Two-ingredient cream cheese pancakes (aka "scrambled crepes")

James usually makes us waffles on the weekend, but this Saturday we decided that our big project would be cleaning up our yard after a wind storm blew a tree onto our backyard shed. A friend had posted this recipe on Facebook last week and since we had the two ingredients necessary (cream cheese and eggs) to make these pancakes I told James I would make this super-simple breakfast instead. I used about twice as much cream cheese than called for (4 ounces), but stuck with the same number of eggs (2). It still didn't really make much batter. I put the two ingredients into the blender and mixed them well, then poured the batter directly into my hot skillet. I attempted to make two pancakes to start, which only meant that I ended up with two "first pancakes". They looked more like scrambled eggs than pancakes. I made two more that wound up a bit more pancake shaped, and then that was it for the batter. I decided not to take pictures of this less-than-appetizing looking meal. If you click the link above you'll see what they were supposed to look like, but mine did not turn out in the crepe-like manner depicted at all. We each ate one "first pancake" and one "second pancake" topped with jam and powdered sugar. They weren't bad, but not worth making again. In the future I will either eat scrambled eggs or pancakes.

More blueberries

We had more blueberries than we needed for the salmon recipe I made earlier in the weekend so I got out Granny's Muffin House Cookbook and found a a recipe to use them up.

We had breakfast-for-dinner on Monday, so these made for a nice pre-dinner snack, and a dessert, too.

I really should make better use of this cookbook. 

Salmon and Blueberries

We took Friday off to turn the three-day holiday weekend into a four-day mini vacation at the beach house. Friday's dinner was a salmon recipe we found on the New York Times cooking page.  It wouldn't have occurred to me to put blueberries on salmon, but this was delicious. The blueberries were cooked in a sauce made with honey, shallots, white wine, and vinegar. The recipe called for white wine vinegar, but I happened to have blueberry vinegar from Lebherz Oil and Vinegar Emporium in my cupboard so I used that instead. We baked the fish a bit longer than the recipe calls for - after 10 minutes it still seemed way to undercooked, so we left it in the oven for a few minutes. This looked and tasted great with a lot of colors, textures, and flavors.

Although we cooked with white wine, it paired nicely with a Malbec. We will definitely have this again.

Chicken Paprikash on Noodles

Still on my own until tonight when James returns from Costa Rica, last night I used a single chicken breast to make a variation of this recipe from the New York Times Cooking page. The only significant change I made was that I didn't include the red and green peppers.

This was easy and relatively quick (the 30 minutes indicated on the recipe page was exactly accurate). It was filling, tasty, and also made enough for me to have the leftovers for dinner this evening.

Stir fry with chicken and peanuts

Our child had some friends over at the beach house while visiting for Christmas. They made a meal featuring rice noodles, but didn't use them all. This New York Times recipe then appeared on my Facebook feed, and since I also had some peanuts, and still had some chives (from when I made the Dutch Baby) at the beach house it felt like kismet.

The recipe calls for ground chicken, but I had a boneless skinless breast, so I diced it up and adapted the recipe accordingly. I was also bereft of sesame oil and used olive oil instead. I added some peas just because it seemed like it needed something green. It was rather simple, and a fine, filling meal that wasn't too much work for one person.

Two Skillet dishes from New York Times Cooking

The days between Christmas and New Year's Day are slow-paced for us, and generally a time to relax. We spent a few days at our near-the-beach house and took some time to try some new dishes. Normally when we are at the beach house we have waffles for breakfast, but since we were there for four days we didn't want them all four mornings. James made them for the first two, and then I was in charge of breakfast. I found this recipe for Dutch Baby with Bacon and Runny Camembert from the New York Times Cooking pages. I don't think we'd ever had Camembert cheese before, and apparently no one at the deli counter at our local grocery store had ever even heard of it. James googled it and discovered that it was a type of brie, so he started looking around where the brie was located. This method worked and he brought home a nice 8 oz. wheel, just like the recipe called for. I followed the recipe pretty closely, with the exception that I only used seven eggs instead of eight, since that was all I had. This was both visually appealing, and really tasty. It made enough for the both of the remaining breakfasts.

The second recipe I tried was an easy skillet dinner Cheesy Spicy Black Bean Bake. This was quick and only the skillet was needed, no additional pots, pans, or bowls.

Spicy pairs well with sparkling, so we enjoyed a bottle of Blancs de Noirs from Westport Rivers Winery with this.

Simple Gift

For the past couple years, my parents have sent the gift of cheese, from a store they like to visit in Pennsylvania. They know we have enough "stuff" and that gifts of food are always welcome. The variety of cheeses was delicious, including a salsa/jack that we put to a few good uses.

Tucked in with the cheeses was an unassuming packet of herbs and spices from Halladay's Harvest Barn in Vermont. It is labeled "Spicy Garlic Dill Dip and Cooking Blend," but dill is the first ingredient, followed by parsley, onion, garlic, and pepper. Pam made a nice dip for a holiday party, and plenty of the blend was left over in the 0.9 ounce packet, so she suggested I try making the glaze included among the recipes inside the label, because it is said to "pair well with fish."

At first, I envisioned dill with cod or haddock, but decided I would rather try it with salmon. I found a nice filet of king salmon at Kyler's Catch, which I started to grill -- skin side down -- on the cast-iron half plancha griddle in our Big Green Egg, which I had heated to about 350F.

I took some liberties with proportions, whisking together 1-2T each of the herb mix, lemon juice, honey, and olive oil. I brushed it on the fish after about 5 minutes (shown above, when the fish was cooked about halfway through). I let it cook about five more minutes and then rest for a few minutes more. This was as delicious as it was easy, and we will try it again -- we still have enough mix left to do so!

Although my parents bought this mix in Pennsylvania and it is available online, I look forward to visiting the company store, located about half an hour south of our favorite Vermont B&B. It is so close to the main route, in fact, that we must have passed by its front door more than once. I look forward to learning what other concoctions are on offer there.