Pancakes and Buttermilk Syrup

Best.  Syrup.  Ever.

Buttermilk Syrup

1/2 stick margarine or butter

1 c. sugar

1 c. buttermilk

1 t Karo Syrup

1 t vanilla

1 t baking soda

Melt the margarine or butter and add sugar- let boil until sugar is dissolved. Gradually stir in buttermilk and Karo syrup. Let boil until it thickens slightly. Remove from heat and add vanilla and baking soda. Stir well. 

Then you serve on top of a pancake (of course), and top with bananas and chopped pecans.  Sounds weird, right?  That's what I thought.  A friend introduced it to me and I tried it to be nice.  I gave myself a nice out by telling her that I don't like any syrup besides maple.  I didn't need the out, however, because Buttermilk Syrup with bananas and pecans is heavenly.  It has completely spoiled me and my family, and I will never again choose to have maple syrup.  Seriously, it's that good.

And, for fun, here's a recipe for Sour Cream Pancakes, if you want it.  They're super yummy!  Not life-changing, but still, I'll never buy pancake mix again.

Sandy's Sour Cream Pancakes

6 T margarine

1 c. sour cream

2.5 c. milk

3 beaten eggs

1 t salt

3 c. flour

3 T sugar

3 t baking powder

1.5 t baking soda

In a medium bowl mix together sour cream, milk, and eggs. Melt the margarine. Pour into the cold liquid. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients. Mix all together, just until blended. Pour 1/4 c measure onto hot griddle.

This Recipe Will Change Your Life

This may be the best bread EVER.  It includes spices that I'd never heard of before, and that are quite expensive, but, trust me, it's worth it:

Herbless Herb Bread
3/4 c. warm water
1/2 c. milk
2 T oil/butter
2 T sugar
1 t salt
3 1/2 c. flour
2 1/4 t yeast

- add herbs/spices
OR

Cardamom/Vanilla Bread
- Use the recipe from above and add:
1/8 t cardamom*
1/4 t coriander*
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 t vanilla

* I recently increased the amount of flour in this bread (from 3 to 3 1/2 cups), because it makes a nicer bread loaf.  Since I did that, I also put in a little more of the cardamom and the coriander.  Not doubled or anything, just a little more.

I make this in the bread maker on the dough cycle.  First I add all the water and sugar and yeast and let the yeast soften for a few minutes.  Then I add the rest of the ingredients and let the bread maker take over.  It kneads the bread for 5 - 10 minutes, then lets it rise for about an hour and punches it down.  About then is when I remove the bread from the bread maker and transfer the dough to the bread pan.  Then it rises for another 20 minutes or so.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 - 45 minutes.  (I generally do 45 minutes on the nose.)

I've been making this bread for about a year now, and it's delicious!  Everyone I give it to loves it, and I give it to a lot of people because it's bread worth sharing!

So the person who gave me this recipe loves to bake.  He makes 4 loaves of bread every Sunday and experiments with spices and such.  I noticed mace on his counter, for example, and asked him about it.  He said, "Smell it.  Now imagine ... cranberry."  I couldn't imagine a mace/cranberry combo, and I don't experiment with spices.  But he told me I had to try out this bread, and the other suggestion he made was the best pancake experience of my life, so I had to believe him.  At the store, though, I was taking his name in vain as I bought the $12.95 cardamom.  "This better be worth it," I kept telling Rob as the bread was baking.  Oh.  It's worth it.

BYU Mint Brownies

I normally don't post recipes, but these are some of THE FINEST brownies known to man. So good, in fact, that I'm thinking of making them tonight--and I don't make brownies from scratch (my opinion is that Betty Crocker does brownies right), I normally don't like brownies with nuts, and I prefer brownies without mint--and they're still SO GOOD!

Here it is:

BYU Mint Brownies

Sugar-n-Spice, Cougareat Food Court

MAKES ONE 9-BY-13 PAN OF BROWNIES.
PREP AND COOK: 90 min. COOL: 1 hr.

1 c. margarine
1/2 c. cocoa
2 Tbsp. honey
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. chopped walnuts
12 oz. chocolate icing (Use your own icing recipe or purchase some chocolate frosting. You can also search the Internet for chocolate icing recipes.)

MINT ICING

5 Tbsp. margarine
dash of salt
3 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
2 1/3 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. mint extrac
t1-2 drops green food coloring

1. Melt margarine and mix in cocoa. Allow to cool. Add honey, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Add nuts. Pour batter into a greased 9-by-13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool.

2. Prepare mint icing: Soften margarine. Add salt, corn syrup, and powdered sugar. Beat until smooth and fluffy. Add mint extract and food coloring. Mix. Add milk gradually until the consistency is a little thinner than cake frosting.

3. Spread mint icing over brownies. Place brownies in the freezer for a short time to stiffen the icing. Remove from the freezer and carefully add a layer of chocolate icing.

(this was entirely lifted from the BYU Alumni Association's website: http://alumni.byu.edu/about/traditions/brownies.cfm )

Tamra

Chicken in Salt with Fennel, Thyme and Lemon

Holiday season 2007. I decided that it was time to finally make a chicken the way I'd seen it made on The Tonight Show. The Naked Chef showed up and made this chicken completely entombed by salt. I was watching it going, "No way! It'll taste terrible!" But then it got done through the magic of television and Jay Leno couldn't stop eating the chicken! I thought then and there that I needed to make this chicken.

It took me years to get on top of it, though, cause that's how I work. I decided I wanted to make it for Rob's family over Christmas. But I had to make it myself first, just to see how it turned out. It took a while to make, but once it was cooking, WOW it smelled great! And it tasted good, too! Very moist and tender. So good.

We ended up making it for Rob's family, which required making 3 chickens at once. It was crazy, but so yummy! I suggest this recipe to anyone who wants to put in the time (and expense--fennel is really costly!). And if you make a slightly bigger chicken, you can have leftovers for chicken sandwiches.

Jamie Oliver's recipe for
Chicken in Salt with Fennel, Thyme and Lemon
from his book "Happy Days with the Naked Chef"

3kg/7lb coarse rock salt (or kosher salt)
8 heaped teaspoons whole fennel seeds, cracked
2 eggs, beaten
2 lemons, halved
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 bunch fresh thyme
Olive oil
1 x 2kg/4 1/2lb organic chicken
1 bunch fresh parsley, ripped
8 cloves garlic, skins left on, squashed

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas6.

Put all the salt into a bowl with the fennel seeds, eggs, lemon juice (keep the skins), peppercorns, and a wine glass of water and mix together. Bash up the thyme in a pestle and mortar and add a couple of good lugs of olive oil. Scrunch it up and rub this flavoured oil all over your chicken, finally pushing any excess inside the cavity along with your parsley, garlic, and squeezed lemon halves. The idea here is to tightly pack the cavity so it bulges and no salt can get in.

Get 4 long pieces of tin-foil and put them on top of each other to make a large square sheet, around a metre/39 inches square. Lay on 1/3 of the salt, making it around 2cmn/three quarters of an inch thick. Put your chicken on top, then pack the rest of the salt around it. Because the salt is slightly wet it should stick to the chicken - make sure that the chicken's skin hasn't been pierced. Carefully fold up the sides of the foil and scrunch it at the top. You can rip off any excess foil - basically the foil is there to hold the salt together until it hardens.

Place the chicken in the preheated oven and cook for 2 hours, then remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Take it to the table with 1 or 2 really nice salads, some bread, and a bottle of white. Rip open the foil and crack the salt crust. It will fall apart easily and reveal the fantastic-smelling chicken. Pull the skin away and tear the meat from the thighs and the breast - absolutely pukka. This is gorgeous served with horseradish mixed with creme fraiche or with some homemade basil mayonnaise.

Tamra's tips from making this recipe:
1 - We decrease the amount of fennel. We use about half the amount the recipe calls for. Mostly because it cuts down on expense.
2- We increase the amount of salt a little. We get the salt in 3-lb. containers, so we use 9 lbs. per recipe instead of 7.
3- We cook the chicken for the 2 hours the recipe calls for and then leave the chicken in a just-barely-warm oven for another hour. It seems to be the moistest this way. And so long as you don't break the shell, the chicken will keep its heat for quite a while. You have to eat it pretty fast after you start cutting into it, though, cause it loses its heat quickly, too. We usually put it in a shallow dish and cover it with foil to try to maintain the heat a little.