Pancake, fake it or make it?

I read an interesting article about whether making pancakes from scratch is worth the effort from bon appetit website. Being a pancake lover, I always considered making it from scratch a big pain, flour scattered on the counter, batter dripping over the stove, dishes stacking up the sink...... What a project! Store bought pancake mix is my saver, but does it taste the same as homemade? if you are a fan of pancakes, keep reading. I quoted the article here. 

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The Contenders

Aunt Jemima's Original Pancake & Waffle Mix vs. Hannah's Pancakes

Pancakes--defined as a wet batter cooked on a hot surface to create round, flat cakes--are probably some of the earliest and most widespread prepared foods eaten by humans. Today in France they're enjoyed as crepes; in, Russia, blinis and blintzes rule; English pancakes are made flat and thin, and traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday. But America is the undisputed king of the griddlecake, specializing in a version made with a thick batter containing leavening agents for a finished product that's fluffy and substantial.

Relative Costs
Similar. I used less than $3 worth of ingredients to make each batch of 14 pancakes.

Relative Healthfulness
About the same. Both versions are composed mostly of flour, milk, and eggs. The homemade recipe uses melted butter whereas store-bought calls for vegetable oil.

Time Commitment
It took me about 15 minutes to prepare the homemade batter, much of which was spent beating the egg whites into peaks. The store-bought mix took less than five minutes to put together.

Leftovers Potential
Just like the flour that forms its base, a partially used box of pancake mix will keep on your pantry shelf almost indefinitely. Batter of either sort is best used the same day, and pancakes will be most delicious eaten hot off the stove.

What The Testers Said
First let me introduce our panel.

THE HEALTH NUT
A delicate eater, the health nut is calorie conscious but also likes to eat well

THE FOODIE
Calorie agnostic, our foodie judge has a sophisticated palate and a love of cooking

THE DUDE
Ambivalent toward food trends and health concerns, this guy just wants to be fed when he's hungry

THE KID
Between ages of 9 and 12 years old, not jaded, typically not into strong flavors

Testers sampled both pancakes blind, plain and then with syrup. Even before adding syrup, everyone found the two versions nearly indistinguishable in terms of flavor and texture. With syrup, no one could correctly identify which sample was which.

The Health Nut: No decision; "I can't tell the difference between the two of these."
The Foodie: Store-bought; "This one has a bit more salt, and I find it to be a little bit lighter and fluffier."
The Kid: No decision; "I love pancakes."
The Dude: No decision; "The Foodie can't possibly be serious. Especially once you add syrup, there's just no way to tell these two apart."

The Verdict
Fake it.

Assuming that you have the shelf space for it, pancake mix is worth keeping on hand to help you save a little time and effort in the mornings. These mixes really just consist of the same dry ingredients that go into a conventional pancake recipe, to which you add similar wet ingredients, so there's no real loss of quality in going store-bought (note: 'just add water' mixes are a different bag altogether). And that extra step of separating eggs and whipping the whites into peaks that some pancake recipes call for? Save yourself the arm workout, because it doesn't seem to make any noticeable difference in pancake fluffiness.

--Elizabeth Gunnison

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2011/10/is-making-pancakes-from-scratc.html#ixzz1ahADoUhW

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Aha, I feel happy about their conclusion. And I suddenly had this urge of eating pancakes. I rode my bike to the nearby supermarket and bought Aunt Jemima's original pancake mix and fresh blueberry, the same mix as their test. I took some photos of them and enjoyed my breakfast! 

Food styling and photography workshop on Oct. 15 Sat.

This is the workshop I am going to attend this Saturday in New York City. The stylist is Paul Lowe  and photographer Colin Cooke.  I have heard of Paul Lowe and am very impressed by his  food and craft magazine Sweet Paul, so I am really excited to see him and learn from him on site. Colin Cooke is a photographer I admire and respect. He has being giving me much much help since my move to New York. My gratitude towards him is beyond words. If any of my readers are nearby, I'd love to meet you there!!

Cheer!

P.S. I haven't had too much time updating my blog recently.:( I will post about this workshop after I go there.

Wei and Geoff's wedding

I was so honored to attend and photograph Wei and Geoff's wedding held in a sweet little village--Dorset in Vermont on Sept the 10th. It's my first time to go to Vermont actually. Although New York City is everything I want, it's still nice to get away and enjoy the tranquility and peace of the countryside once in a while. Vermont is cooler, greener and of course safer compared to Brooklyn NY. Ironically, i just had my car broken in near my apartment two days before I drove there. So when the little hotel owner in Dorset said they didn't even lock their door, I was a bit surprised and then realized this was indeed a very different place from NYC.

Thanks for reading and sharing the significant moments of the new couple. I wish them a happy life together ever after.

Simply photography-figs

This is when I shut up and let the image speaks.

 

new domain and new start

Some of my friends might have noticed that I have changed my name to Jocelyn Jiang. As much as I love the simplicity and meaning of Yue, which means Joy in English, I don't like to see people having difficulty pronouncing it. It happened a lot and I realized my name would be a limitation of me reaching out to people and trying to let them remember me.

My new website is http://jocelynjiang.com, and this blog is renamed as http://blog.jocelynjiang.com. Please update your bookmark to avoid any chance of connection error.

Cheers! Happy autumn!

Discrimination or fear?

I am someone that needs to be punched from time to time. And I was just punched by the photographer I've been assisting, so hard that it woke me up.

 Well, via email, he was making a joke about telling his sons that men were used to waiting for women, after I told him I hated being late for a meetup. I said women were already discriminated against in this male dominated industry,  and I didn't want to be treated differently than men.  Just a week before, I told him about my concern about discrimination against colored people, Chinese, and women in the photography business. So when he heard me talking about discrimination again, he said bluntly:" Stop caring! Give it up! It doesn't matter anymore. If you carry this thought as your excuse for not getting ahead or  getting a job, you don't get ahead.  When I don't get a job, I explain it as"fuck it" and move on. There's a lot of power in not caring!"  Right there, I was punched.


Sitting in front of the computer, I was stunned that someone just told me that.  Is there really no discrimination? Is it just the fear of being discriminated against that keeps us from getting ahead?

The Chinese don't like risk. We invest in real estate and education coz that's something that gives us return. Influenced by Confucius, Chinese people prefer stable and predictable lives. Before they do something, they always ask around to gather opinions from the elder or more experienced to lower risk and have someone to refer to when going down the path. Whether it's choosing a job, buying a house or deciding a major. When they ask around and find few knows about it, they tend to hesitate and step back to find something more popular and that has a set path. Take a look at the engineering department of universities across the US, I am sure you've noticed many Asian faces working hard late at night. For those areas that have few Chinese people, the Chinese think they are hard to get into and there's discrimination. That's where I am.

Blaming things we can't do to something we can't change such as racial discrimination does make us people feel more comfortable. And people tend to stay in their comfort zone, until their butt is kicked.

Speaking of kicking butt, the Chinese society is blunt and judgmental. When you do something wrong, people tell you you did it wrong, It makes you uncomfortable and alert. And you try to do better the next time. But the American society is more tolerant, it tells people to accept what they are, to be comfortable with themselves, but when you are comfortable, you don't wanna push forward. In this sense, I do agree with "the Battle Hyme of the Tiger Mother"'s parenting somewhat.

I am someone that needs to be punched every now and then. It kicks my butt, it wakes me up and it makes me work hard.

My butt was kicked earlier this year by Penny De los Santos when i watched her online food photography workshop. She is so inspiring that I felt the urge to rush out to shoot photographs immediately, but as time goes by, the pain on the butt disappeared and I felt comfortable again. So I quoted her here to keep me reminded.

"Free yourself to go beyond what is obvious for you. Being uncomfortable is when you grow the most. You grow the most when you put yourself in a very uncomfortable place and you solve the problem. It doesn't always work out, but when it does, you step up a little. You move beyond."
— Penny De Los Santos

one box of cherry tomatos, six presentations

I'd like to make the most of everything available. After buying a box of colorful cherry tomatoes from Union Square's green market. I styled them differently, using both natural and flash light. I was kind of scared of artificial lighting, but after attending a photography workshop, I was amazed at the dramatic effects it creates.