Can you stand another blueberry recipe?

If not, look away, 'cause here it comes.....

But this one is well worth a look, I assure you.

Baked Blueberry-Pecan French Toast. Just one look at that title over at Epicurious and I knew I had to try it. And the 146 mostly positive reviews only served to support that decision.

One of the negative things mentioned by reviewers is that this dish came out soggy. Armed with that knowledge and the fact that I forgot to start this the night before, I cut the milk back to 2 cups instead of 3. I almost chickened out and didn't make it at all since I only had 3-4 hours to soak the bread instead of the 8 hour minimum stated, but I'm glad I threw caution to the wind because it came out just fine.

Baked Blueberry-Pecan French Toast

The original recipe called for toasting the pecans in the oven and then tossing with butter and salt. I didn't see the need to dirty two different dishes (one for toasting and one for tossing), so I just toasted them in a non-stick skillet on the stovetop, adding the butter and salt once the pecans became fragrant.

We enjoyed this baked French toast very much. The custard is very nice without being too rich - the whole milk is a nice compromise between skim milk, which does nothing for flavor or texture, and cream, which tends to be too rich and is quite high in fat. I do recommend using whole milk rather than skim - I'm not a big fan of making these kinds of dishes too low in fat (like using skim milk and egg beaters) - I'd rather have the real thing less often, but that's just my preference.

My only slight problem - the pecans got a little overly toasted while baking. You might be able to skip toasting them altogether, letting them toast as the dish bakes. Or alternately, you may want to cover the dish loosely with aluminum foil, partway through the baking time.

We served this with just a touch of real maple syrup, but the original recipe calls for making a blueberry-maple syrup, but most reviewers agreed that this French toast didn't really need any syrup at all.

Excellent Recipe: Chicken Tandoori

We love Indian foods and spices. I don't think any other ethnic cuisine really comes close to the rich, fantastic flavors that Indian spices bring to a dish. We have ordered Chicken Tandoori in several Indian restaurants, but we find that though the flavors are nice, the chicken is usually dried out and uninteresting.

I've always wondered about the unnatural color that I associate with chicken tandoori in most Indian restaurants. According to several sites, they achieve this color by using food coloring! How disappointing. You can get great color by using paprika, cayenne or I've even read about using beet juice or beetroot, but I'll be it isn't as bright red as what we're used to seeing in Indian restaurants in America - I'm betting most of them use food coloring.

Chicken Tandoori

Whenever I look for recipes for ethnic cuisine online, I worry about finding a traditional or authentic recipe. I'm always wondering - Is this how they would make it in India?

I'm beginning to realize that that's probably impossible to answer. Think about someone from different country trying to find an authentic American chili - they'd probably come away very, very confused. I think the only thing everyone can agree on is that chili should have chile peppers in some form (fresh or powder) and meat. Beyond that, you'll have Texans who insist beans and tomatoes are taboo and folks from Cincinnati are known for adding cinnamon and cocoa to their chili and serving it with spaghetti. Me, I like chili with both BEANS and TOMATOES.

I'm sure it's the same with marinara in Italy. Beyond maybe tomatoes, onion and garlic, what goes into a great marinara is extremely varied. I put sugar in mine and have been told that's an "abomination". For me, using peppers, celery or carrots is a huge no-no.

So, when you're hunting for authentic recipes, I think it's safe to say that there are any number of recipes out there, but usually most recipes have at least some common theme running through most of them. The common theme for Tandoori seemed to be yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, ginger and an assortment of spices. And there's also the tandoor oven, but that's not practical for the average home cook, so grilling or baking in the oven will have to suffice. It was hard to decide which recipe to try, but I went with a recipe from Emeril. And needless to say, no food coloring!

Authentic or not, we were very happy with this recipe - it was extremely flavorful and delicious. And nicely colored even without the food coloring. I used a little more heat in this dish than I usually do, but I think this dish really needs to have some kick and it was just spicy enough - the perfect amount of heat for us. I liked baking the thighs in the sauce - it really coated the chicken nicely and I'm sure that it helped make up for my not having marinated the chicken overnight, but I'm eager to try it on the grill sometime too. I did read a few recipes that recommend draining the yogurt in something like cheesecloth to get a thicker marinade - more like a paste - something I'd like to try next time we make this recipe. And there will definitely be a next time.

A Taste of Summer: Blueberry Ice Cream

Not satisfied with our initial 10 pounds of blueberries, we went and picked 6 more pounds last Friday and were, again, blessed with a beautiful day. This time, however, the boys were a little less than enthusiastic and the youngest, who picked 5 pounds last time, picked maybe a 1/2 pound this time. Still, I think that 16 pounds will do us.

There was no question which recipe I wanted to make next. Ice cream=Summer. Blueberries=Summer. Blueberry Ice Cream? A double summer treat. It's also something you don't generally see at the grocery store or in the ice cream parlors. And shoot - our local ice cream stores don't make good ice cream, so I'm kind of stuck making it myself anyway. A member of the CLBB was kind enough to offer a recipe from Ann Hodgman.

Blueberry Ice Cream

This is only my second or third time making a full fat ice cream - I generally like to try low-fat recipes or sorbets. Thing is, most low-fat recipes generally fail pretty miserably - except for one stellar exception (so far). I like a rich, creamy, dense ice cream, so this time, I decided to try the real thing. It did not disappoint.

It's a custard-based ice cream - the kind I tend to like best. With 6 egg yolks, cream and half and half, it's not going to win any nutrition awards, but the texture and the flavor - oh yum. And the color - check out that purple! Perhaps we can focus on the nutritional value of the blueberries to offset the guilt a little. The blueberries puree nicely and although there were a few flecks here or there, the skins did not detract from the texture at all. Thank goodness, because I was afraid it might need to be put through a sieve first and I'm always looking to skip these extra steps if possible.

Tip: I recommend chilling all ice cream or sorbet mixtures overnight. I've had problems with ice creams not setting properly if I try to hurry the process. Waiting overnight requires a bit of patience and turns ice cream making into a 2 day affair, but it is well worth the wait.

I need to churn out a few more ice cream recipes before summer fades away - I made very little ice cream last year and haven't done much better this year. There's still time, though, so I'm off to scare up a few more recipes...........

SGOTW #63: Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant

Well, better late than never.....but Harry Potter is currently taking up a lot of my computer time.......


So, last week Cookieee, our SGOTW hostess, posted that the number drawn was #141. In my Excel spreadsheet, #141 comes out to be Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant. This is yet another book in the Moosewood collective series, this one focusing on regional and ethnic cuisine. Each chapter starts off with a summary of a particular region - India, Japan, The Caribbean and the British Isles to name a few - with the author often sharing experiences of their own family heritage and/or their experiences traveling to these particular regions. The summaries are followed by a sampling of recipes from each region.

I have to admit that I am practical above all else and I tend to prefer that cookbooks be organized by course - appetizers, main dish, desserts, etc. - so it took me a while to get used to having to thumb through each region to see what recipes were offered. It is interesting to see a sampling from various parts of the world, though, and this is a great cookbook to actually sit down and read. I've skimmed here or there, but I really need to go back and take a good look at it.

Curried Avocado Soup

As I scoured the cookbook for interesting recipes, I kept being drawn in the by the soups and had a very hard time deciding on one to make, so many of them sounded so wonderful. I finally decided on something that sounded unusual and different - a chilled avocado soup, from the Caribbean. This soup has a very short list of ingredients and comes together in just minutes. Although I am a huge fan of curry powder, I held myself back to 1 teaspoon and this ended up being the right decision - 1 teaspoon gives the soup added taste without overpowering the delicate flavor of the avocado.

I have to admit none of us were quite sure what to make of this soup - we liked the taste quite well, but it just didn't seem quite like a soup to us - almost more of a dip - or at the very least, it was soup to be eaten in very small portions. I don't know if thinning it out with a bit more stock would have made a difference or if it just wasn't the soup for us. Or perhaps a bit of garnish such as chopped tomato or toasted, spiced tortillas strips? We did decide that it would make a fantastic dip for shrimp fondue.

Green Bean and Tomato Salad
(Ensalada de Porotos Verdes)

In addition to the soup, we were able slip in another very simple recipe from this book to make use of some beautiful green beans I scored at the Farmer's Market last week. The recipe I chose also made use of my best Farmer's Market find - fresh, ripe, juicy, delicious tomatoes. From the region of Chile - this was again, simple and delicious, making great use of summer's bounty.

I'm getting behind on sharing recipes - stay tuned for blueberry ice cream, blueberry french toast, blueberry cookies and an excellent tandoori chicken recipe..........

From the Library: The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

I love to pick up cookbooks at the library. It's a great way to try one out and see if it's something you'd really like to add to your collection. I'm not a fan of clutter and I don't like to buy things for our limited bookshelf space if I am not pretty sure I'll make good use of it. One cookbook I keep pausing in front of, every time I visit the bookstore, is The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. Oh, I need this book like I need another 30 pounds on my hips and thighs, but I so love cookies that I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to resist. Especially now that I've gotten a good look inside. I think I mentally dog-eared 20-30 recipes the first time through..

When I first started looking through this book it was good and hot, causing a couple of no-bake recipes jumped off the page at me. Well, honestly, it could have been the use of Nutella in the list of ingredients that was even more responsible for the appeal of this treat than the no-bake part. Another bonus - this recipe helped us use up some of the rice cereal that's been lingering in our cabinet, negelected.

As it turns out, it was my oldest DS who ended up making these crisps (that's his hand in the picture. Wish I could show his handsome face, too). The ingredient list is quite short and it does not involve hot pans or hot ovens, though it does call for melting the chocolate in the microwave - pretty easy and safe. I tried to stay out of the kitchen - not easy to do - and let him have complete command over this one. Well, sheesh, the kid is 13 years old after all, so it's about time I let him fly solo here and there. Again, not easy to do, especially when the kitchen is your domain, your retreat.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Crisps

Even though there is nothing in the recipe to indicate these would be at all chewy, and the name has the word "crisp" in it, that's what my mind really wanted - chewy like a Rice Krispie treat. With me, it's always about chewy when it comes to cookies. Even though these are crisps and not chewy, they are still quite good. In fact, without the chewiness I crave, I'm much more likely to leave these alone and not eat more than my share. Do keep these in the refrigerator, they begin to melt in the hand almost immediately. For that reason, these probably would not make the greatest treat to bring to a BBQ or other warm-weather affair.

We still have two partial boxes of rice cereal left, so we may make similar recipe from this book - it calls for rice cereal, chocolate, Nutella, almonds and marshmallows.......

More Blueberries....

Blueberry Buckle. My SIL makes this all the time and everyone always devours it. A classic coffeecake - a buttery moist cake with a crumb topping - what's not to like? I decided to turn again to King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking. Not a low-fat or really healthy recipe, but at least it's made with whole grains.

Blueberry Buckle

The coffeecake turned out like a blueberry buckle should. It was moist and buttery. I was - GASP - out of granulated sugar, so I had to improvise a little - I used brown sugar in the topping (actually, I was surprised it called for granulated sugar here and I would always use brown sugar) and raw sugar in the cake - both seemed to work just fine. The only thing I would change in the future - I think the recipe could have actually used another 1/2 cup or so of blueberries.

Mmmmm...I have a delicious-tasting blueberry ice cream ripening in the freezer - more on that later. We've gone through more blueberries than I expected, so I'm hoping to head out to the farm again tomorrow and replenish our stock - it's supposed to be another beautiful day........

Edited to Add: I forgot to mention that Joe over at Culinary in the Country also baked up a Blueberry Buckle recently - a vegan version for those who are interested.

Delicious White Bean Spread

Recently I was looking for a bean spread that I could use on sandwiches - something a little different than hummus, but something that, like hummus, could jazz up a vegetarian sandwich. I Googled "bean spread" and one of the first things to pop up was this recipe from AllRecipes. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to try it and didn't look at any other recipes.

White Bean Spread with Garlic and Rosemary

I have an interesting dilemma with this dish. I really, really like it, but I'm not sure what to do with it. It smelled fantastic cooking and it tasted as good as I imagined it would, but I'm not sure how to serve it. A spread like this is usually served with bread or crackers, but putting such a starchy spread on a piece of starch just didn't seem quite right - I felt like I needed something to cut the, um, starchiness. Crudite doesn't seem quite right either. Anyway, I ate it warmed on a bagel and enjoyed it, starch and all. At least I did figure that out - it's definitely better warm rather than cold, so I think that effectively rules it out as a sandwich spread.

In any case, this spread is VERY simple to put together - probably under 15 minutes total - and it really tastes wonderful. Now, to figure out how to eat it..........

In Season: Blueberries!

One of the many things I love about summer is all of the fresh fruits and vegetables that are abundantly available this time of year. Especially berries and especially strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. We missed strawberry picking season around here because of vacation, but we came back just in time for blueberry season.

Last Friday was just gorgeous - sunny with just a few clouds, upper 70s, and a nice breeze - so the boys and I took advantage of the weather and went to pick blueberries. What luck too - with blueberry season peaking in July, blueberry picking can be quite miserable - hot, humid and buggy. We picked our blueberries at a local farm about 30 minutes away. It was a great place to pick - lots and lots of rows of blueberry bushes and all very well maintained.

The boys and I got to picking and in no time, we had just over 10 pounds of blueberries! The older one and I tend to get a little carried away - we get in the zone and could probably pick all day long. My younger son gets bored much faster which, in this case, was probably a good thing. Left to our own devices, my older son and I probably would have walked out with 30 pounds a piece!

Quite a bit of our haul went into the freezer for smoothies or baked goods later in the year. (The rest are in our fridge where I'm hoping they keep for at least a week or so - I love to have them sprinkled on cereal in the mornings.) Several sites recommend NOT washing the berries before you freeze them - washing first can toughen the skins. The last time I tried to freeze blueberries, I was not at all happy with their texture, so I decided to heed this advice. I spread them out in jelly roll pans, popped them in the freezer overnight and then placed them into freezer bags. However, I have read that there is no need to do this - apparently they will freeze quite nicely - without clumping together - if you just throw them straight in the bag. I definitely plan to try this next time - the easier the better! I've also read that if you buy them in the store, you can pop them container and all, straight into the freezer - hard to believe, but several folks over at the CLBB swear it works.

Blueberry Cobbler

Our first blueberry treat was a blueberry cobbler. I tend to prefer crisps, but decided to try a cobbler this time. I went to a trusted source, Cook's Illustrated, for the recipe. The recipe came out quite nicely, but we accidentally overdid it on the cinnamon. Usually this would not necessarily be a bad thing, but I think in this case, the extra cinnamon gave the cobbler an odd taste, so it's hard for me to fully evaluate this recipe. I did like the biscuit topping quite well - it did not get soggy and the cornmeal added an interesting flavor dimension.

I've also managed to make a Blueberry Buckle and a very quick and easy Blueberry Coulis - I'll be sharing those recipes later on this week. But that's not the end of the blueberry recipes! I've got plans to try a blueberry stuffed French toast and blueberry ice cream.

Hmmmm...blueberries are certainly very good for you, but I'm not sure about all the ways I'm choosing to make use of them! If, like me, you've found yourself with a bounty of blueberries, you might want to check out some of the great recipes folks are sharing over on the CLBB.

Grilling Out: Steaks

Still trying to make the most of summer, we grilled steaks this past Friday night. I went back to a recipe from the May issue of Cooking Light to a recipe for spicy steak served with a corn and red pepper relish . This issue had several recipes that paired something spicy with a cool dish for a nice contrast. My favorites on the grill are flank steak and strip steak. At Wegmans, however, the ribeyes were a bit cheaper than the strips steaks, so I decided to give these a try.

As you can see in the picture, the ribeyes were quite large! I did not want to cut the steak for the photo, but please be assured that steak was not serving just one person, but two! The rub was not overly spicy, so if you like a lot of heat, you'll probably want to up the cayenne. Even I, a relative heat wimp, thought it could just a little more heat, but not much - I don't like so much heat that the flavor of the food fails to come through. The rub is simple to make - my son tossed it together while I made the corn and red pepper relish.

Chile-Rubbed Steak with Corn and Red Pepper Relish

The corn and red pepper are roasted on the grill. The corn and pepper are first rubbed with a bit of olive oil before placing on the grill. I couldn't believe what a difference just a little bit of oil made when grilling the corn! I had grilled corn earlier this summer and did not grill it in the husks (a recommended method) or with oil and it sort of shriveled up and wasn't great. This time, however, it was perfect. I love it when we pick up a great tip from a recipe. The relish was simple and tasty with nice, fresh, summery flavors - I upped the lime juice and salt just a tad to help brighten the flavors just a little more.

So, not only was this a great dish, but we found out that we really like ribeye steaks and picked up a tip on grilling corn. Not bad!

Oh, and after dinner, we were treated to this spectacular sunset:

Rachael Ray: Buffalo Chicken Burgers

As I flip through Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats, one group of recipes that keeps catching my eye is her burger recipes. For us, a burger usually means simply a beef patty slapped on the grill and that's it - I rely on burgers for really quick and easy meals in the summer. But that doesn't mean I can't still try fancier burgers once in a while, right?

DH, the kids and I all love Buffalo wings. Well, except I don't like the wing part (veins and sometimes hair - ew!), so I tend to order Buffalo tenders instead. Actually, we love just about Buffalo anything, so this recipe was a natural one for us to try.

Buffalo Chicken Burgers with Blue Cheese Dressing

It's actually pretty straightforward - ground chicken (or turkey, if you prefer), spices, a bit of celery and scallion (I had to use chives) to form the patty and a simple sauce of blue cheese and sour cream to spread on the buns. The recipe calls for far too much sauce for 4 burgers - a whole cup of sour cream and a 1/2 cup of blue cheese. Knowing there was no way we'd use that much sauce, I cut it in half and we still had a little bit leftover. The blue cheese was a bit overwhelming and had I been thinking straight, I probably would have realized that I could have gotten away with a couple of tablespoons of blue cheese - it can be so overwhelming.

As with the Spanakopita Burgers, I found these burgers a bit too salty even though I remembered to cut back on the seasonings a bit. With the blue cheese and the hot sauce, I don't think the burger needs the steak seasoning at all - maybe just the poultry seasoning. The rest of the family didn't seem to think they were too salty and it certainly didn't prevent me from devouring mine.

These burgers are cooked inside so that you can dip them in the sauce before serving. I supposed you could grill them first and then dip them in a pan of sauce, but that would create more clean-up, something I try to avoid. I served the burgers with celery sticks (along with the leftover blue cheese dressing and ranch dressing) and store-bought sweet potato chips (baked, no salt added - surprisingly good!) - both were perfect for cutting the heat (and the salt).

Grilled Salmon

Back to that salmon recipe from the other night.......

We like a lot of different types of fish, but we most often cook salmon because it's economical. Most fish around here costs over $15/pound and is often previously frozen. Very sad. So for us, it's mostly tilapia and salmon. Of course this gets a bit boring, so I'm always looking for new recipes.

Grilled Salmon with Creamy Horseradish Sauce

Our latest salmon venture - this recipe from Epicurious. It's quite easy to prepare - a quick sauce and a quick basting sauce. The horseradish sauce is very, very delicate - perhaps too delicate for a strong-tasting fish like salmon. My first reaction was to up the horseradish for more kick, but I'm afraid that more horseradish would overwhelm the light, fresh flavors of the basil and lemon. Perhaps upping the lemon and basil along with the horseradish would be the answer? I really do like the flavor, I just had a hard time tasting it against the salmon and DH wasn't sure if he liked it paired with salmon in the first place.

I would definitely recommend making the sauce in advance (a day ahead), if possible - the flavors did shine through more the next day. I would also try marinating the salmon in the basting sauce to see if that would help up the flavor.

I have a lot of leftover sauce, so I may play around with it some more - maybe use it as a crudite dip, use it on tilapia or as a spread for sandwiches...........

Going Veggie on the Grill

Whoops, I guess I promised a salmon recipe, but tonight's dinner was so yummy that it made me forget!

It's hot here - not as hot as other parts of the country, but hot for this neck of the woods - so I've planned dinner around grilling outdoors. When we grill, I often automatically think meat or seafood, but this summer I'd like to play around with a few more vegetarian recipes, if possible.

When we eat out, I often gravitate toward vegetarian dishes, especially for lunch or when I order sandwiches. One of my favorites is a well-executed portobello mushroom sandwich, but many places seem to miss the mark on these, so I decided to try one on my own. I scoured Epicurious and found several tasty recipes like this one, this one and this one, and even though I didn't really follow any of the recipes exactly, I took ideas from each one and decided to wing it.

Portobello Mushroom Burgers with Fontina and Arugula

Mmmm...it was yummy. We all would have liked there to have been more mushroom relative to the large rolls, but that would be hard to do unless we put two mushrooms on the sandwich. I bought very large portobellos, but they do cook down quite a bit. The red pepper mayo was delicious, but a bit runny, so it needs a little tweaking. All of the flavors melded perfectly together and I was in heaven. Who needs meat?

White Bean and Tomato Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

For some reason, the portobello burgers cried out for a bean dish, so I served the "burgers" with a white bean and tomato salad dressed with balsamic, lemon and Dijon. The flavors paired nicely with the burger and the beans added a little heft and bulk to the meal.

A lovely light vegetarian meal for a hot summer day.

And I'll try to remember that salmon recipe..............

SGOTW #62: The Greens Cook Book

It certainly has been a while since I had time participate in SGOTW. I was making out my weekly menu for a trip to Wegmans this afternoon when I realized that I hadn't checked the CLBB for this week's SGOTW posting. This week we are to pick a recipe from cookbook #98 which, for me, happens to be The Greens Cook Book by Deborah Madison. Deborah Madison was the founding chef of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco.

Over on Amazon, I see they have a new release of this cook book, but I have this older 1987 version:
When DH and I first got married, I did not eat meat. Not for ethical reasons, I just suddenly became disgusted at the sight or thought of eating meat. I began to think of it as dead cow instead of ground beef. I was not technically a vegetarian, however, because I did still enjoy seafood. It wasn't bloody like meat. My SIL also did not (and, unlike me, still does not) eat meat and she introduced me to several vegetarian cookbooks.

My meatless days were also the days when I really challenged myself with cooking. I wasn't satisfied with serving the same old, same old, I wanted to try things that were new (to me) and more challenging. I guess that's why I bought this cook book. My style has changed over the years - now I tend to favor foods that require a lot less time in the kitchen. This cook book is a bit fussy. Flipping through the pages, there are very long lists of ingredients and quite often, within the already long list are embedded recipes from other parts of the book (broths, sauces, etc), making for some pretty time-consuming cooking. Still, the recipes themselves are excellent, if you're willing to invest the time.

Wilted Spinach Salad

Determined not to be daunted by long ingredient lists, I searched for a side dish that might compliment one of the main dishes (in this case, a grilled salmon dish) I had already chosen for my weekly menu and settled on a simple Wilted Spinach Salad. It did not disappoint. The salad calls for a unique method of preparation - the addition of hot olive oil to the fresh ingredients to slightly wilt the fresh spinach. The only major modification I made was to cut back on the olive oil and the feta cheese to make it a bit more healthful. This salad is excellent and simple to prepare, ensuring it a spot on our regular rotation.

I go back and forth about whether to keep this book or not, but since my tastes and style of cooking seem to go through changes over time, I think I'll keep this one around, just in case.

Since I usually post the Sunday AFTER the new game is posted, I'm a bit ahead of myself this week. I'll post the rules of next week's game on Sunday and get back to my usual schedule.

I will be back to post the salmon recipe tomorrow and there will be a lot more grilling to come this week including turkey burgers, steak, and a vegetarian sandwich. It's good to be home and cooking again!

Good to be Home

Posting has been more than a little erratic here at The Savory Notebook.....in case you haven't noticed. That's because we took a two-week trip to the wild, wild, West - mostly Montana and Wyoming, looping briefly into Idaho so that my Mom could check another state off her list. I did have occasional access to a computer and was able post a few recipes that we tried before we left - it was nice to have a little activity on the blog instead of 2 weeks of nothing. It was a great trip, but it's oh so good to be home again.

More on the trip later, but first, another pancake recipe. Knowing that we'd be gone for 2 weeks, I had to stop buying and cooking new foods and simply concentrate on using up ingredients that would likely go bad while we were away. Like eggs that were approaching their use-by date. I think I stashed a few leftover pancakes in the freezer, so at least maybe we'll have something tasty for breakfast tomorrow morning.........

Buckwheat Pancakes

I love, love, love buckwheat pancakes, but I've never made my own. That's because I've been very spoiled by a mix. Not just any mix - a great mix from an old-fashioned water-powered mill where they grind their own flour. My mom works there occasionally and is my pancake mix supplier. As good as the mix is, I need to find a good recipe to make my own for those times when we run out - after all, I'm in PA and the mill and my parents are in VA - not exactly convenient.

Time was in short supply as I got ready for our trip, so I didn't spend much time looking at recipes and pretty much went with the first one I found that did not require buttermilk. I ended up trying a recipe from AllRecipes, with modifications, of course. They turned out quite well, but not nearly as good as my favorite stand-by. It may have been partly my fault - I cut down the oil and they were just a tad bit dry. Still, I don't know that using the full amount of oil would make me love these as much as the mix.

What I really love about the Wade's Mill mix is the texture and I suspect it's because they don't grind their buckwheat super fine, leaving larger pieces that provide a pleasant, hearty mouthfeel. And speaking of texture, I think that nothing beats buttermilk for a great whole grain pancake - they seem to turn out more tender with buttermilk than with regular milk.

So, I'll continue to look for a great buckwheat pancake mix. In the meantime........Mom..........!