Cranberry Maple Syrup

The color of this breakfast condiment is brilliant magenta.  It looks amazing on top of vivid orange pumpkin pancakes but is also quite fetching on a simple slice of french toast.  The cranberry flavor melds perfectly with the maple.  Each mellows out and balances the other- like my marriage. Read more

Buttermilk Pancakes

 

Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated’s “Best Buttermilk Pancakes” recipe

My mom and I have an ongoing rivalry about simple vs. good food.  I’ve won her over on the superiority of homemade chicken stock and grass-fed beef.  She’s still been pushing back on the breakfast foods.  She routinely treks to Williams-Sonoma for their crepe mix.  She swears by it.  It makes me laugh because, seriously, the ingredients for a great crepe are just flour, eggs, milk, butter and vanilla.  One year for her birthday, I gave her a mason jar filled with flour that I’d labeled “Jill’s Homemade Crepe Mix.”  The instructions specified “Add 3 eggs, 1 C milk, 2 T melted butter and 1t vanilla to ¾ C mix.”

She’s also busted on me about making homemade pancakes.  You know the argument: “Why make them from scratch when the mix is so easy?” I insisted on making these when we were all up at the Lake House for Memorial Day weekend.  Everyone was amazed:  “They’re so light.  They taste so great.  That didn’t take long.”

I TOLD you! Read more

Pink Pickled Onions

Adapted from Recipezaar.com recipe number 73203.  Originally published on Epicurious.com

A week or so after I made these, Sally, my five-year-old, was griping that she didn’t want to eat pizza for dinner.  We were ordering out that Friday night and she actually hates pizza.  When I told her to find something in the fridge that she’d prefer, she said she just wanted to eat the “onion pickles.” Huh?  “Sure,” I replied, convinced she’d figure out that this was not a good idea on her own.  Invariably distracted, I never realized that she ate the whole jar until I found it in the dishwater. Read more

North Carolina Style Barbeque Sauce

Adapted from U.S.A. Cookbook by Sheila Lukins

The spices do a sassy tango with smoke and sweetness and a feisty bit of vinegar in this barbeque sauce, which is perfect for Barbequed Pulled Pork. Read more