If only all resolutions were this tasty…whole wheat flour and wheat bran accented with lemon. Enough said…

As is evident from my many, many pancake posts, I have a thing for the fluffy little suckers. And what’s always bothered me is finding a good whole wheat pancake. They always seem to come out dry, flat or rubbery…basically frisbees with syrup. So with that in mind, I decided to alter a favorite pancake recipe to include whole wheat flour and wheat bran. The result? Pancake heaven. These are too good to keep from you guys…so jump right onto this recipe…like now!

Whole Wheat Lemon Buttermilk Pancakes

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat bran or wheat germ

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon sugar

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

In a small bowl, crush the lemon zest into the sugar to create a lemon sugar blend. Sift together the flour, wheat bran, baking powder, baking soda and the lemon infused sugar into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk and lemon juice. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together until there are no more lumps.

Either spray a frying pan or griddle with Pam or melt a tablespoon of butter in the pan. Pour out enough batter to make a small or medium sized pancake and watch until bubbles form in the batter. Then gently flip the pancake and allow to brown on the other side for about 2 more minutes. Transfer the finished pancake to a plate and repeat the steps with the remaining batter.

I love my weekends, for so many reasons. When I don’t over plan, my weekends are my own. I get to putter around my house if I choose, dressed in my favorite pajamas and pouring through my cookbooks. I have the time to try something new and then retry it if it doesn’t work the first time. I can read without the guilt of thinking “I really should be getting my gym bag/lunch/clothes ready for tomorrow”. I can play on Facebook for hours because I have no place to go (FYI, “Adventures in Shaw” has its own Facebook site, so feel free to become a fan!). I can pour over the world newspapers, mindlessly munching on a scone or bagel while reading about things outside of the United States. I get my CSA box, which for me is like getting a Christmas present every Saturday morning. I don’t have to answer my work Blackberry, but can chat all night with Liz should I choose on Pinkie Lee. But there is one very special reason my weekends have become so very precious to me…

A few posts back, I very slyly mentioned I met a guy during the Summer…August 9th to be exact. No, I’m not one of those women who immediately run home and write down the date I met a guy. It just so happens I met The Boy at Liz’s engagement party (handy, huh?). He’s funny, geeky and oh so cute and very, very smart. He also happens to live in bumble fuck Egypt Centreville, Maryland. So on the weekends The Boy comes to DC and we get to be together. As sickeningly gooey as this will sound, he has managed to become one of my favorite people. And outside of my family, he is one of the few people I feel safe enough to be completely myself around.

He drives me to pick up my CSA box without complaint (well, we both often yell at the idiotic drivers impeding our progress); didn’t even grumble when I spent almost an hour at the Banana Republic outlet store; introduces me to amazing films I may never have known about otherwise; went with me to a rally I support with my whole heart and didn’t even flinch when it poured down rain (FYI, it’s a cause he also supports); actually reads…and doesn’t bitch when I choose to read on the couch when he’s over; loves tea as much as I do (I introduced him to the world of loose teas and I think I’ve created a tea snob); reminds me it’s okay to relax and just because I can’t find Redskins cupcake decorations, Liz will still love her birthday cupcakes; doesn’t snore when he sleeps (a huge problem in every one of my previous relationships); is one of the funniest people I know (and that’s saying a lot because I am very easily amused and laugh at pretty much anything); truly appreciates the humor that is the Golden Girls and doesn’t mind the fact that I watch them every night while drifting off to sleep; wears a Fedora and looks cool doing it; waits patiently while I photograph food, even when he’s hungry (like now); and as long as I cook, he washes the dishes (and is a damn fine dishwasher loader too). All this to say, on an early Sunday morning, while he is still asleep, in my very quiet apartment, I realize I am one lucky girl. And these pancakes are my ode to The Boy…because he loves apples.

Apple Ricotta Pancakes

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp sugar

pinch of salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

9 ounces ricotta cheese

1 large apple (any variety – I had honey crisps in my CSA box), diced

Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and ricotta cheese. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together until there are no more lumps. Fold in the diced apples and set the batter aside.

Either spray a frying pan or griddle with Pam or melt a tablespoon of butter in the pan. Pour out enough batter to make a small or medium sized pancake and watch until bubbles form in the batter. Then gently flip the pancake and allow to brown on the other side for about 2 more minutes. Transfer the finished pancake to a plate and repeat the steps with the remaining batter.

Oh and if we break up, this post is totally getting deleted. Happy Sunday!

I’m hooked on the book Heat by Bill Buford; so much so I spent most of Saturday with my head buried behind the bright yellow cover. For those of you who don’t know about the book, it chronicles Bill’s time working as a lackey in Mario Batali’s kitchen at Babbo. What’s so extraordinary about this premise you may ask? Bill isn’t a young chef straight out of culinary school. No…he’s a middle aged writer who got a hair up his ass and decided to throw himself at the mercy of Batali’s kitchen. I was unabashedly hooked from the moment I picked it up, so when my stomach started grumbling Saturday night, I wanted something fairly quick but delicious. And what’s a better dinner on a Saturday night than pancakes

I don’t want to hear anything about the fact that I was home with a book on Saturday night. Trust me, I get enough of it from my friends (the term “old lady” has been thrown around to describe me…my love of the Golden Girls and Murder, She Wrote don’t help my case). But sometimes my party clothes can be so binding (major points for anyone who can identify that line), so I stay in and enjoy the company of a great book. Who are you to judge me?

Strawberries are almost out of season and I had a nice batch of them from my hippie box, so I decided to use them in the batter of my fool proof, favorite pancake recipe: Nigella’s American Pancakes. These pancakes are easy to throw together and always come out light and fluffy, so when I’m in the mood for breakfast for dinner (and really, when am I not), I turn to them. Since I was already throwing in strawberries, I figured “Why not add cardamom to the mix?”. And since I was on a roll, I decided to do a twist on my maple syrup: strawberry vanilla maple syrup!

Strawberry Cardamom Blender Pancakes (adapted from Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1 heaping teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons butter unsalted, plus a generous pat for the pan/griddle

1 1/3 cups milk

Approximately 8 strawberries, hulled and cut lengthwise

Melt the butter and then allow to cool. Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and cardamom and place into a blender. In another container, whisk together the milk, eggs and cooled butter. Pour the egg mixture into the blender and turn it on high. Depending on the power of your blender, you may have to stop ever so often to scrape down the sides and make sure the dry ingredients are incorporated. Continue blending until the batter is fully blended and there are no lumps. Take the blender off the base and fold in the strawberries. Keep the batter in the blender, as it makes a great pouring mechanism when you’re cooking the pancakes. Heat up a griddle or a large frying pan with a generous pat of butter and pour out the first amount of batter.

In case you ever wondered how to tell when a pancake is ready to flip, feast your eyes on this:

Notice all the bubbles in the center and how the edges seem a bit more solid than the center? That’s the pancake’s way of saying “Flip me!”. Continue this process until all the batter is used. This batter makes quite a bit of pancakes, even if you do tend to pour heavy. I made pancakes that were about five inches in diameter and still ended up with enough pancakes for dinner and breakfast Sunday morning.

As for the syrup:

1 cup maple syrup

4 strawberries, hulled and diced

1/2 vanilla bean pod

In a saucepan, combine the syrup, strawberries and vanilla bean pod and place on medium heat. When the syrup starts to boil, reduce the heat to low and allow to continue to cook until the mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat and fish out the vanilla bean pod. Allow to cool before using on the pancakes.

Adding the strawberries and cardamom to this great pancake recipe added a fruity yet smoky dimension to them, which I loved. And not to brag or anything, but the syrup was an added bonus! Have a great weekend (maybe with your own pancakes)! Now back to my book…

For me, Sundays mean decadent breakfasts spent lounging over the newspaper and listening to the pundits battle it out on the talking head shows. So when I woke up on Sunday, I decided to treat myself to my favorite: mixed berry pancakes. The recipe is not only easy, but it turns out fluffy pancakes every time!

Seriously, this recipe has less than ten ingredients, can all be mixed in one bowl and is fool proof. It’s an old recipe from a church cookbook my mother owned for years. And since I had a busy weekend of baking and cooking, making these were a no brainer. You can use any combination of berries, but since I had strawberries and some dethawed blueberries lying around, I decided to throw them into the mix. I also added some cardamom, a spice I am now totally obsessed with and use every chance I get.

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cardamom

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

1 cup berries – I used strawberries and blueberries

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Sift together the flour, baking soda, sugar and cardamom into a mixing bowl. In a measuring cup, pour out the two cups of buttermilk and add the eggs and butter. Whisk together and then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until all the lumps are gone, then add the berries.

Either spray a frying pan or griddle with Pam or melt an additional tablespoon of butter in the pan. Pour out enough batter to make a small or medium sized pancake and watch until bubbles form in the batter. Then gently flip the pancake and allow to brown on the other side for about 2 more minutes. Transfer the finished pancake to a plate and repeat the steps with the remaining batter.

I used the juices from the berries as a sort of syrup for these babies. I simply boiled the juices down until they thickened and let the concentration cool to room temperature. I was actually surprised it worked (and that I didn’t burn my pot), so it was a nice bonus. Notice I refrained from making any bacon…and it just about killed me.