to weed them out sometimes! Last week I read this great book by Austin Kleon called “Steal Like An Artist” and this quote (this book, to be honest) really hit home:

The thing is, you can cut off a couple passions and only focus on one, but after a while, you’ll start to feel phantom limb pain.

I have found this to be so true! There are things I always find myself going back to after a while and I’ve always been that way. Whenever I have tried to let something go, especially if it was something I truly enjoyed or felt passionate about but didn’t feel like I could justify the time to enjoy, I usually ended up missing it enough to return to it as soon as I could make an excuse. Anyway, the book was short and sweet and smart. After reading it, I realized that I was wasting time trying to decide between passions when I could be finding a balance among them – which is now my goal.

Bearing all of this in mind, it seems best to move forward with featured recipes in a bit more of a traditional food blog style. I do really enjoy blogging my recipes and certainly have no intention of abandoning this little space, but I may not be able to put forth as much effort into finding and perfecting new recipes as often as I was. I’m going to go back through and make sure all those I have posted up to this point are available and searchable on CopyMeThat., I already tested the search feature on the ones that are available and it seems to pull from the ingredient list. So if you search for “chicken” it pulls not only recipes that have that in the title, but also the ingredients – including “chicken broth”. I plan to continue posting weekly as well, be it a new recipe or a feature of some sort – So don’t give up on me!

Thank you to everyone who’s stuck around through this awkward season. I am already so ready for Fall!

❤

 

* This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may receive a small commission (at no cost to you) if you purchase something through the links provided. You will never see me post a link to a product or service that I haven’t clearly used myself and love!

Kitchen Sink Weekly #11 & 12

Hey guys! Told you I’d be back!

I’ve got double the recipes but no grocery list as I’m sure you’ll be choosier than normal with what you do and don’t want and it will be easier for you to just pick and write your own than to try and wade through a big ole list. You’ll also notice I don’t have pictures here. I decided to exclude them on the blog post to keep the load time down – especially on mobile – but they are still on the recipes themselves if you click through 🙂 

Real Talk

Dear Friends,

I have a double issue coming out in the next couple of days, so be on the lookout for that. I’ve made a habit of actually writing my recipes down as I make them, which maybe sounds strange, but I grew up just throwing a bit of this and that together so it’s actually been a funny transition to write actual real recipes that can be accurately reproduced. But I got myself a little notebook that I keep on the counter when I’m making something so I can write down what I put in and how much before I forget and make notes. Thanks to Prime Day, I also have a kitchen scale coming for improved accuracy. 🙂

There’s so much vying for my attention right now that I keep saying “I’ll type them up later” and then “later,” and then “later…” And here we are. Two weeks have gone by and I’ve typed out three of nearly ten that I’ve got stored up. I have pictures to edit as well and so on. I’ve been going through a bit of a rough spot emotionally. Summer is like that for me, there are layers and layers of big things that come up one after the other in Summer that get me thinking. This year, as I mentioned in my last post, I have to add the sudden loss of my darling pup to the list. I guess not everyone does this but, because pets are like children in my family, I’ve spent what was probably an unhealthy amount of time over the past two weeks questioning every decision I ever made concerning her and berating myself for every time I skipped giving a treat or taking a walk. And then doing anything I could to distract myself from having to think about it.

Finally, over the past couple of days, I forced myself to stop. To be still and forgive myself. To realize that I don’t have a ton of pictures of or with her because I spent all of our time together just enjoying her presence; I was too busy stroking the soft fur on the tips of her ears, the sides of her face, and between her eyes to bother with photos. I heard someone recently say that some animals have souls, and I really hope that’s true because it certainly felt like she did. In either case, still, her name is like a wound, Olivia, little Via, my sweet girl. I can only express all of this because I don’t have to physically say it, I’m sure the day will come when I can talk about her without crying, but it’s definitely not today.

Thank your for your patience if you’re still following, and sorry about the wall of text. I’m gonna go blow my nose now, but watch for that double menu soon! Fingers crossed that my next few posts won’t be so serious!

❤

Kitchen Sink Weekly #10

This is a light one with heavier food. Real talk: Last week was beyond rough. It began with a kitty cancer scare and ended with my 10-year-old husky suddenly passing away. 😦 I only cooked 3 days and still had to go back and look at the pictures to remember what we ate. That being said, at this point there should be a bit of a bank of recipes so you can pick and choose your favorites to supplement if you need more than 3 recipes for this week or if these are too heavy for you. We needed easy and comforting, so that’s what I made.

As usual, here’s the Grocery List Google Doc for you to print or copy and paste into Google Keep. Cooking oils, salt, and pepper have been removed as well so be sure to check your stock before heading out.

---

Zesty Cheeseburgers and Baked French Fries

We’d both been wanting a burger of some kind for several days, so when I happened upon some discounted 80/20 ground beef during my grocery shopping I figured why not. The salad is just spinach with a dijon vinaigrette. I didn’t include it in the recipe because I’m sure I’ve written it up before, but if you want to make it whisk together 2 Tablespoons each Apple Cider Vinegar and Safflower Oil, 1/2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard, 1 Tablespoon Minced Onion, and salt and pepper to taste.

---

Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork Roast 

We were gone for the afternoon this day so I tossed this in the crock pot before we left and we came home to dinner. Used the leftover hamburger buns and tossed some steamed veggies in the microwave while I caramelized the onions and voila! Some grocery stores do also carry pre-spiced pork roast, which would certainly save you a step if you wanted.

---

Teriyaki Glazed Cod Over Fresh Spinach 

Cod is a bold flavored fish, so it works well with stronger flavors as in this dish. Add steamed veggies (we had brussels sprouts) or rice and you’re all set.

---

 

I’m off to sleep for a week, enjoy!

❤

Kitchen Sink Weekly #9

A day late, but I’ve got it! Our poor kitty had a vet appointment and then surgery this week so that kind of knocked out some time that I would have spent prepping for you guys.
Just a head’s up, this one is rice heavy. My Dad gave me a couple varieties of forbidden rice (red and black/purple) which he was too afraid to try 😛 So I started researching their uses (which are basically the same as any other rice so you can use whatever you have on hand or substitute other grains like quinoa or millet if you have those) and we tried them out!