Monday, January 16, 2012

Swiss Chard Pancakes

Believe it or not, these pancakes are Delicious! You just have to disassociate "pancake" from the breakfast food it usually is. Think of it more like a savory flatbread. You with me? Ok.
I created this as a way to get a very tough to eat veggie like chard into a form my daughter could feed herself, but we all like them. They are an amazing match with roasted chicken and are particularly tasty topped with sour cream and maybe some diced up chives.

Ingredients:
1 batch of pancake mix plus whatever ingredients your box wants you to add + a little extra mix
However much water your mix tells you to use.
4-5 leaves of chard (if you have a wimpy blender remove the stalks)
1/4 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
Whatever seasoning you want, I just used black pepper

Method:
Put the water and all the vegetables and seasoning in the blender and blend till it's green and soupy
Mix with pancake mix and other ingredients the mix calls for. Since the veggies release water, you will have to use a little bit of extra mix. Get it to the consistency you look for in a pancake batter.
Make pancakes as you usually would.
Enjoy!

I like to measure so every pancake is the same size because I burn fewer that way. These are very tiny pancakes each made with just 1 tbsp of batter. Note the size of the onion in the picture, and that there are about 40 pancakes on a regular size dinner plate.

Mom note: these freeze and defrost in the toaster (or in the fridge overnight) absolutely fabulously with no discernable loss of texture or flavor. I plan to always make a nice big batch. The tiny ones go really easily into the baby's lunchbox too, and are easy for tiny fingers to manage (although I usually rip them into 4 pieces anyway).
No, they are not "hidden" vegetables, but my kid is not yet at the picky eater stage so we haven't had to have that battle yet and she eats these just fine. Plus, with only a couple teeth, this is the easiest way for her to eat chard!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Baby Surprise in Action

Here are some shots of the BabySurprise Jacket in action! I opted for mismatched bright orange buttons... Actually leftover from my baby shower decorations!! Tip: if you use mismatched buttons a button is easier to replace if you loose it and don't keep extras for every outfit lying around...

The hat was crazy simple and made from some bulky stash noro I lost the band for. All there is to it is a rectangle long enough to go around the head folded in half, then seamed together end to end and along one side. The "ears" are just the corners... Flat and off the head, this just looks like a garter stitch rectangle. I actually made it on a plane flight after realizing at THE LAST SECOND that we were leaving somewhere warm and going somewhere cold and my child did not have a warm hat.

Here's the kiddo getting a shoulder ride from her dad!


And experiencing cold wind for the first time in her little life.  She was delighted and laughed and put her arms up, this is one of the best shots I got of the emotion.


Here's a better look at that hat and the fun orange buttons. They really take the sweater from "nice" to "incredibly cute" in a split second.  I sewed them on with an orange and magenta verrigated cotton yarn, which also helps in the cute department.

While a hat could be knocked out in nothing flat... I am very glad I had realized a week earlier that she also did not have warm pants and knocked out a pair of worsted weight footed longgies... Details and photos to come in another post!