Mmm, Pancakes...

I made pancakes for breakfast this morning. Bird gobbled them up as fast as I could make them. Where does he put them? I can't eat as many as he does (I managed two this time) - seriously, he ate five. Five! His little tummy isn't even sticking out; sometimes I wonder if there's a portal to another dimension in his gut.

I make pancakes from scratch. It's not much harder than making them from a mix, and I feel better about myself for doing it. I thought maybe you'd like to take part in the fun, too. I'm just thoughtful that way. You can thank me after you change into the larger pants you'll need after you eat a pile of these babies!

The cast:

1 egg (Four Grain Omega Three eggs are nice)

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup milk (whole, skim, whatever. I use 2%)

1 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp Canola oil

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 lemon

Cinnamon (optional)

Vanilla (optional)

Blueberries (optional)

A skillet, griddle, or large frying pan.

One stick of butter, refrigerated.

OK, let's go!!

Heat skillet or whatever on medium heat. Dump flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and as much cinnamon as you want into a sifter. Set aside. Measure milk and leave it in the cup. Measure in oil and a good dollop of vanilla. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg until it is fluffy. Pour in the milk mixture and whisk thoroughly. Sift in the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. If you want a thinner batter, add a little more milk. Squeeze the lemon into the batter, careful not to let any seeds get in there. I use a small strainer for this. If you don't want thick, fluffy pancakes, leave out the lemon. Mix thoroughly, then gently stir in blueberries - about a cup of them is a good start, but if you're crazy for them add as many as you like.

Remove the stick of butter from the fridge and unwrap partly. Rub it on the skillet...yeah, baby...

Look at those bubbles...that's magic, that is.

Put the butter back in the fridge. Spoon the batter onto the bubbling butter bath in the center of the skillet. Mmm....

When the edges are dry, flip that bad boy!

Give it a minute or two to finish cooking, then plate it. Repeat the buttering and spooning until you're out of batter.

These freeze nicely, too, so if you have too many (hah!), no worries - instant breakfast another time! This recipe doubles nicely - I got ten pancakes out of it, and a few are going into the freezer as long as the bottomless pit doesn't get to them first. If he eats this much now, I shudder to think what his teen years will be like!

What's that, you say? These don't sound at all healthy? Not enough variations? Well, hmm.

OK...substitute wheat flour for the all-purpose stuff, and brown sugar for the regular stuff and top with honey.

Add more berries, or bananas, or spices apples or...

Use 1/2 cup buckwheat flour and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose. Heck, you can sprinkle wheat germ over them before you turn them.

You can use buttermilk instead of milk, if you like, but then you should only use one teaspoon baking powder and one-half teaspoon baking soda.

Heck, you can even make them with ham in them - just leave out the sugar and stir in one-third to one-half cup chopped, cooked ham. Sprinkle them with a little cheddar cheese when they're done. if you want.

These babies are versatile, but in the end...I like plain old blueberry pancakes the best.