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Super Sunday Pancakes

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Stack of blueberry pancakes
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Like all rational beings, I like pancakes. While I used to be content to just use an instant mix, I decided to create a better sort of pancake-one with the illusion of being more healthy yet also easy and tasty. I came up with this:

You’ll need

  • 2 cups of Bisquick mix.
  • 2 eggs (beaten)
  • 2 cups of milk (soy or cow)
  • 1/4 cup ground golden flax seed
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon (or to taste)
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • Blueberries, strawberries, butterscotch bits, or other such things (optional).
Using a wire whisk, combine all the ingredients. Do not over beat the mixture or your pancakes will not be as good. Use about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. I cook mine on an electric griddle that works great, thanks to the even temperature and the non-stick surface. Being from Maine, I like to add blueberries to mine, but tastes vary.
Getting a good pancake is a matter of timing: cook the pancakes until the edges are “dry”, the center is bubbling and the bottom is golden brown. Flip once (if you flip twice or more, you’ll have inferior cakes) and cook until the bottom is browned. This will happen fairly quickly. Being a traditionalist, I like mine with butter and Maine syrup. Blueberry sauce is also good. Crushed walnuts are also good when sprinkled on the top.
If you want to make non-plain pancakes by adding blueberries or whatever, you can mix those into the batter. I usually make blueberry pancakes and butterscotch pancakes. So, I add the extras right after I put the batter on the griddle.
The recipe is designed to make “fluffy” pancakes. If you want cakes that are thicker, cut the milk to 1 cup.
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Cheeta

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Cheese Pita=Cheeta As a great philosopher once said “I can’t think with my tummy growling.” So, here is my next entry in my erratic series of “cooking so easy a philosopher can do it.”

The picture to the left shows the Cheeta (Cheese Pita) prior to spending some quality time in the oven. The Cheeta was invented when all I had on hand for lunch was some pita bread, hummus and cheese. Here is how to make the dreaded Cheeta:

Ingredients:

  • Shredded cheese. Cheddar is the standard, but any cheese will work.
  • Pita bread.
  • Olive oil.
  • Oregano.
  • Grated Parmesan cheese.

Directions:

Slice a pita in half and stuff each  half with shredded cheese.  Place the sliced and stuffed pita on a cookie sheet. Brush on a light coating of olive oil and then sprinkle with oregano and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes or until the pita is toasted and the cheese is melted. Bake longer for a really crispy Cheeta, less for a soft Cheeta. A toaster oven would also work fine, but not a toaster (unless you like a little appliance fire in your life).

The Cheeta can be eaten as is or used to scoop hummus. Goes well with most philosophers, except for Heidegger.

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Debating Meat VI: Future Meat

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Manga_meat（マンガ肉）
Image via Wikipedia

When I was a graduate student at Ohio State, one of the professors related  a story about his discussion with a German philosopher. The discussion was about the ethics of eating meat and the German philosophy said that he had the perfect solution: science would give us headless cows that did not suffer.

Interestingly enough, while we have yet to make headless cows (aside from the old way-decapitating them), scientists have made considerable advances in the field of artificial meat. This idea, long a staple in science fiction, is fairly straightforward: animal tissue is grown in/on a suitable medium and then harvested as meat. Cook it up, eat it up, artificial yum.

Such artificial meat does nicely bypass many of the ethical concerns that real meat creates. After all, such meat does not suffer or feel pain (in any meaningful sense). Thus, all the arguments based on suffering and pain are vanquished.

A concern that does remain is the matter of killing. Technically, such tissue is living and the process of becoming food will kill it. However, the tissue does not seem to have a life in a meaningful sense that grants it moral significance. After all, it is just tissue and killing tissue is not the same thing as taking a life. For example, if I burn the roof of my mouth by drinking (too) hot chocolate, I am not committing a form of limited suicide. Likewise, if I kill a slab of artificial meat for dinner, I am not killing a living creature-just stopping cellular activity.

That said, it could be argued that the artificial meat has life and hence killing it would still be morally significant. Even if this is granted, killing such meat would seem to be even less significant than killing a plant and hence it would be thus morally superior to vegetarianism in this aspect.

Another concern that remains is the matter of health. After all, if artificial meat is unhealthy to eat (as some argue is the case for real meat) then it could be just as wrong to eat the artificial meat as real meat. Then again, perhaps this would be a health issue and not a moral issue at all. Also, artificial meat could also be engineered to be healthier.

Yet another concern is that creating artificial meat will be resource intensive and hence suffer from the same problem as real meat in this regard. Using up resources to make artificial meat when the same resources could be used to feed more people would seem to be morally questionable and wasteful (just as the case for real meat). Why not, some might say, use those resources to create hydroponic crops that would also create oxygen and absorb carbon?

A final concern worth considering is, of course, the ethics of making such artificial meat. Not surprisingly, the idea of creating animal tissue as product to be grown in this manner strikes some as morally questionable. The natural reply to this is that creating such meat is less bad that using animals as food.

In my own case, I would probably eat artificial meat if it were safe, healthy and tasty. Like many people, I really like the taste of meat. However, I also have concerns about the ethics of eating animals and would prefer to not have my enjoyment rest on the suffering of other beings. Like most folks, I already consume artificial foods and food ingredients, so artificial meat would actually not be that radical at all.

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The Taste of Memory: Cherry Breeze Pie

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Black & White canned milk
Image via Wikipedia

When I was a kid, my grandmother made a cherry breeze pie that quickly became my favorite. After learning this, she would make it for me each time I visited. As with anything, the constant repetition transformed my favorite pie into something of a torture. But, I would smile and eat it, even though my love of the pie had faded away.

After she died, that was apparently the end of the cherry breeze pie. Not surprisingly, when I thought of her, I would think of the pie. But, I seemed to have had my fill of it.

Then one day I woke up with a wicked urge for cheery breeze pie. I had no idea how to make it, so I contacted my mother and she sent me the recipe. I made the pie, cut a slice and stared at it.

Then I picked up the fork and took a piece, a bit worried at how this would turn out. After all, some memories are best left as memories.

While it was not as good as she made it, it was damn good. I finished off the piece and then had another, for her of course. For me, that pie is the taste of memory.

The recipe is quite easy:

Ingredients

Crust

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup butter or margarine — melted

or 1 pre-made graham cracker crust

Filling

1 package cream cheese — (8 ounces)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 can cherry pie filling — (1 pound, 5 ounces)

Directions

1. Cook butter and sugar in saucepan over medium heat until mixture boils. Remove from heat and mix in graham cracker crumbs. Press mixture evenly and firmly into 9 inch pie plate to form a crust. Chill. (Or just buy a pre-made crust).

2. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually mix in sweetened condensed milk, stir in lemon juice and vanilla. Spread in crust. Refrigerate 3-4 hours or until firm.

3. Top with chilled cherry pie filling. To remove pie pieces easily, place hot wet towel around sides and bottom of pan before cutting.

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Easy Microwave Recipe: Cheesy Broccoli & Potatoes

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While I have French genes and thus have a talent for cooking (fortunately I get my fighting genes from my English and Mohawk ancestors), I prefer to keep my culinary efforts to a minimum. As such, I have developed a variety of simple yet effective recipes over the years. Many of them involve, shockingly enough, the use of a microwave. Here is one of my favorites: Cheesy Broccoli and Potatoes. Oddly enough, I hated broccoli for years-until one day I discovered that enough cheddar cheese makes it good. I suspect that this is also true of slugs or even goat brains, but I won’t eat them (didn’t get those French genes).

Cheesy Broccoli & Potatoes  Surprise

Ingredients

2-3 Cups shredded cheddar cheese

4-6 Red Potatoes

1 Pound  frozen tender broccoli cuts (1 package)

Directions

  • Wash 4-6 red potatoes and cut them into wedges. Place them on a microwave safe plate and cook for 5-10 minutes or until done. Set aside.
  • Cook the broccoli cuts based on the package directions, typically microwaving 7-8 minutes in a covered microwave safe container. Drain.
  • Place a layer of cooked potato wedges and broccoli on the bottom of a coverable, microwave safe dish. Make sure that the dish/container is large enough for all the ingredients. Place a layer of shredded cheddar cheese over the potatoes and broccoli, repeat until the container is full or all the ingredients are used. Or you get too hungry to wait.
  • Cover the container/dish and microwave for 5-7 minutes or until the cheese is fully melted.

 

Cheesy Broccoli & Potatoes  Surprise

Ingredients

2-3 Cups shredded cheddar cheese

4-6 Red Potatoes

1 Pound  frozen tender broccoli cuts (1 package)

Directions

  • Wash 4-6 red potatoes and cut them into wedges. Place them on a microwave safe plate and cook for 5-10 minutes or until done. Set aside.
  • Cook the broccoli cuts based on the package directions, typically microwaving 7-8 minutes in a covered microwave safe container. Drain.
  • Place a layer of cooked potato wedges and broccoli on the bottom of a coverable, microwave safe dish. Make sure that the dish/container is large enough for all the ingredients. Place a layer of shredded cheddar cheese over the potatoes and broccoli, repeat until the container is full or the ingredients are used.
  • Cover the container/dish for 5-7 minutes.
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