Sour Cream Pancakes

Wow, I am in love with this sour cream pancakes recipe from The Pioneer Woman.  I stumbled upon it by accident while searching the internet for a way to use up extra sour cream at breakfast time... awesome find!

These pancakes are so incredibly tender.  Mostly made of sour cream and egg, with only a teeny bit of flour and leavener, the recipe seems a little bizarre, but it turns out these incredibly light, soft, tender pancakes that are still very rich tasting.  I loved them, and I'm not even really a big pancake person, to be honest. 

Give them a try!

Bulgur Maple Breakfast Cereal

I recently came into what I think is bulgur wheat from some friends who moved on from Jakarta to greener pastures (Hi Brooke and Rob! Miss you!)... it came in an unmarked (but for a stylized drawing of what looks like a wheat stalk) bag, but looked fairly bulgur-y, if that's a thing.  

I've used bulgur a little bit in the past... tabbouleh, Moroccan spiced stuffed squash, bulgur and ricotta pancakes... but was intrigued by this idea I saw in last week's NY Times for a maple bulgur breakfast porridge.  

I always think the concept of oatmeal is nice: a hearty, warm bowl of breakfast goodness.  But in reality I find oatmeal to be kinda gluey and gross.  The texture of this bulgur wheat porridge is better somehow... it's got a creaminess, but the little bits of wheat retain some appealing bite and pop.  Add a hint of smokey sweet maple flavor?  Pretty awesome.

I followed the super simple NY Times directions to a T (soaking the bulgur overnight in hot water then cooking it briefly in milk in the morning), but switched up the accoutrements, using quartered strawberries and roughly chopped almonds in place of the blueberries and pecans.  Yum.  As an experiment, I also tried Martha Stewart's cook it all at once methodology, but I found the overnight method creamier and more appealing.

New York Bagel Casserole

 Tim and I got up early to watch the Super Bowl again this year.  And while I love traditional Super Bowl snacks, cheesy dips, spicy chilis and other decadent treats, those are not as appealing at 6:30 Monday morning, which is when the Super Bowl airs live in Jakarta. 

 We opted for a hearty breakfast casserole instead, care of my new Smitten Kitchen cookbook: big, seed-coated bagel chunks dotted with cream cheese, eggs, onion and tomatoes, baked to perfection... mmm.

My only complaint is that my casserole seemed a little bit under-seasoned, although I think that is a result of the Jakarta bagels (which are fine and I am thankful we have bagels at all, but they pale in comparison to the NY bagels we ate when back in the States both in texture and in toppings)...  I should have added more salt and possibly some garlic to compensate. 

Deb from Smitten Kitchen suggests pairing the casserole with capers, salmon and/or bacon.  I am thinking that next time maybe I might mix some combination of those things into the casserole itself, which might help my seasoning problem.  

By the way, I made a half recipe of the casserole in an 8" x 8" pan and it worked out just fine!