American Pancakes

Many moons ago, I found myself staying at a lovely cabin on a very gorgeous lake in the Adirondacks. My hosts were dear friends of mine - all of whom are trained classical musicians - and they would put up a concert for the community every summer. A week before performances began, other musicians from around the country would gather at the cabin and together, they’d rehearse the most beautiful music one could ever listen to in the most beautiful setting one could ever imagine. Their music would carry across the calm lake and, sitting by its shores, I fell in love with many an Adagio.. On one bright morning, some of us headed out into the nearby hills to collect fresh blueberries. With bags and hats full of the glistening fruit, we headed back to the cabin and incorporated blueberries into pancakes.

Until that very moment, I had never been a particularly big fan of pancakes, but the simplicity of the food combined with the serene setting and the outstanding company certainly brought me into the fold. Today, my daughter loudly proclaimed that pancakes would be a fantastic breakfast idea. After peeling out of bed, I got to work, summoning the memory of those fantastic Adirondack pancakes. Since my daughter doesn’t like blueberries, I omitted them - but feel free to drop some into the batter. Of course, pancakes are mostly beige in color and, by default, are quite appealing to even the most difficult eaters.

Ingredients: 1 ¼ cups white flour

1 Tbs. baking powder

2 oz sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

2 Tbs. vanilla extract

oil

Let’s get started:

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and sugar. Stir vigorously with a wire whisk to blend all the ingredients. Crack the egg into the dry ingredients, add the vanilla extract, and slowly add the milk while you keep stirring it all with the wire whisk. Heat roughly 1 Tbs. of oil in a large non-stick pan and heat over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, add enough of the batter to form a pancake that’s as big or as small as you like. Some people prefer really big pancakes, others love to have small ones. Whatever floats your boat will work. Let the batter settle and cook until it starts to form bubbles in the batter.

Carefully slide a spatula under the pancake and flip over. Brown on both sides to a golden hue. Serve with maple syrup, fresh fruit to your liking, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, or whatever you and your kids would love.