OK, I have to admit, I was a doubter - at first. I would watch this gal in her videos and read her blog and think...who does this sort of thing? Then I got hooked! I found myself going back to her site to find more and more recipes. Now granted, I don't do all of the food storage that she has, I still use real eggs and real milk. But I am really enjoying her section on wheat. I recently watched the video on how to make pancakes in your blender using Whole Wheat kernels. So since we had just got 100 pounds of straight-from-the-fields Millennium Wheat kernels (which is also known as Hard Red Winter Wheat) for bread baking, I thought - why not try these pancakes. Let's just say...they were the most AWESOME pancakes I have ever had! Sorry Bisquick, you have been replaced! Here is the recipe she has on her site. I did make some changes and will list those below the recipe.

Rockin the Whole Wheat with these Awesome Pancakes!

INGREDIENTS
1 Cup Milk (translation for powdered milk is 3 T. Milk and 1 C. Water)
1 Cup Wheat Kernels, whole & uncooked
2 Eggs (2 T. powdered eggs 1/4 C. Water)
2 tsp Baking Powder
1-1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tbs. Oil
2 Tbs. Honey or Sugar

MY CHANGES
- for the Oil I used 1 Tbs. of whole flax seeds and 1 Tbs. of oil (i added the flax seeds to the whole wheat and blended them together, then added the oil later when I added the rest of the ingredients)
- for the Honey or Sugar - I used Splenda (since I can't have sugar)
- I added 1 tsp. of vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Put milk and wheat kernels in blender. Blend on highest speed for 4 or 5 minutes or until batter is smooth. Add eggs, oil, baking powder, salt and honey or sugar to above batter. Blend on low. Pour out batter into pancakes from the actual blender jar (only one thing to wash!) onto a hot greased or Pam prepared griddle or large frying pan.Cook; flipping pancakes when bubbles pop and create holes.
Holy Moly! These are some good pancakes! I didn't even use a topping (i.e. syrup, fruit, etc), just a little butter!

Back in the day when I first made Salsa Verde, I boiled the tomatillos, onions, jalapeños, and the garlic. Though the flavors were nice, they just weren't bold like I wanted. But since I was very new at making it I didn't know any different. After years of making it, in all different ways, I think roasting the ingredients is the way to go. I start out by preheating my oven to 450* and putting the shelf in the middle. I then line my baking sheet with foil, this helps with transferring the ingredients to the bowl or jar. Next I coat the, already washed, tomatillos, onions, garlic, and jalapeños with olive oil and kosher salt, and place them on the lined baking sheet. I place in the oven for 30 minutes. They will cook down quite a bit and the juices will fill the bottom of the baking sheet - this is ok, just be careful when taking it out of the oven. After 30 minutes they should be nice and brown on the tops of the onions, jalapeños, and the tomatillos. Gently stir and put back in the oven. Cook for about 5-10 more minutes and then Turn off the oven - but leave the pan in the oven for about 20 minutes with the oven off. This will help with the carmenlization. Remove from oven, let cool for about 15-20 minutes. Spoon or dump the roasted goodness into a bowl or blender jar, making sure to carefully scrape down the sides of the foil - where all the carmenlization is. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.

If using for salsa - refrigerate for a couple of hours until its cool and then serve.

Roasting a whole chicken has always been a dream of mine, but was always too scared that it would turn out dry, not cook fully, or make someone sick. LOL. One of our friends gave us a few of her free-range chickens from her farm. Tough I was very excited I still had no idea how to cook them, so into the deep freezer they went.

This morning I decided it was time to cook one. Funny, the first post that I ran into this morning on Facebook was from The Kitchn, it was titled, "How to Roast the Perfect Chicken". That's when I knew this was the perfect day to cook mine. I followed all of the steps on the website, except I used the seasonings below.