This blog is supposed to have elements of cooking in the posts. Maybe not every week, but more often than say, never. And it’s been….oh five months since I last posted a recipe or anything having to do with food.

To be fair, I’ve been a little busy with The Gibster. Food at my house has become a conglomeration of take-out and perfunctory pasta dishes that take less than 20 minutes to prepare. If we can cook and eat it before baby wakes up, that’s what we’re doing right now.

Can I just say again that teething sucks? I can? Good. Because it totally does.

Anyway, I’m determined to write up a foodie post right now. But I don’t have much in the way of kitchen craft going on at my house at the moment. I threw together some Chicken a la King recently. Let me assure you that my version didn’t have any sherry, creme fraiche or fresh herbs in it. It was more like Chicken a la Campbells since I used a can of cream of chicken soup instead of making the sauce from scratch. Plus I had to stop cooking for twenty minutes to feed Gibson in the middle of preparation. And of course, I didn’t take pictures. Not that it came out particularly picture worthy.

But, necessity is the mother of invention. And in this case, the inspiration came from the good folks at RocketNews24. Did you know you can make a pancake cake in your rice cooker? Further, did you know that some rice cookers even come with a “cake” cooking option right there on the display? Well, guess who is finally giving her rice cooker some attention?

DATELINE: FATHER’S DAY

The Man had briefly shown me the RocketNews24 article the night before. I think I might have taken a whole 30 seconds to appreciate that we could possibly try this. Then I promptly forgot about it. But the next morning, Gibs and I decided to make The Man a special Father’s Day breakfast.

I found one cup of Bisquick in the pantry- about half what you need for a full batch of pancakes. Gibs said it would be fine, so I halved the other ingredients, added a tablespoon of sugar and some vanilla and orange extract. Then I threw it all into the pot that comes with the rice cooker and to my surprise noticed the “cake” cooking option. According to the original article, if your rice cooker doesn’t have this setting, you can just set the timer for 40 minutes.

Once The Man woke up, Gibs presented him with his giant pancake. The bottom of the pancake cake comes out very much like cornbread. More chewy than fluffy. However the middle and top of the pancake were light and delicious, just like regular pancakes should be. If anything, it was like I’d baked up a giant muffin. With some maple syrup and fruit, it was more than a full breakfast.

The Man liked his pancake so much, we ended up making another one for dinner the following night. Eggs, bacon and GIANT PANCAKE CAKE! I always like the concept of breakfast for dinner but with this fun element we made the meal epic.

Huge bonus: mixing up a batch of Bisquick and throwing it into the pot took about five minutes total. This was real set-it-and-forget-it cooking. Even more so than slow-cooker cooking.

I also happened to notice that my rice cooker also has a porridge setting. How quaint! The word just has a Brothers Grimm old-world feeling to it. So now I want to try this rice cooker cooking concept with cornmeal and make a savory polenta with cheese and herbs. How freaking delicious would that be if it works? I’ll let you know what my efforts yield.

Do you have tips and tricks for cooking with baby in the house? If you have shortcuts, I’d love to hear them.

We are so close to reaching $150! Like literally $3 left to raise!!! There’s a couple days left to donate to TEAM HUNGRY FOR MOTHERHOOD in support of the D.C. Walk of Hope! Every little bit helps. Thank you!