Bananas Foster Pancakes

This Saturday morning I was in the mood for pancakes. I also didn't want just plain syrup. I looked around the kitchen and spotted some bananas that were just ripe. Then the idea to make Bananas Foster Pancakes popped into my head.

I put one banana into the pancake batter and cooked up the pancakes like normal. While I was making the pancakes I melted some butter and brown sugar in a small sauce pan. I added a little water to make a good syrup consistency. I cut up a banana (on an angle because it looks better that way) and put the banana slices into the syrup. I let them cook until they got nice and tender (which only took a couple minutes).

I plated up the pancakes with the bananas and syrup on top and sprinkled everything with a little powdered sugar for decoration.

They were really good. I'm sure that I could make a much better sauce but I wanted to eat quickly and was only able to use what was available in the house. Had I had some cream I think I would have added that to the sugar/butter mix instead of water and made a sweet creamy sauce (like melted ice cream maybe).

Overnight Oatmeal

There is no picture associated with this post since the topic is oatmeal and I don't know how to present a good picture of oatmeal. There isn't really anything special about oatmeal and it usually doesn't look all that appealing anyway. But I thought that I should share my attempt to follow an Alton Brown recipe for Overnight Oatmeal.

The key to this recipe is Steel Cut Oats. I had not heard about them before I found this recipe and from what I've seen since they are not carried in every grocery store (even though Quaker makes them). My mom found some at a Marc's store.

The other key to the recipe is a crock pot slow cooker. The idea is to start the oatmeal on the low setting just before going to bed and when you wake up you will have oatmeal all ready to go. The steel cut oats are much more coarse than the rolled oats and they can withstand such long cooking times without turning to mush.

For my first attempt I added a large handful of mixed dried fruit. Some of the dried fruits (raisins, cranberries, blueberries) were all good when cooked; some others like pineapple and papaya (I think that's what it was) didn't turn out too well.

All and all, I liked this method. Once I finish off what I made Sunday night (by the way, the recipe makes a pretty big batch), I will try it again. I plan to use fresh apples and cinnamon this time. I'll post a comment to give the update.

Pumpkin Waffles with Apple Cider Syrup

Fall is definitely here and with that comes food involving pumpkins and apples. These are some of the best reasons to enjoy fall. The leaves turning and cooler weather are nice, but pumpkin and apple are what really make fall great.

Last year around this time I made lots of pumpkin pancakes, but with the gift of the Belgian Waffle maker, I decided to try pumpkin waffles this time around. Since getting the waffle iron I have tried about all of the mixes and I think the best one for plain waffles is by Krusteaz (some day I will post about "Trader Joe's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pancake and Waffle Mix").

The side of the Krusteaz box had a recipe for apple waffles and I used that for the basis of the pumpkin waffles. In their recipe they used applesauce so I in turn used canned pumpkin and added fresh grated nutmeg and cinnamon for extra flavor.

On their own, the waffles were great, but what's a waffle without syrup. If I had real maple syrup on hand I probably would have used that; since I did not, I decided to make a syrup out of apple cider (it seemed appropriate for the waffles). In a small sauce pan I boiled apple cider and sugar for about 10 minutes until it had cooked down and thickened. Once cooled it thickened to a syrup consistency. I didn't add any spices but if I make this again I'm going to add cinnamon I think.

These waffles were great. This morning I reheated one in the toaster oven and it was just as good. I also thought that a pumpkin butter and whipped cream mix would make a good topping. I might try that the next time around. I'll be sure to post the results.