Lance R Curtis
Lance R Curtis
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The horror of King Arthur pancake mix

4/8/2022

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I have long loved King Arthur flour.  My baking just gets better results with it.  It doesn’t matter whether it is a quick bread, a cake, or whatever.  It just tastes better when I make it with King Arthur flour.

So naturally when I saw King Arthur pancake mix in the store, I had no hesitation to giving it a try.  And to my great surprise, I can’t say enough about how disappointing it is.

The first disappointment (yes, I have more than one) came after pouring the mix into my mixing bowl.  The mix got caught into the inner track of the plastic zipper, so I couldn’t seal it shut.  I had to get an extra plastic bag, wrap the bag of pancake mix inside that, and then zip seal the second bag shut.  That’s not a deal breaker, just an unexpected annoyance.
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What is a deal breaker is the quality of pancake it produced.  You don’t need an egg, although you are free to add one.  All you really need is water.  After mixing, you’re supposed to let it set for 5 minutes before pouring onto the griddle.  The pancakes cooked up fine, but the finished product is much more like a mutated crepe than a pancake.  Pancakes should be fluffy, not spongy.  The flavor is okay, but the texture just overrides the okay flavor to provide a disappointing taste experience.

I tried different variations — using milk instead of water both with and without egg — all to no avail.  I have a mind to try using a little oil, no egg, and water.  But I’m not very hopeful.  My experience thus far has certainly been far below expectations.  I’m still sold on King Arthur flour, as I continue to experience great baking with it.  But their pancake mix?  No thanks.  I’ll pass and stick with my Krusteaz, a wonderful product from Seattle that has never disappointed me.  If it’s not broke, don’t try to fix it.

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Pi Day 2022

3/14/2022

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I’m not sure how this happened, but I totally forgot that today is Pi Day!  I didn’t even realize it until one of my colleagues mentioned it in a late afternoon meeting.  I didn’t want the day to go by without at least a token celebration.  But with all I had to do before the day was over, I wasn’t sure how to fit it in.  I didn’t want to buy a whole pie from a store because I’m trying to do better with my diet.  Besides, I just wanted one piece to celebrate the day.
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I settled upon something I haven’t done in years.  I went to Micky D’s for an apple pie.  The whole trip took roughly a quarter hour, and the pie actually tasted better than that fried thing I remember having the last time I got a pie there.  I don’t think I’ll be doing it again anytime soon.  But it did save the day for me.

And I got a better idea afterwards that I’ll use in the future.  Next time I’ll visit a diner for a real piece of pie.  Plus I can deviate away from apple if I so desire.  I think I will desire!

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Dark chocolate cherry no-bake cookie bars

2/4/2022

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Recently I had a hankering for no-bake cookies.  I haven’t had any in I don’t know how long, but the craving was definitely there.  Or maybe the craving was just for chocolate.  At any rate, I decided to make no-bake cookies to scratch that itch.

I had never actually made no-bake cookies before, but it didn’t seem that hard, and in fact it wasn’t.  Recipes vary, but they’re all pretty much the same.  Still, I decided to modify my first ever batch.  I just couldn’t help but experiment.  I’m too curious.  Plus I wanted to reduce my sugar intake.  So half the sugar was gone.  Boom.  Just like that.

Then I decided to add in a couple of twists.  First, I added in dried cherries, which I thought would complement the dark cocoa I was using.  I always prefer dark chocolate to any other variety, so I always reach first for it over any other variety.  It’s supposedly healthier for you, and even if it’s not, I just love the flavor.  Adding dried cherries provided a very good complement to the dark chocolate flavor, although it added some sugar back into the batch.  For a recipe calling for 2 cups sugar, I used 1 cup sugar and then added ½ cup dried cherries.  I’m going to have to experiment with lowering the sugar content even more in future.

My second modification was to make cookie bars instead of individual cookies.  I don’t have the space in my place t put out all the wax paper sheets I would need for even half a batch of individual cookies.  Plus bars are always easier to deal with than individual cookies.  What I didn’t expect (but should have, being a metallurgist) is the hardened slab that resulted once the batch had finally cooled in the pan.  I needed a serious knife to cut off individual bars.

Still, my experiment was a huge success.  The cookies taste wonderful.  The dark chocolate and cherries go really good together.  And best of all, my craving for no-bake cookies is totally gone!

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Cinnamon Raisin English Muffin French Toast

10/20/2018

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I was shopping for groceries the other day and saw a stand at the end of an aisle offering English muffins on sale.  It was then that an idea hit me.  Why not use an English muffin to make French toast?  It sounded intriguing, so I decided to purchase some English muffins and conduct a small experiment in my kitchen.

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I started by mixing together the following ingredients:

1 egg
1 Tbl vanilla
1 tsp sugar
½ cup milk

In retrospect, I should have used only 1/4 cup milk, because it gave me way more egg mixture than I needed, and it was a diluted mixture at that.

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Once my skillet got up to heat, I dipped halves of English muffin into the egg mixture, holding it down with a fork for a few seconds to let all the nooks and crannies absorb more egg mixture.

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As you can see, my skillet was large enough to cook four pieces, which is all I wanted for an experiment.  I tried pouring additional egg mixture on the individual pieces in the skillet, but I just ended up dumping egg mixture in the skillet, which I separated from the French toast pieces with my spatula.

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After flipping the pieces, I tried spooning extra egg mixture into individual pieces, but that didn’t get me very far.  Again, I should have used only 1/4 cup milk.

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In the end I served my finished experiment with butter and maple syrup along with a side of hash browns and sausage links.  Again, I think using half the milk would make it better, but as it was, it turned out pretty good!  I might be making this again in the future, but with winter just around the corner, I have some other experiments I want to try as well as some tried-and-true baking standards to fill my kitchen time.  I’ll be sure to post on what glories come forth from my kitchen.

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Overnight blueberry French toast

12/27/2016

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Traditionally, my mother spearheads the effort to make breakfast on Christmas morning.  This year, since she's lost some of her zest for the kitchen, I thought I would take over and make breakfast for her.  She loves blueberries, so I thought this gem might just do the trick.  It turned out far better than I could have imagined.  And best of all, it's extremely easy to make.

I made some hash browns as well, but I won't go into their preparation.  After all, if you don't know how to make hash browns, then . . . well, you should probably look into it.

I started by cutting 4 slices of bread into squares roughly 1" on each side and placing the pieces into a 6"x9" greased casserole dish.  For this particular iteration, I used Italian bread, and it came out great.  In the future, though, I'd like to experiment with other types of bread.  Certainly French bread would taste great, but so would sourdough (probably).  The trick would be to match the right bread with the right fruit, since it's easy to substitute the blueberries for whatever other fruit you like.  (My dad voted for blackberry.  What a surprise.)
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Once I finished with the bread, I did the same with one 8-oz package of cream cheese, trying to disperse the cubes more or less evenly throughout the pan.  I also added 1 cup of blueberries to the mix.  My mother is very particular with her blueberries; she has to have really small ones.  I admit the small size actually worked out well with this recipe, but, hey, I'm sure the bigger ones are also good.

This accomplished, I cut up 2 more slices of bread and topped the mixture.  I then wrapped aluminum foil over the top and placed it in the refrigerator overnight.  I hoped that Santa would stay out of the fridge, and it turned out that, if he did get in the fridge, he didn't touch this.
The next morning, I heated the oven to 350 ̊F and removed the dish from the refrigerator, letting it sit out for 30 minutes before placing it in the oven, still wrapped.  After baking for about 20 minutes, I removed the foil and let it bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, I began to make the sauce to top the baked goodness once it leaves the oven.  I started with 1 cup of water, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and 1 cup of white granulated sugar.  After mixing this together and bringing it to boil for a couple of minutes, I added 1 cup of blueberries and brought the mixture to a boil before lowering the heat to simmer.  The result is the thick beauty you see here.
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After removing the casserole dish from the oven, I poured the blueberry sauce on top.  I wish that I had made a little more, since what I did make didn't seem to cover the top enough to my liking.  I was also surprised to see that the cream cheese cubes essentially held their shape; I expected them to melt more than they did.  Still, it's a thing of real beauty that amazingly is enough to feed 6.

Best of all, my mother couldn't stay out of it.  That means it's way good.  It's been two days since I made this great delight, and even today my mother was craving it.  Of course, there was no more.  But given how easy this is to make, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of this recipe.
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