Applesauce Pancakes

In the United States, most of us will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day (Tday) on the 27th of November, and I’m sure you’ve seen many Tday recipes floating around the blogosphere.

In the States, most people cook and eat large amounts of food with families and friends from near and afar. It is a great day to appreciate and be thankful for what we have whether it be little or too much.

These apple pancakes are a good meal to have the day before or the day after Thanksgiving (or any day!). I amped the recipe that came from Everday Food by substituting milk with buttermilk and by adding fall spices and vanilla extract. Also the recipe calls for applesauce, which prompted me to use my crockpot applesauce!

So whether you’re celebrating a holiday or not and whether it is fall or spring in your hemisphere, I suggest conjuring up the ingredients for these pancakes along with some fluffy eggs and lightly burnt (just how I like it!) turkey sausage! Feel free to eat the pancakes plain, with syrup, or honey!

Applesauce Pancakes
adapted from Everday Food
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp granulated/caster sugar
2 tsp of cinnamon or pumpkin spice
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1-2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (473 ml) buttermilk or milk, room temperature
3/4 cup (177 ml) applesauce
4 Tbsp (43 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Optional topping: Sour cream (did not use) or applesauce
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F/121 degrees C. Whisk together dry ingredients, including the sugar. Add in wet ingredients and combine until combined and still lumpy. DO NOT OVERMIX! There should still be lumps. 
Heat a cast-iron skillet, flat-top, or griddle over medium heat. Brush surface with butter or cooking spray. 
Pour batter onto griddle 1/3 – 1/2 cup at a time. Cook batter until bubbles form around the edges (2-3 minutes), then flip pancake over and cook for approximately 3 minutes. Repeat with the remaining batter and allow previous pancakes to stay warm in the 250/121 degree oven.
Feel free to serve with sour cream, applesauce, syrup, honey, or plain!
Copyright – Memoria James – http://www.mangiodasola.com

Sweet Potato Pie

I don’t like Pumpkin Pie, and I don’t like Sweet Potato Pie. I must have something against orange veggies or something because I’m not crazy about carrots either. In fact, as a kid I thought that carrots were the causes behind my nightmares :D. Anyway, my mother loves sweet potato pie, and I love her, so I made this pie…well, two pies because of the excess filling. I brought them to my grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving, so the rest of the family partook in the consumption of this pie as well.

I was dubious about the outcome of this pie because I was unsure of how it was supposed to taste. Since I got the recipe from my stepmother, who is a whiz at making sweet potato pies, she told me to go by taste! It is hard to go by taste when you don’t like the taste of what you’re making, so I couldn’t figure out how much sugar to add to the pie.

So, I was beyond eager to see how the pie tasted to my mother. When she took her first taste, I waited anxiously for her critique. When my mother enjoys a dish, she closes her eyes and moans excitedly. Sadly, she didn’t do that after tasting this pie. Being the supporting and loving mother she is, she said, “It’s good. It’s just not that sweet.”

With a saddened heart, I said, “I knew you wouldn’t like it.” She said she did like it, but I didn’t believe her. My aunt, on the other hand, said that she did like it, but she likes her pies to be less sweet.

I know where I went wrong, though. I added another sweet potato (so, 3 in total) because I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough filling for some weird reason. I should have been satisfied with two sweet potatoes and the same amount of other ingredients. I will stick with my stepmother’s recipe because I know my mom loves her pies (yes, my stepmother has made pies for my mom. Isn’t that cool?!). Don’t expect precise measurements on this recipe. As my stepmom stated, go by taste… So, if you like this type of pie, you should get it right the first time around.

My Stepmother’s Sweet Potato Pie

I slightly adapted her recipe by adding in brown sugar and making the cream cheese optional.

Homemade, unbaked pie crust (recipe below)

2 lbs sweet potatoes (2 large, sweet potatoes)

1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar (by taste)

1/4 – 1/2 cup brown sugar (by taste)

1 tsp – 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Nutmeg or allspice (by taste)

1 tbsp vanilla

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 stick melted butter

1/2 box of cream cheese (4 oz), room temperature (optional)

Then 3 eggs (add AFTER you get the taste you want)



Prepare the sweet Potatoes:

Wash and boil the potatoes whole and check if their done by poking them with a fork (there should be no resistance) after 45 mins to an hour. Pour out the hot water and add cold water. The skin should come off easily.



Prepare the filling:

Place the boiled and peeled sweet potatoes and the rest of the ingredients, except the eggs, in a mixer bowl, and mix really well. Taste the mixture to see if it has the right amount of sweetness and spices. Mix in the eggs one by one. Pour mixture into an uncooked pie crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 min. Lightly touch the top of the pie. If dry, then ready. If wet, cook longer. Make sure crust is nice and brown.



Pie Crust

from A Baker’s Odyssey (Youtube video of the author making the crust here)

Yields two 9-inch pie crusts

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cake flour


1/2 tsp salt


1/2 cup(1 stick) cold unsalted butter; cut in Tbsp size pieces


1/2 cup cold shortening or homemade lard or commercial lard; cut in Tbsp size pieces


6 Tbsp. ice water


1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar
(or regular vinegar)

Keep all ingredients cold while making this dough. Place dry ingredients into food processor. Add in butter first and pulse three times for 5 seconds. Add in the shortening and pulse three times again. Add in the cold water, starting with 4 Tbsp of water and vinegar, adding more water until a ball ALMOST forms in the processor. Do not over-mix! Remove the dough from the food processor and divide the dough in halves either by weighing them or just “eye-balling” it. Then shape each half into a rough disk and wrap each half separately in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Then roll out one of the cold disks for the bottom crust, set it in the pie pan, and fill it with pie filling. Then roll out the second cold disk for the top crust.

Copyright – Memoria James – http://www.mangiodasola.com

Crockpot Chicken and Dressing

Well, I apologize to the few who were looking forward to seeing the famous dressing I keep harping on and on about. I hesitated about posting about the dressing because I couldn’t produce any extremely tempting photos of this dish (even though they look tempting to me!), and I know most people eat with their eyes when “meeting” a new dish for the first time.

Despite the low-quality photos, please trust me that this dressing is fantastic. If the photos fail in convincing you of its awesomeness, I have compiled a list of reasons I think you should try this dressing at least once:

  • When I made this dressing for Thanksgiving last year, one of my aunts found a way to hoard almost all of the leftovers for herself.
  • This Thanksgiving, I doubled the recipe, and she still found a way to hoard a lot of the dressing to the dismay of everyone else (they still found a way to get some).
  • Even though my aunt and my mother were full, they still managed to put more dressing on their plates. In fact, my aunt was saying, “Whew, I’m full!” as she spooned up more dressing :).
  • I gave this recipe to my stepmother, and she has made this dish a bunch of times already and has admitted that it tastes better than my paternal grandmother’s recipe for dressing.
  • Even though I made a double amount of the dressing, I still felt compelled to make this dressing again as soon I got home.
  • I’m still happily chomping on this yummy concoction to this day. In fact, I can’t wait to get home every day just to heat up another bowl.

Now if those reasons don’t convince you, then I don’t know what else will. The consistency of this dressing is not like that of the northern version where there are more solid chunks of ingredients. It is creamier with a bready texture like that of a non-sweet version of bread pudding, I guess. I topped the dish with gravy made of a roux and chicken broth since I didn’t have anymore turkey drippings. Make this dish at least once; you won’t regret it.

Crockpot Chicken and Dressing
adapted by Southern Plate
  • 4 chicken breasts, cooked
  • 2 pans of cornbread or two quarts (I always use Buttermilk or “Dixie” cornbread)
  • 2 hamburger or hot dog buns (I have used leftover, homemade yeast rolls or white bread)
  • 2 Tbsp sage (add more to taste. I usually end up adding about a Tablespoon more)
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2-3 eggs, hard boiled and chopped
  • 2 cans cream of chicken soup (separated)
  • 1 stick margarine or butter, melted
  • 2 cans chicken broth (3-4 cups)

CHICKEN: While preparing the other ingredients in the dressing, season with salt/pepper, and poach (or simmer in a little water in a saucepan) the chicken breasts for about 10 minutes.

DRESSING: Mix together cornbread, other bread, sage, onion, hard-boiled eggs, one can cream of chicken soup, melted margarine or butter, and two cans of broth in a big bowl.

PREPARATION: Make a layer of half the remaining can of cream of chicken soup in the bottom of a large crock pot. Top with 1/3 of the dressing. Top dressing with half of the chicken, shredding it as you put it in. Top with 1/3 dressing, remaining chicken, and remaining dressing. Spread other half of cream of chicken soup over top.

Cover and cook on low for three to four hours. Serve hot.

Copyright – Memoria James – http://www.mangioeviaggiodasola.com

Buttermilk or “Dixie” Cornbread

I hope all those who celebrated Thanksgiving this month had a great one and had a chance to spend quality time with family and friends. My Thanksgiving was fantastic. I enjoyed every minute of it, and that says a lot coming from me.

I didn’t take photos of everything I made because I was too busy enjoying my time with my family. Nevertheless, I made two sweet potato pies with homemade crust (will be blogging about this later), homemade croissants with laminated dough, yeast rolls, brined turkey, easy turkey gravy (roux + turkey drippings + scant amount of chicken broth), chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream, and crockpot chicken and dressing using buttermilk or Dixie cornbread as a base.

One of my aunts made a sweet potato pie, green beans and collard greens. My other aunt made macaroni and cheese, corn muffins, corn, ham, and brought store-bought pecan pie (*inhale* *exhale* :D). My other aunt, who used to live in Venezuela for a long time, made a Venezuelan version of Potato Salad. My mom…um…well, she brought ingredients for a salad, but everyone agreed that she didn’t have to put that together. We already had enough anyway. 😀 (Mom, I still love you even though you don’t know how to cook!)

I actually didn’t bring any leftovers from the dinner because I was so tired of seeing all the food I had made and other Turkey day dishes that I ate only very little. I just consumed half of a plate and a slice of cake. I returned home yesterday and started regretting that I didn’t bring dressing with me today, so I made it for you all and for me. 🙂
Because this dressing dish is really so popular with my immediate and step family, I though I’d recreate it and blog about it here. Yes, I made the dish again today just for you all (ahh, the sacrifices I make for you all hehe). As I stated before, the base of this dressing depends on cornbread. I always use the cornbread from the same source I obtained the dressing recipe – Southern Plate. Because this cornbread requires 2 cups of buttermilk, I would call this cornbread “buttermilk cornbread”. It is really moist and flavorful. Take a bite of the cornbread before mashing it up in the dressing for the full effect. Even though I was born and raised in the south, I do add a little bit of sugar to the mixture. You can make it as sweet or non-sweet as you want.

Please make this your new cornbread today; you won’t regret it. I will post about the famous crockpot dressing next; stay tuned!

Buttermilk aka Dixie Cornbread
adapted by Southern Plate


1 1/2 cups enriched white cornmeal (I used yellow this time around)
3 Tbsp AP flour
1 tsp salt (I used kosher)
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
1 egg
2 Tbsp of bacon drippings or melted butter
1 Tbsp Crisco (I just use more butter)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a 10-inch cast iron skillet (or cake pan), add a Tbsp of Crisco (I usually add 3 Tbsp of butter in place of Crisco and drippings) and place skillet or cake pan in the oven to melt the butter. Sift (I don’t sift) together dry ingredients. Add buttermilk, egg, and add drippings (or the melted butter in the skillet). Mix the ingredients until they are moistened; do not over-stir.

Pour mixture into the skillet or pan (it should already be greased from the butter or Crisco). Bake in a preheated hot oven for 20-25 minutes. Serve warm with butter, or mash up to place in crockpot dressing!

Copyright – Memoria James – http://www.mangioeviaggiodasola.com

Not-White Hot Chocolate & My First Award!!

This recipe comes from Paula Deen, and it doesn’t involve butter *gasp*. However, to make up for its absence, this drink does carry a lot of fat in the form of heavy cream and half-n-half.
I made a halved version of this recipe, and it was just enough for two yummy mugs of this stuff. I will be making this for Thanksgiving for my family since it’s such a simple, yet decadent recipe. Top it with homemade whipped cream.
Even though I have white chocolate chips, I used the milk chocolate variety from Guittard (my favorite store-bought chocolate), but you could use white chocolate chips as stated in the original version of the recipe or a combination of milk and white chocolate chips. I’m sure it would also taste fantastic with mint chocolate chips or any other flavored chips. YUM!

Non-White (or Milk) Hot Chocolate

  • 1 cup white chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chips)
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 4 cups half-and-half
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Vanilla whipped topping, for garnish
  • Mint leaf, for garnish (very optional haha)

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine white chocolate chips and heavy cream. Stir continuously until white chocolate chips have completely melted. Stir in the half-and-half, and vanilla extract. Stir occasionally until heated through. Pour into mugs and top with a dollop of vanilla whipped topping and garnish with mint leaf.

MY FIRST AWARD!!

Barbara from Barbara Bakes just granted me this lovely award! I feel so honored to be one of the five chosen ones haha. I would also like to thank Barbara for being the first non-relative to visit and comment on my blog on almost every post. She always leaves such nice, heartfelt comments and works hard to leave nice comments on many other blogs as well. More importantly, she always posts yummy dishes and desserts and is a dedicated Daring Baker. I like how she shows a variety of her challenge work and some process photos. Thanks again for nominating me, Barbara!!

According to the rules of the award, I must provide my readers the answers to the below 35 questions. I also must grant SOME of my FAVORITE BLOGGERS this award as well. Let’s see if I can answer all the questions in ONE WORD …

1. Where is your cell phone? Table
2. Your hair? Black
3. Your mother? Cute 🙂
4. Your father? Sick 🙁
5. Your favorite food? Cheeseburgers
6. Your dream last night? Forgotten
7. Your favorite drink? Juice
8. Your dream/goal? PhD
9. What room are you in? Living
10. Your hobby? Blogging
11. Your fear? Animals
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Europe
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. Something that you aren’t? Skinny
15. Muffins? Blueberry
16. Wish list item? CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17. Where did you grow up? Texas
18. Last thing you did? Blog
19. What are you wearing? Jeans
20. Your TV? Flatscreen
21. Your pets? Nonexistent
22. Friends? Few
23. Your life? Lonely
24. Your mood? Sad
25. Missing someone? Ex-girlfriend
26. Vehicle? Altima
27. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
28. Your favorite store? None
29. Your favorite color? Purple
30. When was the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Yesterday
32. Your best friend? Mom
33. One place that I go to over and over? Wal-Mart 🙁
34. One person who emails me regularly? Student
35. Favorite place to eat? Home

Now, it is my turn to pick five….hmmm. Forgive me if you have already been picked.

1. Ingrid at 3 Bs
2. Marina de Cabeças de alho choco
3. Nadia at BakeFresh
4. msmeanie at Chocolate Chip Trips (from one grad student to another)
5. Laura at The Cooking Photographer

Thanks, Barbara!

Copyright – Memoria James – http://www.mangiodasola.com

Thanksgiving Meal/Recipe List

I want to apologize now because this post will be devoid of yummy photos; however, I hope to be successful in creating yummy visions of Thanksgiving dishes in your head.

I’m getting excited (which is a rare emotion for me) about Thanksgiving just because I get to cook and bake as much as I want for a bunch of people I love – my family.

As a single, graduate student, cooking for one can be a lonely, bittersweet activity. While I enjoy baking and cooking, I don’t enjoy having all of that food in my kitchen just for me. I would love to have others around with whom I can share my goodies!

So, since I’m so excited, I thought I’d share my list of dishes I plan to prepare for my loved ones this year. I made almost all of these dishes at least once last Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, and everyone loved everything. They were also shocked since almost all of our family members are quite inept in the kitchen, excluding one of my aunts who brings the veggie dishes (which explains why I have to make so much in order for us to have something to eat on holidays. LOL). So, without further ado, here is my tentative list for this Thanksgiving:

  • Wolfgang Puck’s Turkey with Turkey Stock and Cream Gravy (involves brining the turkey the night before, which yields a shorter cooking time and a moister turkey without basting!)
  • Southern Plate’s Dixie Cornbread and Crockpot cornbread dressing (OMG! You have to make this if you love good, southern dressing. Also, you can free up space on the stovetop and in the oven and leave the dressing in the Crockpot to warm until dinner is ready. You can even place the Crockpot in the living room or a clean garage as it cooks for more space. My mother adds that the intoxicating, comforting smell of this dressing will waft all through your house!)
  • Pioneer Woman’s Mashed Potatoes (I add shredded, sharp cheddar cheese on top on special occasions. This dish could also be made in a Crockpot. In fact, that is how I prepared it the first time I made it. Just boil the potatoes in a pot, then transfer the mashed taters (hehe) to the Crockpot and add the other ingredients.)
  • Croissants (I haven’t picked out a recipe yet (maybe Pierre Hermé’s?), but I’m going to make a laminated dough well ahead of time, shape the croissants, and place them in the freezer. Then a few days before I leave for Thanksgiving, I’ll just need to bake them at my grandmother’s house.)
  • Sweet Potato Pie from Allrecipes (This dessert is not for me; I don’t like sweet potatoes, but my mom loves the stuff. So, because I love her so much, I’m going to make this for her instead of another variety of carrot cake. Anyway, I’m going to make the same revisions the second commenter (“SL”) made on Allrecipes.)
  • Hershey’s Chocolate Cake (my go-to chocolate cake. I haven’t decided which type of frosting I’m going to put on it. Chocolate, vanilla, or my leftover coffee buttercream?)
  • Paula Deen’s (White) Hot Chocolate (I’ll be blogging about this later. It is a rich, rich, fattening, hot chocolate especially made for special occasions. It’s so quick to make, too. I will be making it with Guittard milk chocolate chips instead of white chocolate or a mixture of the two.)

Now, I’ll open the floor, because I’m curious and excited. For those who will be celebrating Turkey Day soon, what is on your list? What dishes are you going to make? If you already celebrated Thanksgiving this year, what did you make? Add links to the recipes or your blog entries, if there are any.

I’ll be back with another food post very, very soon.

Copyright – Memoria James – http://www.mangiodasola.com