Products I Like

I made pancakes! Stonewall Kitchen Gingerbread Pancake and Waffle Mix

In response to Graham’s frequent request for pancakes, I recently picked up a can of Stonewall Kitchen’s Gingerbread Pancake and Waffle Mix. With Graham as my guinea pig, I figured I could mangle of few batches of pancakes before Christmas when Santa will be kind enough to bestow upon me an ebelskiver. Filled pancake goodness will be mine! (Let’s be honest, if we’re lucky I’ll probably only use it twice.)

Williams-Sonoma Ebelskiver Pan: Rumor has it Santa's got one in his bag of treats for me.

I could have picked up plain ‘ole pancake mix for these pre-Christmas trials, but I figured what with it being the holidays and all, we could go ahead and splurge on the gingerbread stuff since we love gingerbread so very much. Not that this mix costs any more for the gingerbread variety versus the 10 other flavors it comes in including another love of mine - pumpkin.   At the last moment, I debated placing the can back on it’s lovely end-cap home there with the good folks of Central Market, mindful of the dreary economy and ever vigilant about my budget. But I didn’t. At a price of only $6.00 at Central Market, we’ll only need to add one additional night of soup for dinner to afford it.

In general, I find these prepared mixes have the tendency to be a little bland and/or cook up to an odd consistency. There’s a particular brand of muffin/coffee cake mixes that invariably leaves a sugar water by-product that coats the bottom of my pans. It’s a sticky, icky mess and, after one too many of these culinary disasters, I stopped buying the manufacturer’s mixes altogether.

Other prepared mixes just leave you thinking, “is that all?!” because all the flavor is lost in the time that passes between the product’s original “born on” date and when it’s actually made it to your taste buds. Special added bonus: preservative after-taste.

Stonewall Kitchen Gingerbread Pancake and Waffle Mix - The product description says: The aroma and flavor of this spiced pancake and waffle mix make it the ideal choice for holiday breakfasts. Topped with our Cinnamon Apple Syrup they are incredible.

Not so on either count for this Stonewall Kitchen mix.  The instructions were clear and the added ingredients - milk, an egg, and a tablespoon of butter - are all readily available in most kitchens.  The batter smelled nice, but belied the lovely flavor that awaited us.

But let’s don’t get ahead of ourselves.

Once I’d added my ingredients, I carefully stirred together the mixture, paying particular attention to the Achilles heal of pancake making: batter’s final consistency. Again, no troubles. In fact, the only thing that could have gone wrong was for me to massacre a perfectly good breakfast with poor pancake making technique. Et voila!

Lovely, mostly round!, very nicely constituted pancakes.

The best was yet to come: flavorful gingerbread goodness dominated neither by ginger nor molasses. The word gentle comes to mind, though it may mislead one to believe that the pancakes are weak, which they are decidedly are not.

Stonewall Kitchen Maine Maple Syrup

My only misstep, perhaps, was in not choosing Stonewall’s Holiday Syrup to go along with the gingerbread goodness.  Stonewall Kitchen has this to say of it:

The delightful blend of cranberries, raspberries and pears makes our Holiday Jam a top selling preserve year after year. This luscious syrup was made to compliment this incredible flavor blend. The color, flavor and smooth rich texture of this syrup make it ideal for the holidays.

The Holiday Syrup would have paired quite nicely with the gingerbread flavor, though I’m not convinced it would have been as extensible as good ‘ole maple syrup is.

On Christmas morning, should Santa decided I was indeed a good girl as we expect (or a bit naughty, but still pretty nice), Graham shall once again enjoy gingerbread pancakes cooked anew in my prized ebelskiver.

Goods by Stonewall Kitchen also available at amazon.com:

• Stonewall Kitchen Gingerbread Pancake &Waffle Mix 16 oz.
• Stonewall Kitchen Gingerbread Pancake & Waffle Mix and Maine Maple Syrup Barn Gift Set
• Stonewall Kitchen Christmas Traditions Breakfast Sampler Collection: Holiday Jam, Pancake Mix, 2 Coffees & Maine Maple Syrup Jug

Let’s just exhaust this whole gingerbread subject by visiting these other fun! exciting! links:

• Gingerbread Barn (by me)
• Awesome Gingerbread Houses (but no barns) (Neatorama)
• Gingerbread Man Cookies (on sticks!) Recipe (101 Cookbooks)
• The Tradition of Gingerbread (my merry christmas)

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Gingerbread Barn in Gingerbread: Things to Make and BakeWhy settle for the same, boring gingerbread house? You know the book's a gem when it's listed on

Why settle for the same, boring gingerbread house? You know the book’s a gem when it’s listed on amazon’s marketplace for as much as $181.83. (Used for a more resonable $36.)

Gingerbread: Things to Make and Bake

But if the recession dashed your dreams of home ownership, there’s something for you instead.

The Gingerbread Architect: Recipes and Blueprints for Twelve Classic American Homes

With The Gingerbread Architect: Recipes and Blueprints for Twelve Classic American Homes you can build the perfect place with none of the burdens of home ownership. Credit crisis be damned.

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As I mentioned last week, I’m a huge fan of soup for dinner.  It’s easy to make, good for the waistline, and good for the body.  And it’s just the thing for the cool fall/winter nights.  (Yes, even though I’m in Houston, it gets a bit chilly here.  To be sure, it’s no Iowa, but overnight temps now regularly visit the 30’s.)

A Texas favorite is tortilla soup.   For years, I missed out on it in restaurants and “easy-make” versions, though, because my strict vegetarian food choices conflicted with the liberal use of chicken and chicken stock in most recipes.  Even once I added fish and discovered a meat-free version at a local fine grocery store, I still felt the meal lacked “umph.”  A couple of veggies, some veggie broth, and oodles of boiled tortilla shells isn’t exactly the bastion of nutrition.

Imagine my delight when, strolling the soup aisles during a recent visit to Central Market, I discovered South of the Border Tortilla Soup by Frontier Soups.  No chicken broth listed in the ingredients, and a substantial base corn and black beans. Sweet.

South of the Border Tortilla Soup (Frontier Soups) - Our tortilla soup mix is a sure-fire winner! This chicken tortilla soup is so good it may call for a party. Add chicken, salsa and chips for this Mexican specialty. ($6)

I modified the directions on back, and boiled the ingredients in vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. I made Graham a separate pot of boiled, shredded chicken to include in his bowl, but I wondered if there was something more I could add to give it a bit of umph for me. Since I added fish into my diet a year ago, I wondered if a bit of shrimp would work. (Until now, I’d never heard of shrimp tortilla soup. This version sure looks good too, doesn’t it? )

The choice of salsa the recipe calls for is huge.  I used a roasted habanero salsa that was HOT, but added a nice roasted flavor to the meal.  This particular salsa was completely pureed, so we did not have small bits of tomato floating about in the soup.  The 8 oz of salsa the recipe calls for (about 1/2 a jar) is really a matter entirely of personal choice, and I could envision a scenario where I made each batch of this soup differently. 

The soup itself cooks up nicely.  In previous soups I’ve used with dehydrated black beans, despite cooking for the prescribed time period, the black beans remain grainy and dehydrated.  Not so with the Frontier Soups version, which cook up quite nicely and provide an extra bit of fiber to the meal.

As for the addition of shrimp, that stroke of genius worked out marvelously.

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As we venture into this, the season of the giant tin of stale, over cheaply flavored popcorn, I just happened to sample three different popcorns.  One was the tried and true movie popcorn in the HUMONGOUS “1-person” bag (I think I made it through 1/5th).  I’ll do you, and the distant relative/sales account/office co-worker you tolerate but must gift anyway, the great favor of not recommending this sort of mediocre treat.  Afterall, if you’re going to gift someone with calories, you should at least make them worthwhile.

The other two popcorns are worth the calories, though they admittedly don’t come with the fancy tin you can store trinkets in after the holiday season.  Such a sacrifice, however, is easily obfuscated under some babble about “green holiday gifts” during this time of economic downturn.

Rocky Mountain Popcorn Company - Jalapeno Popcorn. Also comes in Red Chili & Lime!

Rocky Mountain Popcorn Company - Jalapeno Popcorn - $10 for 1.5 oz.

(Just Honest Popcorn! Real and good.  Good and real.)  Available at rockymountainpopcorn.com.

Not only will the spicy good flavor of this popcorn naturally limit your consumption, the flavor itself is pleasant escape from the familiar “caramel” and “white cheddar” your taste buds are accustomed to. And if caramel and white cheddar are your thing, they’ve got those too. Packaged with the helpful “fresh until” expiration date, you know this stuff hasn’t been sitting in a warehouse since the end of the Clinton Administration. Plus it’s got 2 grams of fiber per 150 calorie serving.

Order by Dec. 31, 2008, and get a 5% discount with coupon code: Rocky.

Williams-Sonoma Dale Thomas Popcorn Gift Collection

Williams-Sonoma - Dale & Thomas Popcorn Gift Collection - $34 for 7 popcorn treats

Available at williams-sonoma.com

Featuring Peanut Butter & White Chocolate Drizzlecorn, Chocolate Chunk ‘n’ Caramel, Toffee Crunch Drizzlecorn and Dark Fudge Chunk ‘n’ Caramel, along with something called a “popster.”  Also enclosed is a $15 gift certificate that can be applied to a mail-order purchase from Dale & Thomas.

This stuff won’t be as good for the waistline; I could eat my weight in Toffee Crunch Drizzlecorn. Our one saving grace here is again portion size; what we lose in volume, we gain in taste. Personally, I prefer the latter over the former.

The mystery meat product description, “popster,” is intriguing and makes for an element of surprise upon opening the gift box.  Why regift when you can find out what a “popster” actually is yourself?  It’s from Williams-Sonoma, so how bad could it be?

And the $15 “gift certificate” included in the box is sheer marketing genius - give folks the illusion of saving money by spending money. Brilliant! Bonus points for routing folks away from Williams-Sonoma and to Dale & Thomas, thereby cleverly avoiding the Williams Sonoma cut on profits. This alone makes me appreciate the company that much more, and Williams-Sonoma for going along with the scheme.  Well, that and the yummy taste.

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Haven’t had time to purchase your holiday cards yet this season?  A true geek at heart?

May all your Christmases be #FFFFFF (geek hex code for white)

Perfect for all your online friends.

Never fear - The Telegraph has a great collection of 11 Christmas and Holiday cards for geeks.

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Great as Thanksgiving meal place cards, mixed group conversation starters, or as a daily carry along reminder of the good things in your life.

(Click on image to view each product.)

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Scrumptious - Great dessert made better by a terrific serving dish.

I married into the right family. My father-in-law, god bless him, passed along some choice wisdom to my husband:

“If she wants anything for the kitchen, buy it. Lessons, gadgets, special sauces. This can only benefit you,” he said.

And right he is.

For example, look at these absolutely perfect single serving pie pans. Shoot, we’re even a sucker for anything with a star (living in Texas and all), so you know it’s meant to be.

Never mind the messy, uneven slices of cobbler, crisp, cake, or other pastries. Our individual slice pan shapes and bakes a perfect wedge-shaped serving every time.

• Stoneware pan is perfect for hot fruit crisp, potpie, and other treats that tend to ooze or collapse when they’re cut and served.
• Makes a 5” wedge-shaped serving.
• 2/3 cup capacity.
• Set of 2. [$10.95/set]
• Dishwasher-safe.

SAVE! Buy 2 or more sets and pay only $9.95 each

I fell in love with a similar set-up during our last visit to Beijing. We went on a tour of the hutong, and our hutong resident host had these adorable china pieces that, when placed side by side, made a beautiful porcelain ring of food. The open center area was the perfect size for a nice bowl of rice. The food that day was magnificent - by far the best meal of the trip - making the whole experience one of our fondest memories in China. I spent the rest of my trip looking for dishes like our host had that day, to no avail. The closest I’ve come is these lovely pie slice pans.

Available at King Arthur Flour. (I have a feeling Santa’s going to be good to me this year.)

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