Breakfast for Dinner

Tonight I made breakfast for our dinner, one of my favorite Sunday night fallbacks. We had fresh strawberries, baked bacon, and banana-buttermilk pancakes. Yum!

Baked Bacon
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put bacon on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake for 25-ish minutes.

Banana Buttermilk Pancakes
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup whole milk (I used a little more because the batter was too thick)
1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter, plus 3 tablespoons
2 over-ripe bananas, smashed

Directions
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. In large bowl sift together flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In separate bowl whisk together egg, buttermilk, milk and melted butter. Slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Stir until the flour disappears, but being careful not to overbeat the batter. Smash the bananas with a fork, then stir into the batter just until mixed.
In a large cast-iron skillet or griddle, melt about 1/2 tablespoon remaining butter. Ladle about 1/4 cup of batter into the pan for each pancake. Cook until bubbles appear and then flip and cook on the other side, about 3 minutes total. Transfer the pancakes to a platter and keep warm in the oven while you cook the remaining batches, adding butter to the pan as needed. Serve hot with syrup.


I had fun making the pancakes because Jack helped me. He measured the sugar and other dry ingredients, as well as mashing the bananas (his favorite part). He also helped wash the strawberries and put them in a bowl, as well as haphazardly setting the table. It's nice when I have time to let him help out in the kitchen because he loves the idea of cooking -- he's always pretending to make dinner and serve food to us, -- so whenever I am not rushed (which isn't often) I let him help out.

Quick Chick[en]

Brian and I saw an episode of Paula Deen this week in which she made a spicy mayo chicken that sounded good, so we gave it a try. I liked how moist it was, as well as easy and quick, but I'd go easier on the cayenne pepper next time.

Paula Deen's Spicy Mayo Chicken
Zest from two lemons
1/2 c. mayo
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. celery salt
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
3-4 chicken breasts

Combine the first ingredients and rub on the chicken. Place on a baking sheet covered with foil. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes.