Corrupted Palate: Pancakes
I’ve been hungry for pancakes the last few chilly mornings. The blueberries by the dock are ripe and there are just too few for much besides pancakes. (What else can you do with ½ cup of blueberries? Toss them in a salad? Corn muffins with some blueberries? Wait – those are good ideas! No, pancakes it will be.) So tomorrow morning I will dazzle the family with fluffy beauties, lightly grilled to perfection, with those teeny blueberries peeking through.
I always worry that my pancakes will morph into what my friend David would mockingly call “leadcakes”. I just don’t make them enough to have any helpful hints on avoiding that fate – I’ll just follow the directions and hope for the best. I’ve gone right to my favorite source for traditional foods – Betty Crocker. That (her?) recipe says you can substitute whole wheat flour in for the white, so that’s what I’ll do. Now it’ll be good for us, right? And I’m going to make those little silver dollar pancakes, too. So a few little teeny pancakes don’t make for a guilty breakfast. Maybe I need to find an oatmeal pancake recipe?
What to top them with? Hmmmmm. Well, we are well armed with that Bixby maple syrup, that’s for sure. It’s not just a pretty face (bottle), it’s the real deal. Most of my family is happy with their maple syrup straight, but I might mix some with a little butter and a touch of Grand Marnier and heat it up. I do love the Bixby syrup – it reminds me of the syrup my father orchestrated every spring. (I’m not sure my father ever forgave me for confusing his message to make sure the fire was out under the syrup with make sure the fire is stocked under the syrup. Catastrophic error. Let’s just say I was a college freshman and move on.) It’s gotta be maple syrup, not those fake brown syrups or even honey, real New York maple syrup. You knew Iva Reed at the Country Diner loved you if she pulled out her secret bottle of real maple syrup for your pancakes or French toast. (Warning – brag alert: I have a secret stash of maple syrup, made locally by good friends, but I didn’t bring any to the Lake to share. I don’t share that with anyone. I eke that golden bottle of wonderfulness out until spring and a new bottle arrives.)
And it’s not the pancakes’ fault that they really taste even better with a little bacon. Bacon and pancakes. Goes together like tomatoes and basil. Ham and eggs. Gin and tonic. There’s going to have to be some bacon.
As corn season approaches and the blueberry season finishes, I’m looking forward to trying out making pancakes with some of that leftover corn I always have. And I think instead of all wheat flour, I’ll use some corn meal. And, yes, just maybe a few of those last blueberries.