Pancakes

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I tried a new recipe. I really love Perkin's Pancakes, and was reading somewhere that they use "club soda" instead of milk. So, I subbed it in.

• 2 cups Bisquick
• 1 and 1/4 cup club soda
• 2 tablespoons melted margarine (ewwww....)
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk

Mix it up, pour onto a medium hot griddle that has been slathered with canola oil. I added a handful of blueberries to mine, Con is a purest.

Fried Green Beans

• 1 pound green beans, trimmed
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon regular pepper
• frying oil

Dunk the beans into the buttermilk, then dredge them into a bowl of flour/salt/garlic/cayenne/pepper. Fry them for a minute or so until golden brown. Place onto a paper towel then sprinkle with salt, or even parm cheese.

Blueberry Lemonade Mintness

• From Real Simple:
• 
  
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries
• 1 cup lemonade
• 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, plus more for serving
• 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup of Vodka

Directions

1. In a blender, puree the blueberries, lemonade, mint, confectioners’ sugar, Vodka, and 3 cups ice until smooth.
2. Garnish with mint sprigs.

I liked it, Jbizz felt it was too "leafy"

6 green veggie beef Stir Fry

1 Green Bell Pepper

1/2 cup green beans

1/2 cup chopped kale

1/2 cup chopped Napa cabbage

1/2 cup broccoli

Garlic Scape

1 pound of some steak or beef strips

2 cups brown rice

Brown up the beef with some soy sauce. Add bell pepper, beens, broccoli and garlic scape. 4 minutes later, add cabbage and kale. Top on brown rice.

Think Jbizz is sick of stir fry yet? Nah, add some beef and he forgets all about the green veggie organic love.

Chorizo Steak Taco

The picture does not do it justice.

1 pound of steak, something cheap is just fine

1 bay leaf

1 tube of chorizo, maybe a pound

1/2 cup sour cream

1 avocado

a squirt of lime juice

salt

Boil the steak with a bay leaf till cooked, like a half hour. Then shred the steak up. Or cut it up. Shredding is pretty though. Put the steak into a fry pan with the chorizo. Cook for awhile, like 15 minutes, let the flavors get all good and crispy.

Mash up an avacado with the sour cream, lime and salt.

And any standard taco toppings, I just do cheese.

I like crunchy, Jbizz likes soft shell. Sometimes, we get wild and just top chips.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I've never made a strawberry pie, let alone, a strawberry rhubarb pie. I even tried out a new crust. Let us discuss.

Crust:

• 1 stick of supa cold butter, cubed
• 1 tablespoon of Crisco
• 1 and 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons of ice water

Combine butter/crisco/flour/salt into food processor. Pulse 3 times for 3 seconds. Put in the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulse for 3 seconds after each. Maybe you won't even need the last tablespoon, but I tend to always need it. Normally, I use lard for crusts (it's not gross, Crisco is gross - a fat that doesn't need to be refrigerator, and is stable at room temp. That is wrong. Stepping down from soapbox.) Form into a nice disc in plastic wrap, put in fridge for at least a half hour. This is my own trick now. I put a Silpat down, sprinkle just a tad of flour. Place dough disc on it, put the plastic wrap on top of it. And roll it out, keeping the dough between the plastic wrap and silpat. I have this god-awful marble rolling pin, and stuff just sticks to it. I want a nice wood one. (TWSS)

How about the filling?

• 1 pound of strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 1 cup of rhubarb chopped up, one inch pieces
• 1 and 1/2 cups sugar, Turbinado please
• 3 tablespoons of corn starch
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Mix this all together, fill the crust. I try to blind bake crusts, but I always junk that up. Put a few pats of butter on top of the filling for luck. Make the edges pretty. I cut off the hang over, then make a faux lattice on top. Bake for about an hour at 350.

Sea Glass Necklace

While photographing my jewelry, why not show this lovely necklace? My dear friend Stephanie gave it to me for my birthday. It appears to be sea glass on a leather cord.