Pretty much the only thing wrong with pancakes is that you can rarely find them outside of breakfast and they're usually gussied up with fruits and stuff. Just the maple for me, ma'am.
God bless a country where we've taken a nominally religious holiday and mangled the name to the point where most of the country knows it as Pancake Tuesday rather than Shrove Tuesday (see also Macy's Day Parade c.f. Thanksgiving Day Parade). Of course, not many people even know what shrove (or it's present tense form shrive) mean. Shit, Firefox's built-in spelling dictionary hasn't heard of the word shrove. And just because I like to see red squiggly lines when I haven't actually made a mistake, take this: shrove shrove shrove shrove shrove shrove. Talk about a Thin Red Line.
Ah yes. But back to my point. Pancake (Shrove) Tuesday. What a better excuse for eating good pancakes (I'm watching you I.H.O.P. — I don't even LIKE foreign food) all day long than the prelude to a season of self-flagellation. Of course, a meal of just pancakes for dinner wouldn't necessarily suffice. There are nutrients to think of here people. So being that a) one of my New Years resolutions was to learn how to make more Chinese food at home (the best part about not actually making New Years resolutions is that you can make them up and forget them throughout the course of the year with much less regret than if you actually had pledged to the idea on January first) and b) Mark Bittman had written a column in honor of today on the making of quick scallion pancakes, I said "Self? Tonight we are making Chinese food. Better check with the missus to make sure that's kohser." (So many religions all tied up into one little post!)
I really should have Mike and his lovely wife over for dinner more often, not only so that she may actually take decent photos of my food, but, um, well, I mean they're great people. But, seriously, this photo? Atrocious.
Thankfully tofu, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and veggies are all on the "generally recognized as food for Julie" (GRASFJ) list, as are scallion pancakes. Now. My biggest reason for not really making Chinese food is the severe lack of significant burner output on my stove — it takes over an hour to boil 3 gallons of water, I'm surely not going to be generating the sort of BTU output that a wok would really deserve. But, thankfully, with the use of cast-iron skillets and a little bit of pre-heating, we can overcome some of these thermal obstacles. Luckily, on the other hand, most Chinese cooking does sort of fit into my overall paradigm. (Yeah, I just said paradigm. You got a problem with that? Don't make me give you a 10,000' view of the situation and force a deep dive into the relevant parts, OK?) This is saying that I like to have my entire mis-en-place (I know, the French invaded Indochina, not China, but bear with me here) set out before I turn on a single burner. Unless we're talking about rice or pasta. But, actually, in that case, everything is set out before hand. But, wait. Where was I? Oh. Chinese food. It's delicious.
Tofu Braised with Vegetables
This is sort of ripped off from the Cook's Illustrated tofu ginger oyster thing, but with some changes and simplifications. Man, talk about anal.- 1 package firm tofu, cut into 24 triangles
- 3 carrots, peeled and cut on the bias into 1/8" pieces
- a good whack of ginger, minced (2oz?)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons and 1 tablespoon soy sauce, divided
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon, 2 tablespoons and 1/4 cup corn starch
- 1 lbs boy choy, leaves separated from stems, stems cut into batons or 1 head napa cabbage, same deal
- 2 portobello mushrooms, gills scraped out, but into 1/2" cubes
- 1/4 lbs crimini mushrooms, roughly quartered
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- peanut or vegetable oil
- Mix the 2 tsp soy, the tbls corn starch, the 1/2 cup chicken stock and 2 tsp sugar together, set aside.
- Mix the remaining soy, chicken stock, 2 tbls corn starch and sesame oil together in a separate bowl, set aside.
- Set the tofu in a single layer, spaced out, on a sheet pan. Put the corn starch in a fine sieve and sprinkle it over the tofu in a an even layer. Flip to expose the underside (use tongs if you need) and do it again sos you get the corn starch in an even layer.
- Get a non-stick pan that's big enough to hold the tofu and a cast iron pan big enough to hold all the veggies out and place over high heat on the stove.
- Reduce the heat on the non-stick to medium after about 30 seconds since you don't want to blast teflon with heat.
- After minute, put about a tsp of peanut oil in each. To the non-stick add the tofu, to the cast iron add the carrots and mushrooms. Stir the veggies, but leave the tofu to sit — you want it to get a little color.
- When the carrots get soft (2 minutes) add the stems of the bok choy (or cabbage) and the garlic and ginger. Let them all cook for about another minute and add the second liquid mixture (the one with the cup of chicken stock). Reduce to a simmer.
- Check the tofu and give it all a turn to brown the other side.
- When the tofu is browned on all sides, add the first liquid mixture and toss to coat. Then cook until this is reduced to a syrupy glaze.
- Add the greens and the tofu to the main pan and stir it all together. Give the greens a minute to cook and you're ready to eat!
I'm no chef. I'm barely a cook. And certainly not in the professional sense. I work in mobile for a living, but I enjoy cooking almost as much as I love 
