Some things just shouldn’t be a luxury.  Some things are an absolute necessity.

Spending too much money at Target, for example.  Sometimes… (you know it’s true) that’s a total necessity.

Hot bath plus cold beer.  You need it.  I need it. Necessity.

A super comfortable dress that shows a little shoulder.  Everyone loves a little shoulder.

A girlfriend you can talk about your lady parts with.  Yes, I said lady parts.  Please don’t under estimate this necessity.

Aaaaand, last but not least… a little pancake love on a weekday morning.  Do it.

This recipe is super simple and straight forward.  It’s bound to put a smile on your face.  The recipe yields 12 silver dollar pancakes… minis, if you will.  It’s the perfect little breakfast to throw together for just you, or for you and your sweetie on a dirty old Wednesday morning.  Give it a go!

Vegan Jam Swirled Pancakes

makes 12 silver dollar pancakes

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2 1/2 Tablespoons sunflower or almond oil

1/2 cup soy milk, almond milk, rice milk or water

splash of vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

2 generous spoonfuls of your favorite jam, plus more for topping the pancakes

Preheat oven to 2oo degrees F to keep the pancakes warm once they’re cooked.

In a small bowl, combine milk or water, oil and vanilla extract.  In a medium sized bowl combine flours, sugar, baking powder and a pinch of salt.  Whisk with a fork to combine.  Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir to combine.  It’s ok if a few lumps remain in the batter.

Let the batter sit for five or so minutes while the griddle heats up.  Heat 1 Tablespoon of sunflower or almond oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.  Once the batter has rested, fold in two generous spoonfuls of your favorite jam, swirling into the batter, and drop generous tablespoonfuls of batter onto heated griddle.  Cook until bubbles form along the edges.  Flip.  Cook until browned.  Add more oil to the pan as needed and cook remaining batter.

Once cooked, place on a plate in the heated oven until ready to serve.  When ready to serve, spread with more jam or top with maple syrup.

I woke up to an utterly dreamy California morning on Tuesday.  The soft morning sun was just streaming through my bedroom window, the birds were singing good morning, and I knew that I had a whole basket of clean laundry for the week ahead.  Pretty sweet morning, right?

Sure… the only problem was that my brain was entirely unwilling to join  the sunny spirit.  Nope.  I felt like on  big stale loaf of bread.  After an extended love affair with my snooze button, I determined, behind closed eyelids, that the only thing that would change my circumstance was streusel topping.  On the shuffle from my warm bed to the kitchen counter I decided that blueberry muffins with streusel topping would flip the light switch in my brain.

There was only one problem with my blueberry muffin plan.  I had not a blueberry in sight.  No fresh.  No frozen… just a whole lotta outta luck.  After rifling through my freezer and fridge I emerged with the tail end of a bag of frozen raspberries, and half a jar of strawberry jam.  I figured that, brought together under the welcoming umbrella of streusel topping, these two would simply have to work.  Not but thirty minutes later, puffy streusel topped muffins found their way out of the oven and into my face.  While they didn’t pay that pesky credit card bill, or make that much needed dentist appointment, they at least kept me from crawling back in bed for a handful of hours.  Sometimes, that kind of help is just enough.

It’s not every morning that you jump out of bed ready for the world, fully equipped to make blueberry muffins.  When those morning escape you, I promise that with a little jam, the remains of your frozen fruit collection, and loads of streusel topping, you just might be able to set things right.

I’d like to think of these muffins as Anything Muffins.  Really, whatever kind of berry and whatever kind of jam will do you just fine in this recipe.  If it sounds good to you, it’ll most likely taste good coming from your oven.  Don’t deny yourself a warm fruity muffin just because the blueberry escapes you.

Raspberry and Jam Muffins aka Just about anything muffins.

adapted from the Gourmet Cookbook

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6 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2- 1 cup frozen or fresh raspberries (or whatever berry you might have in your freezer or fridge, use as much of the bag or as little as you have left)

3 Tablespoons strawberry jam (or whatever fruit jam you have on hand)

For the topping:

3 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Put a rack in the upper third of oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.  Generously butter muffin cups or line with cupcake papers.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over moderately low heat; remove from heat.  Whisk in milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until well combined.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Add milk mixture and stir until just combined.  Gently but thoroughly fold in the berries and the jam.

Divide batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.

For the topping:

Combine all the topping ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly.  Sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 18-22 minutes.  Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes, then run a knife around edges of muffin tops and carefully remove from cups. Serve warm or at room temperature.

On losing, letting go of little sisters, and warm biscuits:

We never talked about this.  I didn’t know how to bring it up.  The 2009 Bloggies.  Remember?  Best New Blog?  So… I sorta…. kinda…. mostly… didn’t win.  The thing is, I really really wanted to win.  I did.  I played it cool though.  On the outside, I pretended to not care either way.  That was a big fat lie.  But the thing about losing… it’s pretty cool actually… it makes me want to be better.  It also makes me unbelievably grateful for all of your smiling faces.  Fact.

I found myself in a frenzy this morning.  My little sister left for a many month long European adventure.  The thought of her being so far away that I can’t easily call her at two in the morning to scream our favorite Mariah Carey song at her sent me into panic mode.  I calmed myself, safe in the knowledge that my sister deserved some life changing adventures and I am due many presents from far away lands upon her return.

Biscuits.  If I were to hand you a warm biscuit with raspberry jam would you: a)  throw it on the ground and shove me on the floor or b) thank me kindly, gobble the biscuit and give me a giant hug?  If your answer involved shoving me on the floor… well, that’s kinda funny, but throwning biscuits on the floor is just plain rude.  Don’t do it.

These Buttermilk Buiscuits… well, they must be blessed by the heavens.  I don’t think there’s any other way to explain just how good they are.  They’re best right out of the oven, steaming hot, doused with butter and jam.

My dad has been making this recipe for Buttermilk Biscuits for our family for, exactly, ever.  Incedentially, my sister has been swiping them of the table for as long as I can remember.  They’re simple family goodness.

Dad’s Buttermilk Biscuits

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3 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shortening, cold and cut into cubes

1/4 cup butter, cold and cut into cubes

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup buttermilk, cold

In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt.  Cut in shortening and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.  In another bowl, combine egg and milk and beat lightly with a fork.  Add to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft dough.

Turn out onto a floured board and knead about 15 times.  Roll or pat out into a 1-inch thickness.  Cut into 2-inch rounds using a biscuit cutter or cut into 2×2-inch squares.  Reshape and roll dough to create more biscuits with excess scraps.    Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Pop Quiz:

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of you life what would it be: sweet and creamy breakfast polenta with milk or (oh my gracious heavens) sweet and creamy fried polenta bars with blackberry meyer lemon jam?

No contest.  Fried polenta with blackberry jam every day, all day.  Let’s do this.

Remember yesterday I told you about Vanilla Brown Sugar Breakfast Polenta?  That was just a dirty trick to make you have enough leftover polenta to make the real deal:  fried polenta.

A quick heads up:  this recipe involves butter and results in an almost French Toast-ish, outta this world breakfast.  If you’re not ready for that… completely understandable… you might want to sit this one out.   I won’t judge.

Fried Breakfast Polenta

(Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!)

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So here’s what you’re gonna do:

1.  Whip up a batch of Vanilla Brown Sugar Polenta.

2.  Have some for breakfast, rub it on your face… do whatever you wanna do with most of it, but just most of it.  Continue to simmer the polenta that you aren’t going to serve for breakfast.  This will help more water evaporate from the polenta and help your bars better stick together when they’re cold, sliced and ready for the skillet.  I had about 2 cups of cooked, creamy polenta left over after breakfast.

3.  Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap.  If you’re working with more polenta, you might want to use two loaf pans.

4.  Spread the cooled polenta into the lined loaf pan and cover by folding over the overhanging flaps of plastic wrap.

5.  Place in the fridge to cool and set overnight.

6.  Sleep.  Yawn.  Wake up smiling, thinking about fried polenta.

7. Remove the chilled plastic wrapped polenta from the loaf pan.  Unwrap.  You should have a thin (about 1 inch tall) brick of cold polenta.

8.  Use a big ol’ knife to cut the polenta into bars or squares… whatever you like.

9.  Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and a splash of vegetable (or grapeseed) oil in a skillet over medium heat.

10.  Place 1/2 cup all-purpose flour in a bowl.

11.  Dip the cold polenta bars in the flour, coating all sides.

12.  Placed dredged polenta in hot, buttered skillet.  I managed about 6 or 8 bars at a time in my skillet.

13.  Flip and turn the bars as they begin to brown.

14.  Brown all sides.  Sometimes that means turning the polenta bars on their heads to cook.

15.  Once cooked, remove from hot pan onto an oven proof plate.  Place in a very low (tops 200 degrees F) oven to stay warm while you cook the rest of the polenta.

16.  Serve with maple syrup, fancy jam or powdered sugar.