Blog Dog Dan: COOKING IN THE DARK WITH COCHRAN & CHRISTIE

May the best man win! Cochran and I are tossing a coin (a 2004 commemorative Texas quarter) to see who is going to pick the recipe for this week! I picked heads, and Cochran picked tails – DARN, it’s tails! He’s usually top banana around here anyway! Cochran gets to make his recipe tonight, which is a German Apple Pancake. This has been in his family for years, being of German descent and all! My choice was going to be applesauce, because it goes so well with pork chops (sorry, Hamilton). Do you remember the Brady Bunch episode with Peter trying to sound like Humphrey Bogart with “pork chops and applesauce”? Cochran uses Granny Smith apples in his recipe because he likes the tartness. In some parts of Canada, it’s known as the Green Delicious!

Some common pests (if there is such a thing!) to apple growers are blackbirds and starlings, aphids, capsid bugs, caterpillars, and red spider mites. Butterflies and moths start out as eggs that hatch into caterpillars, which then evolve into the winged version. The cycle can take as little as three weeks in the tropics and many months in colder climates. There are over 142,000 species of moths and about 20,000 species of butterflies. Moths generally fly only at night; butterflies mostly in daylight. Both have six legs and two sets of wings. Butterflies fold up their wings when they are at rest; moths generally leave theirs unfolded. The reason moths and other nocturnal insects circle your porch light is not because they crave the spotlight. Moths and insects use the moon to help them navigate in the dark. When an insect gets too close to a light, it does what nature tells it to do - it keeps its body aligned in relation to the light source. If the light source were the distant moon, the insect would fly straight. However, since the light is so close, the bug ends up flying in circles!

We have to talk about Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727, a mathematician, physicist, theologian, astronomer, alchemist, and a natural philosopher. He was influenced by astronomers like Galileo, Copernicus, and Kepler. A majority of discoveries were made by Newton in his early to mid 20s, but weren't published until many years later. From the apple falling due to his gravity theory, he concluded that, "Whatever goes up, must come down." He also formulated Newton’s theory of color and developed the first reflective telescope, known as the Newtonian telescope. Newton’s laws of motion is considered the best work in science to date. Newton stated his first law of motion as, "An object in motion wants to stay in motion, and an object at rest wants to stay in rest." The first flight to the moon was possible only because of Newton's profound discoveries about the movement of planets and the speed of light. He also came up with the formula for Pi and invented calculus and the general binomial theorem in mathematics. Here are some of his quotes:

"Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy."
"If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants."
"No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess."

What about the saying “you are what you eat.” Photographer and scientist Mohamed Babu captured the amazing images below after putting colorful sugar drops in his garden and letting the ants go to town.

Is that the coolest thing you've seen lately or what?

GERMAN APPLE PANCAKE

(because Cochran won the coin toss!)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup half-and-half

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1-1/4 lbs. apples (3-4 large apples), peeled, cored, quartered, and sliced 1/2-inch thick

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, and vanilla. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until no lumps remain.

Melt the butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon and cook until the apples are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Take off heat and add the lemon juice.

Pour the batter around the edge of the skillet, then over the apples. Place the skillet in the oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 425 degrees. Bake until the pancake has risen above the edges of the skillet and is brown, about 18 minutes. Loosen the pancake edges from the skillet with a spatula and invert the pancake onto a large plate. Dust with confectioners' sugar and cut into wedges before serving.

(picture will beuploated later - camera issues!)

ENJOY!

Since you're still "at rest," let's watch some Ants Go Marching!