Pancakes, again. and again. And a blueberry massacre.

Grumpy invited me over for breakfast last week for pannncakes and a delicious time. I brought some orange juice and stinky cheese (Gres des Vosges) It is incredibly stinky. It is actually supremely stinky. But its bark is worse than its bite..it is light, creamy and tastes a little yeasty, like beer.





Perfect fluffy rising pancakessss...one on each burnerrrrr. They were light and delicate and delicious.

I can't really go a week without having pancakes. It's like I'm on a timer – not the compulsive caffeine frenzy routine every morning to avert a headache and minor mood disasters, but more like a flip of a switch and the swift automated assemblage of dry ingredients and dairy early on Sunday mornings.

I invited Melissa over for brunch and decided when my feet hit the floor that I wanted to make blueberry sauce to go with chocolate chip pancakes.

(Melissa's romper matched my chair)



So I went to the farmer's market opposite the low income housing in the lower 90s on 1st Ave. I was horrified. Whoooooooooooooo in their RIGHT MIND charges $2 a head of garlic when you're trying to sell to sell to people who probably can't afford to pay that much for some garlic. Even I am unwilling to pay $2 for garlic. Are you CRAZY Norwich Meadows Farm? And $5 for half a pint of raspberries is outrageous. Think about who you're selling to. I ignored the farm stands and went across the street and bought 2 pints of the most legit blueberries I could find in the store.

Anyway. Melissa brought the orange juice and we had some lemon curd biscuits, while the blueberry sauce stood by. I poached some eggs. Fished out some roasted beets from the fridge. Made some toast. And some coffee. And tea.



I adapted the pancake mix and blueberry sauce from Ask Aida. She says to use 1 1/2 cups of blueberries and 1 cup of maple syrup. No wonder type 2 diabetes rampant. I used a pint of blueberries and probably about an eighth of a cup of maple syrup (maybe a little more) and simmered it until it was thick and luscious. She also calls for half a cup of melted butter into the pancake mix, which I also think is questionable. I put in probably about 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter and used some whole wheat flour.



They were a little more cakey and thicker than Grumpy's, but still as delicious. Every pancake is different and special. I loooove pancakes. It totally made up for my failed spätzle experiment which yielded delicious spätzle, but I ended up with dough all over the stove, all over the sink, all over different pots and all over myself. It was a right mess. So were these chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes, but at least it was a result of eating and not in the making process.



The blueberry massacre. Delicious sauce.

Perfect Pancakes

I picked these blueberries with my friend TJ when we drove up to Boston last weekend. We saw bunny rabbits hopping through the bushes and got bitten by a zillion mosquitoes, but we brought back pints of blueberries and raspberries.

I think I was visited in the night by the Patron Saint of Pancakes after a case of pancake envy at brunch the day before. What to do with the pint of pick your own blueberries from last weekend's bounty? MAKE PANCAKES IMMEDIATELY.



So this is usually how it goes: I wake up on the weekends and have a chat with my mixer and see what both of us can whip up. Then I share secrets and whisper sweet nothings into its stainless steel bowl.



Then I forage for ingredients in my overground lair, also known as my suburban housewife's abyss.



So this is my pancake dilemma. What mix should I use? I hate Aunt Jemima maple syrup because it is all corn syrup and corn syrup and I have deep seated ethical issues with corn syrup. The whole wheat pancake mix though, is pretty darn good. The fluffy pancake mix from whole foods fluffs up a whole lot more, but doesn't taste as good. Should I just bite the bullet and make evvvvvvverything from scratch? Are scratch made pancakes better than premix?

P.S. The Knoll Crest Farm eggs and Ronnybrook milk (cows are offspring of "prize winning Holsteins") are delicious. I try to buy good milk and eggs because it does make a difference, nutritional value for money-wise. I would also be leery of eating cake batter if it contained suspicious eggs from a suspicious source. This is from the Ronnybrook website:

Michael Pollen, writing in the New York Times Magazine on 2004 stated that “organic” used to represent a set of values, good stewardship of the earth, and a commitment to the health of its creatures, rather than a marketing concept used by agri-giants.” Here at Ronnybrook, we try to live by those values.

I don't really trust the USDA certified organic products because I think it is a big marketing ploy and it is a waste of money to get certified to prove you operate your farm in a responsible and safe way. This is often not the case even in organic farms, especially organic mega-farms. Lovely capitalist America. The word organic means nothing to me.

Annnnyway, abracadabra:



I used the premix which is just a one to one ratio of mix and milk and an egg. BUTTER you pan first – this makes a world of difference. Then, put the pancake batter into the pan – do not mix your fixin's in. Lowwwwww heat. Then sprinkle on the blueberries and chocolate chips. Flip it, cook it and eat it, there's really nothing more to it!

I had mine with fresh whipped cream and maple syrup.

how did this one slip away?

We eat 3 meals a day and some snacks, so you'll forgive me when I pause my selections from my gluttonous vacation for meals I have overlooked! I must've slipped into a food coma after this, because it completely slipped my mind afterwards.

This was when lovely Sofia took me out for a post birthday brunch late April at the Clinton Street Baking Company. Thisssss gastronomical phenomenon is eggs over easy over truffled potatoes, oyster mushrooms, ramps, potatoes and duck bacon (yes bacon made of duck) and a more than generous helping of truffle oil.

She looked at me intently when I scanned the menu "You knowwwwww you want it."

ONWARD.

Jesus ice cream. Does it mean ice cream by Jesus? or Jesus! ice cream! I'm not sure. But I was driven in a complete daze (I might as well have been kidnapped) from the Munich Hauptbanhof (central station) to lunch at Maria



where I ate Bavarian wurst and Peiz made faces at me as we put on and took off sweaters and scarves about 5 times in half an hour. Her cousin pointed out that this cafe was called Maria, Jessas was on the left and Joseph (a restaurant bistro) was to the right, and further right was a bar called Amen, which would quite fittingly put an end to the day. It is interesting that they would start off the day with ice cream instead of a proper meal. I LIKE this way of thinking.



The ice creams and sorbets came in a wafer cup and in true German efficiency, eliminates the need to stock cups and wafer cones. It also minimizes waste! I had the basil lime sorbet, and sweet Jesus, it was good.