Fabulous pancakes!

I recently discovered King Arthur Flour's "Guaranteed" recipes and I am very impressed with the results. So far I have made the pancakes, the shortbread and the banana bread and they were all so good that I doubt I will ever try a different recipe for them.

Here's the printable version from King Arthur website.

Ingredients:

- 2 large eggs

- 1 1/4 cups of milk

- 3 Tbsp melted butter or vegetable oil

- 1 1/2 cups flour

- 3/4 tsp salt

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 2 Tbsp sugar or 1/4 cup malted milk powder

Beat the eggs and milk until light and foamy, about 3 minutes at high speed of a stand or hand mixer. Stir in the butter or vegetable oil.

Whisk the dry ingredients together to evenly distribute the salt, baking powder and sweetener.

Gently and quickly mix into the egg and milk mixture. Let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes, while the griddle is heating; it"ll thicken slightly.

Heat a heavy frying pan over medium heat, or set an electric griddle to 350°F. Lightly grease frying pan or griddle. The pan or griddle is ready if a drop of water will skitter across the surface, evaporating immediately.

Drop 1/3 cupfuls of batter onto the lightly greased griddle. Bake on one side until bubbles begin to form and break, then turn the pancakes and cook the other side till brown. Turn over only once. Serve immediately.

Coconut Shrimp.

This recipe is from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook by Jaden Hair. My in-laws actually know her and they had her sign the book for me before sending it to me for Christmas. How cool is that?

I have always wanted to cook Asian food but had never tried before. I think I was a little intimidated by all the ingredients I had never used before and how different it is from the way I am used to cooking. I really like this cookbook because it really does make it look "easier" than I thought it would be to cook Asian dishes. For my first try, I decided to make some coconut shrimp.

We all thought it was very tasty and I can't wait to make it again!

Ingredients:

- 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

- 1 Tbsp high-heat cooking oil

- 1 lb (500g) raw tail-on shrimp, deveined and patted really dry

- 2 tbsp butter

- 4 green onions, cut into 2-in (5 cm) lengths

- 1 Tbsp finely minced garlic

- 3 Tbsp cognac (brandy or rum make good substitutes)

- generous pinch of salt

- 3/4 tsp sugar (omit if you are using sweetened shredded coconut)

In a wok or frying pan over medium heat, add the coconut and toast until golden brown. This should take 3 to 4 minutes. Don't burn the coconut! Once it is toasted, immediately remove to a plate to cool.

Wipe the wok or pan dry and set over high heat (if you are using a coated non-stick pan/wok, use medium to medium-high heat). Add the oil and swirl to coat. Add the shrimp to the wok, keeping them in a single layer. Fry for one minute, flip and fry for an additional minute until almost cooked through. Remove from the wok, keeping as much oil in the wok as possible.

Turn the heat to medium, add the butter and, once the butter starts bubbling, add the green onion and garlic. Fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Pour in the cognac and add the salt and sugar.

Stir and return the shrimp to the wok. Let the whole thing bubble and thicken just a bit- the sauce should lightly coat the shrimp.

Remove from the heat, sprinkle in the toasted coconut and toss well (I forgot to take a picture of that step).

Yummy!

Never EVER cut and seed jalapeño peppers without wearing latex gloves...

...unless you want to be in tremendous and very long burning pain. Trust me, I speak from experience.

My husband had to spend the day at work on Superbowl Sunday so last night I thought it would be nice to make some jalapeno poppers for him and the crew to enjoy. The pioneer Woman has a great recipe for it in her cookbook so I thought I would give it a try. I bought about 30 jalapeno peppers. She does warn you that you need to wear latex gloves or you may have burning sensations on your fingers, but of course I didn't "listen". I thought it couldn't be so bad, and I could rinse off my hands if it bothered me.

I WAS WRONG. Ok, I may sound overly dramatic, but you have to understand that my hands ended up burning A LOT for about 15 hours before it started going away. At first it was just a little tingling sensation that started just about when I finished seeding the jalapenos. Then, within minutes, it felt as if I had stuck my hands onto a burning stovetop.

My husband tried to help me and did a google search on what might help to relieve the burning and I tried absolutely everything: baking soda paste, milk, orange juice, sour cream, rubbing alcohol, olive oil, aloe... Nothing worked! Some of those things helped for a few minutes, but then the burning would come back full force. I ended up sleeping only 2 hours last night. Around 4 or 5 am, the pain had subsided a little and I was so exhausted that I finally fell asleep (with both hands on an ice pack).

Needless to say, I stopped taking pictures when my hands started burning so there won't be any recipe today. My husband ended up finishing it for me while I rubbed my hands with baking soda. They cooked them and ate them this afternoon at work and he said that they tasted pretty good. It has been almost 24 hours since I cut those darn jalapenos and my hands are much better now. I still feel a little tingling sometimes, but nothing like it was last night!

The best tomato sauce ever!

This sauce is very easy to make and tastes so wonderful! When I first saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, I could not understand how she made it sound so good. After all, there are only 3 ingredients to this sauce so I thought it was going to be sort of bland. I was so wrong! This is the best tomato sauce I have ever had! It reminds me of the pasta with tomato sauce my Italian grandmother used to make for me when I used to go eat lunch at her house in highschool. I had always wondered how she made it.

Zucchini Bread

This was my first try at zucchini bread. I found the recipe in The Recipe Club, a book about a friendship between 2 women over the span of over 40 years. Their story is intertwined with great recipes that they shared during their life.

Ingredients:

- Butter or shortening for greasing pans,
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups peeled, grated raw zucchini
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup raisins (I did without)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 2 9x5x3-inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until light and foamy.

Mix in the sugar, oil, zucchini, and vanilla.

Slowly add the dry ingredients, stirring until just incorporated. Fold in the nuts and raisins.

Bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.
Let cool 5 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.