Cyndy's House Of (awesome) Pancakes

Aurora may not have trendy cupcakes or block-long ice cream lines, but it has plenty to eat: burgers, pho, teriyaki, teriyaki, teriyaki, and (opening soon!) Ethiopian. And, we have Cyndy's House Of (awesome) Pancakes.

Before we moved, I heard Cyndy's was becoming a strip club. Fortunately, this was either rumor or the deal fell through. Cyndy's remains open (though only till 3pm), with perfectly-cooked eggs, crisp bacon, and super friendly servers. The decor is charmingly 1970s: note the 25-foot metal flower collage on the wood-paneled wall.

But most importantly, the pancakes are fluffy and delicious. I don't know what makes a great pancake, and I've certainly never figured it out at home. How do you get them fluffy without being doughy? How do brown them just enough? What makes that perfect pancake flavor? I've read the recipes, but my best answer is to visit Cyndy's.

Crepe Flipping: The Movie

Afraid to flip? It's simple:

1: make sure your crepe/pancake/etc is no longer stuck to the pan,

2: pick up the pan and move it in a tight circle: away from you, up, then pull it back towards you (very quickly). Instead of the pan, think of your thumb moving in this circle, maybe 8" in diameter.

If I took anything away from that 3-hour french cooking class at Blue Ribbon, it's this ability to flip a crepe.

Now repeat 23 times for your delightful Gateau de Crepes a la Florantine.

Chicken Soup for the Dying Soul

OK, this is my last post about having the flu, I promise.

Who doesn't crave a good chicken noodle soup when you're sick? It's warm, broth-y goodness just has a way of being the perfect meal when you're feeling under the weather.

While on my way to pick up a can of Campbell's classic chicken noodle soup, I thought, why am I buying a MSG-filled, sodium-packed (1 can has over 2000 grams of sodium!!!) canned soup when I can easily make a fresh one?

I literally just made this recipe up in the grocery store:

Mel's Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients:

• 2 celery stalks
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 3-4 cloves of garlic (has great anti-viral, anti-bacterial properties)
• 1-2 chicken breasts depending on how meat-y you like your soup
• 32 FL.OZ. chicken broth or stock
• About 1 cup of your pasta of choice
• Fresh Herbs: Just use what you have available and substitute for dried if you need to. I used fresh sage, thyme, rosemary
• A handful of spinach finely chopped

Directions:

• Saute the celery, carrots, onion and garlic for about 10 minutes. Or, until sofritto (Italian for nice and tender!). Meanwhile, cut the chicken into nice bite-sized chunks. Add the chicken to the vegetables, and cook together for a few minutes. Next, finely chop the herbs and spinach and add them to the pot. Cook for a few more minutes and then add the chicken broth (adding more water if necessary). Once soup has cooked for about 5 minutes, add the pasta and cook for another 10-15 minutes (or until the pasta is done). Serve with Macrina Bakery's tasty potato bread and some olive oil infused with a bit of salt and Italian herbs for dipping.

Tips:

• Leave the vegetables cut relatively thick since they constitute the heart of the soup.
• If you need more liquid, just add some water. With all the other flavors you won't notice the plainness of the water.
• Who wants to wait 45min to cook some chicken breasts for a soup when you're sick? Go easy on yourself and pick-up an already cooked whole roasted chicken. Many places even sell half a chicken.

Brunch with a flip: Crepes a la Florentine

For three months, I served crepes and wine at a cafe near my college apartment. I'd never even tasted a crepe when the retired-engineer-turned-restauranteur hired me, but the recipes were works-in-progress, so I ate crepes all summer: with asparagus and hollandaise, banana and nutella, flaming crepes suzette.

In the six years since, I never made them at home -- until today. With a recipe and a little inspiration from a recent class at Blue Ribbon Cooking, I prepared my mise en place forGateau de Crepes a la Florentine (roughly translated: giant saucy pan of crepes with spinach).

Despite initial fear, I've pretty much mastered the French flipping of a crepe: paper-thin disks fly from my frying pan, crisp at the edges, perfectly browned on one side. I flipped about 30 crepes today, and not one landed outside the pan. Yes, quite impressive, thanks.

Note: this is a long recipe with many steps, but it's not super tricky and can be assembled in advance then heated half an hour before serving.

Gateau de Crepes a la Florentine

Ingredients:

• Batter for 24 crepes (must be made at least 2 hours in advance)

For the sauce mornay (bechamel with cheese):

• 5 T flour
• 4 T butter
• 2¾ cups boiling milk
• 1/2 tsp salt1/4 tsp pepper
• Nutmeg, whole for grating
• ¼ C heavy cream
• 1 C coarsely grated cheese -- should be swiss, but I used an aged white cheddar

For the spinach filling (this is double the suggested amount of spinach, which seemed like barely a garnish in the dish):

• 3 C wilted, chopped spinach (just wilt it in a medium-hot pan, no oil necessary)
• 2-4 T of the mornay sauce above
• Salt + pepper

For cheese and mushroom filling:

• 1 C cream cheese
• Salt and pepper
• 1 egg
• 1 C chopped mushrooms
• 1 T minced green onion
• 1 T butter

For finishing:

• 2 T grated cheese
• 1 T butter

Make the sauce mornay:

Melt butter, then add flour and whisk two minutes. Remove from heat, and beat in the hot milk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Boil, stirring, until slightly thick. Reduce heat and slowly stir in cream, then cheese. Remove from heat.

The spinach:
Mix wilted spinach with 2-4 T of the sauce mornay. Salt and pepper to taste.

The cheese and mushroom filling:
Saute mushrooms and green onions in butter. Beat cream cheese and egg in a bowl, then stir in mushrooms. Season.

Assemble:

Either make all your crepes in advance, or make them as you assemble the dish.

Line a lightly-buttered baking dish with crepes, overlapping just a bit and tearing them in half if they don't fit properly whole (no one will see what they look like, so just make it work). Then layer: first, a thin layer of spinach, then a thin layer of mushroom filling, then spread sauce mornay over it. Continue, with a layer of crepes, then spinach, then mushroom, then mornay. Finish with a layer of crepes, and cover with remaining sauce mornay. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, and dot with butter. Refrigerate until a half-hour before serving, or proceed directly with baking.

Bake:

Preheat oven to 375. Bake dish 25 to 30 minutes in upper third of oven. To serve, cut in pie-shaped wedges.

Mac (or penne) + Cheese

I read a lot of recipes. A good one is almost narrative, with appealing characters, dramatic conflicts, and a satisfying resolution. On a rainy Thursday, I want a comfortable old book and unpretentious food.

Fortunately, fate (disguised as time-wasting at work) let me to this mac + cheese recipe on a friend's very-entertaining blog. Since it comes from New York, I'll pretend it's a bit sophisticated. (Er, wait, it's actually from The Pioneer Woman. Hm. I guess pioneers are chic in a bonnet-wearing way.)

I will definitely follow Kelsey's adaptations to use lots of mustard and pepper. And I'll probably use whole-wheat penne, since I have that at home. Usually I reserve my excitement for dinner until after lunch, but today I'm making an exception.