National Pickle Day may yet be a couple of months away, but now's the time to start perfecting your technique, as did Flickr user "You Can Count on Me." Though the pickles themselves aren't even pictured, their zingy brine looks promising, with masses of fiery floating peppercorns and sprigs of dill.
Treasured for their tangy flavor alone, pickles boast both a historic background and surprising health benefits. Vitamin-C rich pickles were packed on Christopher Columbus's fateful voyage to help the seamen fight scurvy -- and actually take their name from the ship's stocker, Amerigo Vespucci. Today, the fermented fruits are considered extra nutritious for allowing bacteria the time to create additional vitamins and are in fact more easily digested than their non-treated counterparts. So get pickling!
There's something about this picture that keeps grabbing my eye. I love the color of the table in combination with the ketchup, mustard and bannock-wrapped hot dog. I've never had bannock before, but the recipe that Jeannette (of Everybody Likes Sandwiches) posted seems really quick, easy and versatile. From her blog post, it sounds like a useful quick bread that's good to keep in the rotation.
I hope you can stomach one more sweet treat after the sugar orgy that is late December. This lovely chocolate cake (and don't you love the way the background pattern mimics the look of the sprinkles) comes from Jeannette of Everybody Likes Sandwiches. She baked this cake as a Christmas dessert and if you're up for it, you can get the recipe here.
Halloween may now be over, but so many of the fall foods we associate with the holiday are still perfectly appropriate up through the end of November (when we shift into December, I figure it's time to surrender the pumpkins and apples). This means that just because you didn't manage to make a batch of caramel apples before October expired, doesn't mean that you have to wait another year to do so.
Yesterday morning, I made pancakes even though I really wanted waffles. The idea of digging around the coat closet (my kitchen storage annex) in order to pull out the waffle iron felt like far more effort that I could muster up on a lazy Saturday morning and so I opted for pancakes, made from mix stirred up according to my father's special recipe. They have honey toasted wheat germ, cornmeal and uncooked millet in them and are lightly sweetened with a touch of cane sugar. My pancakes were delicious, but this picture of a batch of cornmeal ricotta waffles, taken last fall by Jeannette of Everybody Likes Sandwiches, makes me think it might just be worth the effort to pull out the waffle maker after all.
Several years ago, I went on an extended steel cut oatmeal kick. I would make a biggish pot of the stuff on Sunday nights. When it was ready, I'd divide it between five glass bowls that had plastic lids that I'd bought specifically for the purpose. After they cooled down, I'd would stack them in the fridge. Each morning I'd pull one out, add a little milk and take it to work with me for eventual nuking. I'd also bring a small baggie that contained toasted slivered almonds and a few raisins. I did this every weekday for more than a year. Eventually I tired of the practice (although thinking about it now is making me hungry).
Over at Everybody Loves Sandwiches, Kickpleat has written about a different way to reheat the leftover oatmeal besides sticking it in the microwave. She pan-fried the slab of cold oatmeal in a little butter. Topped with yogurt and maple syrup, it looks like a delicious breakfast treat and makes me start to think seriously about restarting my old oatmeal habit, just so I can heat it up this way.
I love oatmeal, but
it’s not usually a “food porn”-worthy dish. Like all porridge-y dishes, oatmeal is rather uninspiring
to look at, even though it is very healthy
and lends itself to almost innumerable variations, including pumpkin pie and chai spices with mango. The presentation of
oatmeal at Everybody Likes Sandwiches is just about too good
to resist. Her Cranberry
Walnut Oatmeal is a delicious mix of oats, cranberries, walnuts and maple syrup, with a splash of vanilla thrown in
for good measure. Cranberries are packed with antioxidants and walnuts have essential fatty acids that can protect against heart disease, so
in addition to looking good, this breakfast will leave you feeling good.
Even though the crust of your pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving turned out flaky and buttery, consider everyone "pie"-ed out. Try these non-pie ways to use up leftover disk of dough.
What Can I Get You Folks? - Eating Out for Thanksgiving
In Defense of Guy Fieri
'Top Chef Vegas' - And Then There Were Five
