What's For Dinner...

Last night both Lonny & I ate dinner pretty late.

Because it was late I thought I didn't want to spend a lot of time preparing & cooking.

So I figured a salad & zucchini pancakes would be simple, fast and not so much prep work.

I was wrong.

I dove into the cookbook Lon got me for Christmas. Utilized another recipe from The Barefoot Contessa cookbook, Cape Cod Chopped Salad.

And then found another Barefoot Contessa recipe that I saved awhile back for Zucchini pancakes.

It took more time preparing the salad bits and making the dressing than it did to prepare the zucchini pancakes!

But dinner did turn out pretty yummy! And by the time I was done cooking, I was starving.

I give both these recipes 5 out of 5 stars.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces thick-cut bacon, such as Niman Ranch
• 8 ounces baby arugula
• 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup toasted walnut halves, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 6 ounces blue cheese, such as Roquefort, crumbled
• (I didn't have blue cheese & we're not really a big blue cheese fan. So I substituted it with crumbled Gorgonzola cheese)

For the dressing:

• 3 tablespoons good apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2/3 cup good olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place a baking rack on a sheet pan and lay the bacon slices on the rack. Roast the bacon for about 20 minutes, until nicely browned. Allow to cool.

In a large bowl, toss together the arugula, apple, walnuts, cranberries, and blue cheese.

For the dressing, whisk together the vinegar, orange zest, orange juice, mustard, maple syrup, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper in a bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.

Chop the bacon in large pieces and add it to the salad. Toss the salad with just enough dressing to moisten. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and toss well. Serve immediately.

My favorite part of this recipe, the bacon!

Made the house smell delicious.

Yummy!

Tada!

The Zucchini Pancakes were delicious!!! I had to doctor up the recipe a bit.

I used a bit more flour. In her book it says to use 6-8. I guess it depends on how watery your zucchini's are. Mine weren't that watery. But I used 10 tablespoons of flour and that worked perfectly!

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchini (about 3/4 pound)
• 2 tablespoons grated red onion
• 2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
• 6 to 8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• (I used 10 tablespoons of flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Unsalted butter and vegetable oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Grate the zucchini into a bowl using the large grating side of a box grater.

 Immediately stir in the onion and eggs. Stir in 6 (try 8 at first) tablespoons of the flour, the baking powder, salt, and pepper. (If the batter gets too thin from the liquid in the zucchini, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour.)

Should look like a light green mixture. Make sure it's not too watery. If it is, then add more flour.

Heat a large (10 to 12-inch) saute pan over medium heat and melt 1/2 tablespoon butter and 1/2 tablespoon oil together in the pan.

When the butter is hot but not smoking, lower the heat to medium-low and drop heaping soup spoons of batter into the pan.

Mmm this is where they start to smell good.

 Cook the pancakes about 2 minutes on each side, until browned.

 Place the pancakes on a sheet pan and keep warm in the oven. *I turned the oven on to a low temp of 250 degrees and placed the cooked pancakes on baking pan lined with parchment paper. A lot of people said this recipe was soggy in the middle which means the pancakes were undercooked. You don't want undercooked soggy pancakes. Gross! If this is a problem, putting them in the oven at a low degree helps cook the rest as you're making new pancakes. It also helps keep the pancakes warm while you're making new batches. 

The pancakes can stay warm in the oven for up to 30 minutes.

Wipe out the pan with a dry paper towel, add more butter and oil to the pan, and continue to fry the pancakes until all the batter is used.  

Serve hot.

This was our dinner. I served the pancakes with sour cream & ketchup. 

Bon Appetite!