Puffy Pillow Pancakes

Oh gosh, these are so good. I'm not a pancake person and I don't recall ever wanting to make pancakes on the weekend. This morning I stumbled upon this post on a blog and was convinced this might be a pancake I would like. These are absolutely perfect. I've never had pancakes this fluffy! The baking powder and vinegar are the trick to the fluffiness.

Recipe (Taken and slightly adapted from the Post Punk Kitchen Blog)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center.

Measure the milk and add the vinegar and ground flax seeds. Using a fork, vigorously mix the ingredients until foamy.

Pour the milk mixture into the center of the dry ingredients. Add the water, canola oil and vanilla and use a fork to mix until a thick, lumpy batter forms. DO NOT OVERMIX. Just mix until incorporated --mine had many small lumps throughout. The less you mix, the better they will be, I promise.

Preheat the pan over medium-low heat and let the batter rest for 10 minutes. Don't skip this step - the resting is crucial.

Lightly coat the pan in oil. Add 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake. Mine were ready in two minutes or a little less to flip, although the original recipe said 4 minutes on each side (take a peek on the underneath for yours).

I will never use another pancake recipe again. Not that I had one to begin with because I never make pancakes...but now I will!

Cure your own salmon

This is just another thing to add to the wait, is it really that easy? list.

I would have never thought to cure my own salmon, but some of my best friends recently did and it was delicious. It's ridiculously easy: generously sprinkle some salt on fresh salmon along with pepper and other herbs like dill or thyme, wrap tightly in saran wrap, place in a dish and weight the fish down in your fridge for three days. (We weighted ours down using 3 cans of black beans.)

That's it. Whenever I find out something like this is so easy, I feel cheated. This salmon tastes better than the smoked salmon and you'll buy at the store, and we only paid $3 for the package of salmon we used.

Happy weekend! Mine consists of happy hour, crafts, and maybe even a wedding magazine.

necklaces

I made them out of the small wire pieces that are intended for earring making (what are they called? earring rods?). These things (at the bottom). I think the necklaces turned out really cute and they were relatively easy to make. Below is the necklace I gave to my mom as a Christmas gift. She actually thought it was a necklace I bought - very flattering, but I should give most of the credit to the nice box I put it in.

happy friday!

The weather is gorgeous in Austin today, so I rode my bike to work. I'm in such a good mood getting to work when I get to ride my bike. Today Eric and I are going on a late afternoon picnic together in Zilker Park. We haven't celebrated alone since we got engaged so I bought some champagne and want to pick up some yummy cheeses before we walk out to the park.

Happy Friday!

Magnets

Over the holiday break, I got together with some of my family and an old friend for a craft day. We made magnets from fish tank marbles (you can get some fancier ones in craft stores, but you'll pay a ton more) and cute paper. We used clear tacky glue to glue the marbles to the paper, and once the glue dried, we glued magnets on the back. We used some cheap black circle magnets on some and bought some super-duper magnets to use on the others. We used some scary powerful glue for glueing the magnets (E700 or something like that.)

They turned out really cute.

I think the craft day will stick as an annual event for the break, along with the "Christmas Sweater 5k Fun Run" that my brother organized. Which, by the way, left me incredibly sore afterwards. That was a wake up call to get back in shape and finally buy some new running shoes.

Happy New Year!

2012! I'm really excited to get a fresh start on everything. Ironically, our apartment is the biggest disaster since we first moved in here. Our luggage and gifts from returning from Florida are dumped everywhere around the house. That doesn't sound too bad, but you really have no idea. I can't even walk in our bedroom right now.

Eric bought me a really nice juicer for Christmas, and I am planning to use it a lot. This morning I made some kale, apple, and beet juice. My body is in desperate need of a food makeover. I think I've had more french fries in the past month than I usually eat in months. Last week I even had french fries fried in duck fat for the first time (delicious).

The biggest news to be excited about is...

Eric proposed on New Year's Eve! Saturday was gorgeous. We woke up and went for a walk to Whole Foods to eat breakfast and then we continued walking to the pedestrian bridge. The bridge has been my favorite place in Austin since I've moved here. The bridge itself is pretty and the view on both sides is beautiful. We sat on a bench and he said a couple of really sweet things and then got down on one knee. A couple of runners saw and start hollering. It was super cute. I cried. The ring is an heirloom from Eric's side of the family and that's a green diamond (it looks more turquoise in bright light) in the center!



P.S. One of my resolutions is to post much more frequently on the blog!