On the night before my 26th birthday, I remarked to Jesse that I had a favorite word.
Whimsy.
I’ve decided that I love the joy, the silliness, the lightness and sense of play that come pouring out of the word. As I begin my 27th year, I’ve decided to be more joyful, playful, and whimsical in my daily life.
Another of my favorite words, by the way, is what you see above: Clafoutis. Say it with me now. Clafoutis. Cluh-FOO-tee.
Clafoutis is a tart, comprised of fruit and a baked custardy type stuff. There is no crust. I baked this one in a springform pan, and I’ll be honest, I don’t even remember exactly what recipe I used. I didn’t write anything down, so I’m not 100% sure the amounts of seasonings I added in, and in general this was truly thrown together. I made it for breakfast on my 26th birthday, with blackberries that were on sale at the grocery store the night before. I shudder to think where they might have originated, but they were tasty and made for a lovely baked breakfast.
Blackberry Clafoutis
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter your vessel. I used an 8 1/2 inch springform pan, but you can also use a 9-inch deep dish pie plate, a 10-inch pie plate, a cake tin, or anything else that makes you happy.
2. Scatter 8 ounces of blackberries (or blueberries, cherries, raspberries, plums, strawberry pieces, whatever) over the bottom of your vessel.
3. Combine 4 eggs, 1 cup of milk, and 1 cup of sugar in a bowl. I used half a cup each of brown and white sugar, but you can use either/or. Beat until everything is well combined.
4. Add 3/4 cup of flour and a pinch of salt. At this point, you can add any seasonings you want – I used orange zest, cardamom, and cinnamon.
5. Pour the custard over the berries in the bottom of your vessel, redistribute the berries, and bake for 40-45 minutes. You want the top to be springy and not liquidy when you touch it. It will puff and then slump when you let it cool. Mine took closer to an hour because it was in such a small pan, so start checking at or around 40 minutes, and you should be good.
This dish is very forgiving, and as long as you stick to the proportions of the custard, everything else is fair game. Plus, you can be free with it, and make it with things that you probably have at home anyways. You can get creative, and fancy, using different fruits, more fruits, a variety of fruits….everything about clafoutis is customizable.
Plus, it just makes me giggle to say. Clafoutis.
Whimsy.
I’ve been writing about falafel basically since I started writing this blog. It’s definitely one of my favorite foods, and also kind of my nemesis. I’ve never found a reliable recipe. A couple times they’ve worked just when I’ve been winging it. Sometimes, they don’t work at all. One time, they were really pretty. But in general, falafel and I don’t get along as well in my kitchen as we do in restaurants.
And then, there was Guy Fieri.
Love him or hate him, Food Network’s resident HFK (happy fat kid – and proud!) finds the best diner grub, greasy food, and dive bar wonders in the world. So when he did an episode of his show Guy’s Big Bite, featuring a falafel recipe from his travels, I was hooked in. I decided to try this recipe, and WOW am I glad I did. These falafels are deep-fried, which isn’t super healthy, but considering how infrequently I make them, you can almost get away with it. PLUS, it’s chickpeas. Chickpeas, and peppers and a salad of tomato, cucumber and parsley, and a yogurt sauce with lots of parsley and lemon juice. And it’s good. Very good.
Guy Fieri’s Falafel with Yogurt Sauce and Salad
I made the falafels pretty much exactly the way Guy describes, except that I added a seeded jalapeno when I sweated the vegetables out in the saute pan, and I omitted the cilantro, because I think it tastes like soapy dirt. If you like it, by all means, use the cilantro.
I also made a quick salad, from cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, lemon juice, and olive oil, that I put into the pitas with the falafels. I topped everything with a yogurt sauce, made with Greek yogurt, the juice of the other half of the lemon, more parsley, salt and a lot of pepper.
These falafels are really good. They’re warm, but not super spicy. They fry up beautifully, and stay together when most others fall apart. They’re crispy, and I promise they’re easy to make. The hardest part is making the crenelle shape, but even that is pretty simple, and if you have a tiny ice cream scoop, you can do that too. Even easier, you can just use a soupspoon or tablespoon to drop the falafels into the oil. The important part is just that you make these. As soon as possible. You’ll be glad you did. I promise.
We’ll discuss Guy’s haircut and sunglasses in another entry. Because sometimes, we all have to ignore things in favor of delicious falafels. 
During a recent conversation with my oldest sister, she presented me with a challenge. We have all had chocolate chip pancakes, or blueberry pancakes, but how many of you have had BACON PANCAKES? This was the challenge my sister set out for me, and I must say I rose to the occasion nicely (because its just as easy as any other kind of pancake ).
My parents didn’t have the full set of ingredients for making pancakes, so I had to use a mix for my test run, which was kind of frustrating but worked out fine. Normally I use this pancake recipe though, which is super easy and delicious.
All you have to do is make the pancake batter, and cook the bacon to your desired crispiness. I like mine really crispy, so I tend to cook it longer. Once the bacon is cooked, cut it into roughly bite sized pieces, saving all the little crumbly bits that break off. Pour the batter onto the griddle, and once the pancake sets enough to slide a spatula under, but not quite at the point where you are ready to flip it, add the bacon pieces. Just sprinkle them on the top and poke them down a little so they settle into the batter. Flip the pancakes and viola! you have bacon pancakes. I recommend butter and maple syrup to finish them off because what could be more delicious than pancake, bacon, and syrup all in one bite? These were super delicious and really easy to make!
I have promised that the next time I’m visiting I will make this for the family, so I think I will have to keep practicing in the meantime…somehow I don’t think I’ll have trouble finding some people to help me eat them
