Apple & Potato Pancakes

I got the idea today to make apple-potato pancakes for dinner. So, first the research: standard recipe from Taste of Home and vegan recipe from VegWeb. Mr. Breakfast has a baked version.
The standard version:

Ingredients

• 2 large potatoes, peeled
• 2 medium apples, peeled
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Oil for deep-fat frying
• Sour cream, optional

Directions

• Finely shred potatoes and apples; pat dry. Place in a bowl; add the eggs, onion, flour and salt and mix well.
• In a skillet, heat 1/4 to 1/2 in. oil over medium-high heat. Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls into hot oil. Flatten to form 3-in. pancakes. Fry until golden brown; turn and cook the other side. Drain on paper towels. Serve immediately with sour cream if desired. Yield: 10-12 pancakes.

 The vegan one:
Apple Cinnamon Potato Pancakes

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

    5 tablespoon flour
    1 cup shredded potatoes
    chopped apple
    cinnamon to taste
    sugar to taste
    salt to taste
    water - enough to make pancake batter
    oil to fry in

Directions:

Mix potatoes, apple, cinnamon, sugar, salt, and flour in a bowl. Add enough water to make pancake batter. Taste test to make sure its sweet enough.

Heat oil in a frying pan and spoon in the batter. Cook until bottom is golden brown with a few darker spots, then flip until the other side is the same.

I experimented with what to serve this with, but powdered sugar didn't exactly please my taste buds. They were okay alone, but they need something... vegan margarine topped it for me.

I took the recipe for potato pancakes from the vegetable section and tweaked it... I am a new vegan and was desperate for breakfast. Thats why I don't have specifics on the cinnamon, sugar, and salt. Sorry about that.

Serves: 6

Preparation time: 30 minutes

And from Mr. Breakfast:

Apple-Potato Pancakes

(4 servings)    

• 1 and 1/4 cups unpeeled apples - finely chopped
• 1 cup peeled potatoes - grated
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparations: Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray; heat over medium heat until hot. Drop rounded Tablespoons of batter 2 inches apart into the skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until lightly browned.

Place pancakes on prepared cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until crisp. Serve with additional apple sauce or apple slices.


Healthy and tasty. You'll love these groovy suckers.


Mr Breakfast would like to thank Mr Breakfast for this recipe.

Angel's Apple-Pear-Potato cakes
Ingredients:

• 4 potatoes, grated
• 2 jersey mac apples, grated
• 1 sugar pear, grated
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 tablespoon local honey 
• 1 teaspoon four color pepper
• about 1/4 cup unbleached flour
• canola oil and Le Creuset skillet for frying

I patted the potato dry, but left the fruit wet. Mixed it all up and fried.

Houseguests and harvests

I had a houseguest for the holiday weekend, and this wasn't the kind of houseguest you sit around and cook for. This was the kind of houseguest with whom you go out gallivanting.

Because it was my best friend Shannon who now lives in Virginia, where quality Italian is scarce and Northern treats like bagels not made with any sort of authenticity, the first item on the agenda was one dozen bagels from New York Bagel and Deli.

Ah, bagels. Feast of carbohydrates. Flexible superfood.

When I had gestational diabetes, I couldn't even look at a bagel without my blood sugar spiking.

But half a bagel with melted cheddar cheese is a fabulous snack reminiscent of a soft pretzel. Tuna melts on a bagel could stop my heart. My crock pot spinach dip or hummus on half a toasted bagel... Egg sandwich on a jalapeno bagel... Cinnamon raisin bagel with some sort of nut butter for breakfast.

My husband made me an egg sandwich on a jalapeno bagel with tomato and basil feta. That was amazing.

But now the holiday picnics are over. The houseguest gone.

The entire family contributed to a dinner fit for this 95+ degree Pennsylvania day...
My husband made Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. We heated some leftover sausages from his mother's 4th of July Picnic. And my daughter and I went into the garden and harvested the first vegetables from the garden: green beans! We washed them and cooked them, leaving them still al dente and I thought they were fantastic.

My daughter, who never likes fresh green beans, didn't like these "very much" either, so I let her dip them in Wegmans Ginger Sesame vinaigrette dressing.

They disappeared.

Easter Dinner Leftovers

Holidays at the in-laws are usually hit or miss. Usually it's a hit, but sometimes it's a big old miss. This year was a hit. For the traditional favorites we had ham and dandelion and hot bacon dressing. We also had my mother-in-law's corn bake, which is a recipe she got in high school I believe and it's a cross between corn bread and corn pudding. But I filled up on the "fried" chicken and the broccoli slaw. The broccoli slaw is very similar to the bok choy salad recipe with ramen noodles that Terri gave us when we all worked in the public information office at Lafayette College. My mother-in-law uses boneless, skinless chicken and cooks it before she breads and fries it. It's very yummy.And Lee's beans in a big, old crockpot. I don't eat those. It's a very meaty variation of baked beans.

But of course, Easter wouldn't be easter with Esther's homemade chocolate. She makes strawberry creams, coconut creams, peanut butter eggs, white chocolate/krispie "deviled eggs," chocolate covered marshmellows, and this year, funky bird's nests and a lamb cake. And there was Memmy's fabulous pumpkin custard and a lemon pie.

I'll have to post some recipes. I have the one for corn bake.

Giant Ginger Cookies

Quick note: Food today consists primarily of leftovers. Homemade blueberry pancakes from the freezer for breakfast. Quiche planned for lunch. My husband has a dinner with colleagues tonight, so we had planned to go to dinner at my dad's but the weather may pre-empt that. Now the cookies... No one else I know makes these, so I do because I love them! 

The original recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens, November 1998. I usually make a vegan version because I run out of eggs by the time I get to them. Timing is everything. Underbake and they don't firm up. Too long and they burn and get too crunchy.

And I forgot the baking soda. So they look like hockey pucks. Oops. They taste good. I swear! And I left the oven on 300, instead of 350 which didn't help either.

Giant Ginger Cookies

1.5 cups shortening;

2 cups sugar;

2 eggs (or 4 ounces applesauce, that's about eight tablespoons);

1/2 cup molasses (I use blackstrap);

4.5 cups flour;

2 teaspoons baking soda (which I forgot this time);

1.5 teaspoons cinnamon;

1 teaspoon ground cloves;

1/4 teaspoon salt; 

Preheat oven to 350. Cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs (or applesauce) and molasses. Add half the flour and remaining dry ingredients. Then stir in remaining flour with wooden spoon. Dough is very stiff. Shape dough into 2 inch balls using an ice cream scoop as a guide. Place on ungreased cookie sheets about 2.5 inches apart. Bake 12-14 minutes. Makes 25 four-inch cookies.