Bacon Pancakes

That's right I said it, BACON pancakes! I'm all on board the bacon train, I haven't had crazy bacon things yet but honestly, if I was offered a chance to try bacon ice cream or something along those lines, I'd take it! 

This isn't from my hunger games cookbook. I took a break from it after the first three sections of the book, but not to fear, the catchy hunger games related recipe titles will come back in a little bit, I haven't give up on the book completely. 

This recipe came from the internet. Oh magical internet, so full of random recipes and knowledge. Now, I'm not a huge pancake fan. I explained the whole breakfast thing, and while pancakes can be quite savory and whatnot, they're not my thing. This isn't a waffle v. pancake debate either. I have neutral feelings towards both of these things. They make awesome 'breakfast for dinner' choices but as a breakfast item, totally not my thing. I know I said my dad used to sit is down for breakfast when I was little but I can honestly say I don't think I had my first pancake until high school. Remember, I'm a first generation American and my dad is a chef at a chinese restaurant. I grew up eating rice porridge and soup for breakfast as well as left over dim-sum food items dad picked up from work. That might explain why I don't really have a hankering for sweet breakfasts.. 

Anyways! This was my first attempt at making pancakes on my own and it was interesting to say the least, but when bacon is involved, where there's a will, there's a way! One of my roommates last year had these great little pancake stencil things you use to make cute shapes out of your food. I figured hey, it'll totally be easy to use these guys. And it probably would've been! If I was using a griddle.... instead I made pancakes in my little frying pan with higher edges that doesn't bode well for flipping pancakes in a stencil that has a handle and I struggled a little bit, hence the semi burnt pancake.... but it really was only semi-burnt on that one side!! and the pancakes were actually really great! The bacon was so good and the salty-sweet combo with the syrup was a pretty great idea if I do say so myself. I'm not gonna lie, I've only made these the one time but if someone asked, i'd totally do it again! (But I'd probably cut up the bacon this time...) 

Raging Wild Mushroom Ragout

I'm not really sure what I was expecting when I read the word Ragout in this cookbook but I can tell you, this was not what I what I imagined. Still, this dish ended up being really great. I never liked mushrooms growing up and avoided them at all cost but first year of college I started eating salads and mushrooms were suddenly really not that bad. By second year I went through a mushroom kick and cooked them in pretty much everything. Third year when I made this, it was perfect! This guy had probably 5 different kinds of mushrooms in it and it tasted great! However, by the time I got the to the end of the batch a week later, it wasn't as amazing anymore. This was when I figured I should probably pay more attention to the serving size unless I want to spend weeks eating 4-6 servings of the same ragout before it completely goes bad... 

Heavenly Onion and Dill Bread

Like the French Bread this little guy was a little dense. Mot as much but still not perfect. What was different was that this was a little dryer so it was much more fun to munch on. Similar to the biscuits, this also made a pretty awesome breakfast. Pre-sliced and put into a ziplock and it was perfect to go! Maybe one day I'll get bread right...  

Puffy Buttermilk Biscuits

Apparently Biscuits I can do. Biscuits I love. Unlike the french bread, these biscuits were not too dense and were instead very flakey and light. They were perfect on the go breakfasts for me which I can't help but love! I know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and what not but I'm not really a breakfast person. Growing up my dad always set us down for breakfast before school but by the time I got to middle school and had to catch the bus, breakfast really wasn't in my daily plan. Sometimes I would much on a handful of cereal in the hallways but I didn't really factor breakfast time in so I went without it. Now that I'm in college I go back and forth. The little voice in my head is telling me breakfast is good for me, it jumpstarts my metabolism and gets me geared up for the day but I am honestly a night person and waking up is not fun. Anything that I can grab and eat on my way to school or work is perfect so these guys made me pretty darn happy for the week. I'm also not a sweet tooth kinda person either so a more savory salty breakfast is the way to go when I can make it happen! 

I am Peeta Mellark

I cannot describe how excited I was to make my first loaf of bread. I remember it being 11:30 at night when this sucker came out of the oven and I happily told myself that I WAS Peeta Mellark. Obviously I was exaggerating quite a bit but that didn't matter. By the glow of the stove light I happily cut into my bread. Now this was a pretty awesome loaf of bread. It tasted great, had an awesome hard crust, and was only a little bit dense.. okay maybe a lot a bit... Totally edible though!! To this day I have a hard time with the density of bread and cakes. I've been told that It's likely that I'm over mixing the dough. I need more practice. Keep adding these things to the to-do list. Practice Practice Practice.