Cornmeal Pear Pancakes

Weekend brunch is one of the best things about life in New York. Waking up at a leisurely pace, padding barefoot into the kitchen, making a cup of tea, thumbing through the bakery cookbooks, and lounging while cooking—or dressing haphazardly in adorable cast-offs from earlier in the week and wandering to a cafe or bistro for mimosas and eggs Benedict.

Yesterday was a delightful in-pattern Saturday; I sent The Lovely Girlfriend to the Farmer’s Market in search of fruit while I tidied a bit, and when she returned with a pair of gorgeous Bosc pears, I improvised the following set of pancakes. I served them with Andouille sausage links and scalding hot sweet tea, topped with melted butter and cinnamon-sugar. TLG pronounced them “blog-worthy” after one bite.

Cornmeal Pear Pancakes

• 1 cup + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour, sifted
• 2 tbsp stoneground yellow cornmeal
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp spicy cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 beaten egg
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 Bosc pear, peeled and coarsely grated

1. Sift the six dry ingredients together in a large bowl or a pitcher with a spout. Make a well in the center of the mixture and set aside.
2. In a small bowl beat the egg firmly. Add milk and oil and beat until the liquid foams slightly around the rim of the bowl.
3. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix until ingredients are combined and large lumps are broken up. Allow the batter to rest for ten minutes, then gently fold in the grated pear
4. Lightly mist a skillet with cooking oil and place over medium heat; set the oven temperature to 200 degrees and place a pair of oven-safe plates inside.
5. When the skillet is hot, pour batter into a 5” circle in the middle of the pan. When bubbles are bursting and the edges are dry (about 2.5 minutes), flip the cake and cook until it’s golden brown (about 90 seconds). When done, place the cake on one of the plates in the oven.
6. Repeat step five until the batter is used, alternating finished cakes between the two plates in the oven. (Due to the cornmeal, the texture is better after a few minutes of rest.) Recipe yields six hearty pancakes.

Delectable.

See more progress on: Develop a repertoire of quality recipes

First published at 43Things

Spanish: Auditory Comprehension

On Saturday afternoon, with my sister in town, we spent some time at Casablanca (a nail salon on the Upper West Side) enjoying mani/pedis. The women working in the shop were primarily Korean and Puerto Rican, and I was fortunate that Eva finished with a client just as it was my turn to take a seat.

Eva spent most of the time during which she was working on my feet chatting with her colleague, Ana, who was at the next station. Despite never speaking Spanish beyond an intermediate level and not having studied it for years, I was able to follow much of the flow of their conversation. Some of it was rather unflattering commentary about the woman running the salon and her ingratiating attitude with customers (which they resent), but most of it revolved around a guy they were interested in, and the speculation of who among their circle he was dating.

What impressed me most, while I was shamelessly eavesdropping, was that the pace of conversational Spanish didn’t prove difficult. I was able to follow the topics, and didn’t get overly hung up when I couldn’t translate a word in my head—instead I listened for inflection and puzzled out meaning from the overall context. That’s a level of cognizance that I didn’t realize I had, and one that I most definitely can’t afford to squander.

Much as I would love to learn French and Italian, I’m going to focus my language-learning on Spanish. Which means that I actually need to focus on it—putting time into lessons and reading, find some conversational partners, and friends who can help me practice.

Anyone up for some conversación?

Originally posted at 43Things
See more progress on: become fluent in spanish

One-Hour Beef Stew

I came home from a knitting lesson yesterday with a bag of groceries, to a hungry girlfriend who doesn’t have the patience I do to wait hours for the perfect meal. I knew this before I left, of course, but still couldn’t resist the beautifully marbled stew beef and richly aromatic sun-dried tomatoes at the market. So I came up with a way to make a quality beef stew in an hour.

Ingredients

• 1 pound of stew beef, chopped into 3/4 inch cubes
• Flour
• Oil
• 3 large Yukon Gold potatoes, cleaned and chopped into 1/2 inch cubes (skins ON)
• 2 large sweet carrots, peeled, halved, and chopped into 1/4 inch disks
• 1/2 large Vidalia onion, diced finely
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Sage
• Black Pepper
• Beef Bullion
• Water
• 8-ounces of dry packaged sun-dried tomatoes, chopped coarsely
• 12-ounces of baby portobello mushrooms caps, quartered

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. After chopping the beef, dredge it in flour and brown in the hot oil; meet should be cooked through, and dark in color. Remove from pot.
2. Discard the oil, then add the potato, carrot, and onion to the hot pot. Stir to heat the vegetables through, and season liberally with sage and black pepper. Add the beef back to the pot and mix thoroughly.
3. Add bullion to the pot (I use a beef paste, and per package directions used a heaping soup spoonful for this quantity of soup), then add enough boiling water to completely cover all ingredients. Cover and bring to a boil.
4. When liquid reaches boiling point, reduce heat to simmer, then add sun-dried tomato. Cover and cook over low heat for an hour.
5. Remove lid, stir, add mushrooms, and cook, covered, for another ten minutes.

I served the stew in deep bowls with buttered pumpernickel bread for dipping, nearly to applause. I did cover the pot and continue simmering the remaining stew while we ate, then ladled the remaining five servings into lunch portions and cleaned. It tastes even better on day two.

Originally posted at 43things
See more progress on: Develop a repertoire of quality recipes

Some physical "stuff" is gone

My sister came to visit me in NYC this weekend, and along with her enthusiasm and sense of fun, brought her car to help me tote away some “things” that were occupying much needed space in my life.

• My gorgeous bicycle, Janeway, which I loved owning and love riding when I made the effort, but which I didn’t do enough of to justify the expense. Becky took her to Glens Falls, where she’ll be able to bike to and from work, getting exercise and alone time, and saving some serious money that her little family can better use for other things. (She also took all of the accessories for the bike—helmet, air pump, lights, locks, etc.)
• A box of books that I no longer need on my shelves. I remember thinking that someday I’d like to have a library in my house; now that I live in NYC and have to deal with city dirt and soot and dust, I can’t stomach the piles and piles of paper; I’m only keeping the ones that are truly meaningful.
• Three bags of clothes that don’t fit. I have a wardrobe that’s functional; I don’t need to hold onto clothes that are too big or inappropriate for my life in the city.
• A stack of baskets and plastic Rubbermaid bins that I don’t need; they’ll be put to good use in the basements of my family members upstate, who always need more storage pieces!
• A 36-gallon tub full of art, family heirlooms, knick-knacks, and specific clothes and books that I’ll be giving to close friends and family members. These are things that are important to me for the memories and sentimentality that they hold, but not things that add value to my life when I have them around. I’ll be giving each one to someone who will appreciate it and derive joy from owning it.

My apartment feels large and light and airy without those items cluttering it up. That’s exactly the result I was hoping for, and I’m so relieved—there’s a physical sense of lightness that I’ve missed!

First published at 43Things
See more progress on: Eliminate the stuff from my life that doesn't fulfill me spiritually, emotionally, or creatively