Her Favorite Meal of the Day

In our marriage, Allyson and I have traditional roles. I am the primary wage earner while she is a Home Maker. More often than not, she is the one planning meals and cooking, and let me tell you… she creates exquisitely scrumptious dishes day after day, with the greatest of ease and grace.

Despite following this older path in life, we do share in one another’s roles quite often. Breakfast is among my daily duties, and Ally calls it her “favorite meal of the day.” While I’d like to think it’s because my skills as a cook are off the hook, I’m pretty sure it’s the simple fact that she doesn’t have to prepare and fix this meal. 🙂

Saturdays are of particular fun as they are Pancake Day. This has a dual meaning. 1. It means that we get to have pancakes today! 2. It means Daddy is home for the weekend and the daily grind is mostly out of site for the next 48 hours. The latter reason, I think, brings greater joy than the former. (at least I hope so!)

I thought I’d share the recipe with you today for “Uncle Chad’s Famous Pancakes.” They earned that title from my nieces in Texas, b/c they now make and eat them with fondness on a regular basis. It’s a buttermilk recipe, and here’s the ingredient list:

2 eggs
3 T butter (melted)
2 T sugar
2 C buttermilk
1 T vanilla (that’s right, tablespoon)
[mix the above together w/a wisk]
2 C flour
1 t powder
1 t soda
1/2 t salt
[I dump the flour in on top of the wet ingredients, then add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix slowly ’til it’s all a little lumpy]
chocolate chips (opt. — don’t mix them into the batter, that’s yucky)

All the while, before cooking them, I have the pan set on medium-low heat (4 out of 10 on our stove top). It’s important the skillet be neither too hot nor too cool. Too hot and you get burned pancakes, too cool and you get limp, lame ones. Here are some photos I took this morning as I went along.

The wet stuff, sugar not pictured.

As mentioned, I put the flour right in w/the first set of stuff, then mix slowly until it looks a “little” lumpy. You don’t want pancake batter to be too smooth, some lumps are good.