Saturday, October 06, 2012

To Hell With It

I'm gonna go make pancakes, the non-rising "Swedish" kind.  It's a cold morning and I'm not feeling especially ambitious.  If the sun ever bothers to look in today, I may go to the range later.

     (Post title courtesy the great T. Y. Wang, an RCA engineer who had a keen appreciation of when to shift tasks.)

16 comments:

  1. Ya, I bagged the day as well, mostly.
    The shop is running smooth without me, and everything else can wait till later. I've had enough 'world' for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The war continues between the the forces of flat pancakes and the followers of fluffy pancakes.

    Death to Fluffies!

    I add a bit of almond extract to mine.

    Gerry

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, go get in some Trigger Time. Remember, those of us who are North of the Mason Dixon will soon have to go into Winter Mode and use Indoor Ranges. So take advantage of it while you can.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mmm, Dutch babies. Sounds like a fine idea. You just indirectly made my husband really happy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Now I want popovers. My present kitchen stove is lousy and it's going to take extra work to install a modern, electronic-ignition stove (got no receptacle, got no circuit to put a new one on. I can parallel a nearby one but I'd have to do it myself, as it's no longer Code). I cannot bake in the the oven (it really should not be used at all) and I really, really miss popovers on the weekends.

    Still, the pancakes were gooood. One egg and a half-cup each of milk (skim revved up with half&half: I cheated) and flour makes three nice big ones.

    ReplyDelete
  6. On the second one, I am very tickled by the line "[when camping,]baked goods have always been out of the question. Until now, that is," for an item -- pretty much that precise item! -- that dates back to at least the 1920s.

    I might even be able to do popovers in a very good toaster over, Drang, but they can get biggish and have to be held at 450F for 45 minutes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mmmm. Pancakes. I haven't made 'em myself for quite a while, but like as not, I'll have pancakes if I go out. I'm not too good at cooking them consistent, but they taste good. Haven't tried to do the Swedish variety though.

    1st thing I thought in re. the oven was a toaster oven. I used to use mine a lot, until the fan got too noisy -- have to take it apart some time. Or just break down and get a better quality one, which I should've done to start with. I like it for small dishes, where I think it's silly to heat the big oven. But I wonder how even the heat is.

    I made cornbread en chilada casserole early, and have brownies in the oven.

    Not being a culinary hot shot, I had to look up 'popover', and Wikipedia says they're similar to Yorkshire Pudding. Now I'm hungry for that. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yep, right enough, Jed.

    Properly made, popovers have large, wondrous voids within, and are still piping hot inside when you get them to the table, to open up and add butter (margarine) and jelly, or maybe scrambled eggs and crumbled bacon. Yum!

    (Did you follow the Wikipedia links as far as "clafoutis?" Oh, dear merciful Heavens!)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm both confused and...well...more confused.

    Non-rising Swedish pancakes?!?

    There's another kind?

    And why Swedish, that's how we make them here too (and have every Shrove Tuesday [Pancake Day - what a country Eh, a whole day just for a food - well that and some sort of churchy thing too] since prehistory, well since I was young which is close enough).

    The other thing is why Swedish pancakes (pancakes), English Muffins (crumpets), then there's the whole Egg-plant thing (it doesn't look anything like any egg I ever saw even if you squint at it in the dark - I know, I tried, it's an aubergine because it's aubergine, just like an orange isn't a tennis-ball plant).

    It's a conspiracy isn't it? You're just trying to confuse me (more). I have a PhD I hate having to Google every other word - you're ruining my reputation here.

    Oh, yes, hope you enjoyed them.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Les-Winter Mode=Rebolber Season.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Able, the rising sort of pancake is about a thousand times more common in the 'States. A lot of people here have never even heard of Swedish pancakes; so I add a little something to clarify and to get the curious to look them up.

    Ir res aubreginae: ...Not so much with the funny little hens that lay blue eggs over there, then? ;) Okay, not purple or dark. It always struck me as a name applied to a vegetable for which the original name had been lost.

    (My dog-Latin is so bad, the puppies howl)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ritchie, I end up pronouncing the word "Webolbeh" in winter.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Clafoutis? No, I didn't get there. Really, once I get to Yorkshire pudding, that's where I'm staying! :-) Well, it looks yummy, except for the cherries -- I'm just not a cherry fan.

    I do like to cook, and my tiny little kitchen drives me nuts. But I'm gonna have to try to make that pudding.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I will tell you The Secret: grease. Grease the ever-loving wossname outta the muffin tin or custard cups. For popovers, Crisco and plenty of it works great. See, they puff up and start climbin' up the walls of the cup -- and if friction holds them back, they turn into hockey pucks instead and have about the same density. You don't want that.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Crisco? Noooooooooooo!

    By gum, if I'ma gonna make Yorkshire puddin', I'ma gonna roast part of cow for starters. Though I bet they'd work well with pork drippings too. I might have to temporarily hide the smoke detector (don't tell the landlord).

    I do own a small can of Crisco. Have to use it to make the non-stick pans be actually non-stick. :)

    ReplyDelete

Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment will not be visible until approved. Arguing or use of insulting or derogatory language will result in your comment going unpublished: no name-calling. Comments I deem excessively partisan will not be published.