Okay, I haven’t actual made this dish yet, but I saw it on an episode of the Food Network’s Boy Meets Grill with Bobby Flay and have been wanting to try it since. Maybe this weekend…

Blue Corn Pancakes with Orange Honey Butter and Cinnamon Maple Syrup

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup blue cornmeal
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup fresh blueberries, plus more for garnish
2 to 3 bananas, peeled and sliced
Orange-Honey Butter, recipe follows
Cinnamon Maple Syrup, recipe follows
Confectioners’ sugar, for garnish

Preheat a nonstick griddle. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Beat the eggs and 1 1/2 cups of the milk in a medium bowl until combined, then stir in the melted butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in the blueberries. If the batter seems too thick, add some of the remaining milk.

Ladle approximately 1/4 cup of the batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Cook until the bottom is light golden brown, flip, and continue cooking for about 30 seconds. Remove to an ovenproof plate and keep warm in the oven until ready to serve. Serve 3 pancakes per person with a dollop of orange-honey butter, cinnamon maple syrup, and bananas. Garnish with blueberries dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Orange-Honey Butter:
3 cups fresh squeezed orange juice
2 sticks butter, slightly softened
2 tablespoons honey
Pinch salt
Place orange juice in a small non-reactive saucepan over high heat and reduce to 3 tablespoons. Place butter in a bowl and add the orange syrup, honey, and salt; mix until combined. Scoop into a large ramekin, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

Cinnamon Maple Syrup:
2 cups pure maple syrup
2 to 3 cinnamon sticks
Heat syrup and cinnamon sticks over low heat for 10 minutes. Remove and let steep for 1 hour. Remove sticks and pour into a small pitcher.

This is a Jenn Original Recipe! It’s not very complicated but it’s gotten good reviews:

3-4 large red-skinned potatoes
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
fresh ground black pepper

Boil a large pot of water. Halve or quarter potatoes and boil until tender (usually when the skin begins to separate from the flesh of the potato) and drain.

In a large mixing bowl, mash potatoes with an electric mixer (don’t turn the mixer on, just use the beaters to smash the potato pieces). Add milk, cheese, butter, seasoning, garlic and salt. Beat on medium speed until ingredients are mixed and potatoes are to desired consistency (some like potatoes very smooth, I prefer to have some lumps). Serve topped with fresh ground black pepper.

When reheating, add a splash of milk and a nice pat of butter to the potatoes before putting in microwave.

The original recipe came from my Campell’s soup cookbook, with some slight modifications.

4 chicken breasts
1 tbsp olive oil
1 can condensed tomato soup (low sodium)
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp minced garlic
dash salt & black pepper

Preheat oven to 350F

Trim fat off chicken breasts. Coat the bottom of a baking pan with olive oil. Arrange chicken in a single layer.

Combine tomato soup, milk, parmesan cheese, basil, garlic and a generous sprinkling of salt in a small bowl. Mix well and pour over chicken, covering it completely. Top each piece with fresh ground black pepper.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until chicken is done. Baste chicken once or twice with tomato mixture while cooking. Serve on top of penne pasta tossed in olive oil and italian seasoning.

*Begin boiling water for pasta once chicken is in the oven and pasta should be cooked by the time the chicken is ready.

Recommended sides: steamed broccoli, red-skinned mashed potatoes, or sauteed green beans and mushrooms (swap vinegar/soy sauce for parmesan cheese).

From Taste of Home’s magazine “Simple & Delicious,” this veggie dish makes a great side and can easily be altered to serve with different styles of cuisine.

1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp dried basil
3/4 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 lb fresh green beans, trimmed
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 tsps butter

In a small bowl, combine the first seven ingredients and set aside. In a large skillet, saute green beans and mushrooms in butter until almost tender. Add seasoned mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until veggies are nice and tender. Voila!

Some easy substitutions and alterations:

Olive oil or vegetable oil for canola oil (which is just not in my cupboard for some reason)
Swap cider vinegar for soy sauce or thin teryaki sauce when serving with a Chinese dish, with brown rice on side.

A note about black pepper: I heard from a reliable source (the Food Network) that pepper burns. I would suggest leaving it out and sprinkling the veggies with fresh ground black pepper at the end. I haven’t tried this myself because I just learned this interesting tidbit, but there is always next time.

Both times I made this dish (once with cider vinegar and once with soy sauce) there was liquid left over. During the soy sauce run, I removed the veggies and threw some whole raw almonds into the remaining liquid and heated for a couple minutes, then tossed the almonds with the green beans and mushrooms. Yum!

This is a quick and easy dinner similar to “hamburger helper” but with a more homemade/home-style feel.

1 (8 oz) package elbow macaroni (or other shaped pasta)
1 lb ground beef
1 package taco seasoning
3/4 cup water
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Toppings, such as: sour cream, tortilla chips, tomatoes, peppers, onions

Prepare macaroni according to package directions, drain and keep warm.

Brown ground beef in skillet or frying pan until no longer pink and drain. Add taco seasoning and water. Stir over medium-low heat until thoroughly mixed and sauce begins to reduce. Set aside and keep warm.

Melt butter in a large pan over medium, gradually adding flour and whisking constantly to form a sauce. Gradually add milk, while whisking, and simmer for 5-7 minutes until mixture thickens. Decrease heat and stir in 1 1/2 cups of the cheddar cheese, stir until cheese is completely melted.

Add macaroni and beef to pan, stirring over low heat. Let cook until mixture begins to simmer and thicken. Remove from heat and top with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.

Serve on large plates with toppings on the side. This dish went well with a side of mexican rice and tortilla chips, along with the usual taco toppings. It also made for great left overs!

The sauce in this recipe was hard to thicken, I added an additional tablespoon of flour to thicken it up, but I think less milk could be used (maybe just 1 or 1 1/2 cups instead of 2).