Pancakes From Scratch

I'm tired. Most nights I am. My day starts around 5:30; all three boys and myself need to be out the door for school and work by 6:50am. My van usually doesn't roll back in the driveway until around 5:00pm, by then my youngest has been home for a couple hours and I've just picked up the two older kids from track. Cooking, of course, is the last thing I want to do. Tonight was no different from any other night when I'm bored with the quick pop-in-the-oven pre-packaged stuff, like tater tots and pre-formed, frozen burgers; or even worse, pizza - AGAIN! But my youngest insists that pizza five nights a week is good for you, right? All of the food groups are there...just not in the right proportions, unfortunately.

At least there's one thing I can make from scratch that's quick: pancakes. Not the most nutritious meal, but it's something to put in your stomach. I may be more ambitious tomorrow! At least I took step-by-step photos this time :)

Now I'm thinking I need to take some egg photos for another post - there's a family at our church who has an over-abundance of eggs this year, so they've been giving them away. The brown ones from the farm are so pretty; you never know what color variations you'll get in each carton.

Pancakes (Serves 4-5 people)

2 Eggs, beat in a large bowl until frothy.

Add the following ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 cups milk

3 Tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

3 Tablespoons sugar.

Mix well with a whisk or hand mixer.

Heat an electric frypan or griddle to 350 degrees, or heat frypan over stove on medium-high heat (If you do not have a non-stick pan, you will have to add just a little oil or cooking spray before heating). The pan is hot enough when a drop of water dropped on the pan bounces and evaporates quickly.

Pour or ladle pancake batter onto pan, about 1/2 cup per pancake, all depending on how big you want them. When bubbles form and then pop on top, and they start to turn just a little golden on the edges they are ready to flip.

If you are curious whether they are done or not, just lift up an edge - if it's golden, it's done. There are a few variations, all depending on what you have on hand. Sometimes I add a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla or some finely chopped apple (about 1/2 cup) - which is good with cinnamon; blueberries are good too. Strawberries turn into a sticky mess, as they tend to stick a bit, but they're good too. Experiment! It's hard to screw up pancakes! I will have to give you my mother-in-law's recipe for buttermilk pancakes. Those are heaven! Maybe next time!