I plead with you, do not buy store bought batter!  Try these once, and you won’t go back!  The shortcut is planning ahead & doing most of the work the night before.

The real secret ingredient: In a little piece of heaven, known as Downeast Maine, grows the sweetest fruit, the Maine Wild Blueberry.  You may have seen them in a Dean and Deluca or Whole Foods… Be not fooled! Those berries were raked or worse yet mechanically harvested.  Just as lobster is best pulled out of trap and thrown in your pot directly, so too must these berries be picked by hand, combed over whilst drinking tea at the kitchen table.  For the taste is far sweeter when you’ve donned your boots, wandered out into the field, and found them wild, as God intended.

Tingy's Downeast Blueberry Pancakes (base recipe: Griddle Cakes from Joy of Cooking)
The night before pick over & clean berries. Pat dry & cover with paper towel

Sift onto a piece of waxed paper
1 1/2 c flour

Put sifter over mixing bowl, lift paper & pour into sifter.
Re-sift flour with
1 tsp salt
3T sugar
1 3/4 tsp bkg pwdr

In the morning 
Melt 3T butter in microwave 
Add 1 c milk & 2 eggs; beat slightly with fork

Heat large cast iron pan on medium heat, melt about 3T of Crisco in pan, flick a few drops of water in the pan.

Quickly Mix liquid ingredients into dry with wooden spoon.  DO NOT OVERSTIR!! Batter should remain lumpy. DO NOT ADD BERRIES INTO BATTER!!

When water starts to pop, pour 1/4 c-1/3 c pancakes into pan.  Add a handful of berries to each pancake in the pan. (The point is for the berries to sit on the surface of the pancake when flipped; therefore they will get sweeter in the heat & burst.)

When the pancakes get a lot of evenly distributed air bubbles on the top, flip the pancakes.  Let cook another minute before removing to a platter.

Serve these with a lot of butter melted on each & a couple tsp of granulated sugar sprinkled over each.  NO, let me repeat, NO SYRUP!!

Add more Crisco before making the next batch.

This recipe comes from our friend Little Red aka Lacey.  One heck of a good cook and writer!

My sweet, sweet, mother, Patti, was a fabulous cook. She never needed a cook book or a recipe to follow. She was taught the Southern way - by her mother. In future blogs, I will tell you more about her fabulous cooking, but one of my favorite recipes that she taught me was for pancakes. She is no longer with us, so I would like to rename them Patticakes. 

While my mother was a fabulous Southern cook at heart - she had a passion for culture, traveling, and the finer things in life. She liked simple things with a fancy flair, and that's exactly what these pancakes are. 

This recipe couldn't get any easier. Besides a griddle/pan and a little vegetable oil to keep the cakes from sticking, you only need THREE things: 

COMPLETE pancake mix. (The kind that only requires adding water)
Orange juice
7Up

Depending on how many pancakes you are making, the amounts of juice and soda will vary. Here's the key: the recipe will tell you how much water to add based on the amount of pancakes you want to make. Whatever that number is, divide it between the 2 liquids and DON'T add any water. For example, if it calls for 1-1/2 cups of water, you instead will add 3/4 cup of orange juice and 3/4 cup of 7Up.

These pancakes are SO good. The carbonation in the 7Up makes the batter light and airy. The orange juice gives it a punch of flavor and a subtle sweetness. Want to know how good they are? They are SO good - I don't even put butter or syrup on them. THAT'S a good pancake. Try these delicious Patticakes and maybe they'll become a Saturday morning staple in your house, like they are in mine. 

Thanks, Mom. 

x0x0, 

Marlo 


Click HERE to link to Marlo's page and read more! 

Challah French Toast:



Loaf of Challah (day old bread is actually better!) sliced thick and set out to stale a bit (while you brew coffee, perhaps)
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons of cinnamon



Heat a non-stick skillet, spray the pan with a little non-stick spray.  Beat the eggs, mix in the milk and spices.  Soak bread slices in the egg mixture, let the excess drip off, then place in the pan.  Turn once and brown both sides.  Serve immediately.

Here's an easy Waffle Batter Recipe:

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup sugar (honey is good too, but need to reduce other liquids)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the eggs.  Beat in flour, milk, oil and rest of ingredients.  Mix until smooth.  Pour into lightly greased waffle iron.  Eat 'em while they're hot!  Remember they freeze great....and can be popped in the toaster just like an eggo, for a quick snack later!

Another winner from the big ol' book 'o cookin' by Stephanie Alexander- A Cook's Companion and another reason I believe the secret to baking is buttermilk........
This recipe is from the book, but you'll notice my tips along the way.....You'll need

3 eggs seperated

2 cups of buttermilk

60g of butter, melted

300g plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

extra butter or spray for cooking (I, of course, use butter)

Beat egg yolks well. (I think this is really important- I give them a very good beating, so beat, beat, beat some more- you want them fairly pale) Then whisk in buttermilk.

Add sifted dry ingredients and mix well.

This is the point where you can put them in the fridge overnight. I have tried both leaving them in the fridge overnight, and making them from scratch on the day, and I haven't found a huge difference.

When you're ready to cook, whisk egg whites to soft peaks and fold into batter.

Lightly grease a heavy based frying pan and ladel in about 1/4 cup of batter.

Transfer onto a plate and place in a low oven until you've cooked them all.

Serve with maple syrup and ice-cream- my favourite, but of course, use your topping of choice.

The one trick of this recipe is always use buttermilk. There have been days when I haven't had any, or not enough, and I promise you the results aren't as good. An Australian Women'sWeekly cookbook I have from the 70's says you can get a similar result by adding a teaspoon of vinegar to your normal milk. I have also tried this, and its is better than normal milk, but once again- buttermilk is the best!

I have added squashed blueberries to the cooking pancake- yum. I have also put some pureed apple on the cooking pancake. It was good, but the first one of these I flipped a little too vigorously, and the pureed apple went everywhere!

Also, instead of the frypan and putting them in the oven, I cook them on our BBQ with one of those BBQ mats that protects the pancakes from the BBQ flavour. Those mats are great. Not sure what its called, but it means I can cook about 8 pancakes at a time, and we all eat fresh pancakes together.

Enjoy!


Click HERE to link to Calamity Jane's page and read more!

Jeter Pancakes

1 1/4 c. sifted flour
2.5 tsp baking powder
3 T sugar (optional)
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c. water (or milk)
3 T oil

Combine, stir, cook on hot griddle, serve and wait for your children to applaud!

This is a fabulous Recipe...from Ms.Kate

Pancakes

1 cup of Self Raising Flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of SOda
1/4 cup of caster sugar
1 1/4 cup of Buttermilk
1 egg
Shhhh- I add 3/4's of a mash banana..


Place all the ingredients into a your kitchen aide bowl (a must have in every kitchen), add the banana and mix. Heat fry pan over med/low. Spray with oil and pour in batter. Cook for 2 minutes or until the bubbles form on the surface. Turn and then cook for another minute or so.


Click Here to link to Ms. Kate's Page and read more from her!