I'm not a cook; I'm down with it
I can't follow a recipe. It's not that it's too difficult to follow or that I can't read or anything like that. I simply don't have the patience to follow a recipe, especially if there are many steps, there is the involvement of a lot of time, and there's a long list of ingredients. I make a very good turkey at Thanksgiving because there is just one ingredient which is the turkey itself. I baste but that's turkey juices. I make a very good veggie stew that I actually made up which can be converted into a fancier veggie meal which actually preceded the veggie stew. The stew is made up of maybe five ingredients.
My late mom made the most delicious cottage cheese pancakes ever in the world. They were light but filling and were served with a dot of grape jelly on each one. I never had the patience to learn how to make them which made me a feel a little regret but then it perhaps was not meant to be. I've never known anyone who made pancakes like this.
And then I bought some Bisquick.
Growing up, ours was not a Bisquick home. My parents were from Poland and food was made from scratch and not from scratch with the help a melange of boxed ingredients. My mom could really throw down some tasty dishes that were a combo of Jewish, Polish, and American recipes that came from her own mind and experiences. Her ribs were like nothing made by anyone anywhere combined with out-of-this-world red cabbage made with mystery and a side of kasha. She doctored the bejeezus out of Open Pit barbecue sauce and baked those ribs for hours. I tell you, those were heaven falling from the bone. She made potato pancakes and potato pudding and matzo brei and French toast that spoiled me for any other French toast ever. I never heard of Bisquick until I graduated from college.
My post-college roommates were all from Bisquick households. I learned a recipe for quick strawberry shortcake from those women that we could all expand or split as needed. Within an hour, you were serving Bisquick strawberry shortcake to your boyfriend or the people in the cast of the show you were in or to your roommates and their male friends (who wanted to be their boyfriends but, well, you know). Everyone liked it. I moved away from them and Bisquick never came up again.
A few weeks ago I was in the store and saw Bisquick. I decided I would make regular pancakes using the simple-to-follow recipe on the box. I did it! I made them! They tasted pretty bad but I did it! I still pined for cottage cheese pancakes but one step at a time.
A couple of weeks after the acquisition of the mix, I went to the internet and Googled "Bisquick Cottage Cheese Pancakes." Boom! There it was. A recipe that would make two medium-sized pancakes. That was plenty especially if they were nasty. The ingredients: 1/4 cup Bisquick, 1 egg, 1/2 cup cottage cheese. Hey, even I could maybe do it.
I mixed. I put batter into the pan. I turned it as instructed. I put on a little grape jelly on each one. I tasted.
They were delicious and I was reminded of home. They were not perfect but for someone who is not a cook, they were excellent. The right number of ingredients and the internet and a little patience from me made something I'd been craving for a long time. Am I now satisfied? Hardly because those things were good enough to have again ... and soon! Next time I am going to attempt to separate an egg and beat the white before I add it to the ingredients. I don't expect that to go particularly well -- imagine lots of bits of eggshell in the white -- but what the hell, it might be wonderful. As my mom used to say (although she denied it), "You don't try, you don't go to jail."
My late mom made the most delicious cottage cheese pancakes ever in the world. They were light but filling and were served with a dot of grape jelly on each one. I never had the patience to learn how to make them which made me a feel a little regret but then it perhaps was not meant to be. I've never known anyone who made pancakes like this.
And then I bought some Bisquick.
Growing up, ours was not a Bisquick home. My parents were from Poland and food was made from scratch and not from scratch with the help a melange of boxed ingredients. My mom could really throw down some tasty dishes that were a combo of Jewish, Polish, and American recipes that came from her own mind and experiences. Her ribs were like nothing made by anyone anywhere combined with out-of-this-world red cabbage made with mystery and a side of kasha. She doctored the bejeezus out of Open Pit barbecue sauce and baked those ribs for hours. I tell you, those were heaven falling from the bone. She made potato pancakes and potato pudding and matzo brei and French toast that spoiled me for any other French toast ever. I never heard of Bisquick until I graduated from college.
My post-college roommates were all from Bisquick households. I learned a recipe for quick strawberry shortcake from those women that we could all expand or split as needed. Within an hour, you were serving Bisquick strawberry shortcake to your boyfriend or the people in the cast of the show you were in or to your roommates and their male friends (who wanted to be their boyfriends but, well, you know). Everyone liked it. I moved away from them and Bisquick never came up again.
A few weeks ago I was in the store and saw Bisquick. I decided I would make regular pancakes using the simple-to-follow recipe on the box. I did it! I made them! They tasted pretty bad but I did it! I still pined for cottage cheese pancakes but one step at a time.
A couple of weeks after the acquisition of the mix, I went to the internet and Googled "Bisquick Cottage Cheese Pancakes." Boom! There it was. A recipe that would make two medium-sized pancakes. That was plenty especially if they were nasty. The ingredients: 1/4 cup Bisquick, 1 egg, 1/2 cup cottage cheese. Hey, even I could maybe do it.
I mixed. I put batter into the pan. I turned it as instructed. I put on a little grape jelly on each one. I tasted.
They were delicious and I was reminded of home. They were not perfect but for someone who is not a cook, they were excellent. The right number of ingredients and the internet and a little patience from me made something I'd been craving for a long time. Am I now satisfied? Hardly because those things were good enough to have again ... and soon! Next time I am going to attempt to separate an egg and beat the white before I add it to the ingredients. I don't expect that to go particularly well -- imagine lots of bits of eggshell in the white -- but what the hell, it might be wonderful. As my mom used to say (although she denied it), "You don't try, you don't go to jail."
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