Pancakes

My boys like pancakes. One likes chocolate chips in his, the other prefers them au natural. I don’t make them every weekend by any means, but now and then, they make for a good start of a Saturday or Sunday. Or new year!   Today, they were requested, but I am out of Bisquick (the easy way to make pancakes) and the Trader Joe’s mix I bought to replace the Bisquick isn’t a favorite. I’ll have to use it for biscuits or something. Anyway, I got on the internet (what did cooks do before the internet??  I guess that’s why everyone had Joy of Cooking…) and searched for a homemade pancake recipe, and found this one: Good Old Fashioned Pancakes. I read a few of the reviews and took their advice – cut the salt down to 3/4 teaspoon, and threw in a teaspoon of vanilla – and these turned out delicious. They were crisp on the outsides and soft in the middle, just how a good pancake should be if you ask me. Thanks to the butter, they are a little more decadent than the Bisquick ones, so I may not make them every time – but I’m definitely saving this recipe for the next time I want to make ‘cakes from scratch.

Buttermilk Biscuits Free Today

Today’s new recipe was for buttermilk biscuits. I can’t help it, every time I think about/hear about buttermilk biscuits, I hear the Sir-Mix-A-Lot song in my head, hence the title of my post. I don’t make biscuits very often, but usually if I do, it’s a last minute decision and involves the recipe on the side panel of the Bisquick box. And while there isn’t anything wrong with last minute Bisquick biscuits, I would like to have something a bit more impressive in my repertoire. So when I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite cooking blogs, I thought I should give it a try.  And this weekend, I just happened to have leftover buttermilk in the fridge and Nana visiting from Philly. So buttermilk biscuits were on this morning’s menu.

What I loved about them:  quick, easy, flaky and crisp. Yum

What I realized: I need a pastry blender.  I didn’t cut the butter into small enough chunks and as a result, my biscuits weren’t as smooth and even looking as the photos on Smitten Kitchen. Mine also didn’t rise quite as much as hers, but I think my baking powder might have been a bit old.

Either way, everyone ate them and no one complained!  In the ever poetic words of Sir-Mix-A-Lot:

Don’t make a difference what food you make
Use buttermilk biscuits to clean your plate.