Pots and Pins

Sheet-pan Buttermilk Pancakes...

If you don't have a foodie friend, you need to get yourself one or two and here's why:  they will always know where the best restaurants to eat are and they will always share a really great recipe with you.  This is one of those recipes that Julie, one of my foodie friends, shared with me and it's one that you neeeeeed, too!  In the last month I've made these pancakes three times - everyone loved them but that aside, the best part about these pancakes is no one will be standing next to you while you're making them saying, "I call dibs on the next pancake!"  

Since these pancakes are baked on a sheet-pan, you get one giant pancake so everyone at your breakfast (or dinner!) table can eat hot pancakes at same time!  Genius!  And delicious!  And the only possible negative comment you might hear is, "But I like my pancakes round, not square," and I'll give you one guess who said that?!?  The mister is such a creature of habit!  But he ate square pancakes and loved them!  If you really wanted round pancakes, or star-shaped or heart shaped or whatever, use a cookie cutter and cut them out in any shape you want.  Again, it's genius!  So let's talk about the recipe...you start with eggs, buttermilk and butter, the three building blocks for a great pancake!

Here's another great thing about this recipe, you'll only use one bowl - clean up is a cinch.  While the pancake is baking away in the oven you'll have time to make Sugared Bacon or heat your syrup (cold syrup on hot pancakes is SO wrong!) or you'll have time to sit down and read the morning paper!  

My grandkids have been here visiting and I've got great news to share - they are MOVING to SEATTLE!!!  Yes, that's right, I'm SCREAMING with JOY!  Max is 11, Elsa is 7 and I could not be happier to have them living close by.  For the last week the girl and SIL have been looking at houses all around the Sound...they finally found one in Snoqualmie Ridge, just a short 30 minute drive from us, which is better than the 13 hour drive or the 2 hour flight we've had for years and years, so no complaints here!  My life will change drastically, and for the better, so if you don't see or hear from me, just know I'm playing grandma with the best little kids on the planet!  Elsa loved these pancakes, Max, not so much because right now he only eats pasta, morning, noon and night.  Elsa likes her pancakes plain so I didn't put berries in the batch I made for her.  If you want to add berries, feel free.  You can put them right into the bowl and stir them in or you can place them one by one into the mix, which is what I did because I didn't want the berries to "run" and turn the batter pink or blue.  

 

When the pancake is finished baking (about 11 to 13 minutes), it will be a bit pale in color, so it needs to go under the broiler to "brown" up...one minute or so does the trick.  First though, you brush it with some melted butter, because every pancake needs butter on top!

Sheet-pan Buttermilk Pancakes - Adapted from Real Simple Magazine

non-stick cooking spray

2 large eggs

2 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 tablespoons melted butter, divided

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Spray an 11-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Whisk the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons melted butter in a medium bowl until combined.  Whisk in the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir in the flour just until combined (do not overmix).  (If you are going to add berries, gently stir them in now, or add them on top of the pancake after it's in the pan, gently pushing into the batter.)

Scrape the batter into the prepared baking sheet, smoothing into an even layer with a spatula.  Bake until the pancake is lightly golden and springs back in the center when poked, 11 to 13 minutes. Remove from oven and heat the broiler to high. Brush the remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter onto the pancake. Broil until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes, rotating halfway through.  Cut into 12 slices and serve warm.  Serve with your favorite syrup, heated, of course!

 

These pancakes are light and fluffy - just what you want a pancake to be!!  I was asked if a pancake mix could be used, like Bisquick, and I'm sure it would work just fine, too, so if you want to make your morning routine even more simpler, give that a try...but nothing beats buttermilk pancake!!  Thank you Julie!!!

 

Rigatoni Pie...

I come from a long line of pasta-eating-people, a line that goes all the way back to Roccacinquemiglia, Italy.  So when I read about a new way of serving pasta to my paesanos, I had to give it a go.  Rigatoni Pie is not like making spaghetti, where you can have steaming hot pasta in a bowl in front of your face in 15 minutes.  Nope, this recipe is not for people who weren't born with pasta patience in their DNA.

 

This is the rigatoni I used, but you can also use large cannelloni.  I purchased this at my local Safeway.  This recipe has several steps to it, including one pretty time-consuming step that will have you thinking, "Ain't nobody got time for this $%#!"  But let me assure you, the end result will be worth it...so gird up your loins and power through!

 

Making the sauce is easy, especially since I opted to use bottled spaghetti sauce.  You can make your own sauce if you want, thus guaranteeing you will do nothing else the day you make this but stand in front of the stove, but I say nothing because that's where I usually stand on a daily basis.  Feel free to add whatever you like to your sauce if you want to zip it up a bit.  I added onion and garlic to my sauce but you could also add chopped green pepper, sausage instead of hamburger, red pepper flakes, zucchini, etc., or add nothing and just use the sauce from the jar as is.

Cook the pasta according to package directions, just not as long, you want the pasta to be a bit underdone.  And you'll know when it's ready if you can squeeze a piece just a bit and it doesn't crack; it will continue cooking in the oven.  Make your fingers happy and remember to rinse the pasta in cold water before you try to fill your spring-form pan.  (If you don't have a spring-form pan you can use any baking pan that has 3-inch sides.)  Usually I don't rinse pasta, but you need to cool the pasta down or you'll burn your fingers and swear a lot.  

It's surprisingly easy to line up the rigatoni like little pasta soldiers on their way to the front.  You will use all of the pasta.  I thought I might have 5 or 6 left in the pan but I managed to squeeze them in.  

 

Now comes the "fun" part...filling the rigatoni.  I read a lot of different recipes about how to do this...none of them worked as well as they said.  I even loaded up a Zip-lock bag with the meat sauce, snipped off the end and tried to squirt the sauce into the pasta...have you ever tried to hold a plastic bag that is filled with hot meat sauce?  Again...burned fingers and a lot of swearing.  So, after I regained my composure I dumped about a half a cup of meat sauce at a time onto the pasta shells, then using the wrong end of a spoon, I poked the meat sauce into the pasta.  It worked - slowly but surely.  "Ain't nobody got time for this $%&!"  was muttered once or twice but as it turned out, I did have time...about 15 minutes...maybe more...at some point delirium set in and I lost track of time... 

The home stretch - gently pushing a small piece of fresh mozzarella into each shell and then sprinkling the shredded mozzarella on top.  Why the two different cheeses?  They melt differently - the fresh mozzarella will melt into the shell and the shredded mozzarella will stay on top and kind of "glue" the shells in place.  It's a beautiful thing when cheeses work together.

You definitely need to put the spring-form pan on a baking sheet or your oven will make you pay.  But don't be an idiot like I was, make sure you line the baking sheet with parchment or foil, then you won't have any messy cleanup at all.  After it comes out of the oven and you sing praises to the Roman Gods, you have to wait 15 minutes before you can spring open the pan...and don't forget to run a knife around the edge of the pan before you do that!  (If you didn't use a spring-form pan, you still have to wait so the pasta absorbs whatever liquid in the bottom of the pan.)

This is the point where you can pat yourself on the back and take a bow, you did it!  Isn't it glorious!?!  It tastes every bit as good as it looks, too!  This one IS worth the trouble and IS worth the calories!!  5 dangs on the ol' meter, this one is dang, dang, dang, dang, dang good!

 

Rigatoni Pie - Pots and Pins

You will need a 9-inch spring-form pan or a baking dish with sides at least 3-inches high.  

1 lb. large rigatoni pasta 

2 jars (24 oz. each) spaghetti sauce

1 1/2 lbs. hamburger

1/2 white onion, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste (plus more salt for cooking pasta

8 oz. fresh mozzarella

1/2 shredded mozzarella

Olive oil

Basil for serving, optional

Cook the pasta according to package directions but cut back the cooking time 2 to 3 minutes so the pasta is just a bit underdone.  Drain and rinse pasta in cold water.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil over pasta and gently toss to coat, to keep pasta from sticking together.  

While pasta is cooking, make the sauce:  In large skillet combine hamburger, onion, and garlic and cook until hamburger is browned and cooked throughout, breaking into small pieces as it cooks.  Add 1 1/2 jars of the spaghetti sauce (reserving 1/2 jar) and heat over medium low heat until heated through, add salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from heat.

To assemble:  Place the spring-form pan on top of a baking sheet lined with parchment or foil.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Using your fingers, line the spring-form pan with the rigatoni, standing it up, working from the outside in.  You will be able to fill the entire pan, maybe having to squeeze one or two in.  Spoon about a half a cup of pasta sauce over the tops of the rigatoni and using the opposite end of the spoon, push the sauce into the pasta.  Patience!  Continue filling the shells until all are filled.  You should be able to see the top of each pasta shell after filling.  Cut the fresh mozzarella into small pieces (about 1/2-inch thick by 3/4-inch) and put one piece on top of each pasta shell, gently pushing down.  Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over the top of the pie.  Bake in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes or until cheese is golden brown on top.  Remove from oven and let stand for 15 minutes.  Patience!  Using a knife, go around the edges of the pan to loosen, then remove the spring-form pan.  Slice into wedges and serve.  Serves 6.  If there is any leftover, reheat in microwave and pour reserved sauce over top.  

  

Quilt Group Friday...

I goes without saying that I love the ladies in my quilt group, but I'm going to say it anyway, I love them...they are the best group of kind, loving, talented and creative people!  I'm excited to show you everything they've been working on this past month - prepare to be amazed!

Kareena started off our show with this "shirt quilt" made from one of her dad's shirts.  I think she said she made three of these quilts, each quilt made entirely from one shirt.  I found a video on YouTube for cutting up a man's shirt; if you've ever thought of making a shirt quilt you need to know how to maximize the shirt to get the most blocks, click here to watch.  It's kind of mind-boggling to me to think this quilt was made from one shirt - well, plus the background fabric.  

We hadn't seen Kareena for a while so it was great that she hosted us and even better that she had a stack of quilts to show (I failed to get pictures of all of them - so sad about that!)  This Sasquatch quilt has been on my "to make" list for quite some time...I need to get it done before my grandson Max grows up!  He and I still go Sasquatch hunting in the forest (our neighborhood park) and I'm not sure how long we'll be able to do that before he realizes his grandma is nuts.  

This is what you do with orphan blocks - you sew them onto tote bags.  Kareena brought these bags back from a trip to Utah, she didn't make these, but she thought some of us in the group made the blocks and Helen seemed to recognize the fabrics - this was from a project a long time ago.  Our blocks do get around!

Barbara was working on this quilt's binding at our meeting - trying to get this finished for her newest grandbaby.  Barbara has 21 grandchildren and will probably get a few more!  This is such a cute quilt - I love the fabrics - the touch of yellow is perfect with the blues and grays.

 

Love the toes...Terry was busy using up her scraps and made this fun quilt...I have most of those fabrics so maybe I'll have another "monkey see, monkey do" moment and make one, too!

Stephanie was definitely in the right place at the right time when she spotted these red-work blocks.  She purchased them from the Snoqualmie Senior Center Thrift Shop...so now I've added that to my list of places to haunt, Stephanie can't have all the fun!  

This quilt, by Stephanie, is just wonderful.  Made from scraps...really, really small scraps!  I don't know how she does it, it kind of makes my head hurt to think about it because the older I get the bigger my quilt blocks are, along with a myriad of other things.   But I love this quilt and I so wish I had the patience to do something like this - maybe in my next life.

This is the back of Stephanie's quilt on the left and on the right, a close up of those teeny tiny strips of fabric.  I have got to rethink my scraps...I would have thrown out all of those scraps and not given it a second thought!

After Stephanie showed us her quilt, Helen showed us her bag of scraps...which she gave to Stephanie.  I would have tossed that entire bag!!!  Maybe a scrap intervention is what I need?  Stephanie will make something fabulous out of those scraps and I will be jealous and then mad at myself for being scrap-lazy.  

Deborah was able to come to our meeting, which was wonderful because her husband recently had a stem cell transplant and seeing Deborah meant he was doing GREAT - well enough so she could join us!  While she's been back and forth to the hospital with her husband, she's been busy working on these incredible pieces of art, which she called her "stitching experiments"...every little thread is a stitch she made by hand.  

Couched fabric, hand-stitched and framed.   Deborah said by the time her husband is given the all-clear she will have enough of these made to have her own booth at an arts and craft fair and we all agreed she should do that - I'd buy one...or two...

Just look at those stitches...that's called art my friends.  Deborah has always been a very creative quilter but now she's moved way past that moniker - she is truly a fabric artist, actually, let's just drop the fabric part and just say artist or better yet, artiste.  

Can you even believe this?  I think this one is my favorite and I think it should be called bunny tracks because it reminds me of the tracks the bunnies leave in my garden.  Just look at all of those tiny stitches...love, love, love this.

This piece could be in a museum and everyone would think it was some antique piece of fabric salvaged from the Mayans...well, I would.  I'm gullible like that.  I would love to be inside Deborah's mind for a while...

How cool are those little stitches of orange that run through this piece?  I think this one should be called a stroll through helter skelter.  The orange stitches just meander through all the chaos...one step/stitch at a time.  Makes me think of what Deborah and her husband have been doing, one day at a time as they navigate their way through hospitals and medicine on their way to health.  Maybe this one is my favorite...

I'll leave you with a picture of the very yummy lunch Kareena made for us - such a beautiful table.