Open Source Cook

This really isn’t a recipe, but something we’ve been experiementing with for awhile now and I thought I would share our results. Basically, we tend to have pancakes a lot (it’s a great last minute dinner) and we’ve been trying different fruits in the batter to see what we can come up with. We’ve tried the standard blueberry, but we didn’t stop there.

When I add fruit to pancakes, I don’t throw all the fruit into the batter and then pour into a pan. My father does that and I’m not crazy with the end results. You can end up with fruit cooking straight on the pan instead of in the pancakes and it can taste a little funny. Instead, I will pour the pancake batter into the pan and then put the fruit on the pancake after a couple of seconds sitting in the pan. Once the fruit is in the batter, I’ll take more batter (usually using either a fork or whisk) and dab it on top of the fruit, making sure all the fruit is covered. This way, when I flip the pancake, none of the fruit is touching the pan and it’s being cooked from the inside.

Anyway, here’s what we’ve found with the following fruit:

Raspberries:
It’s not bad, but it can be a weird combination with maple syrup. Something I found that works out really well is smashing the raspberries before putting them in the batter. The first pancake I tried, I didn’t smash the berries and when Jesse cut into it, he found molten areas of raspberries that wasn’t all that fun to be burned with. The second time around, I smashed them and they came out great. It took fewer raspberries for each pancake and you did get overpowered in a single bit. Instead, it was spread out a lot more.

Jesse wasn’t crazy about the raspberries in the pancakes, but he only had that first pancake where I didn’t smash them up. So that may make a difference.

Peaches:
This was really good. The peaches added a sweetness that worked well with powdered sugar and even maple syrup. I made sure I cut the peaches up into small tidbits and sprinkled them all over the pancake and it cooked really beautifully. The flavor wasn’t overpowering and it added something a little fun.

Bananas:
Ian loves bananas and we had a couple sitting around, so I thought I would throw a couple into the batter for a change. I thought they were really good, but Jesse doesn’t think he liked it to well. The bananas did add a strange texture and taste to the pancakes, but it was a good contrast in my opinion. Again, I cut the bananas into small tidbits and sprinkled around the batter.

Apples:
This was also a surprise. I can’t remember what type of apple I used, but again, I cut them into tiny tidbits and they came out really good. I want to say I used a macintosh, but don’t quote me on that since I remember the apples adding a bitterness to the pancake that counterbalanced the sweetness of the maple syrup. I’m not a fan of maple syrup, it’s too sweet for me, but with apple pancakes, it was actually really good.

These are really really good, i love them right out of the oven.

Ingredients:
3 cans of grand biscuits
2 pk cream cheese
1 pk sharp shredded cheese (16 oz)
1 pk of ham lunch meat - diced or sliced (if sliced, chop ham into bite size pieces)

Directions:
Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Combine cream cheese, shredded cheese and ham. Flatten grand biscuits and place into muffin pan. fill biscuit with cream cheese mixture. Bake in oven at 375 for 15-18 min (or according to pk directions)

Serves 24

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been collecting recipes for a long time and I haven’t added them all to Open Source just yet. Nope, all the recipes on here are ones I’ve tried and can tell you about. However, I have a ton that I want to try and those I keep in my cookbook. Since the switchover, the link has been broken, but now I have all of my recipes back up. Here’s a sample of something I want to try and haven’t yet:

Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients:
1 (1/4 ounce) package yeast
3/4 cup water (110-115 degrees)
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup cocoa
2-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon softened butter
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
chopped nuts (optional)

Icing ingredients
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2-3 teaspoons cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. In medium bowl,dissolve yeast in water.
2. Stir in shortening, salt, sugar, egg, cocoa, and 1 cup flour.
3. Beat 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer, or 300 vigorous strokes by hand.
4. Scrape side of bowl, stir in remaining flour; blend well.
5. Cover and let rise in warm place until double (about 1 hour). Stir dough down by beating 25 strokes.
6. Turn soft dough into well floured surface; roll into 8×12-inch rectangle.
7. Spread with softened butter and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.
8. Roll up beginning with wide edge.
9. Pinch edges together.
10. Cut into 12 pieces.
11. Place in greased 9×13-inch pan.
12. Let rise until doubled (about 40 minutes) Bake at 375°F for 25 minutes.
13. Combine icing ingredients, adding enough cream for good spreading consistency.
14. Spread on rolls immediately and then sprinkle with nuts if desired.
15. Serve warm.
16. Can also use favorite cream cheese icing to frost.

This time, I have two different versions of the same recipe, so I’m going to post them together.

Jesse and I tried the instant version, and while they were okay, they definitely need some work. They came off really bland and desperately in need of some flavoring. I’m thinking the chicken broth can go and be replaced with water and a bunch of spices. What those spices are, I’m not entirely sure yet, so I’m up for suggestions.

INSTANT VERSION:
1 can (14 oz.) Swanson® Chicken Broth (1 3/4 cups)
Generous dash ground black pepper
1-1/2 cups instant mashed potatoes flakes or buds
1 green onion , coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. HEAT broth and pepper in saucepan to a boil. Remove from heat. Add potato flakes and onion and stir until liquid is absorbed. Shape potato mixture into 4 (4″) pancakes.
2. COOK pancakes in nonstick skillet until browned on both sides.

FRESH VERSION:
2 lb. Idaho® Potatoes, peeled
8 oz. Yellow onions
2 Large eggs, beaten
4 oz. Ham, diced
1/4 cup Green onions, diced
3 oz. Green bell pepper, diced
4 oz. Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
Vegetable oil as needed
Sour cream as needed

Directions:

1. Rinse potatoes under cold water. Coarsely grate potatoes and onion using grater or food processor. Place in towel; twist to squeeze out all water.
2. Mix potato and yellow onion with eggs, ham, green onions, bell peppers and cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Heat griddle or non-stick pan with thin film of vegetable oil over medium heat. Drop approximately 2 Tbsp. potato pancake mixture onto griddle and flatten with spatula. Fry until golden, flip over and brown other side, about 4 minutes. Drain on towel; serve immediately with sour cream.

For convenience, frozen hash browns can be substituted for the fresh Idaho® Potatoes.

This came out really good. Even though I’m not a big fan of green peppers, they were really good in this recipe. I diced them finely, so you could still taste them, but you never really bitE into one. I prepared this last night and I baked it this morning…it was so easy. Plus, I can do so many variations to this. Instead of ham, I could use sausage. I could do a vegetarian and not include any meat. Or i could add different kinds of veggies and meat. This is one I’m definitely going to make again.

I took the base of this recipe from Betty Crocker, but I added and changed a few things and I think it came out better with the changes.

Edit on 3/23: My father tried this for Easter weekend, however he made two different versions. My sister doesn’t like green peppers, and he was making a ham to go along with it, so he didn’t add any meat to either batch and he left out the veggies in one of them. I have to say, without the meat and veggies, you need to cut back the liquid.

Edit on 4/26: I tried this recipe with maple flavored sausage and I think it would have came out good if I hadn’t also used southwestern flavored hash browns. Needless to say, the two flavors together didn’t work out well. Using different flavored hash browns is good, but you need to make sure the meat doesn’t clash with it. I’m hoping to try this recipe with sausage again, but with the correct hash browns.

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked, diced Ham
1 pkg Hash Browns (Betty Crocker Seasoned)
Green Bell Pepper
Onions
2 cups shredded (8oz) Cheddar Cheese
1 cup Bisquick
3 cups Milk
1/2 tsp Pepper, black
4 Eggs (or 1 cup egg product)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375ºF. Grease rectangular baking dish, 13×9x2 inches.
2. Layer ham, potatoes, bell pepper, onion and 1 cup of the cheese in baking dish. Stir Bisquick mix, milk, pepper and eggs until blended. Pour into baking dish; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours but no longer than 24 hours.
3. Bake uncovered 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown around edges and cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes.