Diners, Pancakes & Lisa Loeb

Now she sits in a booth in a diner,
Waiting for someone to take her order,
Waiting for someone to come and sit down.
She rubs the smudge off the photograph, puts it back into her purse.
The grey sky was romatic cause he was holding her hand,
He was her man.

I'm so bummed, I typed out this gorgeously long entry only to foolishly delete it. FUMBLING FINGERS! And, word from the street is that my boyfriend is out having dinner so he can't rush here in time to have icecream with me (it's NOT dairy-free but I promise I'll be ok). It is better to always have your own cuppa icecream but in this case, it's just too big a task for me to do and my tummy will agree (so will the thighs and hips and...) SO ANYWAY, let's talk about something good.

Apart from the new job (hiphipHIPHOORAY!), I made pancakes for breakfast this morning. Somehow, when I spend my last few thoughts before i go to bed thinking really hard about something (in this case, PANCAKES), I wake up craving it. AND I MUST HAVE IT! So I did. =)

I used GlutenFree Girl's recipe for Blueberry-Polenta Pancakes but I didn't have any blueberries so mine shall just be called Polenta Pancakes. They were yummy but I didn't realize that they would actually border on the salty side. Not that I minded it much since I was having a savoury treat craving and the awesome maple syrup & fresh cherries balanced it out. But for those who'd prefer a sweeter pancake, just follow her instructions and use 2 tbsp of sugar (I only used 1 tsp). Also, I was unsure whether the gluten free flour called for in the recipe was for a mix or just any flour so, I made up a quick mix. =)

Also, because pancakes remind me of diners and jukeboxes, waitresses in pink striped uniforms and plump chefs with greasy sausages, I thought of the song Falling In Love by Lisa Loeb, that's where the lyrics from the top of the entry came from (fear not, I am not heartbroken) sooo I think I'll enter this entry into Eat to the Beat! hosted by Elly Says Opa!. All entries have to feature a dish that is inspired by a song/artiste/album. So here's my contribution. Pancakes & Diners

Polenta Pancakes
2 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp potato starch flour
1 tbsp cornflour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp flax meal
2 eggs, whisked
1 cup soy milk + 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar to sour, let sit for 10 minutes
1 tbsp veg oil

1) Mix all dry ingredients together
2) Whisk soured milk & oil into eggs
3) Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix to just combine
4) Oil a skillet and drop batter by 1/3 cupfuls, cook until bubbles appear on the surface or until desired brown-ness
5) Serve with real maple syrup and whatever else that floats your boat (ICECREAM!!!)

like, OH WOW!

HELLO! I have finally returned. I have a thousand excuses as to why I've been missing but I think I'll pick the best few I could come up with.
1) I've been busy travelling to Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai
2) I've been too busy eating and since my mouth works so fast, the food gets devoured before I can take photos of them
3) I have been quite lazy.

Yeah, I think I'll settle for that. Laziness, the disease many of us suffer from. Fortunately though, the other wonderful bloggers have no such illness so the rest of us are lucky, because we'll always have something yummy to read about. =)

But I am back. And i will blog often, or at least make a big effort to. =) So how has everyone been? Today I officially baked the first sweet treat since my return to Melbourne. Gluten free sugar cookies. I got the original recipe from here but I had no shortening or baking powder or gluten free flour mix. And i was too lazy to pre-mix the flour blend so I changed the recipe almost entirely. and I'm glad to report that this is probably the first gluten free sugar cookie that I actually like. I used expeller pressed coconut oil and normal veg oil to substitute the shortening. Replaced sugar with half icing sugar and half raw vanilla sugar (for crunch and coz I had no other sugar). I also added 1/2 tsp of xantham gum and 1 tsp lemon juice for added 'flair'.

I don't know how it'll settle tomorrow since alot of cookies are so promising when they first step out of the oven but then loses all their sparkle after sitting around for abit. I used my new cookie cutter that I got from the Harvest Picnic at Hanging Rock yesterday. It was really eye opening, bought some gluten free plum pudding (since Easter is coming) and this amazingamazingamazing peach and vanilla chutney thing. Ohgosh it's absolutely stunning, with notes of apple and thick luscious syrup just dripping off the edges of the chunks of peach.

Here's Spot trying to get friendly with the cookie! Spot fits snugly in the middle of my palm, so you can pretty much imagine how darn big the cookie is. I realized we didn't have a container big enough for the cookie so I had to snap it in two before packing it away. Least I got a photo of it.