For Lack of Anything Better to Say......

As I was attempting to rustle up some dinner the other night and cruising through the old cook book, I found a recipe I hadn't prepared for some time and whipped it up. I am now craving it about as much as I am craving that blue cheese chopped salad from Outback and thought since I love it so much, you might as well, so I am sharing it with you.

This recipe was given to me by one of my third grade students back in 1997. After hastily doing the math, I think I have figured she graduated high school last year or maybe this year, but still, she was a sweet little nine year old girl back then, the cutest one I have ever seen, what I imagined I would be raising at this point in my life. LOL. Anyway, we used to do Student of the Week where they got to have all kinds of neat priveleges like returning all the library books each morning and using my pencil (you would be surprised at how much kids want to use the teacher's pencils) and they had an entire poster displayed with the weekly student's picture and all their favorite things. So where every other kid in the class listed pizza as their favorite food, this little girl lists Sundown Oven Pancake. Of course, I had to inquire. Cheese, veggies, and a pancake. Okay. Sounds interesting. The next day she brings me the recipe, painstakingly printed in her finest pencil handwriting on plain white paper with a tendency to lean toward the right. I am sure it took her a half hour to complete. She really wanted me to try it and although it called for broccoli (bad, bad, very bad) I did cook it, sans the horrid green vegetable and found it to be just as awesome as she had described. In fact, there was a time in my life, living alone and half broke, where I made it three or four times a week and ate it daily. It was that good. So here it is:


Sundown Oven Pancake

1 T butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
2 T butter
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup chopped red onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped ripe tomato
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 425. In a nine inch pie pan melt 2 T butter in oven. Meanwhile in a small bowl stir together flour, milk, eggs, and 1/4 tsp. salt. Pour into pie pan with melted butter. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. In a large skillet melt 2 T butter. Add remaining ingredients except cheese. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until vegetables are crisply tender, about 12 minutes. Sprinkle 1/2 cup cheese in bottom of pancake; top with vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Return to oven; continue baking for five minutes until cheese is melted.


For the health conscious and those just coming off bypass surgery, you can skip the butter altogether and use cooking spray.