For some reason or another you find yourself wandering through kitchen in search of something to make for dinner. It’s 6 o’clock and everyone is hangry including you. Hangry (Hungry and angry) is a new word describing your state of mind. Tempted to pull out the cold cereal and call it good? But you played that card already last night. Sigh….

The purpose of this blog and others following, are to share cooking short cuts I have found that works for me. Today we will be discussing index cards. I know it sounds old fashioned but I believe we are too involved with electronics (a rant I will save for another day) and index cards remind me of my growing up years when we actually wrote things down. Infact, I have my grandmother’s recipe box stuffed with her recipes she had accumulated over the years. Great recipes and a connection to my grandma.

Recipe cards are stored in various forms from fancy holders and boxes to shower curtain rings holding cards with holes punched in it. This particular stack is held together by a rubber band and lives somewhere near the stove. On it is written in large letters are the names of dishes your family likes. One simple dish per card. Our’s hold thing like macaroni and cheese, pancakes, spaghetti, and egg chowder. Make these cards as a group or with each individual person who lives in the house. Now each person is invested in what’s for dinner. Small children love it when they see you have picked a card they have written.

So how does that help you now? Flip through the cards until you have found something with ingredients in your pantry. Don’t forget to include breakfast for dinner meals. My family was always on the run in the mornings so a nice breakfast was saved for Saturday when we had more time. Hence a “good” breakfast for dinner can be a great treat.

One of our favorites are pancakes and don’t feel guilty about serving them at other time besides breakfast. According to my mom’s cookbook, pancakes were originally called hearth cakes and were the first form of baking. Dutch settlers brought the pancake to America and German immigrants in Pennsylvania severed them with all their meals. So there should be no guilt in serving them at dinner time. Thinner pancakes can be used as crapes and can be topped with all kinds of things. One of my sons favorite topping was chili, cheese, and an over easy egg.

You can use pancake mixes or make them from scratch. Here is a recipe I have used for years. It originated from my mom’s cookbook but greatly modified.You will need the following ingredients so gather them up first. Flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, eggs, cooking oil, and milk.

Pancakes serves 4 to 6 people:

In a bowl combine

2 cups of flour

1 Tablespoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 Tablespoon of sugar

Using a stiff whisk or a large spoon mix the above ingredients. It is extremely important or you will get a clump of something unpleasant tasting in your pancake.

In the center of your dry ingredients, make a “well” which means use your whisk to dig a hole in the middle. Drop the following ingredients into the well.

2 eggs (you can use only 1 egg if you like, just increase the milk by 2 Tablespoons)

⅓ cup of oil

Lightly whisk the egg and oil until the yolks are broken without mixing in the flour. Then slowly add:

1 ¼ to 1 ¾ cups of milk

Mix the ingredients but don’t over stir. Whenever you use baking soda it is known as a “quick” bread and should be lightly blended. You can even leave small, pea size lumps in it. Make sure you have combined everything. Sometimes flour will hide out in the corners of your bowl. Set batter aside while you heat your griddle or frying pan. Giving your batter time to “rest” is an important step. I usually set my griddle to 300 – 325 degrees or medium heat on your stove if you are using a frying pan on the stove. Spray on a light coat of cooking oil and pour out your batter onto your griddle. When I first started cooking pancakes I would do a mini one about 2 inches across so I could check the temperature of the pan. You will know if the temperature is correct when very few bubbles come to the top and pop. The bottom should be golden brown at this point so you can go ahead and flip them over. If you want to cook your pancakes faster or you would like them thinner just add more milk, but no more than 2 cups.

Leftover pancakes? You can put cooled pancakes in a ziplock bag and pop them into the refrigerator. They microwave well or I like to make my pancakes small enough to fit in the toaster. Freezing them is easy too. Place wax paper on a cookie sheet and lay out the pancakes in a single layer. Freeze until solid and transfer them into gallon size ziplock freezer bags.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog and I plan on posting more about cooking and other thing. Have an awesome day!