Pancake Day
Every Thursday is my pancake day. Here are all the pancakes I’ve eaten so far this summer. They are beautiful individuals and I’m so glad to have met them.
To say I love pancakes is the food understatement of the century. Pancakes are my soulmate.
My workplace has one of those 1950’s style cafeterias and every Thursday morning they serve pancakes. When the layoff vultures were circling this year, my first instincts were:
1) Holy crap.
2) Email the cafeteria for their pancake recipe.
They could take my job, but they couldn’t take my pancake joy. Thankfully, the layoff vultures flew away and I got to continue my Pancake Thursdays in the Crown Room cafeteria.
Out of gratitude, I started taking pancake portraits of all of Thursday breakfasts and posting them to Facebook. Just because a pancake has personality doesn’t mean I’m not going to eat it’s sweet, sweet face.
I am a Crown Room pancake expert. I can tell, by taste, when there’s someone different working the griddle. Yeah, it’s intense. I’ve decided the key ingredients to the fabulousness of these pancakes are: Gold N’Sweet pan spray and, of course, the buttermilk.
Behold– for prosperity’s sake–The Hallmark Cards Crown Room Pancake Recipe:
Ingredients:
Canola Oil 2.72 Ounce
Milk Low Fat Buttermilk .5 Gal 1 Pound + 8 3/8 Ounce
Eggs Easy 2/20# 4.32 Ounce
Flour All Purpose Bulk 13.76 Ounce
Baking Powder .8 Ounce
Sugar Gran Bulk 1.28 Ounce
Salt .32 Ounce
Baking Soda .16 Ounce
Directions:
Pancake On, People.
…and I just noticed they were all on trays. What does that mean???
Breakfast: Thursday Morning Pancake.
Lunch: Leftover Veggie Pad Thai with rice and homemade Cashew Rangoon on my snazzy new tray.
Dinner: Finger Foods (including an amazing Lemon, Mango Stilton Cheese) while catching up on our reading.
(The idea of reading our books during dinner was inspired by Ana. Thanks for the new tradition Miss!)
Village Deli is my favorite restaurant in Bloomington Indiana. When we visit our family there I have to eat there for lunch (and get the vvd, Village Vegetarian Delight, with homemade potato chips) and for breakfast on our way out of town.
They serve giant pancakes (thank you pancake gods). I get mine with peanut butter chips and this time I added banana and a basted egg on the side. I thought the fruit would be on top, but nope, it was mashed in chunks inside- thank you Village Deli.
while i wait at the bus stop traveling back and forth to campus i am trying to practice the art of constructive boredom. what is constructive boredom? it’s the moments in everyday life such as waiting for a bus, waiting in line, stuck in traffic, etc that we used to take to just catch our thoughts and day-dream. now in the world of iphones, smart phones, ipods, tvs everywhere our brains never get a down moment to just wander, this isn’t good for you. and as much as i love using the bus as a way to catch up on podcasts, i really try to just have some good ol’constuctive boredom time. thus was born this concept for pancakes, prosciutto-goat cheese pancakes.
one thing i miss about pulling kitchen shifts at work was a cakes shift on the weekend. all you are encharge of is pancakes: regular, strawberry, chocolate chip and french toast: regular, cinnamon raisin, and nutella french toast. with every once in a while some fantastic special such as chocolate chip bread pudding french toast. the classic order combination pancakes with a side of bacon. think about it, it is a perfect combination, balance of protein and carbs, sweet and savory. my thought process why not just put the savory into the sweet pancake.
the prosciutto i cut up into large pieces. what i hadn’t considered is how much the goat cheese thickened the batter. then came the debate about what to top the pancakes with. just butter? would syrup be good? or something better than syrup but with a similar sticky texture……..how about a balsamic vinegar reduction sauce! i will say this they were fabulously yummy but i think the balsamic reduction might have been a little too much for the flavor palette.
RECIPE: Balsamic Reduction Syrup
*a typical reduction is just the vinegar slowly cooked down till it becomes think and sticky*
INGREDIENTS
2 cups balsamic vinegar
3 tbspn brown sugar
1. combine all ingredients into a sauce pan heated at medium heat. constantly stir till vinegar is reduced down from a watery sauce to a thick syrup consistency.
My favorite place to eat in John’s hometown (Bloomington, Indiana) is The Village Deli. It’s so good, I don’t even know where to begin. On our annual visit we ate there twice.
Here’s Lunch:
Look at those homemade potato chips. Dear Village Deli, teach me what you know you potato masters you. I loved the ones with puffy parts.
I had the VVD- a veggie, swiss cheese sandwich with special mustard and John had eggs and breakfast taters.
John eating his breakfast for lunch.
All done. Man I wish I had the rest of that right now. So does Frankenstein.
Here’s breakfast.
We usually go for lunch, but I’ve always wanted to get one of their giant pancakes. Yes, I can order one at lunch time, yet the lunch menu is so good! Because we had a loooong drive ahead of us, I ordered an egg with my pancake for some extra protein. What you can’t tell here is that my blissful pancake is filled with peanut butter chips. What a good idea that turned out to be…I can taste it now.
I love pancakes. I love pancakes. I love pancakes. I love pancakes.